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Old 09-04-14, 01:54 PM   #9
oil pan 4
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Yep you can run a dryer and its heater element off 120 volt power. All you have to do is disconnect one of the lines and put a jumper to connect that line terminal to nertral.
All the 120v stuff like the drum motor, timer and buzzer work like normal since they are 120v powered already and when you connect the heater element to line to neutral power you half its voltage and it works, but it just doesn't get as hot.

I just tried it on my apartment sized one. Heater element power is much lower than extected, around 5 amps. The air coming out the discharge was warmed up some but not hot.

Now the dryer draws 10 amps of 120 volt power as opposed to 17 amps of 220v power on one line and 21 on the other line (for an average of about 19 amps at 220). That's 1,200 watts versus 4,300 watts.
And remember, full size dryers use more power. This is my 220 volt compact apartment sized machine I am talking about. 220v machines this size are kind of rare.
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