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Not enough juice for the contactor!

 
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Surfking55




Joined: 10 Sep 2021
Posts: 1
Location: NorCal


PostLink    Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 4:20 am    Post subject: Not enough juice for the contactor! Reply with quote


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Hey ya'll, so I decided to switch to electric brewing and in true home brewer fashion I decided to build my own control box. The build went find and I got all of the parts that were suggested. To include 3, two pole 30 amp 120 volt contactors. When I finished the build, I plugged in my controller and with great disappointment, nothing happened. I started working backwards and started taking it apart one piece at a time. To the point to where I was just left with a bare contactor and that's where I found my problem. Measuring the voltage out of my 240 outlet I get 244vac across both L1 and L2. I get ~122vac across ground and L1 or L2. However, I only get ~118vac across neutral and L1 or L2. When I use ground and and either L1 or L2 the contactor works perfect. But not so much with neutral and a hot lead. Since there isn't much I can due about the voltage coming out of the wall, I think I know what I have to do but I really don't want to have to pull all 3 120 volt contactors out of my controller and replace them with 110vac contactors. Any suggestions would be awesome...
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 1:18 pm    Post subject: Re: Not enough juice for the contactor! Reply with quote

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Quote:
I really don't want to have to pull all 3 120 volt contactors out of my controller and replace them with 110vac contactors.

That won't make a difference. Mains voltage can vary quite a bit and no contactor with a coil meant to close at 120V AC will be built to work at 120V but not 110V. That wouldn't be good as voltage can fluctuate. You may see contactors with coils rated for 110V AC and others for 120V AC but that's just semantics. Some people call regular wall power 110V, while others call it 120V. There's going to be wide voltage range that causes the coil to close. It would actually take a lot more circuitry to make a contactor that closes reliably at 120v but never at 110V.

Your issue is elsewhere. Unfortunately I'm not sure where it is from the info you've provided.

Surfking55 wrote:
When I use ground and and either L1 or L2 the contactor works perfect.

Keep in mind too that GROUND in electrical systems (like your home's power system/wiring) should never used be used carry current in normal situations. It's for safety only. I'm not sure you would but don't design something to carry a load across GROUND under normal situations.

Cheers!

Kal

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Yo_Pauly




Joined: 30 Nov 2014
Posts: 42
Location: New Richmond, WI


PostLink    Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2021 9:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m thinking there must be a loose neutral connection at the receptacle or in the electrical panel. With a poor connection the contact might be enough to obtain a normal voltage measurement in an unloaded condition but not enough contact to support appreciable flow of current when the load is applied. It also seems apparent that you’re not connected to a GFCI receptacle. That is ill advised.
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Builder




Joined: 03 Sep 2017
Posts: 32
Location: Indiana


PostLink    Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

has this been resolved? I'm going to suggest to power your contactor from L1 (or L2) to neutral, then check voltage from L1 (or L2) to neutral, and then to ground, and then try neutral to ground. With the contactor powered to neutral, nuetral to ground should be 0 or very close to it. If you measure close to mains voltage, you have a bad neutral somewhere.
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