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In alt.engineering.electrical Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
wrote:

| Professional washing machines. One of my very first days 'in the field'
was
| to connect some of them. They have a large heating element, you can
connect
| it single phase, or 3 phase, it just heats up faster (of course) when
you
| connect it 3 phase. (they have a single phase motor, so it works also in
| pure 230 V).

If it has 3 elements rated for 230 volts, with 3 separate connections that
would be to three separate phase for a three phase feed, and all connected
to the one phase for a single phase feed, then it should heat up at the
same
speed, while drawing three times the current (not accounting for the
motor).

I don't know why it should heat up faster in three phase, or why you would
say "of course" about it. I would think it would heat up faster if you
took
it over to London and hooked it up to a 240 volt supply.

Maybe you connected with single phase just one element? The rest two
remained unconnected? (3 230 volts elements, connected wye). I'm sure it
heated up faster, in 3 phase connection.





--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering
mechanized infantry reservist
hordad AT otenet DOT gr
NB:I killfile googlegroups.