I think you have a dead short somehow. You need that meter.
Spa Panel Keeps Tripping
- Thread starter NWMushroom
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JONNYROTTEN
Well-Known Member
Have you checked for Leprechauns under the stairs. Those little bastards will wreak havoc on new homeowners
OP
OP
I have a meter, but don't really know what to do with it! I did measure the voltage in the dryer outlet:
h1 to neutral: 123v
h2 to neutral: 123v
h1 to h2: 248v
It was quite scary to do this since the prongs on the meter wouldn't reach into the outlet, so I had to pull the outlet out and measure the current on the wires connecting to the outlet. Squeaky bum time, indeed.
Shoot, I hope they don't mess things up for renters, too! I rent this place, another reason why I don't want to spend too much money on figuring this out!!
h1 to neutral: 123v
h2 to neutral: 123v
h1 to h2: 248v
It was quite scary to do this since the prongs on the meter wouldn't reach into the outlet, so I had to pull the outlet out and measure the current on the wires connecting to the outlet. Squeaky bum time, indeed.
Shoot, I hope they don't mess things up for renters, too! I rent this place, another reason why I don't want to spend too much money on figuring this out!!
Perfect. That sounds right to me.
Now set you meter for continuity. It should either peg the needle or beep when you touch the meter probes together.
Turn the spa breaker off and test for continuity between all three stabs on the plug that goes to the dryer outlet. Turn the spa breaker on and test again. You should not have continuity between any stab either way if all loads are disconnected from the gfci breaker.
If that checks out, test continuity from h1 on the plug to red or black in the spa panel, h2 on the plug to red or black in the spa panel and neutral on the plug to the neutral bar in the spa panel.
Now set you meter for continuity. It should either peg the needle or beep when you touch the meter probes together.
Turn the spa breaker off and test for continuity between all three stabs on the plug that goes to the dryer outlet. Turn the spa breaker on and test again. You should not have continuity between any stab either way if all loads are disconnected from the gfci breaker.
If that checks out, test continuity from h1 on the plug to red or black in the spa panel, h2 on the plug to red or black in the spa panel and neutral on the plug to the neutral bar in the spa panel.
I think I have this worked out. If a hot and neutral were swapped between the plug and the spa panel, you will get a dead short when you turn on the gfci breaker. I think. Let's see what your meter says. This is hurting my head
Bumming me out not getting to the bottom of this. I totally understand if you want to wash your hands of it NW. I am a geek though.
raouliii
Well-Known Member
It sure seems like this is an input issue. Either the dryer outlet has an issue, although the voltage readings appear fine, or your input cable has a problem......
I've also checked my 'input cable' wiring of the 3 prong dryer plug to the 4 prong receptacle going into the spa panel and all looked OK.
Any other ideas?!
The two photos above are from the two ends of the SAME input cable? Any reason you are using a 4 prong plug/receptacle (NEMA 14-20) at the input to the spa panel? Other than maybe that's what you had on hand. How is the ground(green) wire isolated/connected in the 3wire end?
An additional voltage measurement that may be useful is to measure between neutral on the dryer outlet and the ground on a nearby 120VAC receptacle.
OP
OP
To be honest, I am scared to pull out the dryer outlet to measure things with the multimeter again. I wish the prongs just reached in, but they don't. I need to pull the outlet out and measure by touching the probe on the outlet terminal. This isn't a relaxing task for me!!
Let me see if I can work up some courage this week.
Same input cable.
I used a 4 prong input for 'future-proofing' should I have access to a 4 prong outlet in the future. Also, followed the accepting wiring diagrams here on HBT.
The ground in the 3wire end is visible in the photo - it's wrapped in black electrical tape.
Flip the breaker off in the main panel before you pull the outlet. The cable should be plenty thick to hold it still whilst you measure, so get it positioned with the power off then turn the power back on to measure
raouliii
Well-Known Member
Depending on how the spa input plug is wired and if that green wire is shorted to one of the hot conductors, it would result in the exact situation you are experiencing.
It's hard to get a good look at your photos since that image posting website presents them only a little larger than in your posts and adds a bunch of garbage photos to the page.
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