The official "I got my Leaf" thread

[DaveinOlyWA]

The dryer is electric but it plugs into a normal 120V plug.

There are two 30A breakers in the breaker box. I suppose I could flip them and see if it turns off my AC... But the best way for me to know for sure is going to be to go borrow the multimeter.

The good news is I’m having to leave my car unplugged some days just to keep it from getting fully charged since I like to use the e-pedal and regenerative breaking.

interesting. Last time I saw one of those was in a college dorm room. Have never seen one in a house before.

Yes a 120v electric dryer would take FOREVER to dry anything. Subtracting the motor to spin the clothes would leave you with what, 1200w? left to heat the clothes, less than a modern hairdryer
OP, truthfully the best way to see what's what is to do as you thought, flip the breakers and see what goes off, while you could use a VOM the true test is to see what goes off. There isn't anyway your electric dryer could have a 240v part and then a separate plug for 120v that feeds everything other than the dryer heating element? I've never heard of that but then I've never seen a 120v electric dryer, sounds like Dave may have though.

I have seen them although not recently. They do greatly embellish on their claimed drying time but all dryers dry based on air movement, not heat so guessing it simply has a larger fan to go with its smaller heating element. Either way, a load of jeans? Probably not recommended.

[Oils4AsphaultOnly]

The dryer is electric but it plugs into a normal 120V plug.

There are two 30A breakers in the breaker box. I suppose I could flip them and see if it turns off my AC... But the best way for me to know for sure is going to be to go borrow the multimeter.

The good news is I’m having to leave my car unplugged some days just to keep it from getting fully charged since I like to use the e-pedal and regenerative breaking.

Jeff and Dave brought up some good points. If you don't have a multimeter, are you concluding it's 120v because it's a nema 5-15 receptacle? If so, you should know that the connector can actually be used for 240v circuits as well (commonly found in old server rooms).

It's only rated for 15A though, so it might've been a DIY conversion?

[goldbrick]

I used to have a 240V washer that used a 3-prong plug. I'm not sure exactly which one it was but there are several that look very similar to regular 120V outlets but have one or both conducting terminals 'sideways' or in the shape of an L. I could imagine a DYIer using a regular receptacle and plug in place of one of those.

[Chuy1530]

So I’ve confirmed the old dryer circuit in the garage was cannibalized to run the AC. There’s no power running to the plug and flipping the 30A breakers did make my AC go off. This was definitely some DIY stuff by my landlord (who also happens to be my wife’s grandfather.)

I didn’t think to check and see what the actual voltage running to the dryer is, since I know 120V dryers exist and the plug looks like a normal three prong. I should be able to look up the specs of the dryer when I get home and solve that one. If it does turn out to be a 240V, would I be able to find an EVSE or whatever isn’t a charger that plugs into a three prong wall outlet but also takes the higher voltage? Or could I just plug my existing one into it and see some sort of benefit?

I know very little about electrical work and passed e-theory by the skin of my teeth a decade ago haha.

Edit: also, I still love the car. We use it for all of our local travel so my wife has used it a lot too. She isn’t going to learn the e-pedal since her car doesn’t have one but I’m driving with it forever. I’m having no problem keeping it charged with the trickle charger although the option for level 2 would be nice to have, even if I don’t have to use it much.

I do think they phoned it in a bit on the dash options. I know we have options for like 20 different screens, but it sure seems like they could’ve put some work into some better consolidated screens. It’s a minor nit pick though.

[LeftieBiker]

I didn’t think to check and see what the actual voltage running to the dryer is, since I know 120V dryers exist and the plug looks like a normal three prong. I should be able to look up the specs of the dryer when I get home and solve that one. If it does turn out to be a 240V, would I be able to find an EVSE or whatever isn’t a charger that plugs into a three prong wall outlet but also takes the higher voltage? Or could I just plug my existing one into it and see some sort of benefit?

Since you don't need L-2 charging I suggest that you put a pin in this idea and wait until you can run a new circuit. If by some chance you have a 120 volt, 20 amp circuit available with nothing more than a light on it, you can get a 16A 120V EVSE that will charge somewhat (25%) faster than the 12A Nissan unit.

[DougWantsALeaf]

I could still be fine today with with trickle charge. The Level 2 is really just a nice to have, and we lived without it for over 6 years.

[jjeff]

....I didn’t think to check and see what the actual voltage running to the dryer is, since I know 120V dryers exist and the plug looks like a normal three prong. I should be able to look up the specs of the dryer when I get home and solve that one. If it does turn out to be a 240V, would I be able to find an EVSE or whatever isn’t a charger that plugs into a three prong wall outlet but also takes the higher voltage? Or could I just plug my existing one into it and see some sort of benefit?

If it looks like a normal 120v plug, two vertical slots with a round ground plug at the bottom, it will be a 120v 15a outlet. If the outlet's left larger slot also has a horizontal slot bisecting it, it will be a 20a 120v outlet. If the outlet has a horizontal right slot, it will be 240v.
A couple of pages down on the right of this link shows an illustration of the various 120v/240v outlets. Not saying someone couldn't use the incorrect power for a given outlet but if they did it would be extremely dangerous for someone who doesn't know it's wired wrong and I can't believe anyone doing such a thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEMA_connector
And yes, you can purchase or make outlet adapters to convert to other outlet types, Amazon or a RV dealer like ParkWorld is a good source but as L2 EVSEs don't use the neutral wire you have to be careful which one you purchase, best to make sure it says something about good for EVs or know what your getting.

[Oils4AsphaultOnly]

So I’ve confirmed the old dryer circuit in the garage was cannibalized to run the AC. There’s no power running to the plug and flipping the 30A breakers did make my AC go off. This was definitely some DIY stuff by my landlord (who also happens to be my wife’s grandfather.)

I didn’t think to check and see what the actual voltage running to the dryer is, since I know 120V dryers exist and the plug looks like a normal three prong. I should be able to look up the specs of the dryer when I get home and solve that one. If it does turn out to be a 240V, would I be able to find an EVSE or whatever isn’t a charger that plugs into a three prong wall outlet but also takes the higher voltage? Or could I just plug my existing one into it and see some sort of benefit?

I know very little about electrical work and passed e-theory by the skin of my teeth a decade ago haha.

Edit: also, I still love the car. We use it for all of our local travel so my wife has used it a lot too. She isn’t going to learn the e-pedal since her car doesn’t have one but I’m driving with it forever. I’m having no problem keeping it charged with the trickle charger although the option for level 2 would be nice to have, even if I don’t have to use it much.

I do think they phoned it in a bit on the dash options. I know we have options for like 20 different screens, but it sure seems like they could’ve put some work into some better consolidated screens. It’s a minor nit pick though.

If you find out it's actually 240v, then there's plenty of low-current L2 evse's out there like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Morec-Portable-2 ... ast_sto_dp

[SageBrush]

I didn’t think to check and see what the actual voltage running to the dryer is, since I know 120V dryers exist and the plug looks like a normal three prong. I should be able to look up the specs of the dryer when I get home and solve that one. If it does turn out to be a 240V, would I be able to find an EVSE or whatever isn’t a charger that plugs into a three prong wall outlet but also takes the higher voltage? Or could I just plug my existing one into it and see some sort of benefit?

Are you thinking about going back and forth between A/C use and EV charging on the same outlet ?

That is a *bad* idea. As in risk of fire bad.

[Chuy1530]

I didn’t know that was a problem. It seemed like a lot of people were just unplugging their dryer to charge their car and then switching it back after. Is that really a concern?

Either way, it isn’t something I’m doing, but I thought it was pretty common practice to use a plug (even a 120) for the car sometimes and other things other times.