Need some home electrical help

My mother in law lives next door and I am having an issue with the dryer outlet. It is the older 3 prong style. The symptom is that sometimes it will start the dryer and sometimes it will not. This has happened with two dryers, neither or which were new but which work when plugged in at my house.

The circumstance-The house is about 12 years old now. It is officially still considered under construction but it has the roughed in electrical inspection. it was just never given final inspection (the guy we bought it from built houses for a living and you know how that is-everyone else's house comes first). Everything else with the house (220 and 110) works fine. We did have some issues with two of the three wires coming into the house being a bit messed up but I was able to cut out the bad sections and seal them up (there is a breaker outside the house between the meter and the house. I was able to kick that breaker before I made the repairs otherwise I would not have fooled with it cause I love being alive :shock: ). The house was empty for two years and had some water damage from the roof and underneath. I have replaced the breaker in the box. I have tested it at the plug and found 245 volts between the two phases and around 120 between each phase and the neutral.

The romex is orange at the breaker box and on the other end. However, there is a lengthy run that is not visible which I guess means there could be a junction box somewhere. The only thing I can figure is that there is a junction box somewhere that has a lot of corrosion which causes resistance which keeps the motor from kicking on. But, wouldn't that keep the voltage from reading 245.

I took apart the plug, cleaned it (even though it looked fine) and gave everything a light coat of oxgard a couple of weeks ago and still nothing.

Also, I replaced the breaker just in case and that was a no go. It did not help. But the reading at the wall remained about 245 (which is also what I get at my house right next door)

Don't worry. I always double check to make sure the breaker is off before I fool with anything and I can always throw a breaker outside the house when necessary. Do you have any suggestions before I go cutting holes looking for junction boxes or just fishing a new wire? I really can't afford to pay an electrician to come out and play around with it.

There should not be a junction box on the 220 circuits. The dryer is supposed to have a home run from the circuit breaker at the distribution panel directly to the dryer. If there is a junction box, eliminate it before you have a fire!

245 VAC seems a bit high for single phase but may be within the margins. There should be a tag on the back of the dryer listing the voltage range.

Is it possible that the outlet is not wired tight and plugging in the dryer disconnects the loose wire? I would kill the power, check to be sure there is no voltage to ground at the outlet for each leg (including the ground) and then open the outlet to be sure the wires are tight.

I'm a commercial and residential electrician, 80-90% of my work is troubleshooting much like this.

First off, it's ok to have a junction box, or multiple j boxes in a run per National Electrical code. Some areas or states may not allow any in certain runs I suppose. I've never heard of this.

Phase to phase 245 volt is a bit high, norm is 215-230. This high voltage could be related to the problem if there are transformer grounding issues downstream of your 2 houses or grounding isn't good at the houses.

Getting the voltage needed at the plug doesn't mean the wiring is capable of carrying the current needed to start the dryer so first thing is to check all connections and splices are clean and tight all along the Romex run, at the plug and at the breaker as well as the contacts where the breaker plugs into the bus bar.
While your at it, check all connections in all sub panels to the breakers, bus bars, neutrals to the neutral bus bars, and to the main and branch circuit breakers.

Thanks for the replies. We live in the sticks and it would not surprise me if there was an issue with it at the transformer grounding. I have 245 at my house, too and the dryer worked over here. If there is a junction box, I guess I will just have to figure out where it is and clean it up.

Heat in the electric dryer runs off 220---dryer motor is 110----check your ground---middle of dryer plug--should read 110 from grnd to each side of plug.

Check your ground at both houses.
You should have at least a ground rod with a ground wire connected at the main panel (meter panel) to the neutral bus and also to the panel metal housing.
This ground path not only serves as a house ground it serves as a safety ground in case the neutral is lost coming in from the transformer to prevent appliances from burning out and electrocution.

I will definitely check the grounds, Dan. But, it occurs to me that one of the issues could be that I am using the cheapest digital multimeter that Wal Mart has. It could be off a bit. I am showing about 123 volts per leg and at the outlets over there and at my house. I have lived in my house for 20 years and since the Co op started doing a better job of clearing the lines, we have not had any electrical issues over here.

But, just so you know, the dryer is working now. It must not have been tracking right or something and when we laid it on its back in the back of the car it popped back on track or something cause it fired right up over there when we took it back. After we got it back in place my wife told me that her mom likes to dry heavy rugs in it. We told her to stop doing that. I hate chasing geese but I appreciate the education this process has brought.

Operator error can be hard to diagnose. I went to check on an F350 horse truck that runs on gas( petrol) and LPG (gas) as the owner was explaining that it wouldn't run on petrol. As it is a carbureted model (76) it needs to fill the carby before it will run. It was a simple matter of revising her running/ starting techniques and not the electrical fault with the fuel solenoid that she expected :doh:

Sounds as a dryer internal connection or door switch, Just saying, Charlie in NC