have any of you ever wired in your own compressor?

[Eddie N]

i'm picking up a 60 gallon air compressor the end of this month for my garage and since its a 230 volt, it needs to be hardwired.. how much trouble am i in for? if its that much trouble i'll hire an electrician, but i would really like to have the experience of doing this myself..

as an aside, how much does 120 volts hurt?

- eddie -

 

[Bad_Byte]

Eddie, just plug in two circuit breakers and get a 4 wire cable. Two wires are hot, one is return and one is earth ground.

It's pretty simple but if you don't savvy electricty I would solicite some on site assistance.

Do not attempt it with the main breakers on, In fact I'm fairly sure they should be removed completely to insert the new breakers since the bar the breakers are mounted to is hot.

There are many other considerations such as the size of your main breakers and what is already being used.

Disclaimer: I'm no electrician so use this advice at your own risk.

 

[Jim Wilson]

In my old house I ran a line from my utility room which had a 230 outlet for the dryer. I just drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the wall to the garage and ran the wire along the base board trim to the compressor.
Piece of cake!

 

[joe117]

If you have to ask how much trouble this job will be, you should hire an electrician.
It is a little dangerous to be working in the box, even with the main breaker off. Start fishing wires around and one could touch the outboard side of the main breaker. Probably a long shot but it could happen.
Running the wire through the walls to where you need to go is a pain too.

 

[kickinasp]

Its easy, just make sure when you connect to the main panel the power is off. Depending on the type of 220 breaker you use, this might just insert in, but doubtful. You have two (hot) wires coming into the main panel from the outside. Each is 110. One feeds the right side the other the left side. The two together is 220. get the picture. You get a 220 breaker, that connects to both bars (left and right). Buy 220 wire from your "Home Depot", run it to the location. Buy a 220 plug (its different than a 110). Wire it up and plug in the compressor. Its not that hard. You should find out your local codes about running wire underground to your garage. 18 inches minimum underground and they sell cable that is underground ready. Thats if you have to run new cable. In a normal garage, you have one 110 wire running into the garage, but in some cases they run two, have one feed the lights the other feed the plugs. If thats the case, your golden and can just put in a new breaker box in the garage and duplicate whats in the house.

 

[HP]

Eddie, I worked my way through college doing residential and commercial
wiring-my brother was an electrician among other things. If you need help
e-mail me. And about the 110v - its bite is dependent on how much you are grounded(it doesn't bother me much with dry shoes),- but 220v is another thing
I think a prior poster spelled out most of what is necessary - But you do
need to run a separate line from you main box - 10g wire would probably do
if the run is not long - otherwise use 6g wire - 3 strand. The people at
the hardware store can line you up on what to do. You can do it - just
make sure to flip the main breaker to your box before you get your hands in
there, and always stand on something dry to insulate you from the ground.

 

[FRANK]

10/2 Romex (2 hots and ground) and a 30 amp 220 breaker. Keep it simple. My 6 horse 60 gallon I used 12/2 with a 30 amp breaker I belive - may be a 20 amp breaker...fine for the last 14 years!

 

[SNAKOIL VA]

It doesn't need to be hardwired if you use a 230V plug in receptacle. If 230 V, the motor should list the amperage load on the name plate. It's probably 20 or 30 amps.

You can use a HACR breaker whcih has a little more resistance to tripping.

There are 4 wires in a 230 V circuit.
2 Hots: Red and Black
1 neutral: white
1 ground: bare copper or green

The gage of the wire is dependant on the amps and the total length of the cable. There are charts that tell you what size to use.

Red and black are interchangeable with each other. Mix them up with the others and you have problem.

You can get a book at home depot to show you how to wire this. It's not hard, you just have to follow the diagrams.

 

[JoeB]

Hell, Eddie I'll come and hook it up for you. I'll be there Thursday for V-Days this week.


Joe B ( ready to wire ) 01