How can you convert a 240V clothes dryer to 120V?

You really cant do it because a 220 has a heating element in it to dry the clothes unlike gas that uses fire to dry the clothes and the 120 is to turn the drum.Your drier will keep poppin breakers which isnt good at all.

Outlets and Power

(110V outlets and 120V outlets are practically the same for this discussion. I will refer to them as 120V. Same with 220V/240V outlets.)

By 110V outlet I'm assuming you mean a standard US 120V 15A outlet.

This outlet can provide a maximum of 15A at 120V. This means the outlet can provide 1,800W of power. ( Volts x Amps = Watts ) This is the maximum amount of power this outlet can provide, no more. Also, this is assuming nothing else is drawing power off the circuit this outlet is on. If you try to pull 1800W from an outlet and plug anything else into this circuit, the breaker will blow.

Your dryer is designed to run off a 30A 240V circuit. Let's say, for argument, it draws 24A at 240V. This means your appliance requires 5,760W of power to run correctly. This is 3.2 times the absolute maximum amount of power your 120V outlet can provide. There is no way you can run this appliance off this outlet. You have a larger problem here than the voltage difference.

Answer

You can't, you need both a and b phases. You need to install an 240v receptacle.

Answer

And don't upgrade to 240V by using the same wires!! Some complete idiots will try this and burn the neighborhood down.

First answer by Steve S. Last edit by TJNII. Contributor trust: 390 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 26 [recommend question]