Electrical – Converting a NEMA 6-50p plug to NEMA 10-30p

electricalplugwiring

I received a compressor recently that has a (I think) 6-50p plug on it but my dryer is currently plugged into a 10-30r receptacle and that's the only 240v I have available. I'm renting the house so I would prefer not making changes to the receptacle.

Without thinking much of it, I purchased a 10-30p plug to put on the compressor, but while I was about to install it I realized the wiring is different between the two. I know very little about this stuff and I thought I should seek advice before doing anything stupid.

If I'm not mistaken, the 6-50p is grounded while the 10-30p is not.

What would be involved in replacing the 6-50p plug with a 10-30p plug? Is this even possible?

Here are some pics. Thanks!

The current plug on compressor:

current compressor plug current plug

The one I purchased (that fits my the receptacle in my garage):

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Compressor info:

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Best Answer

Your problem is where you source your ground. I updated the picture to show it better. The easy fix is if your wall has the ground wire but not connected. New dryer connections have 4 prongs to ensure you have ground protection as well as neutral.

Your current wall has only neutral on the 3rd prong. Neutral is meant to carry current and such if you touch it there is a potential hazard in case of a failure. Your compressor has ground PE on the 3rd prong, therefore connecting to the wall by just replacing the connector to match the wall would technically work, but it might not be safe.

The correct approach is to rewire your wall, by adding the ground PE which is probably just in there but not connected (bare copper wire). And then replace the compressor connector with one that connects only the two hot lines and the ground wire, as the compressor does not use the neutral.

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