hooking up my 4500w 240v element to 2 plugs

[Sloanick]

I have my elemet hooked up so that i can plug it into the stove plug. bad idea the wife is pretty sick of me taking over the kitchen... I really need to get an apartment with a garage
So I am going to hook it up to 2 plugs on different breakers.
I just use the 2 hot wires and the neutral is not used correct?
is the larger prong on a standard plug the hot wire? I will probably take the plugs out and check anyway incase it's wired backwards.
I feel pretty confident about doing this just wanted to double check i'm not going to blow my psr or anything stupid
thanks guys

[Prairiepiss]

I would suggest not doing this. Not only could it be easily hook up wrong and the magic smoke would be released. But two 110v circuits is still only 15 amps. Not enough to safely cover the draw of that element. The wires feeding the plug will be to small. And just not safe all around.

[Sloanick]

hummm yeah the stove wires are much bigger... shoot guess i'll just have to keep frustrating my wife until we move unless there is another option but i doubt it...

[Prairiepiss]

Drier plug in the laundry?

[fatman]

Chances are if you are in an apartment, the wall recepticles are 15 amp as Prairie said, therefore they are probably wired with 14 gauge wire, and are on a 15 amp breaker. 14 gauge thhn wire can take a lot more than 15 amps but by code it can only be put on a 15 amp breaker. Your rig is over 18 amps so the breakers won't hold anyway.
And besides it would be very dangerous with 2 cords, once you plug one cord in, and your controler was turned on, the other cord, the end of the plug would have a bare expose live blade before you pluged it into the wall!
Tell momma just chill for a bit!

[sambedded]

I just use the 2 hot wires and the neutral is not used correct?
is the larger prong on a standard plug the hot wire?

Yes, just two hot wires, but you should check if they a connected to different phases , otherwise you get 0 volt.
So just connect a voltmeter to live wires if you get 0v try one live wire from another breaker till you get 240.
Live vire is a smallest prong.

But as it was said you have only 15A, so you should limit your load by 3500W ( replace heater) . You can try to use an existing heater and limit power by controller. But you can easily get you breaker to engage. It's not dangerous, but very inconvenient.

However you should clearly understand what are you doing. All that stuff is not extremely dangerous, but dangerous inough so you still have a chance to electrocute yourself.

Spend some time reading about electricity and wiring before start. Pay attention to grounding.
And when you done - never let professional electrician to get in. You will be humiliated.

[Sloanick]

Drier plug in the laundry?

All the old greek ladies in the laundry room might look at me funny haha

[Sloanick]

Yeah its a no go... I'm going to run the water lines neater, and move the still just outside the kitchen wall, AND plug in a hot plate by the stove... Not ideal but a solution for now.
Thanks guys! Good advice as always!

[fatman]

Sambeded is right i would humiliate thehell out of you for the 2 cord death trap!

Even a 3500 watt heater is to close to the 15 amp breakers capacity, they will only hold about 80% of there rated load for a very long time.

I don't know if they make them but the most i would try to run would be 1500watt per circuit, so say 2 seperate 120v elements. Like i said, do they even make elements that small?

Another example would be all the space heaters for sale like at wal-mart, most all are 1500w, for a reason, even the magical money saving Eden-pure heaters!!!! Dont get me started on them!

[rubber duck]

Drier plug in the laundry?

All the old greek ladies in the laundry room might look at me funny haha

I doubt it, they'd be more likely to tell you your doing it wrong.


I think the fatman has the right idea, why not run 2 elements on 1500?

[rumbuff]

1500w on 2 circuits works great for me. When I upgraded to electric on my still I bought 2 kettles from walmart for like 12 bucks each. I took the elements out and made food grade silicone gaskets, then wrapped them in several layers of teflon tape. Haven't had any leaking problems and the still works great. I have a router speed control for 1 element, but I never use it, as the stripping run is full power, and the spirit run is only 1 element, as I only used 1 1/2 inch pipe, which is pretty small.

[Sloanick]

Drier plug in the laundry?

All the old greek ladies in the laundry room might look at me funny haha

I doubt it, they'd be more likely to tell you your doing it wrong.


I think the fatman has the right idea, why not run 2 elements on 1500?

If I has access to a big dryer plug that would work wouldn't it?

[fatman]

Sloanick, yes on the dryer plug. would handle a 5000w 240v element.