My dryer plug gets really hot where it plugs into the wall

Sounds like the vent is plugged up, that's a fire hazard take it apart and clean it out..

have you vacuumed the lint or blown thru from the lint catcher thru the machine into the wall outlet and then even the wall outlet. I found a bunch of lint inside the dryer that could not get out because the vent was plugged almost all the way to the outside wall. My vent has to travel a long way to the wall.
Once I did this, it alleviated the heating up of the dryer

Its not really clear to me where your measuring once you plug in the dryer, but all phases are measuring the correct voltage before, it appears you have an open circuit once you plug the dryer in. Now a dryer is 2 phase, so I would check all of your wiring connections, I would also check your circuit breaker and try swapping it out with a new one(as a last resort). Do some experimenting. In a dryer the heating elements are the only thing that runs on the 240V power. I would swap the hot leads in the dryer and see if any of the electrical components come on. Also try testing the continuity on your dryer plug wires to make sure there isn't a break in them (which can be proven by swapping the leads because now the same lead will read 0V on the other terminal).

You should change the plug at the wall. From your description, your dryer plug has two hot wires and a ground.

Your existing plug probably has 4 wires to it - two hots (120 volts each), a neutral (white), and a ground (green). The two hots are probably black or black and some other color.

You will need to match the plug on your dryer cord with the plug at the wall. The type of plug required should be described in your owner's manual. If you don't have that, then take a digital picture of the plug on the cord of your dryer and bring it to your local hardware or home improvement store. They should be able to match the companion wall plug for you.

Make sure the power is off (important). Remove the existing wall plug. When you wire it back up - this time with only three wires, connect the two hots (black and some other color) to the two hot prongs (terminals) and the green wire to the ground prong. Put a wire nut on the end of the white wire and tuck it back into the connection box. That's it. Turn the power back on and test for proper voltage and wiring configuration at the wall plug before you plug the dryer back in.

If you aren't familiar or comfortable with working on electrical apparatus, you should have a licensed electrician do this work for you. This solution also assumes you are in the USA.

you may have aluminum wiring going from your fuse box to the wall plug (older house) .. if this is the case then you have to have a special wall plug that is approved for aluminum .. if you use a standard wall plug then you will get what you are seeing (it gets hot after a few years) .. the connections work loose and start to get hot .. if you have copper wire then you might also have either loose connections or the springs that make contact to the plug have lost tension .. make sure you turn off the circuit breaker before doing anything inside the wall plug box .. make sure water hasnt damaged things inside the box .. once the box has gotten hot the integrity of the spring contacts cant be trusted .. (they lose their spring force when they get hot) .. so no matter what kind of wiring you have you should replace the wall outlet .. if you have aluminum wire (white looking) then get an outlet that is aluminum certified .. if you have copper wire (orange color) then replace the outlet with one that has a rating of 20 amps .. that should fix your problem.

Check your vent it may be stopped up this will cause the top to get overly hot and the bearing to squeak

most likely cause is the air duct is blocked with lint, some always gets past the screen and builts up in the exhaoust line. not enough air flow, the air gets hotter than normal and trips the over temperature cutout.
for most dryers
clear the fan, and exhaust ducting all the way to the wall, and the outside vent hood, of lint

This happens when the dryer gets too hot and a thermal breaker (or thermal fuse) kicks in. The most likely problem is that the exhaust vent for the dryer is plugged up with lint either within the dryer itself or in the part that is in your wall and exits someplace outside (could be as far as the roof). When the hot air can't escape the dryer overheats and shuts itself off to prevent a fire.

What you should get is a new 4 wire cord. It is way less complicated than trying to change out the wall receptacle.
On a 4 wire dryer cord you have White(common) in the middle. Red and Black are hot and go on either side of white. If you really want to make it look good you can put red to red on the terminal and black to black but you don't have to. Some dryers may not have those color hot wires. Green hooks to the chassis with a green screw or any screw connected directly to the frame.


If you need further help, reach me via phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/dan_73bbd84fe1d95b61

Probably too late to help either of you since this is so old but there are two possibilities (assuming everything else works as normal).

1st
If you really mean the circuit breaker to your house, then the heating element is bad and pulling too many amps. It may be shorting out when it gets hot due to the expansion of metal.

2nd
If you mean a switch on (or in) the dryer then you mean a thermal breaker (or thermal fuse). The most likely problem is that the exhaust vent for the dryer is plugged up with lint either within the dryer itself or in the part that is in your wall and exits someplace outside (could be as far as the roof). When the hot air can't escape the dryer overheats and shuts off to prevent a fire.