Author Topic: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power  (Read 3801 times)

Chris Hempel

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Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« on: September 03, 2020, 02:31:04 AM »
Does anyone have experience with using your in house electric dryer connection for shore power. Home Depot makes a conversion cable that makes this possible- dryer three Prong to RV four prong. Would be convenient for us to be able to run one AC unit while loading up for a trip.

Bill Lampkin

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2020, 03:39:35 AM »
Chris, I would be surprised if your dryer is wired as a 110v 3-wire circuit. Have an electrician come out and determine how your dryer is wired. Most dryers are 220v 4-wire.
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Bill Lampkin

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2020, 03:49:00 AM »
And one other tip: RV 30A blade type extension cords can burn up pretty quickly when running one A/C.  Watch the head of the cord for overheating (where the blade type connection is). I have cords with burned blade ends, my run was about 100' to the 5th wheel (our previous RV). I have changed all my blade type 30a cord ends to twist lock connections-no more high resistance blade type connections

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Legrand-Pass-Seymour-Turnlok-30-Amp-125-Volt-NEMA-L5-30P-Locking-Plug-L530PCCV3/100166915
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Chuck Jackson

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2020, 04:32:23 AM »
I considered doing the same thing until I found that my dryer outlet was missing a neutral so I just had a 50 amp outlet added.
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Steve Huber Co-Admin

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2020, 05:03:04 AM »
The 3 wire dryer outlets normally have 2 hots and a neutral. No ground.
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Chris Hempel

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2020, 05:28:38 AM »
My dryer is for sure 30 amp 220.

Chris Hempel

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2020, 05:38:37 AM »
Hopefully this will better display the HD page.

David T. Richelderfer

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2020, 02:24:47 PM »
Steve - That's what I was thinking.  A house clothes dryer plug is actually a 240-volt receptacle - two 120-volt hot wires of opposite phase so that between them you get 240 volts and one ground/neutral; therefore, three prongs.  Using a house dryer receptacle to power your RV looks like something that is do-able but you better know what you're doing or get an electrician to do it.
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Greg Ross

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2020, 03:25:02 PM »
Chris, usually you can convert a 3 wire dryer receptacle to a 4 wire because their is a separate ground wire in the outlet box.
You would have to change the cord to the dryer to use the dryer, it is a much safer connection than a 3 wire connect and is now no allowed in the National Electrical Code.
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Bill Lampkin

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2020, 03:35:51 PM »
If your coach has a Surge Guard protected transfer switch, one that looks for open neutral, open ground, etc, it may not allow the hookup as you will not have a neutral with your 3 wire connection. i have an outside 3 wire, 120v RV receptacle that I wired straight off my house breaker panel and I can run one A/C in the MH that way. It has one hot, one neutral and one ground. Standard Rv 30a receptacle.
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Eric Maclean

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2020, 09:53:43 PM »
Bll is correct
if your drier receptical has three terminals only it is only capable of 240 volts the three terminals are 1) leg 1 or phase 1 and leg to or phase 2 between there is a potential of 240 volts. The third terminal is a ground or bond wire this is supplied to the appliance to ground the chassis of the appliance in case of an electrical failure in the appliance (ie. a situation where the appliance could have power connected to the body of the appliance creating a shock hazard)
If this where to happen the grounded or bonded chassis of the appliance now completes the circuit back to ground at the panel effectively shorting the circuit and tripping the circuit breaker .
Every circuit by code must be set up this way to make them fail safe.
In the three wire circuit there is no common wire (white ) to allow for a split phase as per say so you can only get 240 volts from the circuit which is not what you need for your coach ( bad things happen when you remove the common wire from the equation )
Now with that said some people use a hack where they rewire the receptical to use the ground wire as both the common and the ground the problem is that this circumvents the redundancy of the two return wires and is not legal .
In a coach or even your house for for that matter if you loose your common connection to the coach or house at the breaker panel because all circuits share the same common buss bar when that common is no longer connected the two phases are connected together through the now isolated common buss bar and now the circuits have a total potential of 240 volts instead of 120 because of the back feed created by loads on each of the phases things like tv s and radios etc don't like to be fed 240 volts( see what I mean bad things happen with out that redundant ground circuit) if the ground is still intact it now will take over as common because in the breaker box the two are anchored to the box . This is another reason for the redundant ground or bond wire.
The truth is the only difference between the common and the ground is the common goes back to the power pole and the transformer and grid where as the ground goes out from the panel to a ground rod outside your house buried in the ground and there is another ground rod at the foot of the power pole buried hence the name ground as it actually uses the ground as a conductor.

In a true slit phase receptical there are three wires a red  we will call L1 a black we will call L 2 a white known as a common and a green or bare copper wire known as a ground or bond wire
In this arrangement you have 240 between the red and the black
You have 120 between the red and the white
You have 120 between the black and white
And the green is used as a redundant ground to bond all metal parts in the system such as electrical boxes conduits and even the alliances.

It is important on a coach that the ground or bond wire be functional because in the event there was a problem with wiring or a faulty appliance without the ground or bond wire there is a possibility that the coach frame could be powered ( hot) and as the coach sits on rubber no one is any the wiser untill they step out say with one foot on the entry door steel step and the other foot on that nice dewy grass ground and a shocking hazard takes place .
This is especially a problem on metal sided coaches or trailers like the air stream trailers .

Sorry for going on for ever
Hope this helps
Eric


« Last Edit: September 03, 2020, 11:51:42 PM by Eric Maclean »
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Joel Ashley

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2020, 11:17:40 PM »
I was a little confused over this thread, I guess because I didn’t realize there ever was such a modern appliance with no ground, esp. 240v.  Ouch.  Using a ground and a neutral as one didn’t sound palatable.  Greg’s and others’ contributions make sense after I read the article below.
 https://www.thespruce.com/change-dryer-cord-3-prong-to-4-1152248

If it were me I’d upgrade my outlet and my dryer cord to 4-prong.  Safer all around.  Or like myself and others here, have an electrician install a 30 amp RV outlet on the house near the coach.

Joel
« Last Edit: September 03, 2020, 11:27:46 PM by Joel Ashley »
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Chris Hempel

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #12 on: September 04, 2020, 12:47:13 AM »
First of all, thanks for chiming in guys. I value your inputs.

Secondly, maybe it would help to know what equipment I have. I don’t know how to put it in my profile.
40’ 2006 Beaver Monterey Laguna IV
Four slides
400hp Cat C9
Pulling a 2017 Chevy Equinox

So between Eric’s post and a conversation with a Master electrician friend I’m still unclear as to why or why not this pigtail from HD will work for me. Is there any reason to believe my dryer connection (except for pin configuration) is any different than an RV park 30A plug-in. Don’t we all have that conversion pigtail on hand so we can plug our big rig in at a park that only has 30 amp capability?

If you look at the attached Home Depot page you’ll see that this pigtail actually has a 14ga ground wire coming off the four pin connector that you plug into the earth ground lug on any standard 110 wall socket. Would this not give me the redundancy Eric talks about? It even mentions RV 50 amp on the listing.

Don’t get me wrong. I am paying attention to what y’all are telling me, I just really want to do this so am trying to make my case.

What you think?

And thanks again.

David T. Richelderfer

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2020, 01:12:41 AM »
The dryer plug is kind of a cross between an RV 30-amp plug and an RV 50-amp plug... with three wires like the 30-amp plug but offers 240 volts like the RV 50-amp plug.  For an RV application, that fourth wire is needed to ground the RV and its electrical components.
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Lee Welbanks

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Re: Plug into house dryer plug for 30 amp shore power
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2020, 01:29:08 AM »
If you don't mind your coach electrical items getting smoked and maybe a fire? Why not go to your breaker panel and have a 14-50 am box and breakers wired in and be done with it. If your coach cord will not reach get a extension 50 amp cord it will cost you a bit of money but now your not worried about charging your coach with 240 volts and paying to replace a lot of expensive items.