On 18 Feb 2006 09:01:18 -0800, "spudnuty" wrote:


wrote:
possible.

Have you checked your line voltage?
You should check your line voltage with a good DMM with the hair dryer
plugged in to that same outlet (assuming it's not separated or
switched) turning the dryer on and off. I do electrical repairs for
people and carry a hair dryer for circuit load testing and finding
breakers.
I have seen many wire gauge problems the one that comes quickly to mind
is the apartment building that was owned by a friend of mine. Looking
into this exact kind of problem I found that the building had been
rewired with #16 or smaller. I don't even know anyone who will sell you
that as a electrical contractor. I don't know how it got past the
inspectors in the first place or how it got past them the 2nd time when
my friend sold the building.
It could also be bad junctions.
Richard

Back when I was a handyman, I got a call from a guy who had a
brownout. He called late in the evening and I was done for the day.
But he agreed to pay the extra cost of an emergency call. He's very
lucky he agreed to that. The entire house was wired with 18-2 lamp
cord tacked to the baseboard with those cheap baseboard outlets they
sold back in those days (this was in the late 70's). When I arrived I
noticed a burnt smell when I walked in the door. When I placed my
hand over the one outlet where all the wires originated, the wall was
very hot. I immediately shut off the power and told the guy to call
the fire dept. He refused to call. (The guy was a drunk). As soon as
he refused, I just said "then I got to do this), and I started busting
open the wall. There was no flame (yet), but the wires were charring
wood. I ended up ripping open the whole wall, and dumping a few
buckets of water down from the second floor to the basement.
Another 10 minutes that place would have been in flames.

This is a long story, but the guy refused to have the place wired
correctly, so he just paid me to run one outlet into the kitchen, hook
it to the old fuse box (where I changed the fuses to 15A instead of
the 30A ones that was there) This box had 2 fuses, one for the lower
apt, one for the upper apt, and this guy lived in the upper).
After I got that one outlet installed, he told me to just hook all
those 18-2 wires to that outlet again. I refused, and told him that
if he wanted to do it himself, he could put a plug on the end and plug
them in, but I was not going to wire them to the screws on the outlet
like they were when I got there. He was ****ed, but I told him it's
against the law and I can not do it. He paid me, said he'd get
someone else to hook it up, and also to clean up and repair all the
busted walls.

I should also note that the refrigerator was being run on that 18-2
and I offerred to help him move it to where the new outlet was
installed, but he said it dont belong there and went and got another
18-2 lamp cord to plug it in.....

I tried to explain he was living in danger, but he did not care.
I just took the check and said "Whatever"....

Mark