Hi, folks-
This website was highly recommended by a friend, so I thank anyone in advance for considering my post. Here’s the situation, and I hope I’ll express it as clearly as possible:
We just purchased a co-op (junior 4) and are making some minor upgrades to the place. Among them is adding air conditioning. The apartment has three a/c wall sleeves: one in the living room, and one in each bedroom. Next to each sleeve is the special outlet used for a/cs (I believe they’re each the 120V sockets; looks like a face with two eyes and a little mouth, but the left eye has an additional perpendicular “slash” extending out of it). Adjacent, usually by the windows themselves, are a set of “normal” sockets. All wiring, as we were led to understand, is recent.
A few weeks ago, I purchased an Amana 14000 BTU portable a/c, and plugged it into a “normal” socket in the living room to test it. Ran the little trip test on the plug itself; all was well. It ran for about one hour before I shut it off to go out. We later transferred it to the a/c socket because of better placement, and I heard a loud “thump” from inside… a funny smell came out of it, and it refused to work at all. Tried to plug it back into the normal socket; dead.
I returned it as defective, and replaced it with a 12,200 BTU Amcor portable unit. This one was plugged right into the a/c socket. Loud thump as soon as it hit the socket, and refused to work at all.
I returned that one. A friend gave us his 8,000 Friedrich wall sleeve unit from 2004 (used maybe twice and in great condition). I installed this one into the bedroom’s sleeve and plugged it into the a/c socket. It ran great! We even ran it again later in the evening for him to see; no problem. The next morning, I tried again; the fan ran, but the compressor would try and try again to come on with no luck. We then decided to put it into the living room at the a/c socket; same problem. Putting it into the normal socket then caused it to go completely silent.
I purchased two Haier 6,000 BTU units, thinking that perhaps the load is too great from a higher BTU unit. I unpacked one and installed it into the living room. It blew out cold air just fine, and then I turned it off. Fifteen minutes later, I tried to turn it on again with no luck. I then tried to place it into the other locations; it didn’t work in any of them even though I tried both types of sockets at each location. The little green light on the plug says that it’s fine no matter where it goes, and the trip test goes well even though the unit never turned on again. I called Haier; they said to return it since it’s dead. I haven’t even bothered to unpack the second identical unit, and am unsure what to do about returning it. As the season progresses into summer and my wife’s comfort becomes more important because she already a high-risk pregnancy, I’m getting deeply concerned about how to keep the apartment at a good temperature.
Perhaps my friends are right: one says I’m cursed, and the other recommended an exorcism. Before I schedule a priest to come in and vanquish me, however, any ideas on what I’m doing wrong? Thank you again in advance for your ideas…
Edited 6/14/2009 4:51 pm ET by STQ
Edited 6/14/2009 4:53 pm ET by STQ
Replies
That special AC outlet is 220 volts. Get an electrician to covert it to 110 volts if that is what you need or buy 220 volt air conditioners. You have been killing then with over voltage.
Edited 6/14/2009 4:54 pm ET by BigBill
Thanks for the reply. It didn't look like the 220-volt sockets that I've seen pictures of, or had while in our old apartment. Besides, why might the a/cs die even after being plugged into the normal sockets first? With the 6,000 BTU unit, I only tried the a/c socket after it appeared to die with the same result. Could all the sockets be hokey?
Do you know how to use an ohm meter? You can buy a cheapie for $10-$15 and check the voltages, neutral, and grounds.
Or buy one of those cheepie outlet testers with the 3 lights. I also imediately thought of 220V.
Those won't show the voltage.And it might "explode", but I doubt it.The best thing if you don't want to get a meter is a tester like this.http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=76034-1781-GET-213A&lpage=noneIt has a separate light for 120 and 240 (and that particular one 2 others for other voltages).Most of that type that I have seen only have the two. They are only a couple of bucks.Test from each flat (or T shape) slot to the other one. And from each slot to the round ground hole.For 240 you will read 240 slot to slot and 120 either slot to the round hole.For 120 you will read 120 slot to slot. And from the narrow slot to ground 120 and from the wide slot to ground nothing.Then match the arranges with the drawings of the receptacles in the other reply. Note - because strange wording in the code the 120 are called 125 volt and the ones for 240 are called 250 volt.If ALL of these don't match, including getting readings from the slots to ground then you have a problem with the receptacle and/or wiring that needs to be fixed..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
This afternoon I went over to the apartment in question, tester in hand (the guy works with me). In the living room, there is a 120-volt, 20 amp receptacle wired with 2 hot leads! (One black and one white) In addition to this, the receptacle was not wrapped with tape before installation in the box, with the screws perilously close to the metal side of the box. And the hot white lead was not taped over in black as a warning.
This is a great (!) example of a criminally stupid homeowner repair. It's easily enough fixed, but the question remains: Why did my buddy blow through three AC's before realizing something was up? (Are you listening, Scott?)
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
-Groucho Marx
"I guess ya can't cure stupid" is what I wanted to post instead of the silly nema chart.
Yer his buddy, glad you covered it. ;)
"Why did my buddy blow through three AC's before realizing something was up? (Are you listening, Scott?)"You will have to ask the great Guru that one..
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
SOunds to me like he should go back and pay each of those retailers for blowing up A/C's and returning them as defective. Sure it was an honest mistake but in all fairness it's analogous to buying a Porsche and taking it out on a 4-wheeler course in the mountains and bringing it back to the dealer and demanding a refund because it doesn't corner well off the road.
Please let us know if he does indeed return to the retailers in question to offer some form of recompense.
You can't plug a 120V 20A plug into a 220V receptacle. The horizontal/vertical slots are on opposite sides from one another.It is possible, of course that someone wired a 120V 20 receptacle as 220. That's easy to check out with a volt meter.
BruceTEdit: Oops, I didn't read through all the posts before answering. Looks like I made a good guess, though.
Edited 6/15/2009 10:11 pm by brucet9
Sounds like your "special" outlet is a 5-20r which should be 120v. From your description of the problem it sounds like it was wired 220v, check it, a cheap tester is about 8 bucks.
If it is 220, it should be changed to 120 or a 6-20r device installed.
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Mis-wired receptacles are not so rare as I thought. Just two weeks ago I was asked to re-wire an outlet for a HO who brought a Swedish washer and dryer from a previous home to his new one. Both machines were 220V but they had home made 14ga line cords with 120V 15A plugs. HO told me that they came with his old house and that the outlet there was labeled "220V", so he wanted me to do the same at the new house.
I installed a duplex 220V 20A receptacle and changed the plug on the washer (rated 220V 10A) and replaced the dryer (rated 220V 20A) line cord with a factory-made 220V 20A AC line cord.
Won't it be fun when the maid at the old house ignores the label and plugs the vacuum cleaner into that mis-wired receptacle? Man that thing will suck like crazy for a minute or so!