Okey Dokey...

Sorry I've been away, I've been studying an packing up, and and moving out and moving in.

I've driven my espresso machine (the Fiorenzato) from Orange County California out to Bloomington (Monroe County) Indiana. And here I am in a little apartment without 220v 50hz power. sooo... what do I do now?

the prongs on the plug look like this

-- |
^

It has a horizontal bit, a vertical bit, and then a ground.

So.. am I just screwed and lugged this coffee machine to Indiana for no reason? or is there something I can do about it?

btw.. does anyone want to come over and have some "install/modify the coffee machine" fun?


Sincerely,


Namson

It should be 220v 60Hz, unless you are not in the US. Yup, you are pretty much hosed.

That plug is 220v 30A. Your oven (provided it is not gas) should have a 50 amp 220 you could tap into. You would need to have an electrician make a 220v splitter with a 50 amp male for the wall, a 50 amp female for the oven and a 30 amp female for the espresso machine. You would not be able to use both at the same time. It would either blow the breaker or you would get a visit by the fireman when you burn down the building.

A safer bet, if you have a dryer hookup you could do the same with it and put yourself a note on the dryer to make sure the machine is off before you start the dryer, or unplug one and plug in the other.

I know this response will be of little help, but if I may ask, what did you do to power the machine in your old place? I've never seen a kitchen that had a 220v outlet for appliances. I'm guessing you must have used a stove or electric dryer outlet in your last place.

I think it would be worth a wiring job, as long as you can make sure you're not powering your machine and the stove or dryer at the same time. If youre accustomed to keeping the machine powered up all the time, you might have issues.

Hey Dan,

Speak for yourself.

I'd sacrifice three quarters of my neighbors for a good shot!

There are converters that allow you to take 2 x 110v circuits, and convert them into a single 220v circuit.

http://www.quick220.com/

I have been considering purchasing one for testing purposes and to drive a welder....I believe the only possible requirement you may not be able to meet in an apartment, is that the two 110v circuits have to be on different phases. Not sure if apartments have both phases available or not....

The kit comes with some sort of tester to determine if you have two phases etc. Could make for some ugly cords and wiring.

I was thinkin' Step-up transformer.. but I don't know anything about those... Would that work?

This quick 220 option sounds pretty good too.

The machine is 4000W and the plug on the machine says its only 20 amps.

I didn't plan on changing any wiring. I was looking more for an external option... but even if I did have to change the wiring professionally...eh... see below:

I'd sacrafice three quarters of my neighbors for a good shot!

In my home we ran the machine continuously and had an electric stove that also ran at the same time with no problems. We did the same thing split the oven outlet off to the coffee machine. If I had an electric oven. I'd be fine with just unplugging the oven and keeping the espresso machine plugged in... if you have coffee, you really don't need to cook all that bad... I'd save in espresso money, in one day, what it would cost to eat for at least that day, if not two.

Sincerely,

Namson

PhaetonFalling wrote:I was thinkin' Step-up transformer.. but I don't know anything about those... Would that work?

Nope. Step-up would give you the necessary voltage, but you still need 4000W power, which means almost 40 amps on the 110V circuit feeding the transformer.

Jim

If you need that much power, I don't think the Quick220 is an option either....simply too much power draw for even two 15 amp circuits....power is power....what goes in has to come out of somewhere.

If you are pulling 4000W, you need 4000W in...and two 15A circuits will give you about 3000W.

Check the specs at the site....the limits are there.

Damn it... Someone wanna trade machines temporarily?

A serious 220 machine, for a serious 110 machine

Is your element the kind where there are two elements that are wired in series for 220 V and parallel for 110?

If so, you could disconnect one and run the machine at 110. That'll give you 2000 W, which might be okay. Insulation would buy you a little more. Eer, better run it on a 20 amp circuit ...

PhaetonFalling wrote:Damn it... Someone wanna trade machines temporarily?

A serious 220 machine, for a serious 110 machine

I'd say this is your best bet...I don't know of anyone in that area that would do the trade.
A serious 220 machine is not overkill for passionate espressoheads, although for an apartment it's a different story. Too bad you can't throw that baby on a cart and plug it into something in your building, like maybe where the laundry room is.
Can you imagine that? Running downstairs, rolling out the cart, plugging in it, run upstairs to brush your teeth fire up the laptop and grab your cups and pitcher and run downstairs to pull your shots. Now that's a story to behold, you'd be legend in my book....

Too bad you can't throw that baby on a cart and plug it into something in your building, like maybe where the laundry room is.

Thats probably actually not such a bad idea.. there's a laundry room on each floor... I could plumb it into a bottle with a flojet pump, and keep that underneath the cart...now... I just gotta find a cart... the cups will fit on top of the espresso machine, and I can pop my laptop on my back, wheel my cart down the hall to the laundry room, do my laundry and drink my espresso... I must go investigate this... I wonder if I can unplug the dryer, or if it's locked in... or even if its the right plug. I'll keep you all updated.

edit: the crappy washer and dryer in the laundry room run on 110-115... I feel defeated.

Just to be sure... temp trade is still open... please notify whoever you know.

Reviving a sleeping thread here - what did you ever do to get your machine running?

I'm considering either a 110V or a 220V Synesso, and if I went the latter route, I might need to run it off a converter, so curious if you tried it.

Converter?
that is a bit fruitless. Ohm's law...
The reason you up the voltage is so you can get more happiness running. The converter cannot magically draw more amps from the incoming 110V line than that line has to give.

If that apt. situation is still going on consider doing what I did. Nobody needs a stove AND the machine :p

The black box is simply the 240V equivalent of an outlet. then i fitted both the stove and the machine with a compatible plug.

So buy 1 plug for stove, 1 plug for espresso machine, 1 outlet.

You can also do this in NEMA 630 flavor. That is your choice.
If you don't have washer /dryer OR electric stove... you are SOL.
But usually one of these will be at hand :p

PhaetonFalling wrote:the prongs on the plug look like this

-- |
^
It has a horizontal bit, a vertical bit, and then a ground.

He said plug, and this looks like what an Edison 20A, 110V plug to me. Pretty much the same as yer standard extension corp plug, but with one of the current carrying conductors turned 90 degrees. This female connector is designed for 125V (110 - 125V) to accept both. Your apt is probably designed to take 15A plugs, so the receptacles only have the parallel connectors.
Are you sure that it's a 220V machine? Not that they don't make connectors in that shape for 220, but it's not common. Keeps folks from making that mistake.
Anyhoo, 220V is usually fairly common in US homes, because that's what is sent to US homes. It's just sent along with a center tap from the 'pole pig', or transformer, so that there are two 110V legs available. The power that you are being sent is 220V, you're just using half of it at a time. Find your breaker box. Every other breaker, vertically is the other half of that 220V. Putting in a 220V breaker is simple. Getting that wiring to your machine, and doing it safely, and up to local code is the hard part. I'd be wiling to bet that you have 220V just hiding in a closet somewhere. And if you don't, I'd better get cracking on this 110V two-group project soon! ; >

check the pictures on another thread:
post-pic-of-your-home-espresso-setup-t5194-180.html#p74865

includes the 2x110 to 220 converter box.