Hello,
Thank you for stopping to read my post.
I am trying to help my grandmother locate the breaker for a 250v outlet as she needs a new dryer in her house and is switching from gas to electric.
If the picture came through correctly, would anyone here have any suggestions on which of these might be connected to said outlet?
From what I could find online so far, it’s supposedly one of the breakers with two switches attached together. I’m just not sure which, as the outlet itself says 50amps and none of these specifically list that number on (what I assume) is the amp amount marked on the switches. All the electrical at this house is so disorganized no one knows what’s what right now (which I am definitely going to hire an electrician to remedy soon). And I also don’t have anything to plug into the outlet to simply switch things on/off and see if power gets cut to it and she needs a dryer sooner than we’ll be able to hire said electrician.
I’m hoping to test the outlet before getting her a dryer, as it just hasn’t been use for almost 2 decades, which I read requires switching off the breaker for the outlet prior to connecting a multimeter but I’m limited on what I’m familiar with electrically, and money is extremely limited so trying to save her money by doing what I can before getting an electrician called in for anything significant.
Any advice, suggestions, or direction are greatly appreciated.
Either way, thank you again for taking the time.
Use a non contact voltage detector (NCV) and turn the breakers off one at a time until you find the one that makes the NCV stop beeping. Often called a chicken-stick by electricians, they are pretty cheap and readily available.
5$ at the horror freight: https://www.harborfreight.com/noncontact-voltage-tester-63919.html
For sure, it’s going to be one of the dual width units (#4-6, 8-10, 7-9, 11-13, 12-14… Etc) it’s almost certainly not the 100A one which likely goes to a sub-panel. That means she has a sub-panel in the house and the breaker you are looking for could be in there.
Thank you very much. I’ll be looking into this tool. I really appreciate the advice.
Hooking up a voltmeter to an outlet with no power because the breaker’s off isn’t going to tell you anything, other than there’s no power on that outlet, but you won’t know why unless you leave the meter connected and then turn the breaker on to verify.
Now may be a good opportunity to label stuff - start with turning breakers off and determining what goes dark - label those accordingly. Inventory the outlets, find all the 220/250 ones - those will be on these double breakers (including electric water heat).
You’ll then be left with only a couple unknowns, probably just one, since the dryer circuit doesn’t have anything on it.
I’ve gone so far as to put a label on each outlet using a labeler with clear tape in it.
Edit: Pretty sure a dryer outlet isn’t going to require a 100amp breaker, so ignore those.
Looks like there’s
32 double breakers rated for 30 amps, it’s most likely one of those - #9 and #29.Edit2: Could also be a 60 amp circuit, though I don’t know why a dryer would need 60amp at 220/240 these days, but I’m not an electrician.
(just commenting on your edits)
Well, OP did say the outlet is labeled for 50A, but that doesn’t really narrow anything down reliably. You could still wire two single pole 30A breakers for 220. Granted, that is really stupid but not beyond what someone would do in a pinch.
Given that there isn’t any visible labeling, I would err on the side of caution and test and label everything like you said.
Do you have a multi meter or a non contact voltage tester? Something like a Klein Tools NCVT1P is $20 on Amazon and also at any local hardware store / Home Depot / Walmart. You’re guaranteed to use it in the future.
Test it with a known working outlet, then once you know how to use it, hold it at the outlet you are looking for while someone else flips breakers until you find the right one. Shouting used to be necessary but these days everyone has a cell phone so use it like a walkie talkie.
I just had a new water heater installed and the plumber used one despite my knowing which was the 250v breaker. Wiring can be weird and done wrong ( but still working.) .
Thank you for your suggestion. I have an uncle with a multimeter but he wasn’t sure about testing a 250v outlet, and the guide I found instructed to start testing by flipping off the circuit breaker, so I started looking for that. But I’ll be looking into this Non-Contact tool. I really appreciate the advice.
Until you call an electrician, all I can think of is to plug something in and do the on/off test. You said you aren’t able to find anything to plug in there, but I don’t understand what you mean. A lamp, TV, toaster, phone charger, alarm clock, radio, microwave, any of those would work to test with to see if the outlet has power when switching off the breakers. Unless she has nothing else plugged in throughout the entire house then I would just do that, it’s by far the easiest way to test.
A lamp, TV, toaster, phone charger, alarm clock, radio, microwave
He said it’s 250v and that’s not going to have a nema 15 outlet that you could plug any of those into.
This would work on a typical 120v outlet, but a 220/240v outlet is only used for appliances.
This is where a voltmeter is useful.
If I had to guess, it’s probably the 40a breaker, it’s not too uncommon to put a 50a receptacle on a 40a breaker depending on the load.
The breaker box is supposed to have a chart on the inside of the door with labels that show what each of the breakers is for.
If it doesn’t have that, best to start adding that documentation as you find out what each one does.
Unfortunately the chart is unhelpful. Either ambiguous naming, or “girl’s room” type stuff. And no one is aware of what those designations mean anymore (people moving in and out and having done this or that random work themselves or with some random person they happened to know). But I definitely will be updating the labels ASAP.
