Off topic but need some electrical help.

[daddycreswell]

I am in the process of building a heating box to warm polycarbonate. I am using 4 heating elements from a toaster oven. I wired it all up tonight in series and they worked but didn't get hot enough. So I tried wired parallel and it kicked the breaker as soon as I plugged it in. So is wiring them in series/parallel the way to go. It's 110 volts. Any help would be great, thanks.

 

[inphx]

If they are rated 120v - when you wire four in series each is getting 30 volts.... so it wont get hot

If you wire in parallel - each gets 120v. If each pulls 20 Amps (i dont know what each will pull) then 4 in parallel will try to pull 80 Amps.

They most likely need to be in parallel by design - you need wiring and power to feed it.

 

[The Cobbler]

are they all out of the same toaster oven? how were they wired ? could they have been 2 each in series then the 2 sets wired parallel?

 

[67carl]

Can you get an old junk electric oven? Use that to "bake" the plastic. I see many on craigslist in my area for cheap.

 

[sublimate]

Do you have a mutimeter? Use it to measure their resistance.

 

[rancherbill]

When you paralelled them you dropped the resistance and that is why the breaker blew.

Parallel Resistance Calculator
Series and parallel circuits

 

[nehog]

The obvious right answer is to wire them the same way they were wired in the toaster oven!

Just guessing I'd say series/parallel is probably how it was done originally. If they are identical, connect two in series, and measure the current they draw with your clamp-on ammeter. Should be about 4-6 amps (about, can vary of course) so that both sets would draw about 8-12 amps total.

 

[daddycreswell]

If they are rated 120v - when you wire four in series each is getting 30 volts.... so it wont get hot

If you wire in parallel - each gets 120v. If each pulls 20 Amps (i dont know what each will pull) then 4 in parallel will try to pull 80 Amps.

They most likely need to be in parallel by design - you need wiring and power to feed it.

I tired parallel, then in series. I have attached pictures of what I have tried and the series/parallel I think I need to try.

are they all out of the same toaster oven? how were they wired ? could they have been 2 each in series then the 2 sets wired parallel?

Look at my crude drawing, I best I remember this is the way it was wired in the toaster. It's been a couple of months since I took it apart but just now getting to working on it.

 

[daddycreswell]

I ended up wiring them series/parallel and it worked like a charm. Only problem now is I need to add 4 more elements in order to get it hot enough. I'm going to wire the. To a separate cord.


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