220V outlet "blown"?

[Laurie]

I have an Amana dryer on a 220V 3-prong receptacle. I was turning the timer dial and suddenly there was a pop! and then nothing - there is no power at the dryer - the light doesn't even come on. I checked the fuse box and rthere were no tripped breakers, but just the same I went ahead and flipped them all off and on. Still nothing.

I have a volage sensor that detects voltage in 110V power cords, e.g. the washer cord - I presume it ought to sense it in a 220V cord, but don't really know if it works the same way on 220. If it does, there is no current in the dryer cord - which tells me it should be either the receptacle or the fuse.

Problem is, the fuse box isn't labeled, and I don't know which fuse goes to the dryer. There are 20, 40 (2-20's) and 100 (2-50's) amp (?) fuses in there - is there a standard which would indicate to me it could be attached to the dryer receptacle?

I hate to call an electrician for a simple problem, but 220V scares the crap out of me - I'm barely conversant in 110V!

TIA - Laurie

[Laurie]

I have an Amana dryer on a 220V 3-prong receptacle. I was turning the timer dial and suddenly there was a pop! and then nothing - there is no power at the dryer - the light doesn't even come on. I checked the fuse box and rthere were no tripped breakers, but just the same I went ahead and flipped them all off and on. Still nothing.

I have a volage sensor that detects voltage in 110V power cords, e.g. the washer cord - I presume it ought to sense it in a 220V cord, but don't really know if it works the same way on 220. If it does, there is no current in the dryer cord - which tells me it should be either the receptacle or the fuse.

Problem is, the fuse box isn't labeled, and I don't know which fuse goes to the dryer. There are 20, 40 (2-20's) and 100 (2-50's) amp (?) fuses in there - is there a standard which would indicate to me it could be attached to the dryer receptacle?

I hate to call an electrician for a simple problem, but 220V scares the crap out of me - I'm barely conversant in 110V!

TIA - Laurie

[Toller]

Do you have fuses or breakers, or both?

It will pick up 240v just as well as 120v; 240v is just a pair of 120vs.

First of all, label your box to avoid problems like this. It is much easier to do when things are working. A dryer is usually 30a. The 20 sounds too small, and the 50 is too big.

First thing to do is to label the circuit box. If you don't find the breaker you will have to pay an electrician to do it. Then you find out where the power ends; is the breaker bad, the cable, or the outlet.

When all is done, make sure that 50a (assuming it is the dryer) is safe and proper.

[Meat Plow]

Call an electrician before you kill yourself.

[Laurie]

Just breakers.

OK - that's good. I think I'd rather have a bad breaker than a bad dryer!

I just bought the house not too long ago - I had a list going of which breakers went where, but I didn't have the dryer id'd - at least I can eliminate some of them.

Yep - guess I will call an electrician. LOL - Meat Plow's advice, albeit a bit terse, is probably right. :-) I JUST broke down and called an electrician to hang a couple ceiling fans here last week after being totally stymied by the wall wiring (turns out it was miswired in the first place which was probably why the one fan burned out in the first place) and had hoped to avoid spending the $$ on another call on its heels. Thanks for the information and explanations!

[Laurie]

Have a problem with women do we? I'm not an idiot, but thanks for your profound advice.

[Bob]

In simple terms a 240 volt 3-wire circuit consists of two 120 volt circuits with opposite polarity. The L-shaped contact is both the neutral and ground. Measuring from there to each of the hot contacts should show 120 volts, and there should be 240 volts between the hot contacts.

The fuses or breakers for this outlet should somehow be ganged together. If cartridge fuses are used, typically the fuseholder has two fuses. Pull it out and check the fuses with an ohmmeter. Often, dryers are protected with two plug fuses in a separate enclosure with a big on-off lever on the outside.

[Laurie]

Great - that makes sense and is helpful. I will check to see what it shows.

I used the term fuse when I should have said breaker - sorry. Toller said it should be a 30a - don't have one of those, just 20's, 2-20's together (is "ganged" the right word?) and then 50's and 2-50's.

I appreciate the help. I was looking for something separate in the garage that might control the dryer circuit, but didn't see anything.

[Mark Lloyd]

Then try the others. A 240V appliance is usually on a dedicated circuit, so you should now have a breaker that doesn't control anything.

It's a good idea to get all the breakers labeled when you can. It can save a lot of work later.

[Meat Plow]

I have no problem with women but thanks for that asinine comment and introducing the gender card in this. I would tell anyone that knows as little as you do the same thing about lethal voltages.

[Terry]

If all the breakers are on, it sounds like the problem is in your dryer. Call an appliance repairman.

You can make sure with a voltage tester first.

[Laurie]

I had no intention of playing with the voltage, all I'm trying to do is decide between an electrician and a dryer repair person, and advice rather than your useless comment might have facilitated my ability to deduce the source of the problem. Fortunately others on this board have been a bit more helpful and actually increased my knowledge by sharing theirs.

[Meat Plow]

My comment was harsh but correct. You can take advice from all these nice people but I won't tell you anything but to call an electrician. That way I'll sleep at night knowing I didn't tell someone who is "barely conversant in 110V" to try to diagnose a dryer circut that failed after making popping noise.

Don't bother replying, I won't read it.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, When a breaker trips, it is not easy to find it. Usually the breaker handle is sitting in between on and off position. You reset it by turning it of and back to on. I'd find a correct breaker, reset it, and try the dryer again. If breaker trips again, most likely the problem is with the dryer. Calling an electrician of appliance repair tech, you have 50-50 chance being right. Eh=ither one can tell you if the problem belongs to the other. Do you have a multimeter? Good luck.

[Laurie]

I have one, just reading the directions on how to use it. :-) Thanks - bottom line, that's what I was trying to decide - appliance repair vs. electrician and now I feel confident enough to test the receptacle to see if it's working or not - and then call the one or the other depending on how it turns out!

[Laurie]

LOL - I was just trying to improve my odds of calling the right one first! I flipped all the breakers already and the dryer didn't come back on, so I'm thinking it's not the dryer (unless it's the pigtail which an Amana guy on an appliance group told me it is possible the pigtail can go out, although it's not common) I actually DO have a multimeter! I bought a nice little Greenlee kit when I bought this house for basic electrical - I just wasn't anxious to stick the leasds into anything OTHER than a basic electrical outlet! I'm reading the manual on it now - but I'm pretty sure I'm going with the electrician first from what I've gathered here. Thanks for the info!

[Terry]

Take your tester and try it on a regular receptacle. Put the tester on AC Volts using the highest setting you have. You should get 120V.

When you test the dryer outlet it should be 240V. If you have 240V then you should call a repairman. If you don't have 240V then call an electrician.

[Laurie]

The multimeter went up to 400V, so I did test a regular outlet first to be sure I was using the multimeter correctly - and I got 119.6 - so I was confident it was working and accurate. I got nothing at the 240V outlet - the leads are pretty short though, so I'm not 100% sure I made contact, but I'm convinced enough to go ahead and call the electrician first.

Thanks to all for the assistance and education!

[Meat Plow]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!

After all your insults to me you finally saw the light.

[mm]

In this line you refer to voltage, twice.

In this line, you refer to current. Which one do you mean?

Which one is the sensor supposed to sense? There are different kinds of sensors.

Did you know that you can have voltage without current?

You still don't know if the problem is in the dryer, the breaker, or the wiring.

Do you have a voltmeter or a multimeter with an AC voltage range of

250 volts or more? Can you unplug the dryer? Can you move the dryer and then, without touching anything metal, unplug the dryer and put the 2 meter probes into the slots of the dryer receptacle and see if any pair of two slots shows 220 to 240 volts AC?

If you get 220, then you know there is a problem in the dryer.

If you get 220 nowhere, then put the two probes into the two slots of a 110 receptacle and see if the meter reads 110. If it does, then you know that you don't have 220 coming from the wall. If it doesn't, you have a bad meter or it is not set by you to measure 220V AC.

You have two 20's, but you don't have a 40. First because no one would call two 20's on the same circuit a 40, and second because it will trip if you go over 20 amps. The same 20 amps goes through both breakers.

Because all the full size dryers are 220, it's one of the doubles.

It seems here like you do want to fix it yourself.

Meat Plow wrote:

You wrote:

He said nothing about women. You're new here, aren't you? How do you know he doesn't treat everyone this way?

Plus you started it when you said that 220v scares the crap out of you, plus the mistakes you made in the description of the problem. I don't mind feminism or whatever, but crying anti-woman for no good reason discredits feminisim or whatever, and it's like crying wolf. When there is a real femininist or whatever issue, no one will take you seriously.

Why did you play the gender card for no reason?