oh, and the electrician already went around and tightened all the connections behind the electrical outlets. My fuse box is old. If I got it replaced would this solve the problem? or got certain fuses replaced? I don't know much about anything electrical.

So all else on the premises works OK? I suspect a loose neutral in one of the affected circuits. It is possible that all the affected outlets are powered from the dryer circuit. Who knows what was done earlier?

My neighbor purchased an energy efficient (full-sized) dryer which operates on 120 volts instead of 240. Is this what you have?
Is the washer on a different circuit/fuse?

I'd guess a subpanel feeds the dryer and the affected circuits. The neutral is loose in the sub or where the feed connects to the main.

Over time oxidation increases the connnection's resistance and it won't pass enough voltage to operate light dury appliances and lights. However, the dryer is a large load (low resistance) and thus raises the voltage drop across the oxidized loose connection. It arcs across and makes contact for a while, until the oxidation builds up again.

The reason the cycles are getting more frequent is that each time the arc is struck, the gap in the "connection" gets wider.

The motor in the dryer runs on 120v. The loose neutral caused voltage on that leg to jump way up, and it smoked.

Another possibility is that one of the hot legs in the main is loose. This would leave the dryer motor failure unexplained, but that could be coincidence.

QUestion. DO you ever notice that your lights, esp. on the "ghost" circuit, momentarily get BRIGHTER when a large 120 volt load (iron, air-con, water pump, etc.) on another circuit starts up?

No I have never noticed the lights getting brighter.

The dryer is 240 V according the the owners manual.

I agree with davidr and increased resistance due to corrosion/oxidation.

cathy404593 -- Do you have the "pull out" style device on your fuse box for your dryer? It contains two fuses which plugs into a few slots thus making your electrical connection.
High or low voltage to your dryer motor will cause it to fail. From my experiences, I believe your motor experienced lower voltage for a period of time which will cause it to heat quite quickly.
Do you have a volt meter?
Is this dryer under warranty?

If the windings in the motor experienced a severe heat condition, it will most likely need to be replaced.
Please let us know what the repairman finds on Monday.

did your electrician pull the dryer receptacle and make sure it was wired properly?

Forgot to add..

Disconnect the circuit and/or fuses to the dryer. Does the power remain on for the computer and tv in your sitting room?
It's possible the previous owner tapped power from ONE of the dryer circuits (fuse) to feed your sitting room outlets.

I disagree about the neutral. You have a loose hot wire. When you energize the dryer the hot that is dead gets fed from the hot that is live through the dryer. Are you sure that only this one circuit is going out? Is there a sub panel involved? Do you have an electric stove? Try turning on the stove instead of the dryer and see what happens.

This could be a problem on your main service connections at the pole, in your meter, or in the main breaker box. If you have a sub panel it could be the connection to the sub panel. The electrician should have been able to determine this. Call a different one next time.

In older fuse panels, the dryers are fed by tapping two fuses on different legs to get the required 240V. These fuses will also feed other 120V circuits (and are usually 30A which is another issue). Suspect a loose fuse, poor fuse contact, or loose hot wire at the load side of the fuse.

The dryer repairman came today and it is a burnt out part of the circuit board. So they are ordering the part and coming to repair it for a cost of $381. This is cheaper than buying a new dryer since that would cost $500, for the compact needed to fit into the space.

He said the electrical problem could have caused it but maybe not.

I called an electrician who is coming out Friday so we'll see what they say. Also the dryer repair service is coming Fri. to fix the dryer.

cathy404593 --

Was your dryer repaired today?
What problems did the electrician find?

zpp