I can't imagine how many places I've seen with 10/3 for dryers and 6/3 for ranges with no EGC around here. I remember installing those types of cable back in the 1970's by the thousands of feet in new construction. I remember buying a roll of 6/3 Romex and being asked "with or without". Like a Philly cheesesteak.

Aluminum SEU became more economical in the early 80's. We ran a ton of that too for the same appliances. We even ran 8/3 SEU for water heaters in new construction. I shake my head at the idea of using that cable for water heaters these days.

My house was built in late 1992 (1993 for all intensive purposes). My range and dryer were wired with three conductor aluminum SEU cable. When I installed a generator, I replaced the feed to the range with 6/3 (3 conductor w/ground) Romex since the range was now behind a sub-panel.

Sorry to drift off-topic, but there are so many tens of thousands upon thousands of 3-wire range/dryer circuits out there that haven't killed anyone. I'd tend to think that homeowners confused by the 3 / 4 wire convention will cause more harm due to failure to remove the bonding screw/strap when connecting a major appliance.

Mixing bonding and grounding with current-carrying conductors is a subject that the general public will never completely understand, nor will the debate regarding this subject ever end.

---Ed---

"But the guy at Home Depot said it would work."