[Kickb]

Well I changed out my 3 wire plug to a 4 wire plug on my dryer.

The guy at home Depot said to play with it "the worst thing that will happen is you'll trip your breaker"

We'llI this bbitch blew up; sparks everywhere, I nearly Shit my pants.

This thing knocked out power to my entire apartment

I've tried Google but I couldn't find anything hat was all that helpful.

I tried switching off and on all the switches but it won't reset. What should I do?

[Architekt]

Lol, if you shut down your whole apartment's power, you'll probably have to reset it in the building's meter box. Usually one of the staff or the owner/manager will get someone out to do it asap, though, so you probably won't have to worry. What was it that sparked? You could have done a lot of things, like short them across the plug, hooked them up backwards and fried your dryer, etc.. Ps, I read about this in the manliness thread just a couple of hours ago..

[Kickb]

looks like the jig is up.


I hadn't switched it out yet when I posted in that thread.
kind if like spending money before you get it.


I have renters insurance, maybe my dryer did get fried. in that case I guess I'll just get another dryer?

[ms224]

In the US of A, white should always be neutral. Black and red are hot and green is ground.

On the plug, the screw terminals should have a green one (for ground), a nickel plated one for the neutral (or white) and brass
screws for the hot lines.

Check your plug. You probably have a neutral and a hot reversed.

Did you reset the big breaker on the top?

Also this:

[Kickb]

ha, that's why.

I have black and red on top of each other!

[ms224]

Oh, you shorted the two legs. Yea, that's bad.

In theory, the two circuit breakers nearest to the fault should trip but not always.

Did you check the big breaker at the very top?

Also, electrocution hurts, fyi.

[Kickb]

Ya I had it all hooked up and plugged in. Then I flipped the circuit switch.

I don'thave a big breaker switch iup top. I guess that's for the mantinence.

[ms224]

You're on a subpanel and tripped the main breaker going to it.

I would ask the maintenance guy at this point.

The breakers are there to protect your equipment (and you, somewhat) from frying.

[Kickb]

He's supposed to come out and fix my AC tomorrow. So I guess we can add this to his todo list.

Learned some important lessons tonight.

Red and black are hot.

[ms224]

Actually its green is ground, neutral is white (usually, I think there is some exceptions to this) all other colors can be hot.
Thats in the US, its different in other parts of the world.

Always check with a meter!

[Kickb]

Well it's finally fixed. What a fiasco. Took the dude foreverlol.

I'm afraid to plug my dryer in now.