GE Standard Capacity Dryer Heating Issues

[gefilterflo]

Good Evening!

I was at a flea market and had the opportunity to pick up a mostly unremarkable 1986 GE regular capacity dryer in Almond for $5.00. The seller said it was "dead" but couldn't give more of an explanation. I want to keep it outside in the garage to fluff clothes that had been out on the clothesline.

I had it wired up for 110 volts by puttinf a jumper between L1 and L2. The timer worked and it ran, albeit noisily, and it did not heat. I replaced the rear bearing and the belt and noticed that the outside coil was burned out. I restrung it and it's very quiet now and runs fine except it still will not heat. I jumpered the high limit thermostat but still cannot get heat at any temperature setting on any cycle. Is this because of my jumpering the power terminals or is there another underlying problem I am overlooking? The resistor in the control panel does not appear to be within the specs in the service manual but I don't know if that could be it. Does anyone have any insight about what to try next? The new heating elements have continuity to the wiring so I know they are okay now.

It's more of a curiosity than anything else as I don't actually need the heat for fluffing it's just bothering me that it's broken!

Thanks! Tony

 

[gizmo]

I'm not overly familiar with USA wiring but it seems pretty obvious that the heating elements run from 240 volts and if you have connected the machine so that only the 110v circuits (fan, motor, timer) are fed then the heater can't possibly work. It will only work properly when you connect it to the correct 2-phase power supply.

We don't have 2 phase supplies here in Australia but our mains is 240 volts single phase, 415 volts three-phase. Three phase supplies are rare in homes, almost always commercial use only.

 

[combo52]

Non Heating GE 240 Volt Dryer

You can run this dryer on 120 volts, but you wired it incorrectly. To wire it correctly connect the black lead of your 120 volt cord to L-1 on the dryer [ the black lead is the one that connects to the smaller rectangular opening in a standard 120 volt grounded outlet ]

 

Step 2 move the L-2 wire on the dryers terminal block to the center neutral position, as you do this remove the center grounding strap that goes from the center post to the mounting bracket that the terminal block is screwed to. then attach the white wire from the cord to this center position and tighten.

 

Step 3 attach the green ground wire from your 120 volt cord to the screw where the grounding strap was attached to the mounting bracket where the terminal block is attached.

 

Notes, use a good quality cord of at least 14 ga wire [ 12 ga is better ] the dryer should also be run alone on a separate circuit of at least 15 amp, but again a 12 ga 20 amp circuit would be much better if you want to use the dryer much.

 

Properly set up you can use this dryer for years on 120 volts, it will use about 14% less total energy to dry the same load of clothing and will be much safer in operation than using an older 240 volt electric dryer that lacks the additional safety features and lower temperature operation of newer dryers.

 

Whether this dryer is operated on 120 or 240 volts it is operating on single phase power, there is no such thing as 2 phase power in the US.

 

[gefilterflo]

John,

You had it exactly right. I was very off. I didn't realize that on this dryer, L2 was black and L1 was red so it was L1 dryer red to black on the power cord and dryer black and dryer white to power cord white in the center. It fired right up and heated up immediately. I cannot thank you enough!

Tony