Just a quick review for anyone looking to buy a Dryer Buddy. I purchased one instead of having a new outlet installed in my garage. My laundry room opens up into my garage so I didn’t have to worry about the cord being able to reach my car. I mounted it to the wall using drywall anchors and installed an official Tesla cable organizer along with it. I use a 14-30 adaptor and limit charging to 24 amps which nets 6 kW. It’s a nicely made unit and works very well. I got the Auto version which will automatically shut power off to the car if the dryer is turned on. I would definitely recommend buying one if you don’t want to spend the money installing a new outlet. Just make sure the outlet you are going to use is close enough to your garage for the charging cord to reach your car.
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Dryer Buddy Review
- Thread starter PrisonerOfDoom
- Start date
Just a quick review for anyone looking to buy a Dryer Buddy. I purchased one instead of having a new outlet installed in my garage. My laundry room opens up into my garage so I didn’t have to worry about the cord being able to reach my car. I mounted it to the wall using drywall anchors and installed an official Tesla cable organizer along with it. I use a 14-30 adaptor and limit charging to 24 amps which nets 6 kW. It’s a nicely made unit and works very well. I got the Auto version which will automatically shut power off to the car if the dryer is turned on. I would definitely recommend buying one if you don’t want to spend the money installing a new outlet. Just make sure the outlet you are going to use is close enough to your garage for the charging cord to reach your car.
That price is very close to how much I ended up paying to have a 14-50 plug installed after the 20% tax credit I got.
The Dryer Buddies have been known and talked about here for quite a while. I can sometimes like and recommend them with certain conditions of doing it right and safely. Don't ever get the versions that take a 30A outlet and offer a 50A outlet type, relying on you, the user, to remember to turn the usage down to safe levels. That's dumb and dangerous. If you get one for a 14-30 outlet, just get the kind that duplicates it to two 14-30 outlets. We don't have to use wrong kinds of outlets anymore with hokey adapters.
And good on you for selecting the Plus AUTO version of Dryer Buddy--that is the only one I will recommend. The car can wake up for various things and draw power, like if you go to open up the car door to get something, and it turns on the heat or A/C. It will draw from wall power for that, and can do it while your dryer is running. It's just better to have it with that auto lockout functionality, so you don't have to remember or think about it.
And good on you for selecting the Plus AUTO version of Dryer Buddy--that is the only one I will recommend. The car can wake up for various things and draw power, like if you go to open up the car door to get something, and it turns on the heat or A/C. It will draw from wall power for that, and can do it while your dryer is running. It's just better to have it with that auto lockout functionality, so you don't have to remember or think about it.
MagnusMako
Member
Love my Range Buddy Plus AUTO. Been using it almost a year now with zero issues.
I have a NEMA 10-30 dryer outlet connected to the range buddy with two 50A NEMA 14-50 outlets, which I use an extension cord and then to the Tesla charging cable. Car read's max 32A and I just leave it on 25A and have never had an issue. The car remember's the current level so it's just set it and forget it. Pretty sure it's based on location.
I have a NEMA 10-30 dryer outlet connected to the range buddy with two 50A NEMA 14-50 outlets, which I use an extension cord and then to the Tesla charging cable. Car read's max 32A and I just leave it on 25A and have never had an issue. The car remember's the current level so it's just set it and forget it. Pretty sure it's based on location.
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I’m hoping I get this lucky to! I ordered mine Saturday the 5th. Did you get the 10-30 with a 10-30 and 14-50?
And right on cue, this right here is exactly why I warned against that. It is offering a fake 50 amp outlet that has no business being there, and relies on people to set the amps to whatever they think it should be. (Really, I put about two thirds of the blame on the company for selling those at all.) And in this case, the person got it pretty close, but still wrong. For a 30A rated circuit, that should be no more than 24A, not 25A.
The car remembers it...until it doesn't for any of a few reasons. Software updates have been seen several times to make the cars forget their memorized amp settings. Also, I've personally had this one happen to me--the car keeps that setting tied to a GPS location. Sometimes the GPS signal is messed up or off for some reason, and it thinks the car is a couple blocks away from your house, so it doesn't think it is at that "25A" location, so it defaults back up to 32A, overdrawing the circuit. If you are fortunate, and the breaker trips as it should, then your house doesn't burn down. If the breaker fails, as they sometimes rarely do, you have a Problem.
So using the correct 30A Dryer Buddy for 30A outlets makes you use the proper 30A Tesla adapter, which forces that 24A limit and doesn't depend on the car having the GPS position always right or risks an update deleting the memorized amp setting.
Are they selling such a thing? They have both a 50A and a 30A product on their website. There is no 10-30 to 14-50 model that I can find.
If the outlet is 10-30, then the drier is also 10-30. Tesla makes a 10-30 adapter.
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You can't find it? It is the second product on page 1 of their product listings:
Dryer Buddy™ #4 10-30 5' cable (before 1996), one 10-30, one 14-50 outlet with kWh/Watt/Volt/Amp meter
That plugs into a 10-30 and gives both a 10-30 and a 14-50. Not good.
And here is the 14-30 that splits to a 14-30 and 14-50.
Dryer Buddy™ #5 30A 240v Splitter, 5ft. cable NEMA 14-30 plug (1996+), one 14-30 outlet, one 14-50 outlet with optional kWh meter
And here's this one he just mentioned, which is even worse--it's a 10-30 to two of the 14-50 outlets. No correct 30A outlets at all! Here is that product.
Dryer Buddy™ Plus #20 Custom 30A 2-way switcher, 5ft. cable NEMA 10-30 (before 1996) to two 14-50 outlets with optional kWh meter
Sure, that would be the less bad version of it.
That's not a thing. Dryer outlets are 30 amp.
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Just curious, which model did you get? I ordered mine on the 5th, and haven't heard anything from Dryer Buddy about shipping.
MagnusMako
Member
I understand it's a solution that could have more failsafe's for ordering or I could have chosen something more proper to do so but it's the best I could find for my situation and so I went with it. I wanted to leave the ability for me to upgrade to a 50A outlet later and not need to buy a new unit.
Speaking from experience, it has not forgotten the location or had the GPS signal thrown off and I always look at the max amps to make sure it's correct. But I also understand that updates can cause issues and the car itself is not perfect.
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I just ordered one and hope it ships quickly. I have a time sensitive installation for my ex wife and as a fall back have ordered a NeoCharge which is more expensive but I already got confirmation that it shipped. Long term I have a plan for some rental units and that technology is what I would like to deploy. In concept it is not much different than when pulling into a crowded Supercharger.
MagnusMako
Member
Not sure. I live in a duplex so I'm not sure if that matters.
That said though, I got a new dryer recently which didn't end up working as it turned out that I didn't have a neutral wired in on my 32A (that was converted to a 4 prong) outlet. Now the box actually does read amp's that it's pulling and the voltage is around 242. What would be a more normal reading?
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240 V plus or minus 5V is what I'd always understood to be the tolerance. The fact that you start at nearly 250 and then drop 8V under load leads me to believe your transformer is undersized and/or not adjusted correctly.
Still, being a little overvoltage means you get some extra oomph.
Pretty sure its 240 plus or minus 5%, and they won't actually try to fix it until its notably worse than that. This is 228-252V, so 249.8 is fine. On the bright side, motors work is easier at higher voltages.
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