My new maytag centennial 7.0 electric keeps tripping the circuit breaker. (2) 30 amp circuits that never tripped with our old dryer. the new dryer (as in 1 day at our home) trips the breaker intermittently... sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes after 5 minutes, sometimes 2 minutes. I dont know what to make of it, but I am not pleased. I guess I will start by swapping (2) 30 amp breakers with (2) 40 amp breakers.
Hi Matt
I'm not sure that swapping out the breakers to higher rated ones will give you a solution so I'll throw in 2 cents to see if my advice holds true. Let's start by asking this. Is the appliance "rated" at 220 volts at 30 amps per leg. I assume this from your post as to what it has been rated. Next - How long is the "run" of wire from the junction box to the outlet where the appliance plugs in? This usually does not matter in most households but if the run is of significant length it may need a larger gage wire to support the current draw of the appliance. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, are the lugs and wire connectors tight at the outlet, the plug, and the breaker box. A loose connection will ramp up the current fast. This is assuming the first two items were met. Tell me if any of this helps and we'll work it out from there.
Thanks.
Len
I removed the back panel (the unpainted kidney-shaped cover) and it had about half a pint of water in it. I emptied it and dried out the heating panel with a hair dryer and my tumble dryer is working very well now. No more tripping of electric circuit breakers.
Hi
If the dryer is not drying the clothes then you would need to check for the following things-
Electric Dryer---
1. Inspect the fuses and circuit breakers they may have burned out or tripped. Usually, dryer will still tumble but not create heat if a fuse or a circuit breaker is not working.
2. Check for the amp reading at 240 V, it should have reading of 24, 21 and 3 amp (approx.) for 2 lines and neutral respectively.
3. Heating element may have turned or the connection to the element might be loose. Sometimes a shorted circuit element will keep on blowing the fuse or circuit breaker.
4. Motor wiring shorting to ground.
Hope this helps...
Daniel
Hi
If the dryer is not drying the clothes then you would need to check for the following things-
Electric Dryer---
1. Inspect the fuses and circuit breakers they may have burned out or tripped. Usually, dryer will still tumble but not create heat if a fuse or a circuit breaker is not working.
2. Check for the amp reading at 240 V, it should have reading of 24, 21 and 3 amp (approx.) for 2 lines and neutral respectively.
3. Heating element may have turned or the connection to the element might be loose. Sometimes a shorted circuit element will keep on blowing the fuse or circuit breaker.
4. Motor wiring shorting to ground.
Hope this helps...
Daniel
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Len - thanks for the response.
I went ahead and replaced the dual 30 amp breakers and, go figure, the dryer seems to be working just fine now.
as for my theory of what happened, here it goes: the old machine was an energy star machine. the new one is not. I think that the old breaker had been sedentary for so long that when it tripped, it must've weakened it or upset it in some other manner (with corrosive powder or whatever)... and from then out, it was just a hair-trigger breaker.
again, thx for your response.
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