|
| I got a shock when the ground wire got disconnected.
What should I be looking for as a fix / diagnosis ? I turned the circuit off. There is no voltage on the ground wire now. It's a 220V induction cooktop. |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
| This is a little unclear. Did you get a shock from the grounding conductor, or from the appliance? Why did the grounding wire get disconnected? |
|
| The wire got disconnected because the wire nut didn't hold well. The nut holds a single hard copper grounding wire to a thick twisted copper cable. The nut was loosened when the sheathing around all three wires was moved around. I will clamp it! The appliance was not on at the time. |
|
| Are the green wires and the white wires connected to the same bus bar in the circuit panel? You MAY have a short in the oven that will trace back to the green. Or some circiut is on in the rest of the house. |
|
| Is the cook top a 240 V load or a 120/240 V load? Is the unit contain instructions for 3-wire and 4-wire installation? |
|
| Another posting that fell into the thread abyss. Hope the guy didn't get electrocuted. davidro1 - if you're still alive, I'd say it is more likely that you have an appliance problem than a house wiring problem. Recommend you call an appliance repair person. "Leakage current" is NOT normal, nor is getting zapped by your cooktop. |
|
- Posted by petey_racer (My Page) on Wed, Apr 7, 10 at 13:41
| I bet this is a 120/240v appliance where someone used the bare ground of a X/2NM cable as a neutral in a 3-wire installation. As to the thread, it helps if an original poster comes back to give more info when more info is needed. |
|
| It's a 240 V cooktop. It's still under warranty. There are only two wires (two hots), and a ground wire. In the manual, it says to "follow the connection schematic" but there was no schematic diagram in the box. I sent this to the company: So, I'm telling them about the shock(s) but asking to see a schematic first, before I start getting the warranty involved. The fact that there was more than one zap is the thing that is making me look into this a lot. At first I thought it was a capacitor discharging, but when i got another "intermittent" shock I really started thinking there may be something more to it. Of course I don't feel like testing for more intermittent shocks with my hands on loose ground wires... (!) or waiting around with a multimeter hoping to see the needle jump.. . : - ) |
|
| "tell me if it is normal for a ground connection to be the route for excess charge to be released" No. The schematic may be located on the back/bottom of the unit, or even in the wiring compartment on the inside of the cover or inside the unit. |
|
| Hello again. Below is the letter I'm ready to send to the company that handles warranty. Please feel free to comment !! --- Yesterday I received a voicemail message call from someone in your firm asking me to call back to speak to you. I have the __XxxX_ cooktop. In the manual, there is no information about the wiring or schematic diagram. Good news: the cooktop works. Bad news: it gave a lot of medium-voltage shocks when ground got disconnected. I did not turn the cooktop on during that day. Just f.y.i. since I placed the cooktop onto metal it was easy to receive shocks, without touching the cooktop's housing. Here is the interesting part: This can become important at some point. An appliance should not be sending pulses into the ground wire. I'm willing to do some diagnosis with multimeters and power meters. I like the __ and would gladly have another one of the same 24" size, if it comes to replacing this one. --- |
|
| OK, just I sent it and within minutes I got a call back. Here is the answer: The appliance is always ready, always on, just like many other devices. He says there is a trickle voltage always. Nothing unusual. Been seen before. The two hots are correctly connected to the two wires. Voltage is OK. --So, I guess if ground is disconnected, an imbalance builds up and discharges as a zap. |
|
- Posted by weedmeister (My Page) on Thu, Apr 8, 10 at 15:33
| Yes, I was going to mention that these touch-control units are always 'on'. Else it would not respond to your touch. You haven't stated the manufacturer. Is it European? The reason I ask is that it is common for the control electronics to use 120v eventhough the unit is 220v (or 230v). The other thing is that the electronics in the unit is probably 'grounded' to the chassis. If not tied to the house ground, this chassis 'ground' will 'float' up or down relative to the true ground depending on the loads on the +120v and -120v attached to the unit. This is where you can get 'zapped'. Next time you move it, turn off the power. |
|
| Sounds like an explanation that I can sleep well with. The floating ground, close to ground. I'm also going to clasp the sheath more securely to the wall box. Yes it's imported from Europe, and as you guessed also, I didn't want to mention this until now. |
|
| Those zany Germans... still mad about ze war... ;') |
|
| How old ias the unit? The present US and European standards do not allow the use of the safety ground to tie down the secondary of a step down transformer. It was not prohibited a while ago, and some manufacturers did it this way. The source importance for the leakage current is very high, so without a defect in the transformer it is not a hazard to personnel. |
|
- Posted by weedmeister (My Page) on Sat, Apr 17, 10 at 12:14
| Importance? Impedance? |
|
| It was made for 230V - 240V in Europe, and that is what it gets here too... so I don't know what the meaning is of a stepdown transformer here. I mean, there is no transformer since it runs off 230V. Is this right? -- It was made in 2008 or 2007. |
|
| The source impedance for the leakage current is very high, so without a defect in the transformer it is not a hazard to personnel. New keyboard. |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Electrical Wiring Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.