There are two 120 volt circuits that come into your dryer from the big dryer outlet on the wall. Look closely at the outlet after you remove your dryer plug (See Figure).
The ground lug in the figure is the L-shaped part of the outlet. You should measure 120 volts from each angled hole to the L-shaped hole and 240 volts between the two angled holes. The dryer element sits across the 240 volt circuit. If a serious overload occurs in the heater circuit, both sides of the dryer circuits will go down and nothing in the dryer will work.
To check for this situation, measure the voltage between each angled or flat blade hole in the outlet to the L-shaped hole using a voltmeter set for at least 250 volts alternating current (AC). If you see nothing across any combination of the three holes in the outlet, both circuits are down.
Go out to the breaker box and locate the breakers for the dryer. Switch them both to off and back to on. If this doesn't restore all of the voltages, you will have to replace the breakers for the dryer. Buy 30-ampere breakers for your dryer. Hire an electrician to install them if you are uncomfortable messing around in your breaker box. It's a very dangerous place to be if you don't know what you are doing.
All of the information in these Appliance Clinicprocedures is provided FREE OF CHARGE. No liability is assumed by theauthor for the accuracy of the contents or damages caused by the use ofthese procedures. By Oron Schmidt.
