Confusing Dryer Outlet

So my mom moved into a house with a NEMA 14-30 outlet for the dryer. I’m having a tough time finding an applicable cable at Home Depot / Walmart

Walmart has one single cable that might fit: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Certified-Appliance-77061-4-Wire-Dryer-Cord-6/25849183#read-more

Any thoughts? Not used to this receptacle configuration

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Try Amazon.

Swap the outlet/plug. That is a 30 minute job from throwing breaker.

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Swap to what? What’s normal now? Assuming the wiring behind this thing is hot-hot-neutral-ground lol

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Go to Fry’s. I had to change the plug in my dryer when I moved into my house.

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Swap to something that is “normal”. You can change the wall outlet AND the plug on the dryer to match. YOUR choice of which pair. As long as they match, you are good.

I used to get surplus pallets of electric stuff and always there were 208 or 220 plugs on there.

Might be worth a trip to an appliance store to see what is “current”. Pun intended.

Several in stock in the stores on the East side of town.

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You could probably pick up the plug at grainger locally.
grainger web link

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Sorry but you’re linking to mostly incompatible dryer cords, most of the 4 prong cables have a circle at the top, where the connector she has is a U

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Thanks, that one looks exact! Some wiring required but should be no issue

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Looks like a typical “modern” plug. 2 hots, 1 neutral and a ground. Be sure to wire the dryer correctly or it won’t work.

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The part tripping me up was the eyelet, closed vs open

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Pretty sure the round pins on the 4-pin ones in that search will work.

Just make sure the L-shaped pin is the same direction as your jack. That’s the actual keyed part.

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She reported to me the round pin did not work in the U pin outlet.

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Odd. The Neutral pin - the L-shaped one - is significant. That’s the distinguishing difference between 14-50 and 14-30 connector families.

The ground being round should not make a difference.

Now if the cable is a 14-50, that won’t work. And they look remarkably similar.

Just force it. Lol. If it breaks it needed to be replaced anyway.

In all seriousness

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The nema number should be definitive. Any NEMA 14-30P should fit into the NEMA 14-30R that was pictured, or else one of them is defective. Several of the NEMA variants allow either a round or U shaped ground, so for those variants, the receptacle is always U shaped, and must accept a plug of either style.

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Is she plugging it in upside down? :wink:

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Be sure to wire the dryer correctly or you could kill someone.

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GE’s infinite cord flux state. A universal law that whatever cord you have on your dryer will not fit the socket you are trying to plug in to. You will always have to add or subtract a prong. It will never not be an annoying PITA.