Ask the Electrician

Follow the lighting circuit to see where it goes, make sure it's not getting power from another circuit. A pic would help

 

I don't have a megger. But I may be able to get access to one. The whole house was rewired I think about 8 years ago. So its all new wiring. I just bought the house about a month ago, and nothing has been messed with. I'm definitely going to replace the receptacle. I didn't know a loose wire would cause that. Thanks for the help.

 

I'm sure it's good but I would also make sure the receptacle is rated for the drier amperage as well. There should be a schedule on the back of the drier somewhere and the receptacle has it on the faceplate usually.

 

Ok. I'll take a look at that as well. Thanks again.

 

I will try to get a pic next time I am up in the attic. Which actually may be tonight, because yesterday I had an awesome time trying to install, of all things, a damn doorbell. Our old doorbell was nasty looking and falling apart. I figured no biggie, I'll just pull the old one off, put on a new one and be good to go! Nope. Whoever installed the wiring to the doorbell push button, installed it BEHIND the metal trim pieces for the storm door. Those wires came out from behind the trim, and were all frayed. So I took the trim piece off, and the wires for the push button (1 red and 1 white) were both frayed. So I figured I would just cut off the wires, pull a little more wire out, and strip the ends. Well, after I cut the wires, they were flush with the trim, and I can't pull anymore out.
So I went around the house, and found 2 step down transformers. 1 connected to a junction box right on my boiler (house has hot water heat) and one on another random junction box. Well, the only thing in the house that I can think of that would use low voltage wiring are the doorbell and the thermostats for the boiler, and the AC.
So I guess here is my question. Is it ok to just leave those wires at the push button, and put in a wireless system. Do I need to disconnect them from the transformer? And if so, how do i figure out which step down transformer the push button wires are connected to?

 

I had that same situation in a house I owned and went with a wireless one. Thing with wireless is you have to worry about a battery in the button itself. The battery doesn't last as long as you'd like it to. Plus you don't know if its dead till someone tries to use it. I personally wouldn't go back to wireless unless I absolutely had no other choice.

Is there any room to splice new wire onto the old? Some doorbell wire couple of small wire nuts and some electrical tape and you'd be good to go. If there's room.

But if you have no other option, IMO you'd be fine to just tape off each wire end and leave it be. I wouldn't leave exposed wire anywhere, but I'd be comfortable with it taped off.

I assume you have separate thermostats for A/C and heat since its hot water heat? Does the one near your furnace have wires going to the furnace itself?

 

yeah, there's no room for wire nuts. I was thinking of trying to just put electrical tape over the ends of the wires and leaving them be, then going the wireless route.But with the way the wires are now, it will even be hard to get electrical tape around them. lol. I'll take a pic when I get home.

 

Damn. Well I'd atleast want tape on the ends. I know its crazy low voltage but I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it bare.

 

Yeah, I ended up being able to get behind the trim and putting electrical tape (ALOT of elcetrical tape) around the wires. I'm just gonna do a wireless doorbell.

 

Best bet is a toner (also called a fox & hound), they are scarce and expensive but will pin point the wiring source in a few seconds. I'm not too good with low voltage circuits (I work industrial) so I can't help with the xformers too much but you could google search the mfg of the xformer and see if it's linked to a door bell of any kind. You could also try to trace out the wiring to be 100% certain. Sorry I can't help more, if you were local I'd swing by and get R done.

 

Asking electricians about control wiring is just mean guys stop it!

 

Depends on the electrician. I am good with PLCs and programming logic, I can set limits on valves.. but gimme a door bell and idk what the hell to do lol

 

LOL. Doorbells are pretty simple. They just run off of those small transformers to lower the voltage. Then its just 2 wires off of that to the button and chime. Unless you have a separate button for a back door.

Biggest issue on dealing with those is finding the damn transformers. Like TacomaPrime's issue. I've never seen one in the same spot. Most of the time their location make zero sense. It seems like its a random location picked by whoever installed it.

 

Transformers can arc pretty easily which would cause a fire, other than that I guess it would depend on the installer or the application. They also generate a lot of heat so ventilation is kind of important too.

 

Agreed. I've only dealt with older homes and they are just randon locations. I've yet to locate the one in my house now.

 

Another thing that will cause this is the inner clamps that compress on the plug prongs not compressing. They can become worn out and make a loose connection. If a tight connection isn't made then it overheats because there is less surface area for the current to flow through.

 

yes, but you should see what your local codes say about ungrounded receptacles.

what he said

 

It did not do that when it was not being used. With out a doubt bad connection. It is an older dryer outlet it is not a 4 wire the "L" shaped connection is the ground/neutral. The outlet is junk do not use it.

 

Makes sense. There are no loose wires and everything else seems ok. So you are probably right. That was one of my first thoughts.

Not really worried about code, just want it to work and be safe.

Wut? The dryer was not on when I smelled the odor of something electrical burning. And smelling this outlet and the dryers plug, its the exact odor I smelled strongly at the time.