After ConEd outage, dryer not working properly anymore
I have a 220V dryer that worked well until we had a block-wide outage. When power was restored, the dryer was spinning but not heating. I thought the dryer was damaged and replaced it, yet the problem remains when using the new dryer: spinning, but no heat. The dryer gives me error code tells me there is an error with electric wiring and there is no current detected at heater. Anybody has any idea what could be the problem?
michaelsaur67
in General Discussion 4 years and 7 months ago
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21 replies
deancollins | 4 years and 6 months ago
I can guarantee that what has happened is they have bodgied the service (temporarily) from 220v into the building to a single 110v service.
You need to chase coned to find out when they are coming back to fix it back to a 220v service.
Its ridiculous but the current wait time is like 3 months…..
( i know because the same thing happened with us here on Henry st and our AC doesnt work – they arent coming back until march……)
stevecym | 4 years and 6 months ago
I would not follow up with them until after full power is restored. You dont want them asking to look a find out that this dryer does not work as well and accuse you of jumping the gun on buying a new dryer.
I do not think you will have any issue with them. I think they are under so much pressure from groups and agencies that they may not question you.
michaelsaur67 | 4 years and 6 months ago
Yes, all very good advise. Thanks. I filed the claim two weeks ago but was informed that it would take a while to hear back. I will follow up next week and keep you posted.
stevecym | 4 years and 6 months ago
And keep in mind, with a utility, you can always threaten to call the ny post.
I had a boss who called up a paper on the telephone co once for a serious screw up with broad consequences. They made front page news out of it.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 6 months ago
So OP, yesterday i was working at the house of someone who has posted on here and guess what: his father in law had been a career overhead and underground linesmen and showed up at the house while i was working there. so i told him your situation and my response to it and he listened and when i got done he said “they f’d up”. it seems what i suggested is what happen and this is what he told me “they can visually check to see that they have the correct phase but that is risky….. the only way (he) would do it is with a meter to see if they had 220 at the box IN THE HOUSE”. again, if they thought they had 220, there was no reason in their minds to communicate. if they were trying to only get you 120 as a short term holdover, they should have communicated.
you might want to do a couple of things here:
check with your neighbors and see if they went into any houses to check anyone’s box to see if they had 220.
read a little more behind what i am saying – about what caused this. i might do that as well because with my scant knowledge, i can cut into this qui cker, but what i would read about is how to get a phase when one has burned out AND what the industry recommendations are as well as what Con EDs procedure is – and not only for getting it, but TESTING it. if they were supposed to check a house panel and did not, you have them.
i would take photos of where that line is pulled from so that if they deny they sent in the same phase, you can get someone else to listen you can say “here is where they plugged it in and i think that is the same phase as what we had in the box already. duplicity is why we had 120 across the box”.
I would go on record with them now but not push the complaint until all this is fixed so it is reasonable for them not to expect to see the old dryer. another thing, no talk about running and not producing heat. that comment might have them question some things (and this; i have plugged some things into low voltage without damaging them. i am not sure how long something can sit or run like that before toasting it though someone did tell me once that a motor will burn out on low voltage; i think low voltage is more likely to kill a motor than burn the heating element out – i doubt it would burn the heating element out, it would just make no heat); when you talk to them, all you tell them is “it burnt out or stopped working” play stupid, don’t guess “what happen”
if they give you push back try this: “I am calling the public service commission” and if those magic words to not work, find the state senators who sit on the committee oversees public untilities. get the name of the committee and tell them you will write them. or find some politician who has a vendetta against Con Ed and call his office.
do this right and they will want to put this to bed fast. I would love to be a fly on the wall if you have to explain all this to the men who messed it all up.
andriywww1990 | 4 years and 7 months ago
I might really be getting out of my depth on this (i was pushing my limits on what i said above, using a little knowledge to “guess”) but as i was writing that above i was thinking: “is it possible for them to double the load on that phase off the transformer and not overheat the transformer?”
and then Michaels wrote “they ran a line to the light pole”.
Unless the light pole is feeding off a different transformer, what is the point? perhaps they thought that by going to the light pole, they thought they were pulling the needed phase from another transformer when it was from the same line that was still feeding the working breakers in the houses. maybe they screwed up and got the same old 120 when they themselves thought they were making a bridge to get you 220? so if they thought they were pulling the needed 120 to make 220, they might have felt there was no need to communicate. i cannot see how someone can not communicate something like this knowing people have 220 heating systems and dryers. and stoves. i think they thought they had 220.
i know all this conjecture does not help, especially from someone who really does not know BUT perhaps if OP has to go back to them with a claim, to have an idea how they screwed this up and prove what they did by telling the right supervisory person who is good with people and willing to listen to some conjecture someone put before you as you tell her (you will be better with a woman as she will not have such a fragile ego) what someone connected where and why you think that did not deliver 220, you might bolster your claim – (or if what i am saying is so off the wall that it is not possible – they will think you are out of your head). if you are correct as you say this to them and catch them, the company and workers will either own it or get really angry that you are telling them where they screwed up THEIR job.
you can also simply tell them the 120 fried the 220 dryer and leave it at that. they don’t have to know that their failure to communicate put you forth to buy another dryer. and the old one is gone, so they cannot inspect it, correct?
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
That would totally piss me off. This is where service is going. No one thinks it is their responsibilty to communicate things like this to us. It sound like boots on the ground should be knocking on doors.
I will add this, my grandfather had been an overhead lines supervisor for lilco . Some of what i know i know from asking him, but more importantly, he carried business cards – yes, he worked with his hands and had business cards, and when things like this happen or there would be known
michaelsaur67 | 4 years and 7 months ago
@stevecam: That is exactly what happened. Now, with the tapping of the light pole from the street, the 220V are working. ConEd is coming on Feb. 5 to fix the underground cable and remove the temporary airborne cable from the light pole. What annoys me slightly is that when ConEd initially came to bridge, they didn’t tell me that it would unrender the 220V. Thus, I would not have purchased a new dryer to replace a perfectly working dryer.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
I meant 2 power legs of 120 each, not 220. That was a typo.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
After i wrote the above, i read cates reply. That term bridge is what i am alluding to.
stevecym | 4 years and 7 months ago
This is my guess what happen. The power company runs two legs of 220 each into a residential box. If you pull a panel cover you will see the black and red line coming into the main. They are not negative and positive as we might think they are on a dc car battery, for instance. I think in alternating current polarity constantly reverses anyway. So what we have is two 120 volt lines. The breakers take electricity from one leg and the othe other, alternating as they go down the box. For a 220 circuit the wide double pole breaker takes juice from both the red and black lead. They both share a neutral.
This is what i suspect happen. One of those phases, if that is the correct term, burnt out. Perhaps at the transformer? Or under ground? So what it sounds like they did was run a jump from the good phase to the bad one going to everyones house. What this means is everyones box now has the same 120 feeding the breakers that would otherwise alternate between the 2 hot leads.
Of course what i am saying has a lot of conjecture and i am not an electric ian. I know a little about this because i have, since i was a teen, had to install 220 lines in places i have lived to feed my arc welder. At times i fed my arc welder thru two single pole 20 amp breakers alternating the feed and fed my generator back the same way. Many floor sanding guys get 220 for their sanders by tieing a heavy extension cord into two alternating breakers and when i got rid of a 220 ac unit once and chose to free up space in the box by getting rid of a breaker, i learned that an ELECTRICIAN created the 220 outlet not by running a new circuit but by tapping into lines from two alternating breakers.
I would call con ed and see if you can find out if you now only have the same phase on both sides of the box or if you simply for some reason are only producing 120. Until you know for certain, i would un plug any things using 220. I would bet money that when they fix this, the dryer will work again.
Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago
This sounds exactly like what just happened to me this weekend. 80% no power and when they restored, there is no 220 which includes our stove. The emergency person said the street repair would be this week but that doesn’t sound likely based on these comments. Guess I better call them.
michaelsaur67 | 4 years and 7 months ago
@Cate. ConEd came back last week to restore 220V by tapping a lightpole across the street and running that cable temporarily into the house. We now have an appointment for early February to have the wiring under the street properly repaired. I guess they are acting speedily because several houses on our block are affected.
JohnHancock | 4 years and 7 months ago
@Cate, yes this true. They say they’ll come back to fix it but in reality they wait to do this after the winter season and only IF you call them to come back….
cate | 4 years and 7 months ago
You must contact ConEd immediately and say this is an emergency. They were going to bridge an outage they caused and remove our 220 volt service until they discovered this would leave one of the units without a working stove. They fixed it the next day. My neighbor was also in this situation (but without the urgent stove issue) and it took them five years to fix it. He was furious.
Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago
i’m not sure, @allyslope. my father in law did this years ago before i was part of the family. i’m not sure whether it would be worth it for a microwave.
allyslope | 4 years and 7 months ago
@Maggie O How would I know and prove an appliance was damaged by a power surge? I have two microwaves that stopped working last few weeks. We periodically have power issues on the block.
michaelsaur67 | 4 years and 7 months ago
Yes, Maggie, I will do that. Thank you.
Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago
if you continue having problems with the dryer after full service is restored i recommend filing a small claim against ConEd for the cost of replacement. My father in law’s refrigerator was damaged by a power surge and he successfully got paid by ConEd for the replacement.