Hooking up a 3-prong dryer to a 4-prong outlet.

Joeslop

My landlord sold me a 3 year old washer and dryer (two seperate items) but I'm having trouble now hooking them up. When I take the plate off the back of the dryer it has 3 spots; red, white and pale greenish. The green wire loops back around and screws into the body of the dryer so it would be the ground yes? The problem is that my socket on the wall is a 4 prong (I have a 4 prong cable) but the actual washer has only the 3 prongs.

Any suggestions?

Joeslop

Looking around on the Internet, I may have an idea of what to do. Black to black, red to red, white to the green, and attach the green to the dryer on the outside where it loops back on itself?

codetrap

Are you sure this is a good idea? Aren't 4 prong plugs usually 240? and 3 (hot, neutral, ground) usually 110? Perhaps you should hire an electrician to come and take care of this problem for you? Otherwise...

this has all the elements of a future darwin award.

Improvolone

I had to change the cable plug thing on one of my units. It's bloody simple, but since my cable was brand new, it had directions. I'd say check on-line or go to a Home Depot and check the directions on their new packages.

Djeet

thing and other thing

the hookups are pretty standardized, so you could snoop around sites the various manufacturers' sites and look at manuals. if you bought new, it would likely have included both cables. it's completely normal to swap this out so it works at your place of installation.