Dryer on the fritz.. wiring problem?

cisco10

Hey guys, new to the forum but looks awesome.
My proble is as follows. Just moved into a new home (actually a 100 year old building) All Electrical has been recently updated however. I brought with me my washer dryer combination which runs off a 3 prong 220 cable and luckily there was already one installed. I tried plugging the dryer in and for some reason it seems like its not getting enough power. i ran a 2 wire tester at the outlet as well as at the terminals attached to the dryer and they both read 220. is it most likely something wrong with the dryer or could it be something with the wiring?? im no sure but i think they ran the 220 using !4 gauge wiring. even though it still reads 220 at the outlet could that be something that affects the dryer?? any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

JGarth

Your information is really contradictory.
Even if the recepatcle was only 115v servicing a laundry area ... it would be #12 Cu by code.
Please have a knowledgeable person provide new information.

cisco10

Wow.. seriously?
What part of that was contradictory?
First of all where did you even get that the receptacle was 115? i stated it was a 220 dryer receptacle with 3 prongs and secondly how do you assume that all electrical work is done to code?. There appears to be 14 gauge wiring coming out of the 220 30 amp breaker which i will replace with 10/3 but for the time being it still reading at 220 at the outlet so i was asking if that would affect teh dryer. Next time have a more knowledgable person read my posts...

Stubbie

Hello cisco

A three prong dryer receptacle is a nema 10-30R it looks like this....



Look right to you? the terminal marked w is the neutral the two diagonal (Y & X) slots are the hots. You should have 240 volts between y & x and 120 volts from X to W and Y to W

Is that what you are getting?

You can test for voltage with the 14 awg but it won't get it when operating the dryer. This is a real fire hazard if on a 30 amp breaker.

stubbie

cisco10

hey stubbie. yes that is exactly what i am getting. I took the receptacle apart just to double check the wiring and it does look like 14 gauge copper wiring. Although that would need to be replaced that wouldnt be whats making the dryer act funky right?
I also checked the voltage at the terminals behind the dryer itself and it showed 220.

Stubbie

What exactly is the dryer doing? It is not wise to run that dryer on the 14 awg... if it is 14 awg... on a 30 amp breaker your going to have a fire. Too much resistance to the current flow demands of the dryer, it will not work properly. I suggest you get the 10/3 then see what happens.


What about the washer...does it work ok?

stubbie

cisco10

It acts exactly like what you described, as if there is not enough current reaching it. So it does not matter that there are 220 volts getting to the dryer since there is a lot of resistance, correct? I tried turning the washer on just now to see what would happen and all it seems to do is draw even more current away from the dryer. (Where i would normally get the buzzer to at least make a noise, with the washer going i get nothing)
The dryer only seems to work semi-normally if i set the washer knob to a certain setting for some reason. im going to pick up some 10/3 tomorrow and swap it out, hopefully that will fix the problem thanks stubbie.

Stubbie

With the dryer turned off your washer should work on 14 awg as it is a much smaller 120 volt motor load not a high amp 240 volt resistive load. If the washer does not work with the dryer off then you have some issue with the appliance. But whoever installed this circuit was an idiot or he was serving an low duty cycle arc welder and jerry rigging the receptacle.

So get the 10/3 and post back when you have it installed with the results.

Stubbie

Stubbie

Don't forget you will be going from a 3 wire to a 4 wire so you need to remove the bonding strap or ground wire from the neutral terminal of the dryer. Then connect the new 4 wire power cord. The green will go to the frame not the center neutral terminal,.... should be a green screw on the metal frame somewhere close to the wiring terminals put the green of the power cord there. On some stacked washer/dryers there will be a wire (green or green with yellow stripe) that goes from the neutral terminal to the upper cabinet on 3 wire connections. You need to move this wire to the green screw with the power cord green. DO NOT REMOVE THE SMALL WHITE WIRE FROM THE NEUTRAL TERMINAL.

Stubbie

boman47k

Why would the dryer running affect the washer? Someone branched off one side of the dryer circuit?! Unbalanced load at the panel? Hope this is not indicative of how the wiring was updated. You may want to have someone check the updating.

HouseHelper

Read the original post: this is a washer/dryer combination unit that works off a single 220 source.

JGarth

You stated it was recently updated ... I assumed it was by a licenced contractor with permits and inspection. If not, why bother with that statement bogus statement.
And as I noted in the 115v portion of my initial response ... "EVEN" if it was 115v...it would be #12 by code, not that it was a 115v ckt.

Stubbie

Cisco

In hindsight... I should have said don't run anything until you get a proper dryer circuit installed. If this original wire was 14 awg on a 30 amp breaker it is just too dangerous to fool around with the washer/dryer combo.

Also you are going to have to get in the panel to run the 10/3 G be sure you know what the heck you are doing and do not work with the panel live. This does not mean just turn the breaker for the dryer off.

Stubbie

cisco10

Hey Stubbie. I changed the wiring to 10 gaugue wiring and i pretty much followed all the steps. For some reason now though i am getting 220 out of all outlet terminals (220 even between x and w, y and w on the 10-30R) what could i be doing wrong? Both the neutrals and grounds go to the same buss on my panel could that be an issue? i dont think it would since i was getting proper readings when it was wired with 14 gauge..

I should also point out its connected to a 2 pole 30 amp breaker and even with only one hot cable connected to it it reads 220 between it and the neutral wire.
Could it be something wrong with the breaker?

Stubbie

Turn that breaker off for now. Do you have any other double pole breakers in the panel? If so what do they test from each lug of the breaker to the panel neutral bar? Something is not adding up and this may not be something you should be fooling with.

Stubbie