240v Electrical Question

[John Beere]

When I had the brewery wired up, they put in 4-wire 240v GFCI circuits and dryer plugs.. but my heating element in my Heat Exchanger / HLT uses 3-wires. I replaced the wall plug yesterday and removed one of the hot legs (so its currently using G, W, & R.. B is just capped off), but what I expected to happen did.. it isn't getting full power and barely heating.

So minus all the "240 kills" comments, what are my options? I've already got a call into the electrician for tomorrow but was wanting to run a test batch today.

Thanks in advance..

 

[Hammy71]

Your heat exchanger is probably not using a neutral if it's 220volt. If your going to replace the receptacle for three wire 220 you need the Red, Black, and the ground, cap off the white. You need the two hots to make 220v. (110 on each.) Of course, if your using the outlet for other 220 items that require a neutral (4 wire), your kinda limiting yourself.

 

[NattyBrew]

Your issue there is that you are only running 120 volts at the outlet now. By removing the black leg of the 10/3 wire they installed you are only picking up and running one leg of your 240 volt service to you outlet. You need to cut the power, open the receptacle back up and re-wire it.

What you would want to do in this situation is properly attach both the red and black hot legs (giving you 240 volts) and have the white wire (neutral) attached to the third blade of your receptacle. You can either leave the ground wire loose inside the box or if it is a metal box ground the wire to the box.

 

[John Beere]

I have the green ground wire grounded to my keggle.. and then then two others run to the heating element. Right now I have White and Red (making just 120v, I get that much).


**Edit** Removing wrong information in case anyone else reads it and take it for truth

 

[bruin_ale]

Your issue there is that you are only running 120 volts at the outlet now. By removing the black leg of the 10/3 wire they installed you are only picking up and running one leg of your 240 volt service to you outlet. You need to cut the power, open the receptacle back up and re-wire it.

What you would want to do in this situation is properly attach both the red and black hot legs (giving you 240 volts) and have the white wire (neutral) attached to the third blade of your receptacle. You can either leave the ground wire loose inside the box or if it is a metal box ground the wire to the box.

Agree with the first part, but not the second. You want the kettle grounded and you have no use for Neutral as you're not using 120V anywhere.

 

[flatulentfox]

I have the green ground wire grounded to my keggle.. and then then two others run to the heating element. Right now I have White and Red (making just 120v, I get that much).

So Neutral (White) replaces the actual ground.. and Red and Black make up the two hot legs? Makes sense..

No!

The three wires needed are your two hot legs and ground. Three wire 240 does not use neutral. You absolutely always have a ground.

The outlet should have three screws, two of which ate brass and one which is probably green, for ground.

 

[John Beere]

Agree with the first part, but not the second. You want the kettle grounded and you have no use for Neutral as you're not using 120V anywhere.

Thanks for that.. I was just questioning it myself.

So Green is still ground.. drop White, and replace it with Black.

 

[NattyBrew]

Yeah, that's the idea. If your control panel has a neutral bus bar or common connection point to run some 120 volt components you need to have that outlet wired correctly or you could damage your equipment.

Older dryer outlets, the three prong style, have a bonded ground/neutral wire which leaves you with just the two hot legs, red and black, and the neutral, white wires. New code requires that you install 10/3 wire which provides a separate neutral and ground wire for your dryer which is why the guys who did your work installed the four prong style.

 

[John Beere]

No!

The three wires needed are your two hot legs and ground. Three wire 240 does not use neutral. You absolutely always have a ground.

The outlet should have three screws, two of which ate brass and one which is probably green, for ground.

yeah.. I'm with you.. was just googling it.. thanks much for the reply.

 

[bruin_ale]

If this thing is running to your control panel (as Natty states), then you probably need all 4 ( 2 hots, neutral, and ground). That's not what it sounded like from the original post. If you've only got a three prong and you're only using 240v on it then you need two hots and a ground. If you're running this to a control panel and it's powering 240v and 120v, you need all 4.

 

[John Beere]

When I wired up my control panel years back, I just used a 3-prong plug at the wall as that is how my old hot water heater was wired up and I'd just switch between the two. You can read a little about it here if interested: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/deep-six-brewing-system-v2-0-a-79435/

 

[John Beere]

Ok, I'm all wired up with Green (for ground) and Red and Black.. No neutral. Working like a champ.. Just ramped the HLT over 20 degrees in less than 5 minutes.

Thanks much for your expertise!