How to convert 4-prong (NEMA 14-50) 220 outlet to 3-prong (NEMA 6-50)
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- I bought a welder recently and had to convert my 4 prong 220 volt outlet to a 3 prong which is more universal for 220 welders. Please like and subscribe so I can keep bringing you useful content.
Thanks for publishing this! I searched CZcams far and wide with no answers on my situation (very close to yours). I had a 4 wire whip hanging from an external sub-panel tied into the meter (separate from the house breaker). I took out the whip and wired an external plug box. I realized after that, that my plug was a 3 wire (for a welder). There was nothing until I found your video. To admit to you and CZcams (for avoided mistakes in their home electrical needs) I wired the plug right ( 2 hots and my ground = 240v 50amp), however, I didn't know what to do with the neutral wire (white). I tied it to the ground of the box thinking it would act like the neutral bar on a breaker box DO NOT DO THIS!!! luckily my breaker switch was in working order and tripped right away when turned on! I saw your video and capped the neutral. My welder is now up and running! Thank you so much for posting this! Like I said you are the only one who has posted a 4 wire to 3 prong outlet.
Thank you for the excellent walkthrough. I have a dryer with a 3-prong cord and I bought a 3-prong outlet to replace the 4-prong outlet on the wall. Seems easy and straightforward. This helped a ton!
You are not allowed to do that according to NEC. You need to change the plug and cord on your dryer.
sjokomelk only licenced electricians are required to follow nec. as a home owner you can do what ever you want past the meter. you cannot hook up to a metter or diconnect any thing else is up to the home owner....
Short answer - No. The code is there for everyone to follow.
Sorry, previous comments are right, codes are for the builders and electricians to follow. I work in construction and have dealt with both commercial and residential, once a residential building is turned over to the owner, they are free to work on it as they see fit, barring any local ordinances requiring professionals to perform the work.
@@sjokomelk It's not a dryer... Also, what if the new appliance does not have a 4 prong plug, such as a ductless mini split. A homeowner has to be able to use the outlet, regardless of what receptacle was originally put it.
A bit hard to see what was happening from the darkness but thank you for the info! I'm wiring up a NEMA 6-50 for my new Lincoln and had no clue which wires were to be used.
I made a converter cord from 14-50 receptacle to 6-50 cord when my son bought a Miller Bobcat that has a 14-50 output on it. I just bought a 6' 50 amp range cord with a 14-50 plug and wired a 6-50 receptacle to the other end. It was about $50. Then I found an outdoor box with a 14-50 receptacle in it for about $40 at HD and put it on the outside of my shed so I can work outside without an extension cord for the welder or plasma cutter.
Thanks man! You helped me get my welder going. Your video helped me realize that there is no "neutral" in the older wiring. I have a black a white and a green. The green is attached to the case and the black and white are both attached to the switch. I had the green wire attached to the neutral prong and the welder did not like it. I moved it to the ground prong and am welding just fine now. Thanks.
kdwise11 green is ground, red black r hots, white is nuetral..
bare copper is ground also
Thank you, Just what I needed to know to plug my "new" 1950' compressor, I had the same situation and I was confused about what to do with the extra wire. It would have been perfect if the volume of your voice was a bit higher.👍
Thanks a lot, that lesson was invaluable, abandon the (110v) neutral
Thanks, I wasn't sure if I could cap off the white.
Thanks for taking the time to make/post this video--it helped me a lot with the exact same situation.
thanks alot . i was stuck on what to use, bare or white.
Thank you, I'm trying to convert an unused electric range outlet into a 6-50 electric vehicle charging station, and I didn't know what to do with the neutral wire.
Great job, exactly what i needed to know. Appreciate you taking the time to save us time.
Thanks for the video, helped me out a lot 💪🏼
thanks for info - thanks for turning the light on!
3-prong is the old system, 4-prong is the new one. In any case, I doubt that you have 6 gauge wire in your wall. When the current goes beyond your wire can stand, you could start a fire.
wrong!. circuit breakers or fuses will trip when dangerous currents are present.
Thanks for the helpful video.
next project? fix the rattle in the welder
I understand the 2 hots to get 240 but why do you connect the Ground wire the the 3rd pin instead of the Neutral ?
Sorry for the late reply. Neutral isn't grounded locally and isn't designed to handle 240/220.
I guess you could use the white for the ground and tie it to the neutral bar and ground the metal on the receptacles to keep from being shocked on the metal part of the receptacle?
No, the receptacle needs the ground, the appliance needs the ground as well. For this receptacle, no neutral should be used at all.
Use a flashlight or cap light so we can see what you are showing.
may try some lights
I need some help with a "hypothetical" situation for educational purposes only to help me learn more about electrical stuff,... Lets say a person wanted to back feed an off grid cabin from a generator via a 3 pin 240 volt Dryer outlet in the cabin,... Lets just say that the generator only has (2) 120 volt/20 amp outlets & NO 240 volt outlet,... You "could" make a conversion box feeding (2) separate 120v outlets from the generator, through power cords to a 3 pin, 240v outlet in a junction box.
Question is on wiring,... I get that you would run the 2 hot wires from the 2 separate 120v power cords to the 2 hot terminals on the 240v outlet in the junction box but do you hook up the 2 White neutral wires to the 3rd pin on the outlet OR the 2 Green Ground wires to the 3rd pin on the outlet ?
If you could answer that then thanks but can you also tell me why ? :)
Thanks for the question David. I'm not intimately familiar with how generators are wired but from what I know I'd say run the green ground wires, I work mostly on residential and commercial wiring. But I can tell you this, the neutral is only designed to carry 110V. Some argue that the neutral is sort of a ground (and this is partially true since the neutral is usually grounded at the transformer) however a 110V circuit can work without the neutral being grounded. It ends up being a safety issue, 220V shouldn't be sent down the neutral wire, the ground wire is directly grounded and will discharge any electrical charge on the appliance. You can think of the hot wires like like two batteries connected in series and double the power. The full explanation is a bit more complicated than that because we're dealing with an Alternating Current but that's the 5 cent explanation. You'll see the neutral wire on 4-prong appliances because they run both 220V and 110V seperately within them. Normal 110V appliances are required to be double insulated and thus many of them do not require a true ground, in fact many of them have internal transformers to step down the 110V.
why not use the white neutral? When I removed the outlet it had the white neutral in the bottom. Can the white neutral go where the ground goes?
For a 3 prong, 220v outlet like this it does not use the neutral. The neutral is not exactly like the ground and only works on 120v circuits. The 4 prong, 220v outlets use neutral because those appliances use both 120v and 220v.
So if I’m running a new line for a welder to a 6-50r, all I need is a 8/2 romex ( two hots and a ground)? Thanks
Thanks
i have a question.....does it matter which side the red and/or black wires go? .....i know where the bare wire goes already.....thanks
no
Why can't you make you own adapter with a 4 prong male plug and a 3 prong female?
I currently just did this for a garage heater and for some reason the breaker keeps tripping. Not sure if the breaker is the issue or my 4 to 3 conversion is the issue?
@@travissantelli9666 breakers must be sized to the circuit conductors, NOT the appliance. i don't know how your "conversion " is wired
I've got a machine that is currently wired with a 4-wire NEMA 14-50 plug. The machine uses 15 amps, so how much power it uses is not a factor here. My wall outlets are NEMA 6-30 wired with 10-2 wire. So my question is what do I do with the neutral wire when re-writing these machines to 6-30? Just cap it?
Sorry for late response. Do not re-wire machine. Something will not work on the machine if it's 4 wire and you reduce to 3.
My 3 prong 240 dryer outlet is wired with the Neutral to the terminal & not the Ground.
David Yummus where is the other end of the neutral attached?
in your case, a jumper should be used from the neutral to the dryer frame. in a dryer, the neutral is used for the drum & timer motor. i've never understood why the mfgrs. don't use 240 volt drum & timer motors.
@@garybrown7044 back in the good old days (pre 80) the drum motors were 240 the only 120 was the light and timer motors. Some of the lights where 230 volt lamps, my dad had a bunch
Can do the same for a plug? Tape off the neutral? I have a 4 prong male plug, bought a 3 prong plug instead of changing outlet.
Robert S it depends on the device. Was it originally a 3 prong? The general advice is to change the plug. You don’t want a live wire in your device. Might be ok if the neutral wire on the back of the plug is removed.
How do you know where the red and black wire go, and for that matter the ground wire?
it do not matter
The ground wire goes to the round-ish hole. The two hots can go on either flat hole.
VikingTXaggie, I could use your advise. I am building a generator cord. I am going from my generator 120 Volts 30 Amp 3 wire travel trailer RV plug connection to a 3 wire 10/3 cord to my outside house connection 4 wire connection. The male cord house connection is a Leviton No. 275-t/14-30P. How do I connect the cord? Black on the hot, white on the hot and green on the ground and skip the neutral? On my breaker box in the house the wires from the outside connection are black and red to the double 30 Amp breaker, the white and bare copper wire go to the grounding bar.
I can email you pictures and a better explanation of what I am doing if you need me to.
Of course, send me a private message with your email address.
so I did this and now my breaker is overheating threw it 5 times now had to turn it off I followed it to a T any advice
Is it overheating while welding I assume or when your welder is off? What size breaker do you have vs what Amperage are you running?
If its overheating without the welder even plugged in then you've got a short somewhere. DOUBLE CHECK that you didn't accidentally mistake the neutral for one of the hots. Also make sure everything is tight and short and there are no wires accidentally touching.
have the same issue. My dryer plug is 4 prong. Welder is 3 prong. can i build an adapter to go from 4 to 3?
+marc o'leery Yes it's pretty common to do that. Most common is a short pigtail type adapter. You can also buy one but it's cheaper to make one yourself if you have the time.
I thought this was it
Joseph Leogrande
That's exactly what I said, the dryer is most likely wired for 30A which means the circuit should be wired with 10 AWG copper or 8 AWG aluminum , for obvious reasons contractors typically don't spend extra money on over sized wiring, so the circuit can only be used for up to 30A so if he has a welder rated for higher to 30A he cannot use the existing wiring .
@@Intanius i have used arc welders on 30 amp circuits for decades. rarely are welders turned up to max. current. 1/4 " & 1/2 " steel welds fine on a 30 amp branch circuit.
Texas license plate 0:24 :D
The 'TX' in VikingTXaggie didn't give that away?
Can't hear you.
Picture dark can’t hear