Got a call from our tenant over the weekend. Breaker #1, the breaker for the garage, including the washer and dryer, was tripped 3-4 times in the past week. As part of the remodeling project, the laundry hookups were moved into the garage from inside the house. The only change on the electrical side was to replace the plugs from 2-pronged to 3-pronged.
The electrical current requirements are 8-10 amps for a washer and 6-8 amps for a gas-dryer, according to Sears. We are on a 15 amps breaker there, which is close to the limit, but should be ok, as I thought originally. So, it's time to consider upgrading the service panel from 100 amps to 200 amps (a job around $1.5K-$2k)? And giving the garage a separate 20 amps circuit ($150-$200)?
We have a similar set of Kenmore washer and dryer in our house, from the 80's. The washer was pulled out, the bottom cleaned up, and the back examined. We noticed a green wire connected from the back of the washer to the faucet in the wall. Looks like that is the grounding wire that might be necessary to keep the surge current from tripping the breaker (surge current is usually generated when the motor starts, which happens frequently during a wash cycle), and that might have been the problem in our rental house?
On Monday, I went there to check on the washer and connected the green wire to the copper faucet (that was not installed by the mover, i guess). I left my cell phone number to the housekeeper there and a voice mail to our tenant. The problem might have been solved, as the tenant told me over a phone call on Friday. It would be delightful to have a simple solution for a seemingly complicated problem.
But in the end, the problem seemed to persist. An electrician was called in. He located a short circuit in one of the 2 plugs. The cost was around $175 (labor- $75/hour*2 + material).
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