80x100cm Heat Press, 220V Dryer Outlet Wiring?

[spb]

I'm about to buy one of those huge heat presses that requires 220V. I want to use my 3-prong dryer outlet. I see that a standard US dryer plug has two hots and a neutral, and that I can get 220V across the two hots and 110V across each hot/neutral pair. The heat press has a "hot", "null" and "earth" wire. Does the Earth wire matter? Can I just ignore the earth and leave it disconnected?

Since the press part of it is air-powered, I'm also about to get a 6-gallon air compressor (and air filter). I've seen some videos and read some articles about compressors exploding and destroying equipment and ending lives. How likely am I to be caught in an explosion? Should I just buy the clamshell press instead of the pneumatic press?

Thanks for your help.

 

[d fleming]

Biggest cause of compressor disasters is from lack of maintenance, like never draining water from tank causing rust and weak spots. Never leave it on when no one is around. Had a kick down fail overnight on one in warehouse years ago. It ran until tank failure in middle of night. Heck of a mess glad no one was around. Been on closing checklist ever since. As for power, ground, ground, ground.

 

[spb]

Biggest cause of compressor disasters is from lack of maintenance, like never draining water from tank causing rust and weak spots. Never leave it on when no one is around. Had a kick down fail overnight on one in warehouse years ago. It ran until tank failure in middle of night. Heck of a mess glad no one was around. Been on closing checklist ever since. As for power, ground, ground, ground.

I'll definitely stay on top of that compressor. It'll never be on when I'm not around and I'll keep it dry and empty.

Do you reckon I can run the Earth wire to a ground pin on a nearby 110 outlet? I've seen the 4-wire to 3-wire dryer plug adapters that do that.

 

[bob]

First, 'earth' = ground. Ground is ground, usually a green wire and yes, you must attach it to ground somewhere. If you don't you risk electrical shock from whatever device that isn't grounded.

Then, you said there's only three [3] connections to this heat press labelled 'hot', 'null', and 'earth'. If this device is 220 there should be four [4] connections, 2 'hot', typically a black and a red wire, neutral, 'null', typically a white wire, and a ground, 'earth'. a green wire. If it only has one [1] connection labelled 'hot', a black wire, then the device is 110 not 220.

Small compressors don't explode. Perhaps large high prerssure commercial compressors might rarely to the extreme 'explode' but I should think the phenomena might be a rare possibility with air compressors used for recharging high pressure tanks like SCUBA gear. Over the last 50 or so years I've had maybe four compressors, one of which was an oiless model, a noisy rather ineffective device, never again. They all were/are on 24/7 with nary an explosion or any other sort of mishap. Turn it on, leave it on, and check the oil every few years.

 

[2B]

strongly advise having the air compressor in a closet or other area and run an airline to the press.
even the "quiet" ones will get on your nerves after constantly

 

[spb]

Then, you said there's only three [3] connections to this heat press labelled 'hot', 'null', and 'earth'. If this device is 220 there should be four [4] connections, 2 'hot', typically a black and a red wire, neutral, 'null', typically a white wire, and a ground, 'earth'. a green wire. If it only has one [1] connection labelled 'hot', a black wire, then the device is 110 not 220.

It is most definitely 220V, single phase, and there are only three wires. I'm planning on putting:

- 'hot' on hot1 on the dryer plug,
- 'null' aka neutral on hot2 on the dryer plug (since there is 220V across those two pins), and
- 'earth' aka ground to a nearby 110 outlet ground pin
- nothing on the neutral plug on the dryer plug side (leaving the dryer plug neutral disconnected)

Any issues with that? Should I just call an electrician? I think I can use these two prefab cables to do what I want, see attached image. Thanks.

 

[BigNate]

Please do your own research - but from what I recall, European 220v sockets have what could be referred to as "hot" "neutral" and "ground/earth" - these loosely correspond to the U.S. standard 110v plug that also has a hot, a neutral, and a ground. However, in the U.S. the "neutral" was also inaccurately called 'ground' (replaced in the 3-prong outlet with a true ground on the third prong and the return line now called neutral.) When you have a 220v sin wave that goes from -110v to 110v (net dif of 220v) you can do some neat things such as using a single plug for both 220v and 110v circuits (220 between the hot legs, and 110 between any hot leg and the neutral.) the Earth or Ground is a safety feature which allows a return to ground when something compromises the neutral leg. (normal, non-U.S. 220v systems do not have the neutral as all their devices work from the 220v line)

if you have a dryer socket that only accepts 3 prongs, it is outdated - just as outdated as the old 2-prong 110v sockets. Please have an electrician install a new, up-to-code 4-wire 220v plug with the complete 2 hots, 1 neutral, and 1 ground (earth).

just so you know, if you heavily use a single leg of the 220v to run 110v systems, the neutral leg of the 220 socket will be energized by the circuit - elsewhere in the house this same "neutral" can be used as the return (called ground on the old 2-prong 110v plugs,). unfortunately when this happens, older devices (think old-school metal hand drill with 2-prong plug) which use the "ground" to ground their chassis, now have a potential on the return because it is the as the neutral on the 220v plug and is energized from the return power from the 220v plug = BIG SHOCK to whomever is holding the drill --- this exact scenario is why we now have 3-prong plugs which completely separate the grounding function from the electricity return function.


*** Hot, null, and earth would plug into the modern U.S. 4-wire 220v socket like this; HOT and NULL to the 2-hot legs (between these you will see the 220v), earth to the ground (green, not the neutral line) and then leave the neutral or 110v return unused from the plug - your 220v device was for the non-U.S. market and does not use the 110v return at all.

 

[spb]

if you have a dryer socket that only accepts 3 prongs, it is outdated - just as outdated as the old 2-prong 110v sockets. Please have an electrician install a new, up-to-code 4-wire 220v plug with the complete 2 hots, 1 neutral, and 1 ground (earth).

Do you think the attached solution will work instead of replacing the 3-prong plug with a 4-prong plug? I'd rather not get an electrician involved if I don't need to, but if you've heard of any issues with this type of adapter then I'll definitely hire one.

just so you know, if you heavily use a single leg of the 220v to run 110v systems, the neutral leg of the 220 socket will be energized by the circuit - elsewhere in the house this same "neutral" can be used as the return (called ground on the old 2-prong 110v plugs,). unfortunately when this happens, older devices (think old-school metal hand drill with 2-prong plug) which use the "ground" to ground their chassis, now have a potential on the return because it is the as the neutral on the 220v plug and is energized from the return power from the 220v plug = BIG SHOCK to whomever is holding the drill --- this exact scenario is why we now have 3-prong plugs which completely separate the grounding function from the electricity return function.

I don't understand. Are you saying that every time I use a 220V device like a dryer or a heat press, that makes the 110 outlets in the rest of my house more dangerous--but only if I'm using old power tools that don't have a third prong on the plug? I'm not using the neutral pin at all on the dryer plug for the heat press.

*** Hot, null, and earth would plug into the modern U.S. 4-wire 220v socket like this; HOT and NULL to the 2-hot legs (between these you will see the 220v), earth to the ground (green, not the neutral line) and then leave the neutral or 110v return unused from the plug - your 220v device was for the non-U.S. market and does not use the 110v return at all.

That's pretty much what I planned on doing. Thanks for your help!

 

[Superior_Adam]

I would call an electrician and have them wire it. Not worth the risk of doing something wrong and frying your equipment. Wont cost that much since it should be under 1 hour to complete unless they need to run new wires.

 

[d fleming]

First, 'earth' = ground. Ground is ground, usually a green wire and yes, you must attach it to ground somewhere. If you don't you risk electrical shock from whatever device that isn't grounded.

Then, you said there's only three [3] connections to this heat press labelled 'hot', 'null', and 'earth'. If this device is 220 there should be four [4] connections, 2 'hot', typically a black and a red wire, neutral, 'null', typically a white wire, and a ground, 'earth'. a green wire. If it only has one [1] connection labelled 'hot', a black wire, then the device is 110 not 220.

Small compressors don't explode. Perhaps large high prerssure commercial compressors might rarely to the extreme 'explode' but I should think the phenomena might be a rare possibility with air compressors used for recharging high pressure tanks like SCUBA gear. Over the last 50 or so years I've had maybe four compressors, one of which was an oiless model, a noisy rather ineffective device, never again. They all were/are on 24/7 with nary an explosion or any other sort of mishap. Turn it on, leave it on, and check the oil every few years.

Small compressors can indeed explode. I've had one do it.

 

[BigNate]

Do you think the attached solution will work instead of replacing the 3-prong plug with a 4-prong plug? I'd rather not get an electrician involved if I don't need to, but if you've heard of any issues with this type of adapter then I'll definitely hire one.

I don't understand. Are you saying that every time I use a 220V device like a dryer or a heat press, that makes the 110 outlets in the rest of my house more dangerous--but only if I'm using old power tools that don't have a third prong on the plug? I'm not using the neutral pin at all on the dryer plug for the heat press.

That's pretty much what I planned on doing. Thanks for your help!

First, let's clarify something from "bob" traditionally (and in the USA) ground=earth However, 'neutral' does not equal 'ground'. The U.S. system uses a neutral leg with 110v rise and drop - giving a full 220v between the hot legs, and 110v between either hot leg and the neutral.... Now this gets confusing when you use a 2-prong 110v circuit as there is no ground - only a hot and a neutral - and YES if a device puts too much load returning to the neutral from any single leg, the neutral can become energized when compared to the earth or true ground. The U.S. system fixed this when the went to a 3-prong 110v plug that uses a hot, a neutral, and a ground (which the Brits call "earth").

so please DO NOT use the outdated U.S. standard 3-prong 220v socket to power a 3-prong Euro standard device - Old U.S. 3-prong 220v used 2 hot legs and a neutral leg; 4-prong U.S. 220v uses 2 hots, 1 neutral, and 1 ground - European spec 3 prong uses 2 hot legs and a ground (NOT NEUTRAL)

Ground or Earth should never be used as a return line on a circuit, there are only there for safety reasons.

 

[spb]

I'm not planning on doing that, though. Did you see the drawing?

 

[BigNate]

yes, if you have a 4-prong setup, this will work, you simply ignore the neutral leg when wiring EU spec 220v to a U.S. 4-prong 220v (I did not see the initial image)... but from your first post you said you have a 3-prong dryer socket you would like to use - this does not have a true ground wire, only a neutral - you will need the 4-proing setup like the image shows so you are connecting your ground to a ground and not a neutral.

 

[spb]

Small compressors can indeed explode. I've had one do it.

Were you able to determine the cause? How old was it? Was it used constantly? Were there any signs of any issues before a catastrophic failure? Was there a filter on the intake? Thanks.

 

[spb]

yes, if you have a 4-prong setup, this will work, you simply ignore the neutral leg when wiring EU spec 220v to a U.S. 4-prong 220v (I did not see the initial image)... but from your first post you said you have a 3-prong dryer socket you would like to use - this does not have a true ground wire, only a neutral - you will need the 4-proing setup like the image shows so you are connecting your ground to a ground and not a neutral.

I'm planning on using the 3-male to 4-female plug with a ground wire (the green wire) designated for a third pin to a 110V outlet like the attached and ignoring the dryer's neutral wire.. Apparently people use these adapters to hook 4-pin dryers to 3-pin outlets without changing the plug.

 

[BigNate]

.

I'm planning on using the 3-male to 4-female plug with a ground wire (the green wire) designated for a third pin to a 110V outlet like the attached and ignoring the dryer's neutral wire.. Apparently people use these adapters to hook 4-pin dryers to 3-pin outlets without changing the plug.

DO NOT DO THIS!!! If there is a short internally in the printer, there is no "ground" only neutral - a short will energize the neutral leg. Worst case this cause someone to get a shock from a 110v device, it could also mess with electronics on the 110v in your shop.

What would be better is to actually bring a true ground (the green one that attaches to the metal box of your breaker box, but also then goes in the earth - hence the name ground. Again, you want a 2 hot legs and a ground - the 3-prong socket you have for a dryer should have only 2 hots and a neutral - the ground was added on the 4-prong plug.

 

[BigNate]

.. I may be missing something that you are trying - if the adapter you are making connects to a ground and not a neutral you should be good (this has to be separate from the 3-prong socket as there is no ground on the old 3-prong socket)

 

[spb]

When I say the ground, I mean the ground pin on a nearby 110 socket, not the neutral pin on the dryer socket (I'm going to leave pin disconnected). The female 4-pin-to-male 3-pin adapter has a green pigtail with a pin on the end of it that you're supposed to plug into the actual ground socket (not the neutral) of a 110 outlet.

 

[BigNate]

When I say the ground, I mean the ground pin on a nearby 110 socket, not the neutral pin on the dryer socket (I'm going to leave pin disconnected). The female 4-pin-to-male 3-pin adapter has a green pigtail with a pin on the end of it that you're supposed to plug into the actual ground socket (not the neutral) of a 110 outlet.

this does sound like a viable plan - I would double check that the ground on the 3-prong that you will be using is actually a ground (should be easy, but if the property is older, there could be some outlets that were 'updated' and not properly grounded. - just this small step keeps some big shocks from happening later.)

 

[spb]

I'll definitely verify the 110 outlet's grounded before hooking any of this machinery up. Thanks again for your help.