What Size of Circuit Breaker Does an Electric Dryer Need?

The correct size of a circuit breaker is more of a safety feature than anything else. You need to protect your  electric dryer as well as your house. 

Let’s say that your circuit breaker is undersized, that will mean that your electrical circuit will overheat and that may lead to a fire. 

Worse still, it could lead to your electric dryer getting damaged. If not, you will experience frequent circuit breaker tripping. 

All of these are undesirable! You truly do not want to be in such a situation. 

To avoid the pain, it means spending some time to find out the electric dryer breaker size fit for your use is very important. 

This article is meant  to guide you to make the right choice.

To start with, the first thing that you need to do is to match the rating of your electric dryer with that of your circuit breaker. The industry recommends that your circuit breaker should have a slightly higher rating than your electric dryer. About 5% should work. 

It is also important that you do not have a circuit breaker that is weirdly bigger than your dryer. Mark you, a circuit breaker is your means of protection from excessive electrical current flowing into your dryer. Hence, the bigger the circuit breaker the higher it will allow more current to flow into your electric or dryer thus damaging it.

 But where do we find the balance?

The singular purpose of a circuit breaker is to safeguard an electrical circuit from problems such as short circuit or a sudden spike in current.

Electric Dryer Circuit Breaker Size

You first need to be aware of circuit breaker sizing and rating. 

 Circuit breakers are rated as follows; 

You can have circuit breakers rated from 6A, 10A, 15A, 20A, 30A, 50A, 63A, 100A and 200A. Of course these are not the only circuit breakers that are available in the market. You may find much much more than the examples given.

To simply put it, 10 amps and below can handle the light electrical appliances such as lighting and general purpose, for example, laptops, TVs or computers. From 20 amps to 30 amps, these are designed for heavier loads for example in the kitchen. Kitchen appliances such as microwave, electric kettle, the freezer and the refrigerator.

Electric circuit breakers  from 30amps to 50 amps are ideal for heavy loads such as heaters and dryers. A 30 amp or 40 amp circuit breaker size is required for an electric dryer which must be connected using 4 wires.

The four wires is a requirement by The National Electrical Code which came into effect in 1996. So you have two live wires, a neutral cable and a separate  ground cable for safety.

A clothes dryer requires two sources of 120 volt AC which are used together to provide high voltage of 240 volts. Remember the dryer requires 120 volts to run lights, timers and clocks.

The dedicated ground cable was introduced to enhance safety while operating the dryer. Hence, this is the reason we have 4 tables serving the dryer.

Conclusion

It is extremely important in March the circuit breaker and the dryer specification. To do this, check the dryer sticker on the sides for specification and then add 10% to the load current and that will be your ideal circuit breaker size. 

You are most likely to find that a 30 to 40 amp circuit breaker will work well with your dryer. Pay closer attention to the instructions that come with your dryer when installing.