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NEMA 10-30 Extension Cord

I just purchased an NEMA 10-30 extension cord with the intention of occasionally charging from a dryer connection at a friend's house. The dryer is located close to the garage, but not quite close enough to reach it with the mobile charger cord. Without it, I am reduced to plugging into 110v with the 12+ hours charging time message. I normally charge in my garage with a NEMA 14-50 plug without an extension cord.

Does anyone have experience with charging from a dryer connection using an extension cord?

do you have a link for the 10-30 extension cord ?

I wouldn't call it an extension cord, but before Tesla made the 10-30 adapter I made my own, which effectively added 6' to the cable. No problems at all, and as long as the cord was rated for dryer use I wouldn't expect a problem.

I haven't ever seen a dryer extension cord -- where did you find it?

I found this one on ebay, but there are others:

Note that L6-30 is not a dryer plug, but is usually used with generators.

I would love a NEMA 10-30 extension cord; I have never found one!

It is also not that hard to make one IF you feel confident in doing the electrical connections yourself. You can buy everything you need at Home Depot/Lowes and make it any length you want. The longer the length though the larger the wire guage needs to be.

Here are links to Amazon for

Camco 30amp extension cord:

or 50amp

These are 30 ft long, other lengths are available.
Wouldn't one of these work? Don't see any reason why not, as long as the wires are appropriate size and they certainly appear to be. These cords are heavy!

@imherkimer - those are both 120V/30A plugs, and are not NEMA 10-30 plugs. It really isn't hard to match up the right ends, but I don't believe you will ever find them pre-made. How many people need to put their dryer 50' away from the dryer outlet? You *can* find NEMA 14-50 extension cords, as they are used by RVs -- that is why some people still made their own 14-50 => 10-30/14-30 adapters even after the official ones were available, since they could then use an extension cord.

Here is a link to the cord I purchased:

No problems so far using this with the Tesla mobile connector instead of a charging station.

Cool - first time I've seen such an extension cord. I also liked their product that converts two 120V receptacles into a 240V receptacle. A bit pricey but it looks like it'll do the job:

I have a similar scenario, but I built my cord to have a 10-30 male that converts to a 14-50 female. It cost about 50 bucks in parts and it is about 8 ft long. Works great. Pulls a steady 30 amp charge about 18m/h.

Thats the first time I have seen a true 10-30 extension cord. The parts used to build the cord seem to be good so I would assume it should work for you.


I just found a great web site for Tesla adapters.

I ordered a 10-30 to 14-50 adapter. I already have a long Camco 14-50 extension cord I bought at Amazon, so this combo should allow me to use friends' dryer plugs when I travel. I hope this helps others on this thread.

@jayfrost - you should not be charging at 30A off a 10-30 receptacle -- charging is considered a continuous load (>3 hours), so you have to derate everything by 25%. Otherwise, you risk heat buildup in the house wiring causing problems or tripping the breaker. This is why the car automatically switches to 24A when you use a Tesla 10-30 or 14-30 adapter.

I wouldn't touch that "joiner" with a 10 foot pole. But an extension cord is a reasonable thing to do. Just get the parts, it's very easy. Make sure it's the same type connector at both ends, and get the right plug on the charger cable. An "adapter" that lets you plug in a plug for higher than the circuit rating is a very bad idea, not to mention a code violation. If you're lucky it will pop the breaker; if you're unlucky, things will overheat.

@Paul Koning - as long as you tell the car to charge at the right amount, it should be fine -- of course, that leaves open the case of operator error.

Helpful. I'll remember to charge off the 10-30 at 24 amps. Thanks.

That EVSE site is great, I'm glad someone is selling that stuff. I wish Tesla would provide more adapters (and make enough to keep their current adapters in stock!). Making your own adapters is also fairly easy, and here's a document that explains how to. Enjoy!

I received the 10-30 tp 14-50 adapter Thursday from evseadapters and it has a big sticker on it reminding you to charge at only 24 amps. That proves to me that both the manufacturer and thread participants know what they are doing, good on ya.

We need an OEM manufacturer start-up to build all these things for us. Any electricians/engineers out there interested?! Elon 2.0!

Final follow up from me. While travelling recently, I used the adapter to plug in to dryer plugs, connected the adapter to a camco 50 amp extension cord, then into my Tesla cable and into the car. I was carefull to set the charging amps to 24 at each new plug. After that, the car remembered the location and amperage. It all worked flawlessly and gave about 18 miles of range per hour of charging.

This system was vastly preferable to asking someone to give me rides to RV parks or public chargers, since if the charger is 20 minutes away, you need 2 twenty minute rides for both drop-off and pick-up. Less of an issue if the charger is close, but it is great to start each day fully charged from wherever you're staying.

We ran 25' of 6-3 w/ground, 4-wire copper (black sheathed cable) directly from the service off a 50-amp breaker (Lowe's) to an exterior NEMA 14-50 weatherproof, lockable RV power outlet. (Connecticut Electric, #PS-54-HR...Amazon order). Using a 30' Camco 50-amp power grip extension cord with Tesla's provided UMC. Not a bit of a problem with thirty-feet of extension + 20' UMC w/NEMA 14-50 adapter. Electrician says he doesn't worry about resistance issues unless he's running 200' or more off the service. Tesla will tell you that while aware that some folks have done this successfully, they can't recommend it. And who can fault Tesla Motors for saying that in todays litigious environment? Electrical bill (incl. 50A DP breaker, 3/4" PVC LP, TA–all but 6-3 wire, box, and extension cord) was $300. Hope this info helps; no need to cut the extension cord shorter and splice!

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