220volts versus 240volts

[kbsparky]

When I visited eastern Europe a few years ago, I took my FLuke tester with me. I measured anywhere from 219 to 243 Volts on their standard 2-prong outlets in the places where we stayed. Typically hotel rooms, and a couple of private residences.

The other thing I noticed is many houses have 3-phase services installed, with 3-pole main breakers. These are small houses by US standards, but still have 3 phase electric service.

A breaker box might typically be mounted high on the wall, above the front door, near the ceiling. You need to stand on a chair or ladder to even reach it!

Here is a picture of one such panel. It looks like a 3-pole main breaker to me. The change in color of the paint indicates the wall-ceiling border.

 

[PetrosA]

When I visited eastern Europe a few years ago, I took my FLuke tester with me. I measured anywhere from 219 to 243 Volts on their standard 2-prong outlets in the places where we stayed. Typically hotel rooms, and a couple of private residences.

The other thing I noticed is many houses have 3-phase services installed, with 3-pole main breakers. These are small houses by US standards, but still have 3 phase electric service.

A breaker box might typically be mounted high on the wall, above the front door, near the ceiling. You need to stand on a chair or ladder to even reach it!

Here is a picture of one such panel. It looks like a 3-pole main breaker to me. The change in color of the paint indicates the wall-ceiling border.

There's actually no main in that panel from what I see. The main would have handle ties and is most often a RCD type breaker with a test button, so for a single phase service (25A) it would be two spaces wide and for three phase (25A), four spaces wide to include the neutral. Often, the main will be on the landing for apartments, or outside (for fire dept. access) for single family homes.

 

[LarryFine]

MWBC's?

Multi-Wire Branch Circuits. Two or three hots and a shared neutral.

 

[Cavie]

When I visited eastern Europe a few years ago, I took my FLuke tester with me. I measured anywhere from 219 to 243 Volts on their standard 2-prong outlets in the places where we stayed. Typically hotel rooms, and a couple of private residences.

The other thing I noticed is many houses have 3-phase services installed, with 3-pole main breakers. These are small houses by US standards, but still have 3 phase electric service.

A breaker box might typically be mounted high on the wall, above the front door, near the ceiling. You need to stand on a chair or ladder to even reach it!

Here is a picture of one such panel. It looks like a 3-pole main breaker to me. The change in color of the paint indicates the wall-ceiling border.

I saw that in Ireland when I went on vacation in 2003. Very strange being over the door laying sideways.

 

[PetrosA]

... Very strange being over the door laying sideways.

If you figure up and down based on the printing on the breaker, it's actually our panels which are sideways I think they mount them over the door because that's the height where the wires run around the rooms and to keep kids from getting into them, but I'm not sure.

 

[LarryFine]

Maybe it has to do with hallway-ceiling feeder runs. These panel's appear added.

 

[Rob Z]

The OP Paul is my electrician and the AKSO washer and dryer in question is for a job we're going to be doing together.

Calls to AKSO yielded mutually contradictory answers - one time they said the appliances must be run on 220V, the second phone call to a different person at ASKO said that the voltage wasn't specific and 240V would be fine even though the documentation on the website lists 220V.

I bought the appliances and today I uncrated them and got the information from the UL rating plate on the dryer: 230V and 60Hz.

 

[Jraef]

The OP Paul is my electrician and the AKSO washer and dryer in question is for a job we're going to be doing together.

Calls to AKSO yielded mutually contradictory answers - one time they said the appliances must be run on 220V, the second phone call to a different person at ASKO said that the voltage wasn't specific and 240V would be fine even though the documentation on the website lists 220V.

I bought the appliances and today I uncrated them and got the information from the UL rating plate on the dryer: 230V and 60Hz.

Very typical. The people who answer phones are usually not technical people when it comes to electricity, so they simply take the safest way out of the conversation and regurgitate whatever the literature says as gospel. The people responsible for getting UL listing however were smart enough to know the issues and get it listed correctly.

I have this argument all the time with my wife:
"Why don't you just call and ask for help?"
"Because the nincompoop I will get on the phone will know less than me, and I don't have the time or patience to educate them!"

 

[LarryFine]

Rob, welcome to the forum!

... I uncrated them and got the information from the UL rating plate on the dryer: 230V and 60Hz.

That's the standard rating for motors designed for a 240v supply, and it will run just fine on anything between 220v and 240v.

 

[Rob Z]

Hi Larry, thanks for the welcome, and hello from Chantilly!

 

[Rob Z]

Very typical. The people who answer phones are usually not technical people when it comes to electricity, so they simply take the safest way out of the conversation and regurgitate whatever the literature says as gospel. The people responsible for getting UL listing however were smart enough to know the issues and get it listed correctly.

I have this argument all the time with my wife:
"Why don't you just call and ask for help?"
"Because the nincompoop I will get on the phone will know less than me, and I don't have the time or patience to educate them!"

I was standing there while Paul was trying to get some information from the tech lines folks. It was like he was talking to a wall. Oh well, we solved the problems by buying the very expensive appliances two months before they're needed.

At one point, an ASKO rep said "we don't have the information you need, you need to call the distributor". When we played that dumb game and called the distributor, guess what they said "We're just the distributor---the manufacturer has to field any questions you might have".

This would make a good Seinfeld episode.

 

[Rob Z]

I wanted to give my electrician Paul (the OP) the information from the UL plate on the washer, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the appliance. I browsed the owner's manual and got this pretty little bit of confusion.

I don't know how you pro sparkies can deal with this stuff.

 

[Rob Z]

Here is the UL listing on the dryer:

 

[LarryFine]

You should have no problem running it on 240v USA, and that's my final answer.