Chris Lewis wrote:

According to zxcvbob :

Minnie Bannister wrote:


But we have subsequently stacked the dryer and the washer, so everything
now has a "real" ground through the washer's power cord, right? (And
doesn't that mean that the neutral and ground are now connected at a
place other than the main panel?)



No. Your dryer has 2 hots and a ground and no neutral. An exception in
the old code allowed you to use the ground for the unbalanced portion of
the dryer load (for the timer, buzzer, light, and maybe the motor).


Most dryers have 120V motors and timers, so they "need" neutrals.


They need a neutral, but a 3-wire cord doesn't give them one. It dumps
the unbalanced return voltage on the ground. A small fixed load, and a
very large low-resistance ground. [I didn't design it] Should be OK
with copper wires and tight connections; I wouldn't trust it with
aluminum wire even with proper terminations. I would use aluminum for a
4-conductor dryer or range circuit.

[now that I shot my mouth off, I gotta go doublecheck whether that
grounded wire is technically a ground or a neutral]

My dryer has an old 3-wire outlet; it's connected directly to the
service panel with a short length of rigid metal conduit, so even if the
grounded wire were to somehow come loose I'd have a good equipment
ground through the conduit so I haven't bothered to change it to 4-wires.

Best regards,
Bob