So I just bought a new dryer for the new house.
For some dumb reason, somebody wired up a 10-50R receptacle on the dryer circuit. Despite the fact that it’s on a 30A breaker.
The dryer came with a 10-30P cord.
Does a 10-50R to 10-30R adapter exist? If it does, is it a bad idea? Am I better off just having an electrician switch the receptacle?
Maybe, but don’t do that. Replacing the receptacle with the correct one is trivial. You don’t need an electrician; if you can handle a screwdriver you can do it in ten minutes.
What Fiedo said.
Cut the power at the breaker, remove the wrong outlet, install the proper one.
Its very easy, feed a few wires into clamps and screw them down.
may as well fix the problem with the receptacle
Tesla’s adaptors cost $80 each !
Other brands about $40
seems cheaper to just get a new receptacle and fix the problem,
or change the plug if you think most places have 50 amp sockets.
Wouldn’t it be even easier to just replace the cord on the dryer?
+1 to this. Replacing the cord (or even just the plug) on the dryer is completely safe - no risk of a live wire in the box since you’d be working on the disconnected appliance. Just make sure to get the ground correct, it’s usually the green wire.
Is [del]10-30R[/del] 10-50 even grounded?
Anyway, a receptacle is apparently five bucks. And thankfully, this is one of the handful of circuits in the house that actually have Romex… so I guess I’ll be doing some swapping this weekend.
What does that do to the warranty?
Perhaps. But the problem is that the receptacle is still not to code. As it is right now, someone can plug a 50 A appliance into it. If the wiring is 30 A (10 AWG), bad things could happen to the wiring. (Well, perhaps not if the breaker is 30 A. But still…)
The bottom line is that, if the wiring is 10 AWG, then the receptacle must be rated for 30 A or less.
no. NEMA 10 ties the equipment chassis to neutral.
Nothing, why would it?
how likely is “someone” going to come along and plug a 50A appliance into the receptacle in the laundry room?
It doesn’t matter. If the wiring is 10 AWG, the receptacle must be rated for 30 A or less, regardless of how likely someone is to plug a 50 A appliance into it.
When the house is sold, the new guy might plug a 50A appliance into it.
it’s academic at this point since OP is replacing the receptacle.
The or less is problematic.
You’re a little backwards here. Remember, a receptacle is considered to be part of the branch circuit wiring, not a load… and you can never go overboard in sizing in this case, related to the wiring after a protective device (breaker). Conversely, you can run into trouble (burn the house down) if you undersize, such as installing a 15-A rated outlet on a circuit that is rated to open @ say, 30-A.
See: 2017 NEC 210.21 (B)
While one can find a few adapters that address the OP’s situation, the reason for avoiding them is economics or practicality… Not safety.
I guess they are not fused.
I cannot address what you guess you are thinking, however, any such adapter I’m aware of is not fused. I can not speak related to the above mentioned Tesla adapter, as I’m not familiar with it…
That issue aside, if a circuit is designed to open @ 30A via a permanently installed breaker, there would not be any necessity of (assumed) 30A fuses in said adapter.
Nothing, dryers do not come with a cord per se. Thats a user or installer placed item.
There are 3 different possible plugs they could plug into (at least 3 i am used to seeing)
when you get the dryer, you get the appropriate cord kit as an accessory.
(at least at the vendors i would be buying from)
Lots of different age houses have different plugs installed
NEMA 10-20 is 3 blade, no ground, all blades flat. 20amp
NEMA 10-30 is 3 blade, no ground,neutral blade is L shaped. 30 amp
NEMA 10-50 is 3 blade, no ground, all blades flat. 50 amp (looks like the 10-20)
Newer homes i mostly see
NEMA 14-30 3 blade 1 pin, grounded, Neutral blade is L shaped. 30 amp
NEMA 14-50 3 blade 1 pin, grounded, all blades flat. 50 amp
I don’t see many houses with 60 amp plugs, no one runs a milling machine in the kitchen.
Nor any of the small 220 outlets for large windows AC’s anymore, a thing of yesteryear i guess.
Usually 30 amp is installed at dryer and 50 amp at stove, though in some houses (like mine) someone was lazy i guess and just used 50 amp wiring and outlet in the laundry room as well, so i had to install a 50 amp cord on the dryer.
The breaker is still 30 amp though, so it will trip before the dryer could go into overload.
Here is a nice visual outlet chart with types and ratings and picture of the outlet.
Yeah, what you said…
I will, however, add that… The branch circuit protection is designed to protect the branch circuit wiring… NOT the appliance it supplies.
Might I hijack with a related question?
The other day I noticed something I had forgotten about, while fixing the washing machine. When we bought the house, it had an electric dryer. We had a gas dryer installed and shut the breaker to the dryer. Since then, that circuit has been re-purposed to provide electric heat to a home office. The #10 wire was cut where it goes up from the basement and has been removed from there to the panel. But there is still a dead 220V outlet with the in-wall length of wire to it.
I was thinking “Gee, I really should pull that outlet and patch the hole.” knowing that it’s about priority 300. But, what must I do about the length of wire in the wall? I am hoping that I don’t have to pull it out, as that would be a pain in the ass… ?
That is very true, but if the dryer had a 50 amp breaker, it could potentially get it self into
a dangerous condition before the circuit tripped.
At least this is what i am told due to the fact that the dryers wiring is only designed to handle a 30 amp load.
I’m not up for testing the idea, i kind of need my dryer crappy as it is.
Normally i dont see dryers wired on legit 50 amp circuits, but since the wire run from circuit panel to dryer outlet is less than 3 feet, i am assuming the electrician just said screw it, i got a piece of 6 AWG left from running the oven circuit, i will just toss it in here and call it better than good rather than open a new roll of 8 AWG romex?
In any case it is better than finding that some moron ran the dryer circuit on 12 AWG, which i have seen done before, and that’s not good. 