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Whitewater Woman's Equipment Maintenance and Repair

Forest Cat said:
Wear end tear. I replaced two outlets recently that was just worn on the inside from plugging and unplugging over and over again. Maybe that's the problem with yours too, 14 years of wear and tear. If the electricity comes and goes, so one moment the dryer is working and then suddenly there's no elecitricity, it sounds like something could be worn or loose.

The installation also looks a little rough, like someone was in a hurry and just jammed the outlet in there.
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Dryers get plugged in and then sit that way for years and years. There isn't any wear and tear from in and out. The plugging in and out I've done the past two days is more than it has had in 14 years.

But I'm willing to consider an electrical problem. The repair man who came out for the dryer which just died said it was the motor that was completely burnt out. Maybe something on my side burnt out the dryer?
 
Judge said:
In this instance, please heed this advice:



Use of a volt/ohm multimeter is easy enough. So is electrocuting yourself having touched the wrong leads.
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OK. But if I'm using the volt/ohm multimeter, presumably I'm only touching things that are safe, the handles are insulated right?

I've no interest in electrocuting myself.

Are you saying I can electrocute myself just by using the tools made to test the receptacle?
 
Mary Terry said:
I wish I could send my husband to your house. He's got tons of tools and loves "fixing" things. I could use the peace and quiet for a while here, too. ;)

Seriously, this is such a great forum with knowledgeable, helpful members who know how to fix things, too.
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I can give him the house to use and I will camp out on the property. Please! ;)

Mary Terry's husband and Nitro - do you all want a vacation in Florida? ;) An hour and a half to the beach. It's 85 degrees and sunny today.
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
OK. But if I'm using the volt/ohm multimeter, presumably I'm only touching things that are safe, the handles are insulated right?

I've no interest in electrocuting myself.

Are you saying I can electrocute myself just by using the tools made to test the receptacle?
Click to expand...

I've used one for several decades for simple things involving much lower amounts of electricity. Even then, you have to carefully figure out how to hold or position the unit itself, apart from safely and accurately holding both positive and negative leads and being able to touch them against the right connections. It can be more difficult than people think, depending on the physical and electrical circumstances.

In other words, most people only have two arms and hands. Not three. Reason enough to leave this in the hands of someone more qualified, IMO.

(I've also personally witnessed two persons over the years get electrocuted. One a qualified electrician, the other an electronics class student. Not pretty.)
 
Forest Cat said:
Oh I see.
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I know it looks rough, but it is not as rough as it looks. My house is more like a hunting camp, with pine siding and the cobwebs you see are all over everything. The washer and dryer are "outside" in the back porch. If I tried to keep the cobwebs wiped off I wouldn't have time for anything else.
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
I can give him the house to use and I will camp out on the property. Please! ;)

Mary Terry's husband and Nitro - do you all want a vacation in Florida? ;) An hour and a half to the beach. It's 85 degrees and sunny today.
Click to expand...

Husband's sister lives in Orange City. Maybe he could stay with her and commute?
 
Judge said:
I've used one for several decades for simple things involving much lower amounts of electricity. Even then, you have to carefully figure out how to hold or position the unit itself, apart from safely and accurately holding both positive and negative leads and being able to touch them against the right connections. It can be more difficult than people think, depending on the physical and electrical circumstances.

In other words, most people only have two arms and hands. Not three. Reason enough to leave this in the hands of someone more qualified, IMO.

(I've also personally witnessed two persons over the years get electrocuted. Not pretty.)
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OK. So I need to have a small table or stool to hold the actual machine, and then use one hand each on the respective sensors. Aren't there gloves that block electricity?
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
Dryers get plugged in and then sit that way for years and years. There isn't any wear and tear from in and out. The plugging in and out I've done the past two days is more than it has had in 14 years.

But I'm willing to consider an electrical problem. The repair man who came out for the dryer which just died said it was the motor that was completely burnt out. Maybe something on my side burnt out the dryer?
Click to expand...

Maybe a power surge fried the old dryer? That happened to our last refrigerator. We now have a high-quality surge protector for the new fridge but nothing to protect our dryer.
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
OK. So I need to have a small table or stool to hold the actual machine, and then use one hand each on the respective sensors. Aren't there gloves that block electricity?
Click to expand...
Most volt/ohm multimeters are fairly compact and quadrangular. If you can find a way to secure it (even with duct tape) it's possible. But you still have to be terribly careful in holding the leads (using non-conducting rubber gloves), making sure only the exposed metal parts are touching the relevant connections which may or may not have live current running in them.

But like I said, unless you have prior experience in doing such a thing involving such currents, don't attempt it yourself. Not a good idea unless your hand-eye coordination is exceptional. Even then, it all comes down on what those leads actually touch at any given time.

multimeter.jpg


Bare hands on a minor circuit board is one thing, but on a major appliance wear those gloves!
 
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WhitewaterWoman said:
OK. So I need to have a small table or stool to hold the actual machine, and then use one hand each on the respective sensors. Aren't there gloves that block electricity?
Click to expand...
Rubber thongs/flipflops on your feet. Getting a zap from one hand to the other isn't so bad although unpleasant, having current run through your whole body to the floor is where it gets nasty.
 
Mary Terry said:
Maybe a power surge fried the old dryer? That happened to our last refrigerator. We now have a high-quality surge protector for the new fridge but nothing to protect our dryer.
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Maybe. Haven't had a thunderstorm during the time the dryer went bad. Of course there could have been a power surge from the power company we wouldn't know about.

I don't have anything with surge protectors except the computer stuff. I've never lost anything except computer stuff, even with the surge protectors.
 
Outdated said:
Rubber thongs/flipflops on your feet. Getting a zap from one hand to the other isn't so bad although unpleasant, having current run through your whole body to the floor is where it gets nasty.
Click to expand...
The electrician who came recently because the electric in my kitchen went out was wearing heavy soled rubber boots.
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
Maybe. Haven't had a thunderstorm during the time the dryer went bad. Of course there could have been a power surge from the power company we wouldn't know about.

I don't have anything with surge protectors except the computer stuff. I've never lost anything except computer stuff, even with the surge protectors.
Click to expand...

We have surge protectors only on the desktop computer, two televisions and the fridge. It's rural here, our house was built in 1960 to what was code back then, and, although we've had some rewiring done by a licensed electrician, I don't fully trust the old wiring in our house.
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
The electrician who came recently because the electric in my kitchen went out was wearing heavy soled rubber boots.
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Being grounded is terribly important when doing such things. Whether to protect yourself, or whatever you are working on. Another concern for those of us who routinely tinker with the guts of our computers. Just one tiny spark of static electricity can sometimes be catastrophic to a computer's components.
 
I was taught to only use one hand when working on live high voltage circuitry.
Two hands can create a circuit.
In my past, I have been know to replace main circuit breakers without have the meter pulled from the socket.

Most of my experience is with industrial wiring including three phase.
In a shop setting, we sometimes move machinery around like furniture, and to hire out the electrical work was never in the picture.
AC current in most of the world is delivered at 50 hertz, with the exception of the USA and a few other countries that still use 60 Hz.
The bad part about 60 Hz is that it will synch with your brain waves and shut down your heart.

Electricity is nothing to mess with if you don't fully know the consequences of making a mistake or how to avoid them.
 
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