My mother in-law passed away recently and we ended up with her relatively
new washer/dryer. It's a Maytag Performa. After a friend and I humped the
old washer and dryer down the stairs to the garage and the new ones up, the
dryer new plug did not match the receptacle. The receptacle was a three wire
and the plug was a four wire. So I go and get a new one today and when I
take the old one off, there are only three wires coming out of the wall. Two
hots and a neutral. So I hook up the hots and the neutral, install the new
recepticle etc. and hook the dryer back up. It won't turn on. I checked and
the recepticle's hot. I took the access panel off the dryer and the dryer's
hot. The green ground wire from the plug terminates on a sheet metal screw
on the dryer housing, so I can't imagine that hooking this up without the
ground connected would cause it not to run. I know it ran before. Does
anyone know of a reset button on these or what I should do?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry, my bad...I had hooked the neutral up to the ground wire. I switched
it and now it works. Bah!!

"Mark Corbelli" corbellicrewatcomcastdotnet wrote in message
...
My mother in-law passed away recently and we ended up with her relatively
new washer/dryer. It's a Maytag Performa. After a friend and I humped the
old washer and dryer down the stairs to the garage and the new ones up,
the
dryer new plug did not match the receptacle. The receptacle was a three
wire
and the plug was a four wire. So I go and get a new one today and when I
take the old one off, there are only three wires coming out of the wall.
Two
hots and a neutral.

Wrong two hots and a ground. Cable in the wall would have to have 4 wires
to get a neutral.





So I hook up the hots and the neutral, install the new
recepticle etc. and hook the dryer back up. It won't turn on. I checked
and
the recepticle's hot. I took the access panel off the dryer and the
dryer's
hot. The green ground wire from the plug terminates on a sheet metal screw
on the dryer housing, so I can't imagine that hooking this up without the
ground connected would cause it not to run. I know it ran before. Does
anyone know of a reset button on these or what I should do?

Thanks in advance.

Some appliances can work with out a neutral, some can not. Using the ground
as a neutral can be hazardous.
The manufacture should have directions in connecting the dryer with 3 wires.

The instructions aren't for sh*t. I can't believe a Home Depot sells
amateurs a 220 V recepticle with practically no instructions. So anyway,
I've got the dryer working by switching the white wire from ground to
neutral, the red and black are hooked to what I would call "hot" as they
both produce juice on my tester. So if it works, and it was only three wire
before (17 years), should I be concerned?

"Mark Corbelli" corbellicrewatcomcastdotnet wrote in message
...
The instructions aren't for sh*t. I can't believe a Home Depot sells
amateurs a 220 V recepticle with practically no instructions. So anyway,
I've got the dryer working by switching the white wire from ground to
neutral, the red and black are hooked to what I would call "hot" as they
both produce juice on my tester. So if it works, and it was only three
wire
before (17 years), should I be concerned?


I am pretty certain what you have in the wall should be called two phases
and a neutral. Really kind of difficult to know what to call the wire in
the box. Both return and grounds are tied together at the breaker box and
will both serve as a return..

The heating elements are hooked between the two hots to get 220.

It needs 110 for the controls, so they are hooked between one of the hots
and the return.

The ground pin on the dryer connector just fastens to the chassis.

On Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:22:14 -0400, "Mark Corbelli"
corbellicrewatcomcastdotnet wrote:

The instructions aren't for sh*t. I can't believe a Home Depot sells
amateurs a 220 V recepticle with practically no instructions. So anyway,
I've got the dryer working by switching the white wire from ground to
neutral, the red and black are hooked to what I would call "hot" as they
both produce juice on my tester. So if it works, and it was only three wire
before (17 years), should I be concerned?


They sell about 170 pages worth of instruction, nicely bound in a
copper-colored cover, at the end of one of the aisles in the
electrical section and/or down in their book/magazine displays,
with the words "Wiring 123" printed on the cover in two inch letters.

You just decided not to buy them.

You should revisit that decision.

If you're bound and determined to skip the learning/research step
and just make up **** whilest wiring your house, then HD is doing
us all a favor by not trying to keep you alive in spite of
yourself.