Help!!! Speed Queen Dryer Problem...

[danorob1]

Hi Folks...
With the help of everyone on AutomaticWasher.Org, and The Sister Vacuum forum, We purchased a new Speed Queen Washer and Dryer back on 04/07/13..

Until now, we have had no issues with either... Now here is a short story...

When we purchased this house about 21-years ago, the electrician put a small sub-panel in the garage, under the main panel... This was to feed lights and outlets in the garage, along with the electric dryer...

The panel is feed by a 40-amp breaker in the main panel - So light duty - The biggest thing in the sub-panel is the 30-amp breaker for the Speed Queen Dryer... It is Model # ADE3LR -

Friday I get a phone call from my Partners Mother (we converted the house to a two family/mother daughter when it was purchased) and she was in a panic...

She told me that she was doing laundry all day - when she put the last load into the dryer, she claims that she turned the dial to timed dry, 40-minutes, pushed the knob in, and saw a flash of light/sparks from behind the control panel... She said the dryer would not do anything...

I told her to open the garage door, and was going to instruct her to be sure the breaker in the lower panel for the dryer was off. She said the garage door opener would not work, and there were no lights in the garage either...

I ran home during lunchtime, and found that not only did the 30-amp breaker for the dryer trip, but that it had actually tripped the 40-amp breaker feeding the sub-panel, in the main panel...

I unplugged the dryer, reset both breakers, and nothing tripped - Checked everything with a breaker in the sub-panel, and everything worked fine... (lights, and garage door opener) -

I plugged the dryer back in, and did not trip the breaker - Left the dial in the position it was in when she had tried to turn it on before the incident happened, pushed in the knob, and the dryer started fine...

I have tied every combination of temp, and cycles, and all seems find... I even tried turing the knob, while holding it in with the dryer running to see if I could create a short...

I pulled the top panel off first yesterday, thinking I would find a work wire that was not installed correctly, or something that came loose - Nothing..

I then tore the entire dryer down, even removing the drum, motor, and heater elements ands still found nothing charred, arched, loose, disconnected, or burned...

Since I had not cleaned out the dust and lint since I purchased it, I put it on a dolly, took it to the driveway, and cleaned all the dust (not much) and lint out with a compressor and vacuum...

Now - the only odd thing I noticed was that on the timer, there is what appears to be either a 10 or 12 gauge heavy orange wire - It is one of the feeds to the heater elements - There WAS an arc/burn mark on the side of that terminal, but there is nothing near it - It is near the left center of the timer - I thought maybe a loose strand of wire from when the harness was made, a bug or critter climbed in and got zapped, but there was nothing - The timer and panel was like new - clean as a whistle -

So - Does anyone have any idea what could have could this to trip the breakers? Could the timer be bad internally, cause a one time trip, and now work fine ???

They are cheap enough - Should I just replace the timer?

To be honest, I don't trust the dryer now, and don't want a fire, but like I said, I can not find a thing wrong except for a tiny arch make on one terminal - And I would have expected a bigger arc mark to trip the breaker - I will take a picture of it later and post -

Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice !
Dan

 

[mrb627]

Hmmm...

My first reaction... I suppose if it is working now, I would probably do nothing other than to watch it very closely over the next couple of weeks.

On a side note, how much force was used when the knob was pushed in? I wonder if turning the knob while it is pushed in might cause a problem. The timers are designed to be turned clockwise only. Perhaps she tried to turn it counter clockwise, causing contacts to flex and short out.

Just brain-storming...

Malcolm

 

[danorob1]

Hi Malcolm -

I think I am going to take the wait and see approach as you suggest - Knowing that I tore it down and checked every connection and every inch of wiring and found no issues does make me feel slightly better-

I am going to do our normal weekly laundry right now, which is about 5-6 loads -I will stay in the garage the entire time to see if I notice anything odd -

I tried to turn it backwards while pushing it in thinking maybe she did exactly that -
Nothing - I could not get it to go backwards one millimeter - And considering she is 88, I doubt she used more force then me -

Like I said, I pushed it in, and held it in, and went around the entire dial twice, and it did nothing but keep running - No shorts, no stopping, just the buzzer when I hit those spots on the dial -

And as far as the one arch mark that I found on the single terminal itself, It could have happened at the factory during some type of testing -

I would lasts rather know that she did something to cause the trip, then I would not worry as much about it being a defect in the dryer wiring -

But at least both breakers did their job and tripped out...

Thank you for your thoughts -
dan

 

[combo52]

Speed Queen dryer problem

Most likely a small piece of stray metal caused the short or it could be a timer starting to fail I would do nothing.

 

You know the circuit breakers both work well if something does go wrong.

 

Remember this dryer is still under parts and labor warranty so if something goes wrong let's speed Queen fix it free.

 

[danorob1]

Well -
Did 6-Loads and nothing out of the ordinary -
I am going to stick with what has been advised, and will just wait and see if something else happens -
Maybe it was just a fluke -
Thanks for listening !
Dan