Dryer Outlet Splitter - Buy or Make?

[Patrick Irish]

Thinking about getting this for $72 shipped. Would it be cheaper to make it? I only have 1 220 in my garage and it's used by the dryer, 5hp sawstop, 3hp jointer, and 5hp planer. I have to unplug each tool to use it and it's pain because the dryer outlet is behind the stacked washer dryer and a reach every time.

My dad plans to run some 220 and a sub panel but he's busy and who knows how long that will happen. I thought about getting a splitter like this which would allow me to have two tools plugged in BUT BUT I would only use one at a time. I'm the only one using my tools too, small 2 car garage. Being able to rip and then head to the jointer without having to unplug would be nice. Or keep saw plugged in and dryer plugged in so wife doesnt get mad about doing laundry and waiting for me.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41F0QU72PWL.jpg

[Lee Schierer]

I'm not sure I would use one. Too much chance of running two things at the same time and overloading the circuit.

[Steve Peterson]

You still have to take turns using the dryer and the saw, assuming that there is a properly sized circuit breaker. It would be a lot more convenient to let both stay plugged in all the time.

220V plugs and sockets typically run about $10 each. I would buy the pre-built one.

[Patrick Kane]

Yeah, you can make a homemade version of that for $30ish with a nice rubber coated 8 gauge cord. Up to you, if you value $35+/- more than 15 mins of your time. Assuming you are running everything off a 30a line, then i dont believe that little accessory is code compliant. Pretty sure 30amp 220v and up lines have to be dedicated circuits. Then again, im no electrician...

Not being able to use my tools at the same time as the dryer would kill my sundays.

[Bob Bouis]

There's no rule that says your tools all have to plugs on them. Or maybe there is; I'm not an electrician or an expert on building codes. But you could, functionally at least, just get a dryer cord, a junction box, some clamps and wire nuts [or terminals], then tie 'em all together with one plug. Cost about $20 and you could have everything "plugged in" at the same time.

[Jim Riseborough]

I just wired 2 plugs to my circuit. One is full time for the air compressor. Other is extension cord for tools I have to plug in. Since most of my work revolves around my bench, I am going to install plugs so I can 'plug in' my bench, and then run any tool I want to off it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LW7LOJK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Mark Bolton]

Dont even bother with the splitter cord. Just pickup some boxes, some receptacles, and some nipples and set a series of receptacles next to the dry receptacle (or spread them out with conduit wherever you want). Plug in the dry, or 100 dryers, and 10 jointers, 9 table saws, and three french hens, and go on. The breaker will protect you from running the dryer, a table saw, and a french hen at the same time. You will find that you can easily run two tools at the same time on a breaker sized for a single tool but you likely never will. You can buy all the metal boxes, nipples, receptacles, and covers, for slightly more than that pigtail you posted and youll never have to plug/unplug a single tool.

[Mike Cutler]

I would just buy it.
The NEC stops at the wall. Plug in the cord.
I'd get the 240 wired throughout the garage as soon a possible. That cord is kind of a "hokey" solution. Definitely not something for the long term.
According to posts on the Tesla Forum, Home Depot has one for $30.00 less.

[John K Jordan]

...Would it be cheaper to make it? ...

Yes, cheaper. Should you make one? Do you have the time, inclination, and experience? (Possibly not since you asked the question.)

I tend to make all such things. Get a box (or two if splitting), a couple of receptacles, a plug, and some properly sized flexible cord at an electrical supply house or big box store. Wire it safely with proper insulation and strain relief. Done.

One advantage of making one is you can make one cord as long as needed for easy access. I made a 30 ft extension cord for a 50 amp circuit to power my welders and plasma cutter out away from the shop as needed to work on trailers and tractors and such.

JKJ,

[Bill Dufour]

I would make one. Then when the other 240 line is run you can take it apart and use the plug and outlets rather then throw it away.
Further I would not trust something like that ,made in China, would use big enough wire. Regardless of what the label claims.
Bill D.

[Patrick Irish]

Something like this? I'm not 100% clear on how to wire the male plug to two female outlets.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PL0AAOSwNp1b5cvc/s-l300.jpg

[Charles P. Wright]

I would use wire nuts and pig tails. Make sure the wire nuts are listed for the 10 gauge stranded from your whip to two 10 gauge solid conductors that you would use inside the box.

[Bob Bouis]

I would use wire nuts and pig tails. Make sure the wire nuts are listed for the 10 gauge stranded from your whip to two 10 gauge solid conductors that you would use inside the box.

Wirenuts are unnecessary; just use a short length of wire to jump each of the terminals on the outlets together. They should be able to take two wires.

[Thomas Crawford]

I would put a box extender on the current outlet, then come out with straight conduit and daisy-chain as many outlets as you want. If you are Ok with the height you don't even have to bend it. That removes the necessity to have the male end of the adapter.

[Julie Moriarty]

Buying or making a splitter for a temporary situation means there will come a time when you will throw the splitter in a drawer or toss it. So you have to decide if it's worth the money to buy it for the slight convenience of being able to keep the dryer plugged in all the time. You still have to plug and unplug the rest of your tools as needed. If it's just the inconvenience of reaching behind the dryer, get a short dryer extension cord and use it until your dad can get the sub panel installed.

But maybe your dad can help you get started on the sub panel and guide you the rest of the way. That's the best option. It's not hard to do that work if you have the necessary guidance. From what you said in your original thread, you certainly need a sub panel so why not take that direction rather than the splitter, which leaves open the possibility of an overload.

[Art Mann]

I think that is the single most important point that has been made in this thread so far. I wish more people knew that. The NEC says a lot about permanent installations in an industrial environment that do not apply to individuals and home environments.



The NEC stops at the wall. Plug in the cord.

[Patrick Irish]

Buying or making a splitter for a temporary situation means there will come a time when you will throw the splitter in a drawer or toss it. So you have to decide if it's worth the money to buy it for the slight convenience of being able to keep the dryer plugged in all the time. You still have to plug and unplug the rest of your tools as needed. If it's just the inconvenience of reaching behind the dryer, get a short dryer extension cord and use it until your dad can get the sub panel installed.

But maybe your dad can help you get started on the sub panel and guide you the rest of the way. That's the best option. It's not hard to do that work if you have the necessary guidance. From what you said in your original thread, you certainly need a sub panel so why not take that direction rather than the splitter, which leaves open the possibility of an overload.

Good questions. The splitter would allow me to have two tools plugged in (while the dryer is unplugged) which would be a further convenience in addition to not having to plug and unplug the dryer all the time. We only do laundry about once a week so planning that isn't a problem. It would also make plugging the dryer back in easier and less of reach. Having to joint wood, then unplug to plug in planer, then unplug to plug in table saw is such a hassle I often skip a step or find a different way that's often not right.

If I could make the splitter for say $30 I would do that in a heartbeat. I saw the female outlets at HD last night for $7 each and a dryer cord is $15 I think. I'm still not sure how to connect one 10-30 female to the other.

As for having my dad help, he mentions it here and there but he's also a contractor full time and I think it's months out. it would have to be on a weekend and at 65 I feel bad having him come over and crawl in my attic. He's type A perfectionist and won't let me do it or tell me how, he'd be in the attic and complaining that my garage is mess while hooking up the 220 hahah! I'll ask and see if we can speed it up. Adding a few 220s would also let me look for a bigger bandsaw and install a better dust collector.

[Bob Bouis]

I was thinking you'd use outlets that have to be installed in an electrical box, but apparently you could use surface-mount dryer receptacles that don't require a box.

If that's the case you'd do it like suggested above. Run the dryer cord into an eletrical box (clamp it) and wire-nut its wires to as many soow/sjoow/whatever cords as you want (clamp them in the box), then terminate the cords with surface-mount dryer receptacles. I'm not sure how many receptacles you could do---three at least, maybe four. I guess that depends on the wire gauge, wire nuts, and the size of the box. But the whole thing would be very cheap.

[Frank Pratt]

What Julie said. That's $$$ & time that could be put toward a sub-panel

[Peter Christensen]

When I wanted to add some circuits to use a metal lathe etc in the garage I would unplug my 5 hp air compressor and plug in this box and receptacle arrangement. It’s breakered for smaller amperages but you can do as you needed. Got the stuff at the Borg.

[Curt Harms]

I'm not sure I would use one. Too much chance of running two things at the same time and overloading the circuit.

I don't know that it'd be practical $$ wise but you could install a transfer switch like generators require. Either the dryer or tool outlets would be powered, never both.

[Bill Dufour]

When I lived in a duplex I did like others here I plugged a cord into the 30 amp dryer outlet that went into a breaker box. I had a 30 amp dryer outlet coming out of the box and then ran some 240 and 120 outlets off the box as well. I ran the tablesaw and dryer at the same time once or twice and nothing tripped. This was all attached to a scrap of plywood that I took with me when I moved.
Bill D.

[Julie Moriarty]

When I lived in a duplex I did like others here I plugged a cord into the 30 amp dryer outlet that went into a breaker box. I had a 30 amp dryer outlet coming out of the box and then ran some 240 and 120 outlets off the box as well. I ran the tablesaw and dryer at the same time once or twice and nothing tripped. This was all attached to a scrap of plywood that I took with me when I moved.
Bill D.

What you're describing here Bill, is a lot like the temporary panels installed on jobsites during construction. Most of the contractors I worked for had panels mounted to a sheet of plywood. Under the panels were junction boxes, each with double duplex receptacles. If, say, the iron workers needed a welder hooked up, they usually provided a temporary box with a cable attached that we'd hook up to the appropriately sized breaker. This temporary installation was used on every building until a permanent service and power distribution was completed. It certainly works. But there is always an electrician on site to fix any problems.

Depending on the individual, this kind of thing could be used in an application such as what the OP described. But unless the person building the temp distribution knows what they are doing, it's best to bring in some knowledgeable assistance if that's the direction one wants to go.

[Billy Merrill]

Its time to get the subpanel installed.
Your dryer and your tools are wired differently.

The dryer receptacle has 3 wires, 2-120vac hots and a neutral, but no ground.

A dryer uses both 120vac and 240vac power. The 120vac return path is the neutral and for 240vac the return path is the opposing hot.
Anytime the dryer is plugged in the neutral is energized.
Your 240vac tools also use 3 wires, the 2-120vac hots just like the dryer, but require a ground. They do not use a neutral like the dryer. When you use the dryer receptacle to power your tools you are using the neutral as a ground. It is against NEC to use a neutral wire as a ground. When you power your tools from the dryer outlet you are doing this. But it works because the neutral bus bar and the ground bus bar are connected at the main panel.

If you use a splitter and the dryer is plugged in then you will be connecting the ground of the tools to a current carrying conductor of the dryer. This creates a shock hazard to the user of the tools. Even though the neutral and the ground are connected together at the main panel ,electricity will always take the path of least resistance which can be the operator of the tool.

[Jim Riseborough]

Its time to get the subpanel installed.
Your dryer and your tools are wired differently.

The dryer receptacle has 3 wires, 2-120vac hots and a neutral, but no ground.

A dryer uses both 120vac and 240vac power. The 120vac return path is the neutral and for 240vac the return path is the opposing hot.
Anytime the dryer is plugged in the neutral is energized.
Your 240vac tools also use 3 wires, the 2-120vac hots just like the dryer, but require a ground. They do not use a neutral like the dryer. When you use the dryer receptacle to power your tools you are using the neutral as a ground. It is against NEC to use a neutral wire as a ground. When you power your tools from the dryer outlet you are doing this. But it works because the neutral bus bar and the ground bus bar are connected at the main panel.

If you use a splitter and the dryer is plugged in then you will be connecting the ground of the tools to a current carrying conductor of the dryer. This creates a shock hazard to the user of the tools. Even though the neutral and the ground are connected together at the main panel ,electricity will always take the path of least resistance which can be the operator of the tool.

How come I dont get shocked when using my dryer then? How does the electrons know my metal planer is not actually a dryer?

[Jim Becker]

How come I dont get shocked when using my dryer then? How does the electrons know my metal planer is not actually a dryer?

Neutral is bonded to ground at the main panel so there is still at least a pathway to ground. Three wire dryer circuits were common for many years just as they were for electric ranges. I believe that four wire may be required at this point for dual voltage appliances, but I could be wrong about that, but existing would be grandfathered. The bottom line, however, is that to do things right, the OP really should have a proper 240v circuit for the 240v tools and a sub-panel would be a good way to take care of that as well as provide some isolation for 120v tool circuits from the existing house circuits, some of which might be connected to "who knows where" from the garage given how many homes got wired when they were built.

[Frank Pratt]

Its time to get the subpanel installed.
Your dryer and your tools are wired differently.

The dryer receptacle has 3 wires, 2-120vac hots and a neutral, but no ground.

A dryer uses both 120vac and 240vac power. The 120vac return path is the neutral and for 240vac the return path is the opposing hot.
Anytime the dryer is plugged in the neutral is energized.
Your 240vac tools also use 3 wires, the 2-120vac hots just like the dryer, but require a ground. They do not use a neutral like the dryer. When you use the dryer receptacle to power your tools you are using the neutral as a ground. It is against NEC to use a neutral wire as a ground. When you power your tools from the dryer outlet you are doing this. But it works because the neutral bus bar and the ground bus bar are connected at the main panel.

If you use a splitter and the dryer is plugged in then you will be connecting the ground of the tools to a current carrying conductor of the dryer. This creates a shock hazard to the user of the tools. Even though the neutral and the ground are connected together at the main panel ,electricity will always take the path of least resistance which can be the operator of the tool.

Not sure what part of the world you are in, but in Canada, installing ungrounded outlets of any kind became illegal at least 50 years ago. And US & Canadian codes don't differ much. There are still some out there in older houses, but if I had one I'd spend whatever it takes to get a properly grounded circuit installed.

[Bill Dufour]

Many dryers came with a separate ground lead and a clamp. this lead was a single wire that was supposed to be attached to a nearby metal water pipe.
Bill D.

[Jim Becker]

That's true, Bill. Unfortunately, there is less use of metal pipe these days for both whole house plumbing as well as for repairs, so one can never assume that a metal water pipe is actually grounded anymore. PEX and CPVC have become very prevalent in plumbing.

[Mike Cutler]

Good questions. The splitter would allow me to have two tools plugged in (while the dryer is unplugged) which would be a further convenience in addition to not having to plug and unplug the dryer all the time. We only do laundry about once a week so planning that isn't a problem. It would also make plugging the dryer back in easier and less of reach. Having to joint wood, then unplug to plug in planer, then unplug to plug in table saw is such a hassle I often skip a step or find a different way that's often not right.

If I could make the splitter for say $30 I would do that in a heartbeat. I saw the female outlets at HD last night for $7 each and a dryer cord is $15 I think. I'm still not sure how to connect one 10-30 female to the other.

As for having my dad help, he mentions it here and there but he's also a contractor full time and I think it's months out. it would have to be on a weekend and at 65 I feel bad having him come over and crawl in my attic. He's type A perfectionist and won't let me do it or tell me how, he'd be in the attic and complaining that my garage is mess while hooking up the 220 hahah! I'll ask and see if we can speed it up. Adding a few 220s would also let me look for a bigger bandsaw and install a better dust collector.

Patrick
I am going to say something a little bit condescending and not nice, and I apologize upfront. I'm sorry but,,,,,,,,,,,,

If your understanding of basic electricity, electrical circuits, and skill set, are less than required to build a breakout box, or cord, than please buy the premade, UL approved, "Y" splitter. To make a breakout box, or cord, is very simple for a skilled person, but it has to be done correctly. These are lethal voltages. Not the just kind of "bite you" voltages, but voltages that can put you in a box.
Do not modify your currently installed receptacle, or daisy chain anything off of it. Any modification you do will most assuredly violate the NEC, National Electrical Code, and could be even more dangerous than trying to make your own splitter, or breakout box.
In the course of this thread, some of the suggestions have applied to three different configurations of 240 wiring, receptacles and plugs. Patrick's initial photo is showing a two prong dryer cord.( Two hots and ground. No Neutral!) This type of installation, plug/receptacle configuration hasn't been done "new" since the early 1990's. If his machines are configured to adapt to this receptacle, that would be "unique".
Please buy the cord. The extra 40 bucks isn't worth your risk.
Once again. I apologize for the tone of this post.

[Dave Sabo]

Something like this? I'm not 100% clear on how to wire the male plug to two female outlets.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PL0AAOSwNp1b5cvc/s-l300.jpg

Then you should buy one. Seriously.