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adaptor so a 220V Brewzilla gen 4 can plug into 110V wall socket.

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kohalajohn

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Ontario Kegs is having a very good sale on their Brewzilla gen 4. But only in 220V. I need 110V.

I can probably find an adaptor for this. But should I? Any problems foreseen?

nema 14-50P female to 110 volt adaptor male
 
No, a 220V boiler cannot be safely and effectively powered by 110V. While it might technically work in the sense that the heating element will draw some power, the results will be significantly reduced and potentially harmful.
 
You would fry the electronics, or start a fire. Please don't do this. If you want one that is switchable, Anvil is the only one I know of that can do either 120 or 240, but it has a mechanical switch that must be set to the correct voltage.
 
No, a 220V boiler cannot be safely and effectively powered by 110V. While it might technically work in the sense that the heating element will draw some power, the results will be significantly reduced and potentially harmful.

Running a 240V heating element on 120V will result in only getting 1/4 of the rated power. So, definitely not effective, but it is not a safety issue. And, the element will only draw 1/2 the current at 120V as it does at 240V.

On the other hand plugging a 120V heating element into a 240V outlet will result in the heater running at 4X its rated power, so lifetime will be "short."

Most modern control electronics are designed to run on a wide range of voltages, so damage is unlikely, unless you have electronics that are not rated for any more than 120V.

Brew on :mug:
 
Ontario Kegs is having a very good sale on their Brewzilla gen 4. But only in 220V. I need 110V.

I can probably find an adaptor for this. But should I? Any problems foreseen?

nema 14-50P female to 110 volt adaptor male

I thought you had a 240V stove outlet and bought an adapter for the stove outlet to Brewzilla plug, so you could run it on 240V as intended. Link

Brew on :mug:
 
Running a 240V heating element on 120V will result in only getting 1/4 of the rated power. So, definitely not effective, but it is not a safety issue. And, the element will only draw 1/2 the current at 120V as it does at 240V.

On the other hand plugging a 120V heating element into a 240V outlet will result in the heater running at 4X its rated power, so lifetime will be "short."

Most modern control electronics are designed to run on a wide range of voltages, so damage is unlikely, unless you have electronics that are not rated for any more than 120V.

Brew on :mug:
My post was lifted off the internet so it must be correct.
 
It's not as dangerous as the other way around, but it's not a good idea. If the unit is set to pull a certain amount of wattage, you could see a fire. It could also damage the cooker. I went with a 110v Mash'n'Boil because all I had available for it is 110, even though I wanted to get a 220v cooker. You won't save any time running it on the lower voltage, and the risk simply is not worth it to me.
 
It's not as dangerous as the other way around, but it's not a good idea. If the unit is set to pull a certain amount of wattage, you could see a fire. It could also damage the cooker. I went with a 110v Mash'n'Boil because all I had available for it is 110, even though I wanted to get a 220v cooker. You won't save any time running it on the lower voltage, and the risk simply is not worth it to me.

Heaters are not "set to pull a certain amount of wattage." A heater is nothing but a resistor, that has a fixed value of resistance. When supplied power by a fixed voltage source, the current that flows is determined by the voltage and resistance according to Ohm's Law: V = I * R, which can be rearranged to: I = V / R. If you cut the voltage in half, the current will also be cut in half. Since power is given by P = V * I, you can substitute either form of Ohm's Law into the power equation and get: P = V^2 / R and P = I^2 * R. So, if you cut the voltage in half you also cut the current in half, and the power is cut by a factor of 4.

Brew on :mug:
 
Ontario Kegs is having a very good sale on their Brewzilla gen 4. But only in 220V. I need 110V.

I can probably find an adaptor for this. But should I? Any problems foreseen?

nema 14-50P female to 110 volt adaptor male

Coordinating both threads I see you're concerned about warranty. If OBK said they would void the warranty for using adapters, it really doesn't matter whether is was the "practical" 240v to 240v version or the unadvisable 240v to 120v version you're asking about here. You'd void the warranty either way... don't do this.. Just use the adapter you ordered on Amazon and enjoy.
 
Heaters are not "set to pull a certain amount of wattage." A heater is nothing but a resistor, that has a fixed value of resistance. When supplied power by a fixed voltage source, the current that flows is determined by the voltage and resistance according to Ohm's Law: V = I * R, which can be rearranged to: I = V / R. If you cut the voltage in half, the current will also be cut in half. Since power is given by P = V * I, you can substitute either form of Ohm's Law into the power equation and get: P = V^2 / R and P = I^2 * R. So, if you cut the voltage in half you also cut the current in half, and the power is cut by a factor of 4.

Brew on :mug:
Sorry... using "pull" in a loose way. Not trying to say it's actually pulling or drawing power actively. What I mean is if it's on that circuit with something else, and that something else turns on, pop goes the breaker.
 
Sorry... using "pull" in a loose way. Not trying to say it's actually pulling or drawing power actively. What I mean is if it's on that circuit with something else, and that something else turns on, pop goes the breaker.
I'm not sure anyone was talking about putting multiple loads on the same branch circuit.

Brew on :mug:
 
Ontario Kegs is having a very good sale on their Brewzilla gen 4. But only in 220V. I need 110V.

I can probably find an adaptor for this. But should I? Any problems foreseen?

nema 14-50P female to 110 volt adaptor male
I was looking forward to hearing your recounting of your first use of the 220V Brewzilla you just got.... Please tell me you're not second-guessing your choice because of a line of legalese in the warranty from an Australian company who sells products they had made in China..... I'm sure the warranty is no different than that of your toaster or tea-kettle. You chose a decent adapter and hey: almost all the domestic 220V Brewzilla users either change their cord or receptacle or plug....2-hots and 1-ground, couldn't be simpler, but then people do a lot of really stupid things so yeah, OBK must make a disclaimer owing to the idiocy of the world, but based on your posts you are clearly not one of these idiots;
646496c18644eb2d184f0d6046e36804-2222883708.jpg

Please fill us in on what's up?
:mug:
 
I was looking forward to hearing your recounting of your first use of the 220V Brewzilla you just got.... Please tell me you're not second-guessing your choice because of a line of legalese in the warranty from an Australian company who sells products they had made in China..... I'm sure the warranty is no different than that of your toaster or tea-kettle. You chose a decent adapter and hey: almost all the domestic 220V Brewzilla users either change their cord or receptacle or plug....2-hots and 1-ground, couldn't be simpler, but then people do a lot of really stupid things so yeah, OBK must make a disclaimer owing to the idiocy of the world, but based on your posts you are clearly not one of these idiots;
View attachment 875972
Please fill us in on what's up?
:mug:
Someone should tell that person they usually have adapters at the front desk.
 
A BZ G4 35L, takes 2400W @230V. A 3kW transformer could easily manage that.
I'm in UK, and they're known as site transformers, here. Though they're designed to power 120V tools, off our (nominally) 230V supply, transformers work just as happily either way way round.

Don't know what you're circuits are rated at current wise, but you'd need at least a 20A (fused) circuit to feed the transformer. Electronic trips are more sensitive to inductive loads (like a transformer being plugged in) than fuses, so a 30/32A trip might be needed.
 
A BZ G4 35L, takes 2400W @230V. A 3kW transformer could easily manage that.
I'm in UK, and they're known as site transformers, here. Though they're designed to power 120V tools, off our (nominally) 230V supply, transformers work just as happily either way way round.

Don't know what you're circuits are rated at current wise, but you'd need at least a 20A (fused) circuit to feed the transformer. Electronic trips are more sensitive to inductive loads (like a transformer being plugged in) than fuses, so a 30/32A trip might be needed.
120V branch circuits in residential buildings are limited to a max of 20A typically. So max available power is 2400W. A transformer will have some losses, so 120V to 240V step up transformer will have a max usable output of less than 2400W. A low efficiency (85%) could only deliver 2040W, and a high efficiency (95%) could deliver 2280W. Transformer efficiencies are usually rated at 50% of rated transformer power, and efficiency goes down as the load increases beyond that point.

The best option is to run the BZ from a 240V circuit.

Brew on :mug:
 
Why is the US still on 110 volts? That and Imperial Units its dark age. 😂😂😂
Safety. The USA runs on 240v but we split it to 120 for most devices. No need to replace any transformer anywhere.
Fine! I'll split hairs: This western continent actually runs on 120V x 2 phases which are summed for 240V. (unlike the UK single phase 220V)
My GF is a UK-import and her parents while on a visit to the homeland were considering bringing back an electric tea-kettle because they wanted a kettle with a decent boil time. Our local electric code suggests so many plugs for so much space in whatever rooms and modern homes that have the 4-plug outlets are wired with one 120V phase in the left 2 plugs and the other 120V phase for the right 2 plugs... I started making a dual-plug adapter so they'd be able to plug an imported 220V kettle into their 4-gang kitchen outlet. ..it would've worked, but they ended up not buying the kettle....just thought I'd throw that in there for anyone on this continent who may which to make a cup of tea in a respectable time-frame instead of continuing to rough-it as all us colonials do.
:mug:
 
220 (240) VAC in the US is single phase...
That only goes as far as the hydro-pole and not into your house: 240V single phase is fed to a transformer with a centre-tap that then feeds 2 120V lines, 180° out of phase, to your service panel... only when you've installed a 240V breaker to 'reunite' the phases do you get 240V in your home via 2-hots. Each phase peaks at 120V, contrasted to the UK where the single phase (1-hot, 1-neutral) peaks at 220V.
 
That only goes as far as the hydro-pole and not into your house: 240V single phase is fed to a transformer with a centre-tap that then feeds 2 120V lines, 180° out of phase, to your service panel... only when you've installed a 240V breaker to 'reunite' the phases do you get 240V in your home via 2-hots. Each phase peaks at 120V, contrasted to the UK where the single phase (1-hot, 1-neutral) peaks at 220V.

Correct about the center tapped transformer to get two different phases of 120V, but I'm pretty sure the local transmission distribution lines are running at significantly higher that 240V to minimized IR losses in the wires.

Edit: Thought I should verify:

1747849192461.png


Brew on :mug:
 
Correct about the center tapped transformer to get two different phases of 120V

Try again.

"Residential electric service in the United States (120/240 Vac) is sometimes called two-phase service but this is NOT correct. It is only single-phase, since both line voltages are derived from a single phase of a distribution transformer with a center tapped neutral and are 180° out of phase with each other."
 
Try again.

"Residential electric service in the United States (120/240 Vac) is sometimes called two-phase service but this is NOT correct. It is only single-phase, since both line voltages are derived from a single phase of a distribution transformer with a center tapped neutral and are 180° out of phase with each other."

I'll believe what I see on an oscilloscope display, rather than some arbitrary definition that goes against reality. I agree that if you add the two together you get single phase 240V.

Brew on :mug:
 

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