NEED HELP!!! Having problems with dryer/amps to dryer I think....

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Kristen1982

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Ok let me start at the beginning. I had a dryer that I could start by lifting the top to see the barrel I would have to hold the start button in and push the barrel around and then it would start after a little bit of help and dry the clothes just fine after it was going. I decided to buy a new dryer to avoid having to do all that to dry my clothes at home. (thought was going to be simple fix) After getting new dryer home it didn't work at all call Sears and finally arranged to switch out for another dryer. Got it home plug it up and it started and ran with no clothes and only would start with one towel that had been air drying for almost 24 hours.
So I decided I'd go ahead and replace the wire going from my breaker box to the outlet just to ensure it was the correct 10-2 wire. This did not fix the problem. I replaced the breaker nothing new. I replaced the power cord and outlet, still nothing. Asked power company to come check incoming power was told was fine. So I replaced the whole breaker box and all breakers, still nothing new. Replaced the outside main breaker, still nothing new. I get 248/249 v at the outlet for the dryer but it still will not dry more than one towel.
I have no idea what else could be my problem
Thank you so much for any help.....
 

Stuff

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Whomever is able to replace an outside main breaker and breaker box should be experienced enough to fix a dryer. Get them in to sort it out.

Normal dryer feed in the US is not 10-2 but 10-3. As you touched the wire everything should be changed to 14-30 plug and receptacles. Once wired properly your dryer will work.
 
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So I decided I'd go ahead and replace the wire going from my breaker box to the outlet just to ensure it was the correct 10-2 wire.
You wasted a lot of time and money changing breaker boxes for nothing. A call to a licensed professional would have helped here.

Your problem is the 10-2 wire. That only gives you one hot and one neutral.

Dryers NEED two hots and a neutral, which can ONLY come from a 10-3 wire.
 

Kristen1982

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Ok I may have said that wire wrong, it has two two wires and a ground. The outlet is getting 248/249 volts.
 

Kristen1982

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Whomever is able to replace an outside main breaker and breaker box should be experienced enough to fix a dryer. Get them in to sort it out.

Normal dryer feed in the US is not 10-2 but 10-3. As you touched the wire everything should be changed to 14-30 plug and receptacles. Once wired properly your dryer will work.
They think it is a problem with amps coming in the house. Ameren is saying no but they have only tested volts when they came out the second time and it shows enough volts and has from the beginning. I'm trying to come up with ideas before I call Ameren back out for the 3rd time.
 

DonL

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Ok I may have said that wire wrong, it has two two wires and a ground. The outlet is getting 248/249 volts.

It should have 3 wires and a ground.

The Motor runs on 120V so it needs a neutral.

Good Luck.
 

Kristen1982

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It should have 3 wires and a ground.

The Motor runs on 120V so it needs a neutral.

Good Luck.


Ok thank you I'll have that done I think the kid they sent me was new :/ I guess the plus side is now I have a new bigger box and all new breakers so I should be set for a long time, the old box was from the 70's!

Thank you again so much!!!
 

Reach4

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I would measure the voltage while drying. If you don't want to get into the insides of the breaker panel, you can still use a voltmeter while the dryer is drying. One thing you can do is check the voltage at various 120 volt outlets in the house. If you add together the highest and lowest readings, and you know that your power to the box is at least that voltage. For example, if you measured 117 and 122, you would know there is at least 239.5 volts at the box. In fact, probably you can get pretty close by just measuring one outlet and doubling that voltage.

You can get a multimeter with an AC voltage function for under $20. You shove the two probes into the slots that are a half inch apart. Usually you can insert the probes enough, although the typical meter probe is wider than the blade of a plug. If you cannot get the probes in, you could put a 2-wire plug half way in, and carefully measure the voltage between the blades. You might need a second person to read the meter while you are handling the probes.

You know not to touch any of the metal with your fingers while doing this, I hope.

There are further voltage measurements that could be done, but they are not as simple to do.
 

Reach4

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Again.

Your problem is the 10-2 wire. That only gives you one hot and one neutral.

Dryers NEED two hots and a neutral, which can ONLY come from a 10-3 wire.
I see now what you are saying -- that the symptoms could indeed be that the dryer is only getting 120 VAC. Yep... that fits. I was thinking that two hots were run.

There is really no reason that an electric dryer would be have to be designed to need a neutral. I think you are saying that while they did not have to do so, they did. Certainly those in many other countries have electric dryers that are purely 24o VAC.
 

Jadnashua

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Some devices do not need a neutral, so to get the 240vac, they must have connected the two wires to the circuit breaker. But, as was said, you NEED 120vac at the dryer (unless it's very unusual), and that requires neutral. TO be up to code you need 4-wires in the supply cable and a four slot receptacle (you used to be able to use a 3-prong plug without ground): L1, L2, Neutral, Ground are ALL required for a typical USA electrical dryer to work properly. The plug is typically rated at 50A, so that would require larger wire than 10g to pass code.
 
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There is really no reason that an electric dryer would be have to be designed to need a neutral. I think you are saying that while they did not have to do so, they did. Certainly those in many other countries have electric dryers that are purely 24o VAC.

10-3 wire has 4 copper conductors. Hot, hot, neutral, ground.

Dryer's timer and motor and all other mechanisms operate on 120V that it gets from the hot-neutral.

Dryer's heating element runs on 240V that it gets from the hot-hot, and is the only thing that uses 240V.

Appliances made for export are 220V, not 240V. National and export appliances are not interchangable, despite all the unsafe hacks out there.

So when is a 10-2 wire used in a 240V hot-hot situation? Room electric heaters.
 

Widgit Maker

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You have an amperage problem, not a voltage problem. As you stated you have 240 volts (nominal) at the dryer outlet. You have two 120 volt lines and a neutral coming into your house. The two hots are in opposite halves of the cycle. In other words when one line is 120v positive the other is 120v negative. That gives you a 240 volts difference. One of the incoming lines is connected half of the breaker slots and the other is connected to the other half of the breaker. Look at your panel. Breakers 1,3,5,7, etc. are on the left. Breakers 2,4,6,8,etc. are on the right.
One of the incoming legs is connected to 1 and 2, 5 and 6, etc. The other leg is connected to 3 and 4, 7 and 8, etc.
When you put in a double breaker (slots 1 and 3, or 2 and 4 ,etc) you automatically connect to both legs coming into the panel giving you 240 volts.
You have the voltage, you just don't have the amperage. That is a power company problem. Can't be your equipment because you have replaced (unnecessarily).
There should be other signs of low amperage such as lights that dim when something is plugged in, outlets that don't work, other 240 volt appliances that don't work, etc.

Purchase an amp probe. That is the device you use to measure the amperage on a line. You clamp it around a line or conductor and it will show you the amperage draw on that conductor. You clamp it around one hot conductor only, not the hot and the neutral. An am probe works by measuring the magnetic field around the conductor. A hot and a neutral cancel each other out. So do two hots in opposite phases.

Measure the amperage on each of the dryer hots (with dryer running). You can do this at the breaker panel. You can also measure the amperage on the hots between the outside disconnect and the panel. This will tell you which leg is faulty.

Then call power company back and show them. It is a little unbelievable that this wasn't check on your first call to them.
amprobe.jpg
 
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Widgit Maker

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When you measure voltage you are measuring the difference in voltage between two conductors. The voltage difference between two hot conductors is 240 volts. The difference between one hot and the neutral/ground is 120 volts. The circuit for the 120v components of a dryer (if there are any) is between one of the hot conductors and the neutral/ground. This is true irrespective of whether the cable is a two conductor (3 wire) cable or a 3 conductor (4 wire cable).
This is an amperage problem.
 
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DonL

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There is really no reason that an electric dryer would be have to be designed to need a neutral. I think you are saying that while they did not have to do so, they did. Certainly those in many other countries have electric dryers that are purely 24o VAC.

This is how most of the dryers that run on 60 Hz are wired.
ge-newelec-diagram.JPG


The ground wire must be used for the neutral now ?, But the ground wire is smaller / Has more voltage drop, And is not allowed to be a current carrying conductor to meet Code.
 

hj

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This is such a screwed up posting that it is almost impossible to find good advice among the garbage. ANYONE who did all this person said he did because a dryer was not working, has too much time AND money on his hands. ANY competent person would have diagnosed the problem in about 10 minutes. I.e., Does it have 120/240 volts? If it runs are the elements drawing the proper amperage, period. If both things are true the dryer is working and drying the clothes. How does the dryer know if the drum has a single towel or a full load?
 
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