I bought a house it has a fuse box that runs the dryer ,the fuse box sayes 30amp fuse I put 25 amp fuses in it and they keep blowing,does this make that much of a difference,Thanks

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Originally Posted by gladysman

i bought a house it has a fuse box that runs the dryer ,the fuse box sayes 30amp fuse i put 25 amp fuses in it and they keep blowing,does this make that much of a difference,THANX

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Yes. There might be something else on the 30 amp fuse also. This has to be a 120/240V on a real old house, then this is usually the case. Changing out to a modern 100 amp main would be a good thought. Generally the laterals are sized to handle that, check with the utility co.

If it has a 30 amp fuse, it should be wired up with #10 wire. It shouldn't draw over 24 amps, so 25 amp fuses would be marginal. Likely the dryer has a short. It is just a matter of opening it up and poking through the wiring looking for it.

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Originally Posted by labman

If it has a 30 amp fuse, it should be wired up with #10 wire. It shouldn't draw over 24 amps, so 25 amp fuses would be marginal. Likely the dryer has a short. It is just a matter of opening it up and poking through the wiring looking for it.

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It could also be an overloaded motor from drum misalignment or seizing. Usually if an element shorts it will open up but blow the circuit fuse immediately. If the dryer runs after replacing the fuse and blows again, then the mechanical is dragging on the motor causing a higher current draw to blow the fuse. The motor has a thermal cutoff and will shut down on its own if there is a 30 amp fuse installed. Check the units nameplate for rating to determine how many amps it usually takes. Divide watts (va) by 240 to get amps the dryer will operate at. Generally a healthy element draws around 22 amps with motor running. So labman is correct in deducing marginal fuse.