Dryer was working for a month, One day the dryer started, and tripped the breaker.

Dryer technician said one piece of the dryer was burnt because the voltage for the dryer is not sufficient, not 240. Dryer technician said if the dryer starts again, the dryer will burn and the breaker will trip again.

I checked the two hots against neutral, both 120V. Stable.

I checked the the voltage between the two hots. It showed 240V once. Then I played with the breaker. Then I tested again. It will show 120V and then within 1 second, it will drop to 50V and stays at 50V.

Then, I got breaker replaced. Didn't change a thing.

The bus would be the problem? It looked fine. Now I need to change the panel?

 

Did you check the connections to the receptacle? Sounds like something is loose or corroded.

 

Welcome to the forums.

When you pulled the old breaker out did you look at the two clamps on the back of it.
If it was a buss bar issue..... the clamp(s) would probably be discolored.

 

What piece of dryer was burnt? If the terminal block and cord they burn because the connections was not tight enough.

 

No discoloration of the breaker, nor on the panel legs.

Not sure which part. The dryer technician just said it was because of the wrong voltage.

Could be the plug itself?

 

You checked and found 50v. Where was that ?

It may be a load dependent problem. That means without the dryer connected and turned on..... your measurements are correct.

When you turn the dryer on..... you need to check at the breaker first.
Then at the receptacle. It can be hard to measure at receptacle with plug in. I just pull it out very slightly so that I can get to the prongs.

The only wrong (high) voltage that could be a problem is with an open neutral. That can cause serious issues with the 120v components as that leg of the power could rise well over 120v. The neutral keeps both legs at 120v with respect to ground.

 

At the plug side, I found that one hot measures 120V with neutral, the other also drops to 25-50V with the neutral.

Neural and ground measures 0V.

At the breaker side, I tested again, all seems normal. I also put the breaker on the stove breaker is, ( stove is working fine), I measured good 240V at the breaker, and same issue at the plug side.

I suspected continuity problem on the line. I took the two hots off the breaker, and the other end, off the plug. I put two hots together on one end, and tested continuity on the other end, sure enough, max. ohm. Somewhere in the running of the lines, it is interrupted.

Now this is running from the breaker box, to the crawl space under 1st floor, then comes up back to the dryer plug. Somewhere in the process, something got broken.

Now:
Should I try everything I can to run a new cable from the breaker box to the dryer?
Or,
Should I find out the problem, and put two junction boxes and reconnect the line in the crawl space?

Thanks everyone for sticking it out with me :) LL((

 

Very hard to find break or weak spot in cable. Check ends where they come out of cable to see if nicked. If you can see cable look for staples in cable. Except for cost usually easier to run new cable if you have access.