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What size wiring for clothes dryer?

R

rabbit-1

Member
Just installed a clothes dryer for son's "new" home... Previous owner had gas deryer, son has electric - of course. Anyway, I nistalled #12 wiring... 220v, 24 amps, 25 foot run from plug back to breaker box. Wiring completely out in the open all the way across basement ceiling. Breakered at 30 amps. Should I have gone heavier than that, say a #10?

Don't have access to a wiring chart right now, to check. Here's my reasoning... Can run 15 amps, even 20 on a #12 at 110volts. Doubling that to 220 volts should give me some margin on a #20 wire. Right or wrong?
 
Wire is rated based on amps irc #12 is rated at 20amps....20amps is 20 amps @120v @240v and even at 12 volts. Because you are now using 240 volts you have the wiring to carry twice the watts but still only the same amps. Raising the voltage does NOT increase the amp capacity of wire.
 
Should be #10. Also check the local building codes. In my area any exposed wire has to be in conduit.
 
Your breaker is bigger than your wire- totally wrong. Dryer requires 30 amp, 220 volt circuit, which matches a #10 wire. Disaster waiting to happen, no matter how long or short the run is. 15 amps, #14 wire. 20 amps, #12 wire. 30 amps, #10 wire.
 
FIRST OF ALL If your overcurrent protection device (circuit breaker) is a 30 amp, YOU CAN NOT USE NO 12 20 AMP RATED WIRE, the wire isn"t sufficiently protected!!! The breaker will allow 30 amps to flow while the wire only has a 20 amp ampacity!!!!!!!!!!!!such a configuration would allow the wire to heat up greater then permitted.

If your load allows the use of 12 gauge wire, then you would need to protect it with a 20 amp overcurrent protections device NOT A 30

NEXT if the load draws 24 amps, then you would use a wire that has at least 30 amps ampacity as 24 is 80% of 30..........

Now that the wire size (10 gaube) is selected based upon the load, you need to protect it with a 30 amp breaker

SOOOOOOOOOO the 30 amp breaker is fine but you need 10 gauge wire

The voltage rating of a wire is NOT the same as its ampacity. Just because youre at 240 volts you still need wire of sufficient ampacity to handle 24 amps AND THATS NO 10

I bet even Bubba gets this one lol

John T retired electrical engineer
 
OK, guys, I got the message = will change the wire next time I'm there. Son was at Lowes, told him to get a coil of #10. Told him to hold on using the dryer. Ours is gas, and it was a long time ago I discarded the electric dryer. Took the time to check origional wiring - yup, was a #10.
 
Why does it have to be in conduit? What code article do you base that comment on? It should be 10/3 with ground with a 4 wire receptacle. There are a lot more dryers in this country wired with Romex type wire than there are wired in conduit by a long shot.
 
Buick&Deere has got it right; you have to separate the ground and the neutral, all the way back to the main panel. Neutral wire carries the 120 V curernts, the ground carries the accidents. Don't want any part of the metal of the cabinet or the frame to carry neutral voltage. You never want your family to walk up to this thing and touch it and have neutral current going thru them to the concrete floor.
 
By the way, AWG 10 copper is minimum. If it's a long run, say over 50 feet, 8 gauge is better.

Most older houses run only three conductors to the dryer, which means your son will probably also need to change out the dryer cord.

Given the expense and aggravation, I would sell the electric dryer and buy a gas one. It will pay for itself in a few months if the house is on natural gas; with propane it will take a while longer.
 
(quoted from post at 05:36:56 10/13/13) Why does it have to be in conduit? What code article do you base that comment on? It should be 10/3 with ground with a 4 wire receptacle. There are a lot more dryers in this country wired with Romex type wire than there are wired in conduit by a long shot.
Click to expand...
The code in my area says that any exposed wiring in a basement has to be in conduit. So if it's an unfinished basement, it has to be in conduit. If it's a finished basement with a suspended ceiling romex could be used above the suspended ceiling.
If it was in a crawl space romex would be ok.
 
That is an odd local code . I did a job once where the guy wanted his basemnet piped. Everytime I bent a pipe I came up with a piece of laundry on the end. Real annoying.
 
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