How to wire 240 to an L6-30 receptacle?

[ryojin]

Just picked up a blichmann Brewcommander and I’m having someone wire 240v/30A circuit. The Brewcommander 240v system OOTB has an L6-30 plug which plugs directly into an L6-30R receptacle for power. The guy doing the wiring told me that I can’t wire 240 to an L6-30R receptacle, that I’ll need to put a “4 prong receptacle” instead. Is anyone familiar with this that knows if I should trust this? This seems strange to me; I’ll need to find an adapter to plug into a 4-prong receptacle that then converts it to an L6-30 in order to plug the Brewcommander in? Also, why am I finding 240v L6-30R receptacles online if this is the case? Hoping someone with more knowledge about this stuff than I can help explain it to me.

 

[z-bob]

240V is what L6-30 is specifically made for. And as a dedicated outlet, it used to not require any ground-fault or arc-fault protection (perhaps that has changed recently but I doubt it.) You probably want ground-fault protection, but that's a different issue.

Hire somebody else to wire it, or do it yourself. (use 10 gauge cable and a 2-pole breaker; either a normal breaker or a GFCI breaker)

Perhaps he thinks you're going to plug a clothes dryer into it and you live in a mobile home. But that's a different receptacle.

 

[jrgtr42]

i've never seen that style set for 120V... |I'd think about finding a different electrician.

 

[Bobby_M]

It's pretty simple. L6-30 is specifically a 240 volt ONLY outlet using 3 wires. That's 2 hots and one ground.

The four prongs your electrician is referring to is 14-30R or L14-30R and that is a dual 240 and 120 setup with 2 hots, a ground and a neutral.

What I recommend asking for is a 4-wire pull but to just cap off the neutral in the receptacle box and hook up an L6-30R. The reason for the 4 wire run is to future-proof the install in case you want to change over to a different controller. See, many controllers grab all four wires so the pump switch can be powered off the same circuit. Blichmann chose to isolate the 120v circuit completely.

There is no reason to deny that request so move on to a different contractor if they refuse.

 

[JPBowden]

I built an L6-30 adapter recently from a 6 foot 4 prong dryer cord (L14-30P) to a Leviton L6-30R receptacle. All I did is cap off the white (neutral) wire on the dryer cord.

 

[Silly Yak]

Or you could just get a L14-30R installed and buy an adapter from L14-30P to L6-30R like this one Amazon.com: Parkworld 886368 Adapter Cord NEMA 14-30P Male to L6-30R Female, 30A, 250V, 1.5 Feet : Electronics. At least I hope you can do this as that’s what I just got installed because I want to move to a different controller later on. I’m still waiting on Blichmann for my 240V power controller though.

 

[tdiowa]

It's pretty simple. L6-30 is specifically a 240 volt ONLY outlet using 3 wires. That's 2 hots and one ground.

240V is what L6-30 is specifically made for. And as a dedicated outlet, it used to not require any ground-fault or arc-fault protection (perhaps that has changed recently but I doubt it.) You probably want ground-fault protection, but that's a different issue.

I have this setup now. Can anyone recommend a 220 gfci breaker that is compatible with this setup?

 

[Bobby_M]

I have this setup now. Can anyone recommend a 220 gfci breaker that is compatible with this setup?

Any GFCI breaker will support that setup just fine. You'll need to fit the breaker to the brand/model of your panel. Just find a part number on the back of the cover or on one of the existing breakers and look that up. Then find the 240v 30amp GFCI version of that.

 

[Morgue]

What do y'all think about an inline GFCI 240v 30amp NEMA L6-30 like this one:
COOPER GFI23M144 GFCI PORT 2FT 10/3YLCRD LKGP&C 30A240V MANUAL

The NEMA 14-30 receptacle (dryer outlet) into which I plug my BrewCommander seems not to have GFCI. I want to brew in the basement in the winter and driveway in the summer. Instead of installing GFCI at both outlets, wouldn't this inline GFCI suffice?

 

[doug293cz]

Yes, in-line GFCIs provide adequate protection for everything downstream of the GFCI. There is no upstream protection, but that usually isn't much of a risk.

Brew on