I had to move around my dryer to do some work in my laundry room. When I plugged it back in, it wouldn't turn on at all. None of the buttons would even make the lights come on.
I unscrewed the end of the cord from the dryer and checked it with my multimeter. 120v (ish) between each hot and the neutral (3 conductor no ground) and 240v (ish) between the hots, as expected.
When I screw it back on to the dryer and check the voltage on the screws, however, I get 240 between one hot and the neutral as well as between the hots. When I check between the other hot and the neutral, I get 0v.
I can't fathom how this can happen without a hot being shorted to the neutral.. but the breaker isn't popping and nothing is getting hot.
What the heck is going on?
Best Answer
It sounds like the neutral connection is bad, but not totally open-circuit.
As I understand it american driers normally have the high-power stuff connected between the two hots and the control system connected between one hot and the Neutral.
With the dryer disconnected, the bad neutral is enough to give you correct voltage readings on your high-impedance multimeter, but when you connect the driers controls. it drags the neutral up to the same voltage as one of the two hots.