3 wire dryer receptacle failure shocks customer

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K8MHZ

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Got a complaint that a customer got shocked while plugging in an electric dryer. The cord was all plastic and the customer had one hand on the dryer and the other touching only the plastic cord.

I checked the cord, it was old but no way could it conduct electricity through the insulation. I even took my megger and checked it.

Then, I pulled the cover of the 3 wire receptacle off. All the metal inside was totally rusted as the results of a flood many years ago. The rust had weakened the neutral clip and it opened up so no connection was made to the plug when it got plugged in.

As it should be, the dryer had the neutral bonded to the frame.

When the customer plugged the dryer in, the hot found a path through the load and to the unconnected neutral, energizing the frame of the dryer. This was in a basement with a wet floor so the customer was now making the connection from the load side of the neutral to the ground.

This is just a heads up for anyone hooking up a 3 wire dryer. From now on, I am always going to take a look inside the receptacle before I plug in anything with a three wire neutral-EGC bonded device.
 
K8MHZ said:
Got a complaint that a customer got shocked while plugging in an electric dryer. The cord was all plastic and the customer had one hand on the dryer and the other touching only the plastic cord.

I checked the cord, it was old but no way could it conduct electricity through the insulation. I even took my megger and checked it.

Then, I pulled the cover of the 3 wire receptacle off. All the metal inside was totally rusted as the results of a flood many years ago. The rust had weakened the neutral clip and it opened up so no connection was made to the plug when it got plugged in.

As it should be, the dryer had the neutral bonded to the frame.

When the customer plugged the dryer in, the hot found a path through the load and to the unconnected neutral, energizing the frame of the dryer. This was in a basement with a wet floor so the customer was now making the connection from the load side of the neutral to the ground.

This is just a heads up for anyone hooking up a 3 wire dryer. From now on, I am always going to take a look inside the receptacle before I plug in anything with a three wire neutral-EGC bonded device.
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Agreed! We all have said at one time or other " Never believe the customer " but in this case it is better to believe the customer.
 
stevebea said:
Yeah, you could have asked him but I doubt if he would cooperated. He probably would have said " have at it, see for yourself ".;)
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Oh, my how you underestimate me. :cool:

Since I knew I was about to get a little zap (hey, it didn't kill the customer) I would have faked like I didn't get a shock and then ask for a demonstration.

The same tactic works on those novelty lighters that shock you when you try to light them. Just fake like you weren't getting a shock and hand it back to the person that gave it to you.

Scoundrel, ain't I?

;)
 
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