Checking the wiring on a la pavoni europiccola

[Stuey]

Hi all,

I've just looked at my europiccola which I've had for about 5 years because I'm thinking of selling it to check that all the wiring's in good shape and it seems to me that the wires to the power plug are reversed. This would have been the case for the entire time I've had it.

Can anyone who's got an old (late 60's/early 70's) europiccola take a look and let me know which colour wire goes to which connection to the element/switch contacts? It's the older, minimo/massimo-style switch.

Cheers!

[alexm1]

I am not familiar with your machine but if you are asking about the input wires it does not matter what way they are connected except for the earth wire. There may not be an earth but if there is it will be green& yellow or solid green and it must be connected to the long pin of the three pin plug. The other two wires, the active and neutral, can be reversed and it will make no difference to the operation of the machine.

[noidle22]

The live wire (brown) should go through the thermal cutout (at the output of the switch) if your machine has one fitted. If it doesn't have a cutout or any other fuses then it doesn't really matter which way the active and neutral wires attach to the switch/element.

However, the wiring on the plug should be corrected if it is wrong. It's not a safety concern as such but if your buyer sees and recognises an incorrectly wired plug it might put them off. I know it'd put me off.
Brown wire should be at the right hand pin when looking from the front, neutral (blue) is on the left and earth is the lower pin. Although I think you would have noticed by now if the earth pin was wired incorrectly haha.

[Stuey]

Thanks for the replies guys. I didn't think it mattered which way the wires went (as long as earth was earthed, which it is!) but I wanted to check, since I'm going to sell this machine soon and I wanted to be sure.You guys rock!

[Dimal]

G'day Stuey...

The few LP Euro's that I have seen, have all had a power switch fitted. If this is the same deal with your particular unit, then you must ensure that the "Active" (Brown) wire is the one that is switched, not the "Neutral" (Blue). This an Australian regulatory requirement. Any other devices such as Thermal Overloads or Thermostats, etc, must be connected "downstream" of the Power Switch.

If you're not sure about any of this, please engage the services of a licensed sparky to check all this out for you...

Mal.

[Stuey]

Dimal, thanks for the tip. That makes sense; I work with high voltage electronics at work so I'm fairly careful with all this. I'm tempted to get someone to check it just to cover myself.
This is one of the ones which DOESN'T have a power switch- these older ones just have a switch to swap between the 200W and 1000W elements, the only way to turn them off is to turn the socket off or unplug them.

[Dimal]

Ok...

In that case, the Active needs to go to the first protection device, i.e. the Thermal Overload for example and then any other Control Devices such as the Thermostat should be connected downstream of that. Getting it checked out by a licensed sparky is the best idea though....

Mal.