What Kind of Wires Are for Dryers?

Hot Wires

• The dryer needs to receive 240 volts of electricity through two hot wires. The dryer cable itself must have a red wire and a black wire, which are both considered hot, and 240 volts of electric current flows through these two wires to the dryer's heating element. The heating element uses both of these wires to heat up when you turn on the dryer.

Neutral Wire

• Once the dryer's heating element receives the 240 volts of electricity from the hot wires, it must carry 120 volts of this electricity to the timer and buzzer. The heating element does this via a neutral wire. The neutral wire, which is usually white, doesn't generate any additional current. The heating element takes the electric current from one of the hot wires to the neutral wire; it doesn't matter which wire it takes it from -- as long as it takes it from only one wire.

Grounding Wire

• The final wire on the dryer's electric cable is a grounding wire. Grounding wires are green or are made out of copper without any insulation. The grounding wire is a safety device; if there's a short circuit between the hot wires and the heating element or the heating element and the neutral wire, the current travels back through the grounding wire, which then trips a breaker and turns off the electric supply to the dryer.

Gauge and Receptacle

• You must use a 10-3 NM-B cable to wire your dryer. This is a 10-gauge cable with a grounding wire, two hot wires and a neutral wire. This cable is thick enough to carry the amount of electricity the dryer needs to function, whereas most standard cables are 12-gauge and don't have the strength to carry electricity to a dryer. Make sure the receptacle where you plug the cable in is a 240/120-volt receptacle, meaning it can handle both strengths of electric current that the dryer carries.