European wiring on my Clarke?

[Rickk33]

Hello,

I have been browsing this forum for a while and based on the favorable opinion I have seen of the Clarke brand I bought a 160en. It arrived as planned and I have to say it appears to be a very good quality welder for the money. Well anyway on to my question, I live in the states and when I went to attach a plug to it I found a black, red, and green wire with yellow stripes that appears to be either 10 or 8 guage. I'm thinking that maybe I got a pre 2004 UK wired welder and the red is hot, black is neutral, green/yellow is the ground. Does this sound correct to you folks? Thanks for any help.

Rick

 

[madkayaker]

hi Rick welcome. Red and Black has not be used in flex cable for 20+ years but the colours was as you say. Might be worth takeing the cover off and checking where they connect to inside

 

[Wozzaaah]

Yes, that does sound correct although I'd still have expected it to have blue and brown insted of black and red.
Welcome to the forum by the way .

 

[Rickk33]

Thanks for the help, and welcomes, I will pull the cover off and take a good hard look at it then. Thanks again!

Rick

 

[Robotstar5]

hi Rick welcome. Red and Black has not be used in flex cable for 20+ years but the colours was as you say. Might be worth takeing the cover off and checking where they connect to inside

What about other countries in Europe MK?

 

[madkayaker]

as far as i know the same. Eu used to use red and white a fair bit.

 

[Jake SS]

I have seen some welders internals using yellow, green for actives !!!!!

Cheers
Jake

 

[madkayaker]

internally there is no fixed rules except green with yellow is earth.

 

[Rickk33]

Ok pulled the cover off and found just the 3 wires, the green and yellow is definately the ground as expected, but still unsure which of the other two is neutral. Most 220v setups in the states have a four wire setup, two hot wires, a white neutral, and copper ground. Probably gonna have to ask an electrician friend at work to see if he can take a look at it as I really do not wish to reverse wire my new welder. Can't wait to sort this out so I can start practicing. I have an axle swap to do and will be welding on new spring and shock mounts, then have to weld some frame attachments, then fix some other minor things, etc. etc. Thanks for the help

Rick

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

does it have an internal fuse? If so, that'll be the 'live' or 'hot' wire.

Regards
Peter

 

[shenion]

Ok pulled the cover off and found just the 3 wires, the green and yellow is definately the ground as expected, but still unsure which of the other two is neutral. Most 220v setups in the states have a four wire setup, two hot wires, a white neutral, and copper ground. Probably gonna have to ask an electrician friend at work to see if he can take a look at it as I really do not wish to reverse wire my new welder. Can't wait to sort this out so I can start practicing. I have an axle swap to do and will be welding on new spring and shock mounts, then have to weld some frame attachments, then fix some other minor things, etc. etc. Thanks for the help

Rick

The welder does not use neutral. Same for most ovens, dryers and water heaters; just the two lines and ground.

My airco is on a 50A 4-prong plug. I just did not connect the white neutral to anything (red/black were the 2 lines.)

A 3-prong dryer plug will work. I prefer the twist-lock plugs though.

 

[R Kraft]

If you just need 220, it wouldn't have a neutral.
The red or black would be right going to either of the input hot wires.
Robert

 

[madkayaker]

different to over here we have L and N for single phase

 

[R Kraft]

madkayaker different to over here we have L and N for single phase

So over there you use one leg of the 440,to get 220 ?
Robert

 

[madkayaker]

not quite we use 3ph 120 Degree out of sink to give 230V to N

 

[Rickk33]

Thanks for the help guys! So just have to hook the red and black to the appropriate slot on the plug and ground it and should be good to go. My fuse box does not have any open slots so the plan was to run a plug into the house, about 15 ft. that I can plug into the dryer outlet. Sounds easy enough. Thanks again

Rick

 

[shenion]

A dryer plug will work.

The other option is to find some double breakers with two separate circuits (not the double ganged type.) Swap two single breakers for the double ones. Move 2 120V circuits over. The remove two of the single breakers and put in a 220V breaker and a dedicated outlet.

I did similar with my generator subpanel:

Allowed me to have 9 circuits instead of 6.

You should be able to find them for almost any panel type.