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Someone hooked the washer and dryer into the mains at my Grandma’s house. It was interesting seeing my Dad go from confused to realization to angry without hav

Someone hooked the washer and dryer into the mains at my Grandma’s house. It was interesting seeing my Dad go from confused to realization to angry without having caused the transition. Getting that fixed was an exercise in careful. As Dad is fond of saying “I’m amazed you thought of it and appalled you actually did it.”

joefourier 7y ago
Funnily enough that's a normal practice in the UK/Ireland. In all the places I've lived, washer and dryer are plugged straight into a regular outlet (sometimes with an extension cord if it can't be reached). Makes me wonder, why not make a 110v washing machine and save the trouble of having both 110v and 220v at home?
- mikeash 7y ago
  Most (all?) washing machines are 120V. Electric dryers rarely are, because they need a lot more power. I had a small washer/dryer combo unit years ago that used 120V, and it took about four hours to dry a load that was about half the size of a normal dryer’s capacity. Running both voltages into a house isn’t much of a burden. Residential electricity in the US is two-phase. A 120V circuit pulls from one phase, with the various circuits in your house divided between them to even out the load. A 240V circuit just connects to both phases.
- icedchai 7y ago
  110 (120 really) volt washing machines are very common, at least in the US. Dryers, on the other hand, are 240 here.
- sk5t 7y ago
  I get the sense some of these posts are talking about devices connected directly to the building's supply wiring (not to a receptacle downstream of the circuit breaker panel). In the US all residential washing machines are 110V, as are gas dryers, but electric dryers take 220V.
- Gibbon1 7y ago
  The US uses split phase 240VAC for residential. 240VAC is really two 120VAC 'hots' 180 degrees out of phase. So 240V between phases, but 120V to ground/neutral. Industrial 240 usually is single or 3phase.
- handelaar 7y ago
  Well yes, but we usually segment areas into their own circuits and in a well-built residence the laundry appliances get a fused circuit to themselves (or, at the very least, share one with the kitchen sockets). So your amperage/fuse-trip-point is isolated to that one group of sockets. Plus as you semi-observe, everything on a socket here is 220V
jefftk 7y ago
> Someone hooked the washer and dryer into the mains at my Grandma’s house. Do you mean they wired it in parallel with the main breaker panel, so you couldn't disconnect it to work on it?
- protomyth 7y ago
  Yep. We flipped off all the breakers and the damn washer & dryer were still hot. My memory was a bit off and the the water heater and maybe stove were also hot. We had to replace all of that. I was 10 at the time so I was working on other stuff while Dad and the uncles took care of it. Putting in a new structural support beam was also enlightening.
mirimir 7y ago
I ran into that, in an old house. Some decades ago, the house had two meters. One was just for the hot water heater. But when they removed that one, they just connected the water heater to the main meter. Directly. Not through the breaker panel. Damn. Almost killed me.
- protomyth 7y ago
  Would have probably killed someone in our group except my Dad and one of my uncles had a bad feeling about it. Apparently working for Ma Bell will give one a sense of those things.

joefourier 7y ago

Funnily enough that's a normal practice in the UK/Ireland. In all the places I've lived, washer and dryer are plugged straight into a regular outlet (sometimes with an extension cord if it can't be reached). Makes me wonder, why not make a 110v washing machine and save the trouble of having both 110v and 220v at home?

mikeash 7y ago
Most (all?) washing machines are 120V. Electric dryers rarely are, because they need a lot more power. I had a small washer/dryer combo unit years ago that used 120V, and it took about four hours to dry a load that was about half the size of a normal dryer’s capacity. Running both voltages into a house isn’t much of a burden. Residential electricity in the US is two-phase. A 120V circuit pulls from one phase, with the various circuits in your house divided between them to even out the load. A 240V circuit just connects to both phases.
icedchai 7y ago
110 (120 really) volt washing machines are very common, at least in the US. Dryers, on the other hand, are 240 here.
sk5t 7y ago
I get the sense some of these posts are talking about devices connected directly to the building's supply wiring (not to a receptacle downstream of the circuit breaker panel). In the US all residential washing machines are 110V, as are gas dryers, but electric dryers take 220V.
Gibbon1 7y ago
The US uses split phase 240VAC for residential. 240VAC is really two 120VAC 'hots' 180 degrees out of phase. So 240V between phases, but 120V to ground/neutral. Industrial 240 usually is single or 3phase.
handelaar 7y ago
Well yes, but we usually segment areas into their own circuits and in a well-built residence the laundry appliances get a fused circuit to themselves (or, at the very least, share one with the kitchen sockets). So your amperage/fuse-trip-point is isolated to that one group of sockets. Plus as you semi-observe, everything on a socket here is 220V

jefftk 7y ago

> Someone hooked the washer and dryer into the mains at my Grandma’s house. Do you mean they wired it in parallel with the main breaker panel, so you couldn't disconnect it to work on it?

protomyth 7y ago
Yep. We flipped off all the breakers and the damn washer & dryer were still hot. My memory was a bit off and the the water heater and maybe stove were also hot. We had to replace all of that. I was 10 at the time so I was working on other stuff while Dad and the uncles took care of it. Putting in a new structural support beam was also enlightening.

mirimir 7y ago

I ran into that, in an old house. Some decades ago, the house had two meters. One was just for the hot water heater. But when they removed that one, they just connected the water heater to the main meter. Directly. Not through the breaker panel. Damn. Almost killed me.

protomyth 7y ago
Would have probably killed someone in our group except my Dad and one of my uncles had a bad feeling about it. Apparently working for Ma Bell will give one a sense of those things.