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I have been looking for an adapter that allows me to hook a (20 lb. tank) up to my converted GE dryer for over a year (model GTDP350GM1WS).

However, I simply can not find one that goes from the propane tank to the dryer. The threading is different and there does not seem to be an adapter that goes from 1/2 inch to 3/4 or 5/8.

Further, I have purchased over a dozen different fittings, and tried to mix and match multiple fittings with zero success. I work at Home Depot so I've got the resources to find a fitting that would work, but no one has heard of or knows of such a thing.

I've also called Plumbers, BBQ Installers, and Appliance Installers, but no one has answers. GE tells me that it's impossible to run their dryers off a ( 20 lb tank) and don't have any adapters. Can somebody figure out a solution, and help? Thanks forwards.

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  • Photos might help
    – Rohit Gupta
    Feb 7 at 13:33
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    Why do you not want to follow the manufacturer's instructions that it's impossible to do it?
    – JACK
    Feb 7 at 14:17
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    When you cobble something up and burn your house down, the insurance company will get off without having to pay you a dime for the loss, since you disregarded the manufacturer's instructions, which are part of the UL listing of the appliance. Not a clever move, that.
    – Ecnerwal
    Feb 7 at 17:34
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    Looks like an XY Problem to me. Why aren't you hooking this up to your home propane supply? You don't have one? Sell the dryer and get one that works with whatever source of power you house has.
    – FreeMan
    Feb 7 at 17:52
  • Usually, there's a "vaporizer" or "reducer" element which takes liquid and gives off gas. In LPG-powered cars, it's hooked up to engine coolant loop so that's where the heat to evaporate massive amounts of LPG comes from. This could be the missing link in your setup.
    – Agent_L
    Feb 9 at 12:50

2 Answers 2

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Listen to the manufacturer. Don't do it. A gas dryer uses gas at a much higher rate than a 20 lb tank can deliver. You would initially get a nice hot flame and decent drying, but within minutes the tank temperature would start dropping.

It takes heat to vaporize liquid propane, and that heat has to come from somewhere so it will come from the tank. The tank and the propane in it will get ice cold, frost will form on it and eventually it will get so cold that it won't be able to maintain pressure.

At that point, the flame in the dryer will become unstable, it may pop several times and then it will go out with the gas still flowing. If all goes well, the flame detector circuitry will sense trouble and cut off the gas. If it doesn't go well, there will be a loud pop, the dryer hose will be blown off the dryer and there will be a strong odor of propane.

What happens after that is anybody's guess.

If you want to do this right, ask GE to tell you the minimum size propane tank that is required for this dryer. Then contact your local propane supplier to see about having a tank and regulator set up outdoors.

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  • 1.) This is not indoors, I am not suicidal. 2.) I live in Phoenix Az where cold and ice up issues are not a problem. 3.) I have no LP gas hook up and only a NG hook up. 4.) I am what you would call a poor person and cant afford the electric bill for an electric dryer and I live in a rental and can not have LP run into the house as I do not own the property.
    – Capsulecore
    Feb 8 at 14:56
  • 5.) I have only one NG gas hook up and can not have another installed to put in a NG dryer. The cost difference between using a propane tank vs my other options is the cheapest route. Being poor limits my options and working 16 hours a day at two jobs limits my availability to sit at a laundry mat for hours on end waiting for clothes to dry. So the free 1 year old LP converted dryer I was gifted is my only option to dry clothes without hanging them in the yard so they get pelted with dust and dirt.
    – Capsulecore
    Feb 8 at 15:02
  • The GE rep I spoke to stated that it was impossible to run because they didn't know how to solve the problem. A following email I received this morning states that they do not provide an adapter for the Inlet pipe where the flex hose connects. But they do sell a NG to LP conversion kit. Which had already been installed. From the responses I received here I can see that this is not a place for someone to request help without being pelted with statements about my IQ and knowledge of Gas use indoors.
    – Capsulecore
    Feb 8 at 15:12
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    @Capsulecore your tank can freeze up even in the heat of AZ. Your air conditioner can freeze up there, too, if you bump the temp down too much. Nobody is questioning your intelligence, but your desired goal. It's likely that the fact that several different professionals and the appliance manufacturer tell you that there are no parts to make this happen isn't because they're lazy. There's a reason for it. You may save time until you die, then you'll have the rest of eternity to think about it...
    – FreeMan
    Feb 8 at 16:17
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    @Capsulecore Electric drying in AZ is cheaper than propane from 20 lb cylinders. Blue Rhino in Scottsdale does a tank exchange for $24.28 w/tax for a "full" tank that delivers 15 lbs. That's 323,220 BTU if burned at 100% efficiency. It takes 94.73 KWH of electric power to make those same BTU, and at the current average $0.15/KWH in AZ, that costs $14.21. If you can trade your propane dryer for an electric, you'll save almost half on energy and you won't need to work with gas at all.
    – MTA
    Feb 8 at 17:03
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Hacking a gas bottle onto a dryer, indoors, is NOPE.

It's just depraved recklessness, and that's how the insurance company and district attorney will see it. Propane leaks are exceedingly common, and will create an explosive mix of propane and air while you sleep.

Now I gather you don't want your dryer outdoors. Well okay, there's plenty of precedent for having gas dryers indoors, and we have gold-standard ways of making the gas connections to normal hard line i.e. normal gas "black pipe". You simply use the same plumbing and materials you would use to plumb up a methane line in a utility-supplied house. Use gold-standard methods properly and you escape any charges of carelessness.

Separate the problems

But now, build a proper "shed" or enclosure for the gas bottle well outside the home - far enough away that any gas leaks will be dispersed and not reach flammable concentrations inside the home. Connect that with hard line into the home and to the dryer.

Now you have a simple matter of connecting the bottle to the hard line. That is routine stuff and you shouldn't have any trouble finding the kit for that.

Now you have "whole house propane" albeit fed from a 20 pound portable tank. It's just like a huge white tank from the propane distributor, it's just little. And portable. And the connections most at risk for leaks - where you're changing it weekly - are outside away from the house.

Can a 20 pound tank even supply a dryer?

Good question. Here's what we know: Dryers take about 20,000 BTU/hour. Radiant heaters, e.g. found in outdoor spaces at restaurants, take 20,000 to 50,000 BTU/hour. Those all use 20# tanks, so we can infer that the tank doesn't have a problem supplying a 20,000 BTU dryer, provided there isn't a "cold snap" out there.

The colder the tank, the lower the flow! It is vital to understand that. To vaporize in the tank, the propane needs to absorb a lot of heat from the surroundings because of its latent heat of vaporization. That's easy on a nice hot day, but you're asking in February.

If there is a "keeping tank warm enough to deliver BTUs" problem, they make propane tank heating jackets that are designed to provide supplemental heat when it matters.

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  • All good info, but I looked up the listed BTU/hr capacity of 20 lb tanks before I posted my answer. When they get down to about 20% full, they fall below 20,000 BTU/hr, so when the dryer setup gets much lower than that, the flame will become unstable. Remember that radiant propane heaters work differently and are not bothered by reduced flow. I fear that a dryer on a 20 lb tank near empty will develop a popping flame and eventual backflash into the mixing tube. Not good.
    – MTA
    Feb 8 at 15:09
  • @MTA that's not a hard and fast number. It's controlled by the physics of replacing the latent heat of vaporization and could easily be managed by a tank warmer. A pound of propane contains 21500 BTU (so OP's use is about that per hour) and needs to absorb 184 BTU to vaporize. Heck, 50 watts is 170 BTU/hr so very reachable by a tank warmer of sensible size. But if it isn't terribly cold it can get 184 BTU/hr passively.
    – Harper - Reinstate Monica
    Feb 8 at 20:21
  • Good point as always. Kudos on your dogged adherence to facts and figures.
    – MTA
    Feb 8 at 20:30

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