is it true that you have to have a certain type fuse put in to make the dryer heat up?

Question

we just spent 150.00 to get wiring done for a dryer - my husband heard at work that if the electrician put in a fuse that wasn't 40/40 then the heating element would not work. so far we have put in twp dryers and they will tumble but not heat up! Please help before I spend anymore money!!

Answer 1

You didn't give enough info for me to truely figure it out. To start with, what does twp mean.
Second, it should be wired with number 10 wire and have a 30 amp breaker or fuses.
If you have and old fuse type box, I wouldn't be willing to tell you how to wire it with out looking at it or getting some more answers, such as what size box you have, as some of the older ones are only 60 amp boxes and loading it up with a dryer could start a fire. You may not have the dryer even hooked up to a 240
volt circuit. That would allow everything but the heating element to work.
E-mail me at [e-mail] and I will give you my number and you can call me so we can talk it over. Please don't burn your home down.

Answer 2

I am assuming that the installer ran 220. If not I would sue him. You can check by looking in the circuit panel, you should have a double fuse in there, and it should have 2 wires going into it, and the 3rd wire should go to the ground lug, which will be a bar with a bunch of bare copper wires, and some white wires. Turn off this breaker, go to the dryer and open the door, you should not see the light come on. or, you can check the plug for the dryer, but this is unreliable, as the plug could be right, but the outlet may be wired as 110/120. If your hubby has a multimeter, have the breaker on, unplug the dryer cord, put the red lead into the left top slot, the black lead into the right top slot, do not put anything into the l-shaped slot, or the slot basically in the middle. this is the ground connector and if you put one lead in the hot slot and one in the ground you will send 120 volts through every ground in your house. Have the multimeter on before placing the leads, and have the selector at 500 volts, or any volt setting over 200, and ENSURE it is in the A/C range, or it will have a sign like a sine wave, which looks like ocean waves. The D/C range will have a solid line with 3 dashed lines below it. You should see 220/230/240 volts A/C, if you don't your running the wrong voltage to the dryer and it will not work, and it may damage it. The 40/40 fuse may be too much for the dryer, check the instructions and see what the amps of the dryer are, if you run too hot of a fuse, it will not trip properly and you can damage the dryer, and possibly start a fire, you want to have no more than 5 amps more than what the equipment calls for. And, as stupid as it sounds, make sure you don't have a GAS dryer, because it will have both 220 and a gas inlet, so even tho the juice is there, the gas isn't.

Answer 3

A 40-amp fuse should be more than adequate for a dryer; in fact, a 30 amp fuse or breaker should work. (Two are required.) If the dryer motor turns, there is at least some electricity to the plug. Use a neon tester (less than $2 at a hardware store, if you don't have one) to see if you have voltage from both of the hot leads to ground. At least one will be hot, but if the other one isn't, that's the problem. If both are hot, the problem is in the dryer.

Answer 4

The electrician made a mistake, or a wire came loose somehow. If they didn't work after he did the wiring, and you tried two dryers I'd get him right back to fix it.

One leg of the 220V circuit is not hooked up, the motor is 110V, so it's on the leg that is hooked up, but the heating elements are 220V, and need both legs.

If the fuses are too small, they will blow, they won't keep the dryer from working if they don't blow...in other words, if the fuses or the circuit breaker is too small, it won't affect the performance and stay "on"...they will blow or trip.

Answer 5

Mine runs off 25/25 , but it's rated for that, most dryers require at lest 25/25 to run the heat element & if you only use a 20/20 the fuse will shut off or blow, & if ur fuse isn't blowing out with it on a under rated fuse, then the element in the dryer may not be working, should check it.

Answer 6

a 30 amp fuse IS sufficient and thats what most american manufacturers recomend as SAFE !!!!did your so called elec. use a wire size and application recomended by your code here i still get away with 10/2 wire and now i think its all 10/3 but some places ask for 10/3 the higher amp fuse will do NOTHING to increase temp. you must have 2 hot leads and a ground or now 2 ,,,,2 breakers or fuses are needed to make ((((((220v and they must cross both bars in the fuse or breaker box ))))))because your feed in each side is 110 v test each side of the outlet and make sure both sides carry,,,( 110v ),,,,ask at the electrical dept, lowes HD, or a distributer on how to test an ok digital tester is ONLY 16.00 $ or one of those cheap, won't tell you volts lights about 2.00 $<<<<<(((((((((PLEASE CALL DENNIS- PH )))))))

Answer 7

Dryer's are normally 220 volt triple phase circuits with 2X40amp breakers/fuses. Due to the Induction motor and the heating elements, they draw alot of wattage. So the answer would be yes.

Answer 8

assuming its a electric dryer do yahoo search with make of dryer pick the site that says maint. and repairs most sites that sell parts have it enter model of dryer a schematic of the dryer will come up go to heating coil and thermostats this will tell you how to do repairs if you were electrically inclined you wouldnt be asking this question so just buy the coil and the thermostat the thermostat is what regulates the heat and could have been the cause of the coil burning out..you would normally see the burnned out spot in the coil women or man this is a no brainer easy easy job

Answer 9

A 30 AMP Double breaker will handle the job. Fuses are becoming out dated now. Breaker switches are much more reliable.

Answer 10

they need to be on a 220 volt 30 amp breaker.