To connect a European 3 wire 240V washer to a US 4 prong 240V outlet do you connect the two hot wires to the single hot connection on the washer?

Answer 1

for USA, Canada and countries running a 60 Hz power supply service.Asking this type of question usually means you aren't ready to do this yourself.

If you get any detailed "how to do it" answer here, you might attempt to do something you shouldn't be doing, and that may cost someone a shock, a home fire, or their life.

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Don't tie the two hots! You'll short out the circuit if you do!

US service is 120V to neutral and 240V between the two hots. To power this European appliance you must not use the US Neutral (The White wire.)

To supply the the appliance with 240V you would have to connect one US 240 Volt hot (Red) to the appliance's Live wire - its Brown wire - and the other US 240 Volt hot (Black) to the appliance's Neutral - its Blue wire. As for Ground, any washer must be grounded, to protect users from getting electrocuted but be careful, you cannot just connect the appliance's Earth - its Green/Yellow wire - to the US Ground (Green or bare wire) until you have made sure, using a meter - and with the appliance disconnected - that the appliance's Blue Neutral wire is completely isolated from its its Green/Yellow Earth wire, otherwise you will short circuit one of the US Hot wires and seriously overload the other one!

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Before you do anything to connect this appliance please read the answer to the Related Question shown below!

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If you handle just one wire wrongly you could kill yourself or someone else in your home, or start a house fire.

Please ask a licensed electrician to advise you what to do.

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Connect the two US hot wires to the brown and the blue wires of the washer. There are two potential problems: I. European electrical equipment is designed for 50 Hz and in the US you have 60 Hz. Certain motors will not 'live long' on the wrong frequency. Check the plate on the back for something like 50/60Hz. If that is there, you're O.K., for frequency issues.

BUT now read the answer to the Related Question shown below to see what to do about the safety Ground wire.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

If you do this work yourself, always turn off the power

at the breaker box/fuse panel BEFORE you attempt to do any work AND

always use an electrician's test meter having metal-tipped probes

(not a simple proximity voltage indicator)

to insure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

Answer 2

== == Asking this type of question usually means you aren't ready to do this yourself.

If you get any detailed "how to do it" answer here, you might attempt to do something you shouldn't be doing, and that may cost someone a shock, a home fire, or their life.

<><><> The European color code for wiring is: Brown: 230V live. Blue: Neutral. Green/yellow: Earth or Ground. If the dryer uses a three wire cable, then you must use a three pin European plug. Here is some really important advice: If you know your dryer has an electric motor inside it to turn a drum, you MUST FIRST MAKE SURE the dryer will operate on 230V 50 Hz supply before you connect it to a European supply. The US system is 240 Volts, 60 cycles per second. (60 Hz.) Europe use 230 Volts, 50 cycles per second (50 Hz.) The 230 Volts won't matter at all but the 50 Hz supply may damage the dryer's motor - it may run too slowly or may not even "run" at all. It may just stay still and get very hot!

So it is best to check this with a local specialist before you try to use any high-power appliance with a motor inside it in Europe because, if the motor was not designed to run on a 50 Hz supply, you'll probably damage the appliance and lots of smoke is almost guaranteed! Note that outside the UK some European countries use plugs where all the pins are round. The earth is sometimes (but not always - it depends on the country) actually a socket in the plug that connects to a protruding pin in the receptacle.

The UK uses a totally different system for appliances which plug into the UK's standard 13 Amp power sockets. Each 13 Amp plug contains a fuse meant to be the right size to protect the the appliance it is attached-to and there is always a rectangular (not round) earth pin on the plug as well as 2 other rectangular pins for live and neutral. It is a very good system but not many other countries have adopted it - probably because they didn't invent it!

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As always, if you are in doubt about what to do, the best advice anyone should give you is to call a licensed electrician to advise what work is needed.

If you do this work yourself, always turn off the power

at the breaker box/fuse panel BEFORE you attempt to do any work AND

always use an electrician's test meter having metal-tipped probes

(not a simple proximity voltage indicator)

to insure the circuit is, in fact, de-energized.

IF YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SURE YOU CAN DO THIS JOB

SAFELY AND COMPETENTLY

REFER THIS WORK TO QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS.

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