Is it possible to hook up a 240V dryer to a 120V outlet via some sort of power converter?

No. You need to have a 220 outlet. Your 110 has only 1/2 the voltage you need. Also, the question you ask is not really feasible. The wattage required by the heating elements is more than what a 110V line could handle.

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

NO WAY

Answer

One person has said "homes are not wired 110v, they are wired 220v. if you put a 2 pole breaker (or 2 pole fuse, if it's a fuse panel) in the panel, you will get 220v."

Although it may be partly true, it does not answer the question. The related questions explore the amount of power needed for a dryer, which cannot usually be supplied through the wiring for a 110 V outlet.

So, in general, the answer is no. You will need to run a different set of wires from the breaker/fuse panel to the location where the dryer is to be installed, and use a 2-pole breaker and the proper dryer outlet.

Answer

You could, in theory, but the transformer would weigh more than the dryer and cost at least 4 times as much as a new dryer. The circuit would also have to be upgraded to at least a 60 amp 120volt outlet. Very impractical.

First answer by Tim. Last edit by TJNII. Contributor trust: 370 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 26 [recommend question]