Clothes dryer destroying breaker?

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G

GG

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Ft.Worth, T.X.
I have a HO who is on their 3rd clothes dryer. The appliance co. keeps giving her a new dryer and every time it ends up dropping one of the legs on a 2 pole / 30 amp breaker. The HO turned their dryer on and it ran for 6 hours until they realized something was wrong. I went back out to their house and the new GE 2 pole / 30 amp breaker, I had put in, had only 120 V. The day before It had 240 V acrross each leg and 120 V between each leg and ground. The breaker had not tripped. There were no signs of overheating on either wire. The dryer receptacle looked brand new, and also had no signs of overheating. Each time they install a new dryer and breaker they always end up losing a leg. The appliance guy is pointing the finger at the electrical circuit, and now the HO wants to install a new circuit. I dont see this as the problem. What could be causing this? This is a new dryer and Im guessing the appliance man is changing the 4 prong plug to a 3 prong as the receptacle is a 3 prong. I never checked to see if when he is doing this he has a bonding strap at the dryer between the neutral and ground. I dont know if this could cause this problem or not. Any ideas?
 
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GG said:
I went back out to their house and the new GE 2 pole / 30 amp breaker, I had put in, had only 120 V. The day before It had 240 V acrross each leg and 120 V between each leg and ground. The breaker had not tripped.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you did but have to ask, you checked the buss bar and breaker contacts?
 
chris kennedy said:
I'm sure you did but have to ask, you checked the buss bar and breaker contacts?
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Ditto.

If they're losing a leg, it's absolutely related to the circuit. It's up to you to find out where. The breaker/buss interface is normally the first suspect in a plug-on panel.
 
chris kennedy said:
I'm sure you did but have to ask, you checked the buss bar and breaker contacts?
Click to expand...
Yes, the panel was in great condition. I tightened all of the wires in the panel when I was there the 1st time, and none were even that loose. The wires are all copper. The breaker was making good contact with the buss. Also none of the other 2 pole breakers are having any problems that feed the water heater, oven, A/C equipment, etc. I even moved the dryer breaker to another location and I still got the smae results a day later.
 
mdshunk said:
Ditto.

If they're losing a leg, it's absolutely related to the circuit. It's up to you to find out where. The breaker/buss interface is normally the first suspect in a plug-on panel.
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I have 2 places to look for a problem. (1) The outlet - looks brand new, no burnt wires, all of the wires are under each respective screw and tight , and (2) the breaker buss - looks great and the breaker is brand new.
 
GG said:
I have 2 places to look for a problem. The outlet - looks brand new and no burnt wires, and the breaker buss - looks great and the breaker is brand new.
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Then you havn't looked in the right place yet. If this was just one dryer with a problem, I'd say the appliance guy is goofy. Since they've been through three dryers with the same issue (apparently), I'd say you havn't found the problem yet. If you happen to have a recording volt meter, that would be worth a shot. If it was me, I'd run a new dryer cable, install a new rec, pop in a new breaker, and never think about this again.
 
Could there be a splice in the dryer branch circuit with a loose leg under the house or in the attic. Maybe even behind the walls.

Are you getting 220V when there is no load and 120 when there is a load?
 
If you narrowed it down to just the dryer being the circuit with the problem. Check the hook up the installer did with the cord. and then check the receptacle hook up and connections.
 
Dennis Alwon said:
Could there be a splice in the dryer branch circuit with a loose leg under the house or in the attic. Maybe even behind the walls.

Are you getting 220V when there is no load and 120 when there is a load?
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2 times now I have been there and watched the new dryers run for 20 minutes, they always pull 22 amps, and the voltage never changes from 240. Its not until the next day that I get a call saying that the breaker has gone out again.
 
The HO thought it could be the dryer vent is clogged up, however I cannot access the vent as the attic is too narrow to reach it. I know from my own house that when I moved in the dryer vent was 100% clogged and my dryer never had this problem, it just didnt dry the clothes.
 
Maybe just a bad breaker? Can you swap the wiring to the water heater breaker, if it's 30amp? See if that works. This sounds crazy. There's not much on your end. You have a breaker, wire, and a receptacle. Not much to go wrong on your end.
 
yanici said:
Maybe just a bad breaker? Can you swap the wiring to the water heater breaker, if it's 30amp? See if that works. This sounds crazy. There's not much on your end. You have a breaker, wire, and a receptacle. Not much to go wrong on your end.
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I did just what you proposed with the water heater breaker and it got zapped to. This is very weird.
 
mdshunk said:
Then you havn't looked in the right place yet. If this was just one dryer with a problem, I'd say the appliance guy is goofy. Since they've been through three dryers with the same issue (apparently), I'd say you havn't found the problem yet. If you happen to have a recording volt meter, that would be worth a shot. If it was me, I'd run a new dryer cable, install a new rec, pop in a new breaker, and never think about this again.
Click to expand...

Ditto. replace the dryer wiring with 10/3, recp, breaker and upgrade the cord. Done
 
Agreed.....I would probably just replace it but I would have to ask....Did you do any testing on the cable to the dryer itself.....test it with an ohm meter to see what kinda of readings you get....

But in the end...you gotta figure at the cost of 2-3 days troubleshooting, if the task is not too much trouble I would just replace the line and be done with it.
 
1. Meg the circuit.
2. Perform a FOP test across all portions of the circuit to include the CB line bus to load, heck remove the dryer back and measure to there.
3. Perform a complete visual inspection. Fom Meter to point of use.
4. When you install a new CB do the FOP again on this new CB.

From a previous post.

Fall of Potential test (FOP)

With any electrical procedures that involve making measurements with energized conductors care must be taken and proper PPE must be worn

Fall of potential is a measurement of voltage drop (VD), in a circuit that is the voltage lost to heating due to resistance in the circuit. To perform this test one measures voltage from the line side connections to the load side connections, the readings are typically in the millivolts range and require load.

For example with a 3-phase Circuit Breaker that is nuisance tripping, measure current (balance loads are beneficial but not necessary), then measure from the line bus to the load conductors (if bare conductor is exposed), for all three phases. If one phase has a higher that average millivolts reading, then try to isolate this issue. Measure from line bus to the Circuit Breaker bus stab, if all 3-phases have millivolts readings that are the same (or close to the same) measure from the bus stab to the load side conductor termination connector (through the Circuit Breaker), if all these readings are close, next take measurements from the load side termination connector to the load conductor. In this case you can determine if it is a line bus connection issue, bad Circuit Breaker or a load conductor termination issue. Any accessible portion of the device can be tested in this method.

.
Click to expand...
 
This may sound a little out in left field "BUT"are you sure it is a NEW dryer? Not the same dryer getting repaired and reinstalled. I say this because I have seen it happen. If you have no doubt that it is a new dryer I would 1)megger the line 2) run a new line 3) run a gas line and get a gas dryer just so I wouldn't have to go there again.
 
if it took out a working breaker you definitely have
a appliance problem. check the cord connector some
of those gorillas over tighten things
 
In your OP you said you went to the GE breaker and only had 120v. Where are you losing the leg? At the breaker or the recept.? Also, when you swapped out the dryer and WH you said "it zapped, too." What zapped? The dryer on the WH circuit, or the WH on the dryer circuit?
 
360Youth said:
In your OP you said you went to the GE breaker and only had 120v. Where are you losing the leg? At the breaker or the recept.? Also, when you swapped out the dryer and WH you said "it zapped, too." What zapped? The dryer on the WH circuit, or the WH on the dryer circuit?
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Im losing the leg at the breaker. When I said It "zapped it too" I was refering to the breaker. I took the circuit going to the WH off of the 2 pole 30 and landed my dryer circuit there. Next day the breaker was shot. This is not far from my home at all so spending time on it is no big deal. I will get my megger out tommorow and see if everything checks out. I would have meggered the wires on the 1st call, but a friend had borrowed it. Thanks for all of the replies and I will keep you updated as to what I find out.
 
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