Sounds as though the drive belt broke on your dryer, this will release a switch and you will get those symtoms. You should have a small access panel on the rear that when removed will alow you to see the works. Jesse
It was never about if I should call someone, it was who I should call. Now I feel as though I'm making a more educated decision rather than just blindly following your advice, however right it may (or may not) be.
I prefer to use usenet to exchange information, educating and learning as I go. You obviously use it for something else.
Thanks Jesse - I'm sure I have the booklet for the dryer around somewhere or can find it online. I'll look into that drive belt!
It is a voltage sensor.
Apparently not! ;-)
Rats. Just when I was thinking I was moving ahead here...
Yes, it was a multimeter with a 400v range - see my post to Terry at 9:34 - that was exactly what I did (and thank you for the very elementary explanation - when I'm learning something new that there's nothing at all wrong with as many single syllable words as possible in the explanation! :-))
OK - thanks - I'm learning as I go, which would be why I put the question mark to indicate my uncertainty. That would be a whole 'nother thread if I asked why use two 20 amp breakers if the same 20 amps goes through both! :-)
That's kind of what I figured...
I was trying to decide if I wanted to call an electrician or if it was on the dryer side (might have tried to fix a dryer problem if I had some idea where to start).
I am new here, but no usenet newbie, and I did look through history to see who he replied to and how. His posts appeared to be generally terse but respectful, occasionally informative, unlike his response to me.
I rarely use the gender card. I have no problem declaring my ignorance in things electrical but lately have been learning some basics for a few repairs such as replacing light fixtures, outlets and switches without having to call in an electrician. That was why I came here - to ask for new information, which I received. Ignorance in posting cries out for education, which you and others went ahead and provided and I appreciate.
I felt there was sufficient indication to play the gender card as IMO it seemed the most logical explanation for the reply.
You are doing fine. You may be right that the probes don't reach the contacts in the outlet. But you also used a voltage tester. If the voltage tester detects on the cord of another piece of equipment (it works), but not on the dryer cord, the circuit is probably dead. Sometimes you have to push a circuit breaker handle fairly hard to the off position to reset it. The question remains what produced the "pop" and why the circuit is dead (if it is dead).
-- bud--
I saw that later.
That might even have been before I posted, but like most people, I retrieve usenet posts in batch, so that it can be a while after retrieving before I read a post, and longer to repply, during which there are new posts I ahven't retrieved yet.I can be finishing a post
Not always repsectful. I even had him plonked for a few weeks. (The only one I can remember unplonking.)
Nope. He said nothing about women. And there are lots of people here who tell people to call electricians, often rudely, male or female. It depends on a lot of things, including how they ask the questions.
Even if perchance you were right, it looks like you weren't.
My curious mind would like to hear what the electrician finds and/or corrects if you do call him/her in.
The fact that in your OP you said you heard that "pop" noise while you were turning the dryer dial makes me lean in the direction of thinking something went west inside the dryer.
On the off chance that you didn't get a voltmeter measurement because both of your voltmeter probes didn't touch the female contacts when you tested for voltage at the socket (because perhaps they were too short) you might try this:
Pluc the dryer cord into the socket but leave it about 1/8 inch shy of fully in and then see if you can SAFELY touch the two unbent male plug blades with the voltmeter probes. If you can, and your meter still doesn''t indicate that there's approximately 220 volts then call the electrician. If you do measure 220 volts call an appliance repairman or consider checking the price of a new dryer if yours is more than a few years old.
And fer gosh sakes, please don't get set off by my using the industry standard gender specific terms for plug and socket contacts.
HTH,
Jeff
That's actually a pretty subtle side effect of the way that North American single-phase circuits are wired.
On a 120 V circuit, you have "hot" and "neutral" wires. The difference between these is that the "neutral" one is connected to ground at some point, and will be at the same voltage as ground when no current is flowing. The current in the "hot" wire is monitored by the circuit breaker, and if it trips, then there should be no voltage present in the circuit at all. So a single breaker is enough.
In Europe, electricity is supplied as 220-240V with two wires (not counting ground), and one end of the transformer secondary is connected to ground. So again there are "hot" and "neutral" wires to each load, and only a single-pole circuit breaker is needed to protect each circuit in their 240 V system.
But North America doesn't do this. We use 120 V for small appliances and 240 V for large ones, and in order to supply both voltages the transformer on the pole is center-tapped. There is 240 V across the whole winding, and 120 V from either end to the centre. For reasons that have to do with both safety and reducing the amount of copper needed, the *centre* of the transformer is grounded, and your house is supplied with two "hot" wires plus a neutral. Each hot is 120 V to neutral, but there is 240 V between the two hot wires.
Your dryer may be a pure 240 V type, in which case it uses the 240 V connection (hot to hot) only, without using neutral at all. In that case, exactly the same current flows through both sides of your dual breaker, and you really need only one side to protect against excess current drawn in the load.
However, that's not the only way to get excess current - you could have a short circuit. Since both "hot" wires are at 120 V to neutral and ground, you can get a short circuit from either hot to ground/neutral. If only one hot wire was protected by a breaker, you would have no protection against shorts from the other side to ground. You really need two circuit breakers to protect two hot wires.
In addition, the two breakers are connected so what when one trips, the other one shuts off as well. This is for safety - to ensure that there is no voltage present at all when there is a tripped breaker. Shutting off just one side would not be safe.
Dave
All this is interesting and accurate, but I am sure it is way more than the OP wants to know. :)
LOL, more insults on a now moot point.
LOL - I'd rather be overeducated than under, so I'll gratefully accept the information, although admittedly this is one I'm going to have to print out and read several more times before I get it! :-D
Thanks Dave - LOTS of good info in there that I'm sure answers my question - but I'm going to have to get out my "idiots guide to electricity" and refer to it as I read! ;-) Seriously though, I get the general drift of it and really appreciate the explanation, which I am going to print out and think on!
He's coming in tomorrow afternoon, and I'm really interested as well!
I would think so too, but it just seems weird that nothing would work (i.e. the light in the dryer) - but a friend at the office suggested I change out the bulb just to make sure I didn't fry the light bulb. Duh - that is kind of a basic thing I should've thought of!! I wish I knew where the pop sound really came from - it all happened a little quickly and I just *knew* it was a Bad Thing.
Great idea! I was able to do that, and there was still no reading whatsoever, so it looks again like the electrician is the right call! Yeah!
ROFL - I spent 25+ years in the computer tech industry and still remember blushing furiously and the raucous laughter that followed the explanation to my oh-so-innocent question as to how you could tell the male end of the cable from the female end...
Hehehe - it was only a few years later I was teaching tech classes and giving definitions of Reliability, Availability and Serviceability in a way that STILL make me blush!
ANYway - I'll let you know what the electrician says tomorrow.
Yikes, don't I know it now! The electrician will have his challenge I think!
I didn't think of that - I wasn't trying to be ugly - just figured you might have looked past that one depending on how you viewed messages. :-) But good point!
*g* well, admittedly, I didn't go back all that far - this is a very active group, which is pretty cool. In any case - unblocking someone takes a lot more than to block them in the first place, so that says something...Well, most gender-biased individuals don't outright state it, and there's really no way to know for sure. However, if I was wrong and Meat Plow
*doesn't* carry a gender bias, I apologize (he and the regulars here would know) and change my original reply to his post to "thank you for your opinion". ;-)
Thanks - I'm just jazzed to have, with help, figured out how to use some of these things to troubleshoot the problem a bit! After all this I'm really looking forward to the electrician coming out and (I hope) solving a few mysteries.
I really hope the dryer is still okay - I LOVE this dryer and while it IS about 8 years old, it was designated "commercial grade" and aside from a drum problem I had someone out for about 3 years ago, it's been great - I figured it had several more years left. We'll see!
When I was in the 8th grade, there was a girl in our Health and Safety class who just couldn't understand why a boy and a girl couldn't be identical twins.
I guess if you dress them alike and do their hair the same, they do look the same.
For some perverse reasons, just about ALL dryers use the neutral to power the motor that drives and drum and the timer motor. Compared to the two HOT wires, the neutral carries little current.
If your only tool is a hammer, most problems look like nails. Thus, you might want to un-plug the dryer and see whether 2 or the 3 slots are "live."
The next test of the outlet is to connect a lamp (so that there is a small load) between the neutral and one of the "HOTS."
If the outlet has juice, the problem is inside the dryer. If the dryer is more than 7 years old just get a new one. There is a small chance that the neutral connection or one of the other small guage wires in the dryer got loose. It will be quite obvious as the wire will be burned.
If you trust you skills, repair/replace the burned wires, but everything back together and see if it works.
Key Word: dress! ;-)
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