Anyone know home appliance wiring?

[janikphoto]

I have an industrial fan that had a plug on it at one point. It worked just fine. I was replacing the cord today and noticed that it has white, black and red wires. I'm used to white, black and green for home stuff. I was about to wire up the red where the green would go, then I noticed that the red and white seemed to go off to one part of the fan and the black went to another. That was wrong.

I plugged it into a gfci outlet, thinking it would trip if it was wired wrong. Nope, it just wound up destroying the gfci outlet instead. Luckily, I had a few left over from a pro pack we bought during our house addition. So, I replaced the gfci and now want to make sure I have the wiring correct before proceeding.

So, who knows where to wire up the black, white and red? Does red go where green would?

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Can you pop the housing on the fan to see where the wires go?

[Hanky]

I'm guessing you threw away the old plug?

[timbertoes]

Switched hot may be the red.

it maybe an old motor...pre-3 wire grounding.

any data plate on the fan motor ?

[timbertoes]

Originally Posted by timbertoes

Switched hot may be the red.

it maybe an old motor...pre-3 wire grounding.

today, its: white and green are ground, where green is "earth" or frame ground. your white wires connect to the so called ground or neutral buss in the breaker box.
Black is hot.

any data plate on the fan motor ? sure its not a 220 that was wired for 120?

you could just not connect the red wire, MAYBE. or get a safer fan :)

[KJ Smith]

Usually, if you have a red, black, and white, then you are looking at a 240vac
unit.

Green is ground.

White is common.

Red & Black are hot.

[Westx]

I would agree with Kevin here. That is a 240 vac fan. Just had the same thing with a new dryer my cousin had bought. It had a 4 prong plug, red, white, black and green. Only had the 3 prong outlet in the old house she moved into so had to retro the dryer with a new 3 prong cable and plug, red, black and white only.

[janikphoto]

I bet you are right. It is probably 240v and it is older. It does have a data plate and I'll verify that it is 240v by checking that plate. It was running on 120v before, but maybe one of the hots wasn't hooked up at all? Is that possible?

[Westx]

Yes it is possible that was the case. Some table saws and the like come with motors that can be wire to run either on 110 or 220.

[KJ Smith]

Originally Posted by janikphoto

I bet you are right. It is probably 240v and it is older. It does have a data plate and I'll verify that it is 240v by checking that plate. It was running on 120v before, but maybe one of the hots wasn't hooked up at all? Is that possible?

Check the name plate and see what it says. If it runs on more than one voltage it will say.

It will also indicate how to wire it for the other voltages.

It is also possible that someone put the wrong cord (colors) on it.

If thats the case, you could be right. You may only be using one "hot" and the neutral.

So start at the name plate and go from there.

[leegarcia81]

it is not a standard plug , ...2 hots one ground , leave one off and see what happens , worst case you run your fan at half speed ,, oh well

[janikphoto]

OK, plate says 115, not 240 or double voltage. I'll take pics and show you guys what I've got. I know it works, because we wired a cord up to it a couple years ago and it was fine. I pulled the cord off six months ago to use on something else, and now I can't remember how we hooked it up last time...

[KJ Smith]

You can open the plate where the cord goes in and see where things are hooked up.

It should be marked there.

[todd_a]

Originally Posted by KJ Smith

You can open the plate where the cord goes in and see where things are hooked up.

It should be marked there.

Maybe take a good photo of this area and someone could direct you further with that visual info.