New washer , dryer

[Wilson]

Hey all, My wife and I live aboard our 58 My. I recently removed the old washer dryer, and installed a new GE company stackable unit. It all went well, and everything came together great. The learn dryer cord is a 8 AWG, 4 conductor. I direct wired the new dryer as a new dryer 4 wire cord.
The green to the ground terminal, and the black, white , black. All good for now. We spent the summer on a mooring in New England, so have been running off solar, and generator. The dryer
is intermittent running off the generators. We have a 6 kw, and a 20 kw. We have been getting a
message that the door is open. Obviously possibly a bad door switch. I scheduled a service call with GE for next week. We just arrived in Maryland and are now plugged into a Marina, with power.
The dryer has been working flawlessly. So my question, would anyone have a thought why the dryer does not operate on the generator, but will run on shore power. I measured the generator output, and both are right at 239 volts. Both legs are the same.. Is this just luck, and there is a loose connection that will show up later.

thoughts appreciated..

Ken

 

[Captain Ralph]

Does or does not work on gen-set?

Some bugs I have found;
Keep in mind;
Most dryers use a 115Vac motor and other components. Just the heating element is 230Vac.

On a boat when correctly installed, neutral and ground are tied together at the gen-set.
On shore power, N & G are separate. Supposed to be tied at the power pole, sometimes further up, as I have found, sometimes not at all.

Sometimes the options boats neutral, ground, or RED leads are not strapped correctly.
Some folk only have W, B &G wires and make work. You mentioned 4 pin plug.

I have also found 3 wire dryers hooked only to 230 & ground. Works on gen-set only.
The 3 wire dryer straps N & G together internally and runs the 115Vac motor using the ground lead.
When on shore power, trips the GFI dock breaker or does not work at all.

***You mentioned 4 wire hook up, are you measuring 230 AND 115Vac at the correct pins?

 

[Pascal]

When I bought my 53 almost 20 years the dryer and the oven didn’t work on generator even thought I was getting 240v across the hots/lines. Since I never used the dryer on gen as we rarely spent more than a few days away from the dock.

I vaguely recall the issue being the generator being wired incorrectly when it was installed in the late 90s. About 6 years ago I re wired the entire boat including the wiring from the gen to the panel and now all the 240v systems work fine, incl the new cooktop and chillers.

In you case I would check two things.

1)- make sure you have 240v between the two hots/lines and 120v between each hot/line and neutral
2)- check the frequency. Some new electronic appliances are very sensitive to freq and start acting up if it drops below 58/57Hz. This maybe why you it worked intermittently on gen.

I really like having easy to read meters visible from the salon and helm.

 

[whoover]

My opinion is frequency changes from your generator interfering with the electronics of the dryer. Not on a boat but my house furnace will not operate on my standby generator so I use a smaller inverter type portable generator on the furnace if the power goes out.

Walt Hoover

 

[Wilson]

Thanks all, how would I check the generator out put frequency??

 

[Pascal]

I believe at some point Hatteras started adding freq meters to the electrical panel. If not, most multimeters should read Freq or there are meters you can plug into an outlet that will show freq. it doesn’t matter if you measure frequency on a 120v outlet, since Freq is dependent on RPM the 240v circuits will have the same frequency

 

[Captain Ralph]

Thanks all, how would I check the generator out put frequency??

Some hand held DVMs give HTZ readings, A tach on the gen-set will also give you a good out put Htz (1800 RPM).
Sadly, wave form will also mess up some finer electronic options. Everybody thinks small gen-sets make an at home AC signal. NOT...

 

[Dragonten]

I have a couple questions for all if you don't mind. I need to replace the stack-able unit Frigidaire on my 53MY. What GE model did you install? Mine current one says 120 volts, but I was thinking one needs 240 volts for dryer? Are the washer and dryer different voltages perhaps? Sounds like most people's genny's put out 240 volts.

Thanks,

 

[Pascal]

Pretty much all washers are 120v and dryers 240v. I don’t think I ve ever seen a diesel gen that wasn’t 120/240. You ll have two 120v hots/lines each giving 120v against N and 240 across both hots.

Shouldn’t be an issue

 

[Captain Ralph]

Gen-sets can be strapped many different way including 50 or 60 HTZ.
We have serviced boats with only one 115Vac output. These same gen-sets can do 230 and 115/230 Vac services.
Your ships installation can vary.
Most modern U S installs should be 230/115VAc @ 60 Htz service as Pascal describes.

As noted, pay attention to the 230Vac hook up for your dryer. KISS and use a 4 wire hook up.

 

[Wilson]

Dragonten, The GE washer was model GFW148SSMOWW. The GE dryer is GFD14ESSNOWW

Bought them a5 Lowe’s. I was able to get the dryer out, by separating it from the lower washer, the washer, I actually took apart, and took it out in pieces. The new units fit through the forward hatch.
I built a rail system out of 2x3,s to slide the units from the hatch to cabinet. I replace all hoses, shut off valves, dryer vent etc. washer plugged into the dryer, so you only need to wire the dryer.
The existing dryer cable was an 8 AWG, 4 conductor. So the ground is separated. I think this may
be my problem with dryer working on the generators, they seem to be a 3 wire, with no ground..

Ken.

 

[Captain Ralph]

Dragonten, The GE washer was model GFW148SSMOWW. The GE dryer is GFD14ESSNOWW


be my problem with dryer working on the generators, they seem to be a 3 wire, with no ground..

Ken.

There is going to be your first problem. You must use a 4 wire install.
Just inside where the pig-tail goes into the dryer is where white and green are strapped together to the cords green lead. They need to be separated to their own green and white leads.

Where is your ship?

 

[Dragonten]

My boat will be stored for winter at Onekama Michigan. Will need to see how the wiring is hooked up on mine. How do you resolve if only three wires? Thanks,

 

[Pascal]

This is still odd. If N and G are bonded inside the appliance it should work just fine on generator since the generator binds N and G anyway.

Now if on shore power without an isolation transformer at marina with GFCI, it would cause the GFCI to trip. But should be fine on gen

What am I missing ?

 

[dottieshusband]

My opinion is frequency changes from your generator interfering with the electronics of the dryer. Not on a boat but my house furnace will not operate on my standby generator so I use a smaller inverter type portable generator on the furnace if the power goes out.

Walt Hoover

+1 What he said! Watching the hertz meter with the OhNo running vs the Kohler, there is a big difference in variation. My last dryer died at the electronic control panel. I won't run the new dryer on the OhNo and have had no problems running the new dryer on the new Kohler.