"dpb" wrote in message ...
MiamiCuse wrote:
...
My older dryer no longer works, and it has the molded outlet plug. I
have a new dryer laying around in the new (being remodeled house) so I
figure I will move that here but the plug does not work.

...
I have a multimeter that can check voltage on a regular outlet (120v) but
I plugged that into the dryer outlet and get nothing.but I am not sure
the pins are sticking all the way in correctly.

So I think I need to determine if my dryer outlet is working or not, and
I don't know how to do that with the older dryer not working and the new
dryer not pluggable. If I can test that then I can check with breaker
and that would tell me the amp for that circuit. I think it's 30amp.

As RBM says, assuming this multimeter is an actual meter, there's no
fundamental difference between checking an outlet regardless of the
voltage--set the meter on the proper AC Volt scale and probe between the
two hots (the angled) and between each of them and the ground--there
should be 120 to ground and 240 between. If your not sure you're reaching
the plug contacts w/ the test leads, plug the old dryer in leaving just a
smidge of the blades exposed and probe there. Be careful to not drop lead
across and short, etc., etc., ... Or, pull the rear cover and test at
the point where the pigtail is attached is pretty simple.

This new info raises the question of "was it working" and when did it quit
working and what were symptoms, etc.?

As for finding out which circuit, I'd start by going to the breaker box
and look at each 240V breaker to see if any happened to be tripped--if it
was working but now isn't, possibly tripped a breaker (say if a heater
element happened to short).

Obviously there will be a range and perhaps water heater, etc., you should
be able to find them by trial and error and isolate which one must be the
dryer circuit.


MC, dpb makes an important point, the probes on my Fluke tester won't quite
reach the contacts of range and dryer outlets, so don't rely on them. Test
as he describes