Require An Electricians Advice 230V Italian (IEC?) to 240V NEC

TX98Z28

Well bought a commercial Italian vapor steamer with injection from a legit USA company for the auto detailing business. Seems there could be a big problem though, this things literally straight from Italy with a crazy looking Italian plug. I cut the plug off there are 3 wires, Brown 230V Line/Hot, Blue/Neutral, Yellow/Green/Ground. Are 240V Single Phase receptacles over here in America are 120V Red/Hot, 120V/Black/Hot, Green/Ground.

From what I've read around various forums online people (some claiming their Electricians or Electrical Engineers) are saying they rewired European/Italian coffee makers etc. as follows...
Brown Line/Hot to Red/Hot or Black/Hot, Blue/Neutral to Red/Hot or Black/Hot, Yellow/Green/Ground to Green/Ground. 

Here are some pics of the on/off switch on the front of steamer and the internals of the steamer where the 3 main conductors hook up. Be sure to turn your screen brightness up or won't be able to see the 3 main wires clearly.

Thank you in advance to those who are knowledgeable in this electrical field stuff. 
     

Amos_Umwhat

I know exactly zip about electrics, but, I did live in Germany for a total of about 5 years.  One thing I learned was that regardless of the voltage, the cycles are different.  I think ours are 60 cycle, theirs are 50 cycle.  What's cycling?  I don't know, but it matters, whatever it is.

TX98Z28

@Amos_Umwhat, correct we are on 60Hz here and the machine is 50Hz. From what I've read it causes motors to speed up 20% by using a 50Hz appliance on 60Hz. The steamer should be fine on 60Hz, it's the main power wiring I'm concerned about. 

Grawls

As long as you’re sure that it’s 230volts and not 120 volts, the yes wire it like you said. Green to ground, and brown/blue to red/ black. I don’t know about the difference in hertz though. 

0patience

You will need to change out the cord at the power supply.
But blue should be neutral and yellow ground, but without seeing the schematics for it, hard to tell.
The problem with going from 50-60 hz is that it takes a toll on diodes, resistors and windings.shoukd be ok, but the life will suffer.
Do you have the scematics for the machine?

Are you sure it's not 3 phase?

US
Red 110 leg
Black 110 leg
Green ground
White neutral

TX98Z28

@Grawls, Yep for sure 230V 50Hz 3200W 13.5A
@0patience, No schematics, can only take pics of the wiring unfortunately. Why change the cord out? Also has lifetime warranty on the major stuff, guy said even with heavy use hes rarely seen problems...So I’m thinking why the fvck not just have them make it to NEC specs and have an NEMA plug made from the factory in Italy when exporting to the USA LOL!

0patience

The reason I would change the cord out is so that if OSHA (assuming this is commercial) comes by and inspects, you are covered. And if someone chops or damages the cord, you won't go thru this again.
Plus if someone else has to repair the cord, they will be able to. If an electrician sees different colors, they may walk away.
What is the make and model of it? The manufacturer should have something on it.

TX98Z28

@0patience, gotcha on changing the cord, as far as above the US specs you listed, I’d internally hook up both
red&black 120V wires to the brown wire to make 240V then it’s just white to blue for neutral and ground to ground?

0patience

So here's where the problem is. If the set up is a single 240v wire/connector, then it should work, but without the schematics, hitting that terminal with 240 might not be a good idea.
US will have split power terminals.
If I knew that there was a European standard and what it was, could say.
But not knowing for sure, unsure.
Does the destructions give you any wiring info?

TX98Z28

@0patience, I’ll contact the owner and request a wiring schematic tomorrow. Best if I can get it hooked up to proper NEC OSHA specs as you have stated.

matkn293

Take a pic of where the cord is connected. I don’t know standard voltages in Europe but when you say 230v over here that means 2 hot wires. For 240 in the states it would be 2 hots, 1 neutral (maybe unless it’s a resistive load) and a ground. 

matkn293

It seems after a little light reading the EU 230v is equivalent of US 120v. You also have the cycle (hertz) difference. Wire a plug as you said above and try it out. May be slower or take longer to heat due to a reduced voltage. If it’s too bad you can get a buck/boost transformer to correct the voltage / cycle issue. 

IndustMech

I bet you need 230v on one wire (brown), and neutral on the other (blue). Connecting it to U.S. 120 volt receptacle will cause it to fail in an unspectacular manner.

avengethis

Just connect a knife to each wire and plug them into the outlets and see what works.  Should be no problem.







*end sarcasm*

TX98Z28

^Should be catastrophic

TX98Z28

Got better pics of stuff until can get wiring schematic.

Heres the plug I cut off, Top terminal is Ground, Bottom left terminal is 230V Line, Bottom right terminal is Neutral


Main cord coming into machine from back, runs under big white box exits with Yellow/Green/Ground reversing back being grounded to the frame grounding point. Both the Brown and Blue wires run up and connect to the On/Off switch.


Shows the Brown 230V Line wire connecting to one bottom terminal on the On/Off switch, Blue Neutral wire connecting to other bottom terminal. The White and Black wires coming off the top of the on/off switch go into the big white box. I tried opening this big white junction box but afraid of breaking the plastic fasteners they didn't exactly want to turn.


Front of On/Off switch

jd50ae

No matter what you do turn the water off 1st.

peter4jc

All this will be resolved once the CFR installs the one-world govt.

Patrickbrick

When I need an electrician I call Bill.  He comes over, takes care of it in less than 5 minutes, makes fun of me for 5 minutes, then we smoke and have a beer or five.  So in a nut shell call Bill. 

TX98Z28

jd50ae said:

No matter what you do turn the water off 1st.

Nothing like a shocking first hand experience 

dirtdude

They make adapters
The one in the middle looks like your plug

TX98Z28

dirtdude said:

They make adapters
The one in the middle looks like your plug

That straight 230 to 240? Prongs look different in middle one

TX98Z28

^on middle one, dam night I’m drunk 

IndustMech

I think you need to go from 120v to 230v

240v U.S. is 2 ungrounded conductors or hot, a grounded conductor or neutral, and a ground. I believe 230v European is 1 ungrounded conductor or hot, 1 grounded conductor neutral, and a ground. Connecting 240v U.S. to 230v European would fail spectacularly.  Tripped breaker, if your lucky.

TX98Z28

TX98Z28 said:

dirtdude said:

They make adapters
The one in the middle looks like your plug

That straight 230 to 240? Prongs look different in middle one

Disregard previous post, was drinking last night. You’re right does look like my plug, just hard to believe it will work with this crazy internal wiring. Not sure if it’s OSHA approved either which is another problem I didn’t forsee until @0patience pointed it out.

YankeeMan

What you all are talking about is exactly I don't fool with electricity.  I don't have a bleeping idea what you are talking about!  I always told people, if I was smart enough to be an electrician, I wouldn't have been a cop!

Diver43

First of all I am not an electrician, never played one on TV and did not sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.
With that said, after our recent travels abroad, and checking with an electrician friend. I have learned that most modern electrical products are made with dual voltage innards. Often the only thing needed is a plug adapter like @dirtdude posted a picture of.
I know our new digital camera charger, electric razor, and hair dryer only needed the adapter, no switch to flip, or cord to change.  Could this be the same?

dirtdude

Disclaimer: I am no electrician.

My understanding most electronics will handle dual voltage, although I had to replace the battery and charger on my laptop. Just because you have an adapter and can plug it in does not mean you have the correct voltage to operate. I was pretty pleased with myself for getting a small coffee pot to africa unbroken, plugged it in with my handy dandy adaptor, started it up and that thing went into overdrive, sounded like a rocket...for a half a pot...done. I cut the cord off and threw it away.

TX98Z28

dirtdude said:

Disclaimer: I am no electrician.

My understanding most electronics will handle dual voltage, although I had to replace the battery and charger on my laptop. Just because you have an adapter and can plug it in does not mean you have the correct voltage to operate. I was pretty pleased with myself for getting a small coffee pot to africa unbroken, plugged it in with my handy dandy adaptor, started it up and that thing went into overdrive, sounded like a rocket...for a half a pot...done. I cut the cord off and threw it away.

LOL Gonna love 220-240V depending which country you went to. Nothing like cutting the time in half! Some Brit on another forum said he can cook a bag of popcorn in like a minute. 

TX98Z28

Talked with owner he assures its Brown/Hot to Black or Red Hot, Blue/Neutral to remaining Black or Red Hot, Yellow/Green/Ground to Ground. Assures nothing in the steam machine uses 120V. Everything is 230-240V. Says machine still uses 230-240V Single Phase, only difference is over here the second Hot is to the Euro Blue Neutral to make the machine see 240V.

0patience

Years ago, we were doing work in a small country and a young corporal hooked up a wireless unit into an outlet with an adapter and the moment he turned it on, it smoked like a BBQ. When we went to look at it, it fried most the circuits.
After trying to figure out what went wrong, we discovered that the building was 230v and the wireless was 120v. 
We had to have the fly boys bring us in new units.