220V Dryer outlet Question

I have been trying to troubleshoot a problem with my dryer. It quit working on me and i had verified that the fuse didn't blow.

After fussing with it for a while, I figured the dryer was bad, and bought a new one. Well... the new one doesn't work either.

Borrowed a meter from someone and I checked the wire terminals at the fuse box - i have 120v to neutral on both legs. Back at the dryer outlet I have 120V on one leg, but only 45 on the other... (this was on the wire itself on the back side of the outlet.)

???? What could be causing this. - I hope this isn't a bad wire, this will be a nightmare to rerun..... Yuck

 

Shut off the breaker (or pull out the fuses if you really have fuses). Pull the dryer receptacle out of the box and examine and tighten all the connections.

Then have a qualified person to the same with the connections in your panel. The 45-volt reading suggests phantom voltage, which suggests that the connection is more likely bad in the panel than in the receptacle box.

I am assuming that this one receptacle is the only outlet on this circuit (I hope).

 

yes this is a dedicated circuit (from what I can tell)
With the fuse pulled, everthing else works....

"Phantom" voltage ? You mean something that isn't supposed to be there? It is actually zero with something feeding back thru it.?

My father is an electrican - unfortunately hes out of state on vacation right now - so.... trying to troubleshoot this one on my own.

Thanks.

 

"Phantom voltage" means that your digital voltmeter is lying to you. Yes, it is zero for all practical purposes. Post back after trying my earlier suggestions and let us know how they came out.

 

When I went back to the outlet, I just took all the wires off, cut the ends off, and redid all three of the ends in the outlet.

They looked a little oxidized - green instead of copper.

Put everything back together and it works.

This looked like an outlet that was put in after the fact. it is not attached to a stud (the box pretty much came right out of the wall. (someone did a crappy job on this one....) I'm going to go out and get a new box (and outlet as well....) and make this the way it's supposed to be.