Four wire dryer plug diagram. Its much easier and much less expensive to replace the 4 wire whip with a 3 wire whip. The nec requires that dryers have a dedicated circuit with a minimum of 30 amps. A 3 prong three wire outlet as well as a 4 prong four wire outlet. If a current happened to make its way onto the ground wire it could travel up to the dryer.
Most dryers accept four prong cords even when an older cord was original to the unit. Some have three slots designed to accept appliance cords with three prongs while other outlets have four slots designed to accept four prong cords. The more recent 4 prong dryer cords feature two hot wires a neutral wire and a ground wire. Electrical wiring for a dryer power cord has a typical 240 volt electric power cord with 3 wire and 4 wire wiring configurationsmany people may experience the situation of trying to make a older dryer work with an new four wire receptacle.
The 120 volt service is for the dryers timers sensors and other electronics while the 240 volt service supplies power to the heating elements. But there are two different outlet styles and plug in cord styles used for these 240 volt electric dryers. Four prong dryer cords have four wires including the neutral and two hots plus a green ground wire. This is a how to video for converting a 4 wire 240v plug from my generator to a 3 wire 120v so i can run 30 amp plug from travel trailer.
A 4 prong dryer outlet is wired as a 120240 volt circuit. This article will explain what options you have to get your dryer wired and running. If you found my wire a dryer outlet page because you dont want to convert your dryer cord then you came to the right page otherwise if your interested in just changing over your dryer cord to mate with your given outlet then i recommend you visit my wire a dryer cord page. Generator twist lock plug wiring for example is no different than the wiring for a conventional four prong plug with the same current rating.