Getting 0v at the circuit breaker, even with new breaker.

My old dryer stopped working so I bought a newer one. Tested the newer one at the persons house and it worked great. Brought it home, took the 4 prong wire off the old dryer and put it on the new one. But the dryer will not power on. I used a multimeter to check the dryer cord and the is fine (gets 0ohms readings on all 4 plugs). Then I checked the outlet and there was no voltage. Went to the breaker and the neither of the 2 30a breakers showed power to them. They read 0 volts (both pole to pole and pole to ground x2). All other breakers showed 120v. I then bought a new double breaker and installed it. Still 0 volts. What is my next step? Can I move this breaker to a different spot on the breaker box to see if those bus connectors are bad? The bus attachments look a little brown. Should I try to clean those instead? If so what should I use?
Thanks

 

Welcome to the forums.

The buss bars in the panel would have to be pretty badly corroded for neither side of a two pole breaker to make a connection.

Are you sure you're using the proper breaker and that it is actually sitting on the buss bar.
This is one case where a picture would be real helpful of the insides of your panel.

http://www.doityourself.com/forum/el...rt-images.html


If you decide to clean the buss bars..... the MAIN breaker must be turned off and you need to confirm the buss's are dead.

 

Thanks for the quick reply! Hoping to get this solved.

The breaker is the exact same one that was on there. I guess maybe I should take a pic of the buss bars? It isn't that bad.


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Can't quite see the bars although they look black.

 

It is possible you need to clean the fins on the bus bars using fine sandpaper. But if the fins are burned or deformed or you need to "sand them down good" then those fins cannot be used any more and you need to position the breaker elsewhere.

Also do not reuse a breaker whose clip underneath is burned or deformed.

 

If the bus stabs are brown they have been overheated from a poor connection to the tin plated aluminum bus which should be silver colored. Try a new 30A 2P breaker at a different location. Cleaning the aluminum bus using fine sandpaper is a temporary solution. Does the bus have any paint overspray on it from when the house was built? If you have this condition Cutler-Hammer recommends replacing the panel interior.