elec kinda scares me... what should i do

[christfr]

last week while doing laundry i kinda smelled something kind of burning in the wash room but could not find it. knew it wasnt the washer and the dryer was running but the cabinet felt cool to the touch and was running fine. so today i started the dryer and about 10 min in i really smelled something. felt the dryer and the cabinet was cool and running fine. then i looked at the plug. so my question is .. is this just a bad plug or cord or just a bad socket or is the machine drawing to many amps and has a short or something.

 

[christfr]

im gonna open the machine and see if i see anything funny or burnt in there

 

[Chetlaham]

There are devices out there that prevent this, but to this day the technology remains obscure and is essentially suppressed. 

 

 

Anyway, it could be the plug or the socket itself. Impossible to tell for sure but you will need to replace both the cord and the receptacle including cutting and stripping back fresh copper in the device box. 

 

I doubt the appliance is drawing to much current considering 1) the asymmetrical heating (normally an overload will overheat at least two prongs/contacts/conductors in a circuit 2) Breakers typically trip well before plastic gets melty. 

 

For peace of mind you can always take a reading with an amp clamp. Also verify the dryer is on a 30 amp breaker and wired at minimum with #10 copper or #8 aluminum.  

 

 

 

 

[christfr]

thanks for the info. i had the back cover off by the timer all looks and feels good in there. took the front off was a little dusty but all the wires look and feel great no burn marks or discoloration on anything in there. the only odd thing was when i yanked the plug out of the wall it was kinda only half way plugged in. dont have a clue why .

 

[Chetlaham]

Replace and don't worry about the rest. Joule heating / loose connections can occur in any plug of any age for any number of reasons. It happens. Relatively speaking electricity is remarkably forgiving for all that can and goes go wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[christfr]

ha ha . im cool with a reg wall outlet or switch. but that 220 kinda makes me a little skittish

 

[repairguy]

The dryer is fine. There was a bad connection in the wall receptacle. The receptacle and the cord on the dryer need to be replaced and you’re good to go.

 

[Chetlaham]

240 volts is no different than a regular wall outlet since US residential 240 will always be 120 volts to ground. Further any 120 volt device has about a 1 in 10 chance of 240 volts being present in the box itself either from another circuit or as part of a multi wire branch circuit. I wouldn't worry about the voltage.

 

 

However if you don't feel confident or don't understand any part hire a professional. 

 

[combo52]

Bad dryer outlet and cord

As Melvin said there’s nothing wrong with the dryer. This happens when a bad connection develops overtime in the outlet and sometimes the cord does this too, in any case you have to replace both.

When the outlet is replaced this time, put it in the correct way, it was upside down before, and that puts extra stress on the two hot connections because the cord is Pulling the plug out of the outlet slightly and can lead to this type of problem, the cord should be hanging down nicely when it’s plugged in.

John

 

[turbokinetic]

Bad receptacle and cord...

Chris; I realize I'm repeating what has been said, but I want to help reinforce the correct advice and dilute the not-so-good advice. 

 

There is nothing wrong with your dryer which caused this. If anything is indeed wrong with the dryer, it's unrelated to the cord and plug failure. 

 

When the dryer is heating, it draws approximately 20 to 30 amps. The motor is under little load so it will tolerate some voltage sag, therefore you won't see any significant change in operation of the dryer when there is voltage drop in the circuit.

 

I can see that your receptacle is old, and has been painted. Over time, the contacts in the receptacle lose their spring tension and no longer properly grip the terminals of the plug. The copper oxidizes; building a layer further adding resistance and hampering a good electrical contact. Add some stray paint onto this, and you have a very poor connection with high resistance.  Heat is generated when current passes through a resistance. Inside the plug and receptacle, there isn't much of a path for heat to escape, so it builds up even if the voltage drop is seemingly small.  

 

Once the contacts in the receptacle reach a certain temperature, the metal is annealed and softened, and the contacts never will grip the plug properly again; even if they are cleaned and bent back into the correct position. Receptacles don't typically show external melting, so you can't tell the condition of the contacts by looking at the outside of it. There is a chance that numerous previous dryer cords have failed in this receptacle and it is in far worse shape than the appearance would let on.

 

The only way to prevent continued failures is to replace the dryer cord and the receptacle at the same time. If you aren't confident to do this yourself, it shouldn't cost too much to hire an electrician for a simple repair like this. 

 

Sincerely,

David

 

[gizmo]

Maybe that socket was installed by an Australian...

That's how our standard 230V sockets are fitted - active and neutral (sloping pins) at the top, earth ( called ground in USA) vertical at the bottom.

 

Like the link below:

 

 

Not long ago I bought a kettle (called a tea kettle" in USA) online. I was after a quiet kettle which generally means lower wattage. Low wattage kettles are hard to find here so I bought one direct from China. It came with a standard Chinese plug, which is the same as an Australian plug but upside down. It still fitted in the Aussie socket, but as Combo52 mentioned above, having the cord exit the plug from the top means it tends to pull the plug out of the socket. I cut off the original plug and fitted a proper Aussie one. The kettle is great BTW.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/hpm-excel-double-powerpoint_p7050005

 

[steved]

Same

I ran into this same thing with one of my neighbors a few years ago. She asked me to check her dryer (Whirlpool Duet) as it wasn't heating. When I saw the burned cord and outlet, I picked up a replacement set. When I dismantled the outlet, I found that the red wire was not properly tightened down and just bouncing around in the wire opening. Replaced everything and the dryer works fine!

 

[sprog]

I'm surprised nobody suggested a 4 prong upgrade

Homes with 3-prong dryer outlets are outdated (no longer code). A 4 prong upgrade separates the neutral from the ground. With a dedicated ground, your dryer is MUCH safer! I've done it with my Maytag 808 dryer. My homeowners insurance gave me a discount for this upgrade.
Am I missing something?

 

[Chetlaham]

4 prong upgrade

May not be practical if the home run is 3 wire and not accessible without opening up walls/fishing wire. Code does not require running new wire unless the circuit is being extended or the outlet box itself is being moved or relocated to another location.

 

 

Also judging by all the upvotes I assume people misread what I wrote as insinuating there was something wrong with the dryer. As I said in 3 posts prior, it is highly unlikely the problem rests with the dryer. I stipulated this multiple times. 

 

The problem was created by either the plug being partially inserted or the receptacle contacts loosening over time. Due to the heat damage both cord and outlet need to be replaced.

 

What did I say originally contradicting these two statements?    

 

[weed30]

Electrician recommendation

I see you're in St. Louis - if you need an electrician, I recommend Scott Moushey (Moushey Electric) 314-<span class="comment-container"><span class="comment_body_bodyText__ksBmO" data-testid="truncate-container"><span class="Linkify">753-2714.</span></span></span>

 

<span class="comment-container"><span class="comment_body_bodyText__ksBmO" data-testid="truncate-container"><span class="Linkify">Also: Who restored your Frigidaire??  Thanks </span></span></span>

 

[combo52]

Dryer outlet failure

As Steve mentioned in reply number 11 the thing that causes this is the wire where it is screwed to the outlet was not attached properly. It sometimes takes 20 or 30 years for the failure to take place, this happens because these outlets are designed for up to six gauge wire were only 10 gauges needed and it’s hard to properly clamp. A small 10 gauge conductor in such a large connector, I did a recent post about this where I showed the same failure occurring.

Copper connections do not oxidize and create high resistance. Copper oxide is a very good conductor. The spring terminals do not lose their tension either until they overheat and fail otherwise they would last hundreds of years , a small amount of spray paint sprayed into the receptacle will not cause a problem.

It is theoretically safer to have a four wire cord and receptacle, but in reality of properly installed three wire set up there is no safety concern and you would not benefit by upgrading to a four wire receptacle. All you do is waste a lot of expensive copper. Nearly half the clothes dryers we work on with four wire cords. The installer doesn’t even attach the cord properly to the dryer. They link the neutral and ground together anyway so there’s no actual benefit.

John

 

[christfr]

replaced the cord and outlet. the wires in the wall look and feel fine. so installed the outlet and cord test ran the dryer and all seems fine. thanks so much for all the advice. this was the first time i had this happen. just wanted to make sure

 

[Chetlaham]

Google, again, says otherwise:

 

Google Search

 

Once the first overheating occurs from loose contact, it results in oxidization. Once the first layer of oxide occurs, its over. The connection only gets hotter and hotter from there on. 

 

And as I said before, those NEMA outlets can handle 10 gauge CU just fine. Decades of UL testing and listing says its just fine.

 

 

OP's setup will be just fine when repaired. 

 

 

[maytag85]

I agree with John. If a three prong cord and outlet has worked fine for decades, why change it? Wastes lots of copper as John mentioned, along with it being a little more involved when installing a 4 prong cord as opposed to a 3 prong cord. Been using electric dryers with the 3 prong cord and outlet setup, never had issues with anything.

As the saying goes: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.