We live in a building with 220V service with primarily 110V outlets but a few specialty ones at 220V.
Earlier this week electrical service in half the building across all three apartments went out. The utility company came out on an emergency basis and restored power by bridging one of the 110V wires onto the faulty one.
Now the lights are back on but the 220V outlets are presumably only offering 110V. It is safe to run a 220V electric dryer on an outlet that now offers 110V of power?
I called the manufacturer of the dryer (Samsung) and all they knew how to do was look up stuff in the manual, which was not helpful. The emergency service technician (not a electrician) was not certain either. I called an electrician and he didn't seem certain either, but recommended against it to be on the safe side.
From the research I have done it seems like the concern might be that the motor might burn out possibly and that definitely the heating element would not get as hot so it might take a lot longer for a load to dry. I can live with the latter but not the former. Additionally are there any safety issues to consider?
I tried the dryer for a moment and the panel lit up and the drum spun as expected. Did not test to see if it got hot.
Repair service is a scheduled for a week away and the laundry is piling up! Even when they attempt repair they are counting on running a new wire through the underground conduit which I already suspect is not sound so they may have to dig which will surely take longer.
Best Answer
It won't work. Your 220V (really probably 240) outlets will actually have 0V, not 110V.
The reason for this is that normally the 220V outlets make their 220 by taking both 110 lines that are out of phase with each other, such that while 1 is at +110, the other is at -110 for a difference of 220. Since the power company bridged one of the 110 lines to make up for the dead one, that won't work -- they'll both be at +110 or -110 at the same time, for a difference of 0.