My electric brewery is functional!

[Addicted]

I had an electrician buddy rig it for me,I'm starting to learn some from him now.The only thing that worried me was the dryer outlet on the floor,if i spilled water in that i would be in truoble.It's getting mounted on a wall away from the kettle.Is there any way to Gfi the dryer outlet?

 

[willynilly]

I had an electrician buddy rig it for me,I'm starting to learn some from him now.The only thing that worried me was the dryer outlet on the floor,if i spilled water in that i would be in truoble.It's getting mounted on a wall away from the kettle.Is there any way to Gfi the dryer outlet?

Yeah, go to the breaker box and place a GFCI breaker on that circuit ASAP

 

[willynilly]

Maybe I am missing something but is this picture the actual 240V dryer outlet?

If it is, how does it have a ground? Normally a three prong outlet has no ground. Only two hots and a neutral. Are you using the neutral as a ground also?

Just asking here, why not use the 4 prong dryer outlets?

 

[passedpawn]

I agree with using a 4-prong. It is not ideal to use 3-prong.

To safely use a 3-prong plug, don't use the neutral for anything except to ground the metal kettle. Also, ensure that there is no other devices on this circuit. In this way, the neutral should be exactly the same as a normal "green" earth ground.

Where you get into a little trouble here is if you use half the 240VAC to derive 120VAC. You might consider doing this to run a pump. In this case, the 120 would come from one of the hot wires and neutral. Since the neutral would be carrying current, and accepting that all wire has some resistance, you now will measure a voltage on the neutral due to the current and resistance; you'll measure a voltage on the kettle. Might be small, but you don't want that. This happens because the neutral wire that is meant to be the safety earth ground is being used to carry current.

I highly recommend using a licensed electrician to look over what you have done. In fact, have one put a GFCI into your beaker box and look at your job at the same time.

 

[willynilly]

I agree with using a 4-prong. It is not ideal to use 3-prong.

To safely use a 3-prong plug, don't use the neutral for anything except to ground the metal kettle. Also, ensure that there is no other devices on this circuit. In this way, the neutral should be exactly the same as a normal "green" earth ground.

Where you get into a little trouble here is if you use half the 240VAC to derive 120VAC. You might consider doing this to run a pump. In this case, the 120 would come from one of the hot wires and neutral. Since the neutral would be carrying current, and accepting that all wire has some resistance, you now will measure a voltage on the neutral due to the current and resistance; you'll measure a voltage on the kettle. Might be small, but you don't want that. This happens because the neutral wire that is meant to be the safety earth ground is being used to carry current.

I highly recommend using a licensed electrician to look over what you have done. In fact, have one put a GFCI into your beaker box and look at your job at the same time.

Right, and it looks like his 240VAC three prong is in fact feeding his 120VAC outlets.

 

[enid]

Right, and it looks like his 240VAC three prong is in fact feeding his 120VAC outlets.

That is the way it looked to me, that is why I questioned it.

I just had a similiar problem. I was going to use my existing 3 prong range outlet to power my 240V system. When getting into it I figured out it only had 2 hots and a neutral. I put in a spa disconnect because the existing wiring was only 8/2 and a 30 or 40A gfci was outrageously overpriced. I ran 4 wires (2 hots, ground, and neutral) to the GFCI disconnect and used the existing wiring to power 240V side in my control box. I then put an extension cord on my control box for the 120V power.