Have basic electric dryers electrical changed much in 18 years? Volts/Amps?

[rgG]

N-OS X-tasy! wrote:
[quote=lafinfil]Newer dryers are sold with a 4 wire set up that is easily switched to 3 - $10 part and 10 minute job.

I wish. The Samsung dryer I purchased last month came with no power cord at all. I wouldn't have minded so much if I'd been informed of this ahead of time, but I didn't learn about it until I was smack dab in the middle of my installation. I had to dig deep into the owner's manual to find the single line of text confirming that the lack of a power cord was not an inadvertent omission at the factory - apparently Samsung doesn't ship power cords with any of their U.S. models. Hard to believe this little nugget of information failed to turn up anywhere during the months of research I did prior to this purchase.

I had to make a late night, last minute Home Depot run to finish my installation. The nice thing is I was able to match my cord to my available power.
Sounds like the way they sell printers, cable not included. I never have understood that. At least with a printer, you do get the power cord though.

[JoeH]

Printer connection cable not included is a carryover from the days when you had different parallel and serial connections to use. Which you would need depended on the PC, Mac or other kind of computer you were attaching the printer to. With most being USB thee days, there is no excuse not to include at least a basic USB cable.

As for dryers or electric stoves, it appears to be a US maker/brand vs. non-US whether or not you generally get a cord. Without a cord, they can ship the same model to more countries than just the US, and let the end consumer get the right one. But even some US models come without cords due to the 3 vs. 4 prong cord issue.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

JoeH wrote: As for dryers or electric stoves, it appears to be a US maker/brand vs. non-US whether or not you generally get a cord. Without a cord, they can ship the same model to more countries than just the US, and let the end consumer get the right one. But even some US models come without cords due to the 3 vs. 4 prong cord issue.

Agreed. And, as I indicated, not a big deal - PROVIDED the manufacturer informs the buyer UP FRONT that he will need to purchase the cord separately in order to install the dryer. None of my research (manufacturer's web site, user forums) indicated that this would be the case for this model.

[lafinfil]

This is why I stick with gas dryers !

: -)

[macphanatic]

One of the issues with electric dryer circuits is the wire gauge. While there are minimum wire gauge requirements based upon circuit or device amperage, the length of wire run needs to be taken into account. You may need to go up one or two gauges (lower number) to ensure that you have the needed capacity.