Electric Dryer - 120 Volt Operation
GE Appliances electric dryers operate on a 240 volt electrical connection. This is required to properly use the appliance. GE Appliances will NOT assist in converting any electric dryer to 120 volt operation.
Operating an Electric Dryer on a 120 Volt Electrical Connection
Some older 240 volt GE Appliance dryers with simple timed cycles, no automatic cycles, were able to be converted from 240 to 120 volt operation by changing some connections in the rear of the dryer. This conversion would have to be done by an authorized GE Appliance Servicer. Effective June 1st, 1987, GE Appliances no longer designs their timed cycle dryers to accept a 120 volt operation.
GE Appliances does not recommend operating any 240 volt dryer at a reduced voltage. When the voltage is cut in half on an electric appliance, the wattage is cut to one-forth. Therefore, drying time for a load of towels that would normally take 45 minutes may take as long as 3 hours.
The figure 120/240 simply means one side of the 240 line operates the motor and 240 operates the heaters. If you try to operate on 120 volts only the heaters will not work efficiently.
- Note: Very rarely there may be an electric dryer designed for use with a 120 volt electrical supply. For example, the GE Spacemaker® 120V 3.6 cu. ft. Capacity Portable Electric Dryer, model DSKP333ECWW, is designed for this.
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