We just bought a Mini Plus B31 coffeemaker and the cord will not plug into a standard three prong outlet. Other appliance cords do plug into the same outlets.

SOURCE: Electric Dryer

If your dryer came with a 4-prong plug, do not change it. For the very reasons you quoted with the article, you may screw up the 110v accessories required of your appliance (like the clock or digital display). It is best to change the household outlet to a 4-prong type. Just make sure your wiring is correct. You will need a neutral on the 4th leg, which means you will probably have to run new wiring from the outlet to the distribution panel.

SOURCE: GE electric dyer cord

You must change the cord on the dryer. New house constuction electrical code requires a 4 prong receptical (double grounded).
You can buy a cord at Lowes, Home depo, Sears, etc. When you install the new cord there is a brass strap from the neutral post to the dryer cabinet that you must remove.The extra green wire in the cord connects to the cabinet. Your old cord probably won't be color coded, but the new one will be. Red is hot, goes on the end post, (doesn't matter whichn end). white is neutral and goes on the middle post. black is hot & goes on the other end post.& green goes to the cabinet.

SOURCE: changing four prong dryer to three prong outlet

use the ground on the machine.....There are 3 wires on the terminal block if you notice there is a grounding strap off the center post this will act as your ground to the machine back in your panel box the center post leads to ground anyway the other 2 are hot leads (240vac) use the 3 post you will be fine. you will be grounded let me know if you have any problems

SOURCE: changing cord from 3 prong to 4 prong on frigidaire dryer

The following link explains how to convert your appliance from a 3-prong to a 4-prong power cord:

http://www.fixya.com/support/r793520-3_prong_4_prong_power_cord_conversion

I hope this helps you. Let me know if you still have questions.

SOURCE: changing from a 3 prong to a four prong

Wiring in a new power cord for your electric dryer? Upgrading your electric dryer outlet from the old three-prong to the new four-prong outlet? Well, grab hold of those two large lumps at the base of your spinal cord and let's romp through the wild and wacky world of dryer cords and outlets.

These two pictures illustrate the power wiring on a the terminal of an electric dryer. The one to the left here is the old-style three-wire configuration. Most people have this type in their homes. New code changes, though, require that dryers now have a four-wire cord, shown to the right. These are just just thumbnail pictures that you can click for a larger view. But I'll bet you already figured that out, didn't you?
Besides the number of wires in each cord, there are two important things to notice. First, in the four-wire configuration, notice that the dryer's grounding strap is folded back on itself. The whole point of the four-wire cord is to separate the ground from the neutral. The green wire (the "new" extra wire in the four-wire cord) is attached to the dryer cabinet. In the three-wire configuration, the grounding strap is left intact and the neutral and ground are tied together.
If you need to re-wire the outlet, these pictures will explain the anatomy of the three-prong (left) and four-prong (right) outlets. Once again, these pictures are just thumbnails--click 'em for a larger view.

Sure hope this helps you find a resolution to your delimma! Best wishes.