Long story less long, I have an SJ that ate it's timer. I'd like to use a simple on-off, SPST switch to replace the timer, but all of the research I can get my hands on (Thanks Owen at Phaelon Coffee!) suggests that the Italians are fond of switching both the neutral and the hot (grounded conductor and live, for those fans of the NEC) instead of just the hot. Nearly everything else in your house and your kitchen (if you're in the US) has only on line switched, and if your house is wired correctly, it's the hot.
Now, I can come up with a few hundred reasons why they might have done that, including DPST switches were on sale that week, but I can't find anyone that knows why Mazzer switches both.
If you have the answer, beers are on me next time you're in Tucson!

So far, I've taken an old Major Auto switch, and it only opens the hot side of the circuit to stop the grinder (off) and the neutral is always on. I could do a bit of carving and grinding on the cam that opens and closes them to make it work like the DPST switch used in the documentation, but I'd love to have a really good reason for doing it.

OK Chris, I shooting for a beer, not necessarily beers. As an additional point of info, I can state that the Quickmill espresso machines switch both the hot and neutral also.

When I read this:

The hot and neutral wires are interchangeable as far as the equipment is concerned (be warned that there are some exceptions in some countries). Both are power carrying wires. One of the power carrying wires is grounded for reasons of safety. In many parts of Europe (nordic counties, Germany etc), the normal 3-wire receptacle is symmetrical so that the neutral and hot wire connections can be swapped by simply rotating the plug.

from this link: http://www.epanorama.net/document...trical_wiring.html , I sense that electrical safety dictates that both leads be switched.

In the US, Hot and Neutral (Live and Grounded) are not interchangeable. In the US, the center tap of the transformer (Pole Pig) is used as a Neutral, and is connected to the Ground at one location (usually the panel) and the recepts are polarized, as are the plugs, and are supposed to be wired hot to hot, neutral to neutral, and grounded. There are some pieces of ungrounded kit that can be used either way, but these are decreasing in popularity.

In short, are you suggesting that the Hot and Neutral are switched in the US because that's how they do it in Europe?
Of course, that's a great theory, and I'll file it along with the others, but I'm not any more comfortable that there isn't a specific reason that they did this at Mazzer.

The Major Auto switch will work as a simple on/off switch with a couple jumpers on the plastic bussbar of the Major. Not sure if the same would work with the SJ's wiring.

That's fairly apparent. What I want to know is why (microswitch jumpers aside) both the live conductor and the grounded conductor (hot and neutral) are switched, when nearly all other appliances (including the lights and such) in your house are switched only on the live (hot) conductor.

This is the present wiring of an SJ Timer. Note that the switch is just a DPST switch with a clockworks to keep it closed a specified amount of time.

I'm wondering why they're closing both, instead of running the neutral past the switch, and just interrupting the hot with a switch, thusly:

In short, are you suggesting that the Hot and Neutral are switched in the US because that's how they do it in Europe?

I'm suggesting that manufacturers do not have one wiring harness for the the USA and one wiring harness for everyone else. When I look at plugs and receptacles here, http://users.telenet.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm#plugs_g I see a lot of non-polarized devices much unlike what we are accustomed to in this country. That being the case, it would only be logical for a DPST switch.

Ya Eric, I used the Type C and the Type F when I lived in Germany, and have been exposed to quite a few of those while touring. I get why the two are switched in a 220, non-polarised country, and it sounds reasonable that they remain the same in the US, but is that so? I mean, the 110V versions get a different cord on them, so they are separated out somewhere for distribution, and manufactured somewhat different.
Like I said, I can come up with a dozen really great theories, what I'm trying to discover is whether or not the situation depicted in the second schematic that I posted is a viable one.


I mean, if the only reason that it's done that way is that that's the way the grinder comes, then great. But I'd love to have some reference for that stronger than just a logical conclusion.

. . . if the only reason that it's done that way is that that's the way the grinder comes . . .

With my one and only one conversation with Mazzer at SCAA 2006 re their asinine routing of the power cord from the side of their grinders, it would not surprise me if the quote above would be echoed once again. And yes, I've taken the Mazzers apart to see if there was any reasonable explanation for their methodology and found zilch.

That is not how I think and evidently not how you think either.

I do believe that mfg's look for all kinds of ways to intelligently cut costs and this is, simply, one such example. Maybe that's why Quickmill (and Mazzer) have terminal blocks to accomodate different power cords. It makes sense to me to open both circuits when the hot lead is left to chance but for YOU, in YOUR situation, and with YOUR knowledge, jumping the neutral is fine.

I'll expect that beer

erics wrote:With my one and only one conversation with Mazzer at SCAA 2006 re their asinine routing of the power cord from the side of their grinders, it would not surprise me if the quote above would be echoed once again. And yes, I've taken the Mazzers apart to see if there was any reasonable explanation for their methodology and found zilch.

Reasonable explanation: You have to be a lot more careful taking the base off of a Mazzer with the cord on the base. If everything is self-contained in the top part, it can just come off. Newer Mazzers have the start capacitors and the cord in the base, so it is always tethered to the top part of the grinder, which is more of a pain to work on than this:



I suspect Mazzer's taking the route they do in terms of switching hot and neutral has to do with keeping it simple for all the different versions of their grinders. a 220V grinder in the US would have 2 110V hots coming into it, rather than a 220 hot and a neutral. Maybe they just wire it for a situation like that, and wire all the others the same way because it means that they all share the same schematic. I'd be tempted to do that if I were making a product that sold worldwide and had to support all the different wiring standards the world over...

Same wiring for US & Nip 110 (1 hot), Euro 220 (2 hots afaik), and US 220 (definitely two hots)