Can you change a 220v plug on a dryer

clueless_03

I just bought a dryer and I was wondering if I could just change the type of plug it has. It has a three prong 220v and my apartment is just wired for 110v plugs. Can you help or should I just get a new dryer.

adpanko

No, you can't just put on a new plug. The dryer requires 220v, so you NEED a 220v outlet to plug it into. If you didn't already have an electric dryer in that same spot, you'll need to run a new 220v outlet. There is no other way. 110v dryers don't exist, at least not that I'm aware of. Gas dryers have a normal 110v plug, but that just controls the timer and light basically, it doesn't actually provide the drying, the gas does. But if you have a pure (ie not gas) electrical dryer, you need a 220v outlet.

Scuba_Dave

Dryers also usually require a 30a 240v breaker & #10 wire
Household outlets are #12 wire (20a only), so you couldn't even convert a dedicated #12 run/outlet to 240v
And now you need a 4 prong cord is my understanding
--2 hots, neutral & ground

Speedy Petey

Well, this is a bit misleading, but the sentiment is accurate.

Standard receptacles are 120v, 15 or 20A. An electric dryer requires a 120/240v, 4-wire, 30A circuit. The two are not even close to the same.

Edit: Sorry, the misleading part is that a dedicated 15 or 20A line can be changed to a 15 or 20A straight 240v circuit. It is true that it CANNOT be changed to a 120/240v, 4-wire circuit.

__________________
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junkcollector

The apartment must have had a gas dryer before. Bummer, I guess you'll have to get another gas model.

I would have looked before I went shopping.

Red Squirrel

Should not be too hard to run a new plug. Should be one of these:



The two straight blades are the hots, they make 240 volts (normally red and black, order does not matter), the top middle is the ground (normally bare) and the botton is the neutral (normally white). From neutral to any of the hots it is 120 - these are normally the terminals on a 120v plug (the two hots alternate throughout the house) but in the case of a dryer and stove both 120 and 240 are needed so this is the plug you need. (a stove one is slightly different as it is 40 amps I think... dryer is 30)

And you will need #10 wire for this. In that pic it is #10, and as you can see it's quite thick (and more expensive).

clueless_03

Thank you for the information