240 V line voltage t stat ... Load & Line?

[The Cobbler]

had a tstat fail for the kitchen @ the volunteer warehouse . it stuck closed , It always seemed flakey in that it had very wide temp range from on & off .
Anyway, I bought a replacement . It has line & load leads , but with a 240 v circuit, isn't all it's doing is opening both legs to shut off the heater?
the directions don't make any reference to the line & load .
it had a red & black lead. the old stat was both black .
I just wired it in anyway .

 

[wyliesdiesels]

ungrounded conductors can be any color but white gray green or yellow with green stripe.

for resistive load devices, line and load wont matter.

 

[Milton Shaw]

Some oven thermostats and cycle switches are double line break. That means the element completely cuts off when you turn it off and no current and voltage is going to the element. I have seen stoves that are single break and when the element fails a lot of time the element will short and burn back like a welding rod until it reaches the terminal at the oven liner. Only way to shut it off is to unplug the stove or open the breaker nothing on the stove itself will cut it off. GE stoves at the time I worked for them were always double line break and some cheaper stoves were not. Those always have current to the element all the time, even when turned off.

 

[BillK]

Just remember that if your new thermostat only opens one leg then the other side will always be hot. If you go to work on the heater you will absolutely have to turn off the power going to it, not just the thermostat.

 

[walta]

If the thermostat happened to be electronic / digital the line and load would be important. It is also possible that the part labeled line and load are shared between the mechanical and electronic models

It is also possible the load side has some filter caps on that side to limit electrical noise when the contacts open and close.

Walta

 

[mike93lx]

Without other control wire, yes, it's just on or off. No variability other than run time

 

[Bert_]

It probably has an anticipator