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Miller syncrowave 250 power source question

72bwhite

Titanium
Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Location
California, Ventura county
Miller Syncrowave 250 will all of them run on
single phase or is there a year when they started
being able to work off just about any standard US electric line
power both 3 or single phase?

found one close to home at a good price, but it's from an industrial
setting, so if it needs 3 phase it's of no use to me.
 
I have never seen a three phase Syncrowave 250, not saying it doesn't exist but all the ones I have seen have been single phase with taps internally to run 208, 240 or 460 power.
 
I was helping a car restoration shop get a Synchrowave welder up and they were convinced that it was 3 phase. I spent some time on the phone with Miller tech support, and they were emphatic that it was a single phase machine. I downloaded the manual for the shop, and it clearly stated this also. They hooked it up to single phase 240 volts and it works fine. If you do download the manual from Miller's site, you can check this yourself.
Regards,
Michael
 
The Owners manual only indicates single phase.
I have one, purchased new, and ordered the power factor kit, which is a bank of capacitors. This lowers the operating current. My shop is on a 60 amp service, and over 120 feet of branch wiring (6AWG copper). I've never tripped the circuit breaker on the main panel.
 
The Owners manual only indicates single phase.
I have one, purchased new, and ordered the power factor kit, which is a bank of capacitors. This lowers the operating current. My shop is on a 60 amp service, and over 120 feet of branch wiring (6AWG copper). I've never tripped the circuit breaker on the main panel.

Looking at manual OM-363 page 13. There are three tables which follow the same trend regarding PFC. Example from the first table (200A output 60% duty cycle):

230VAC operation with no PFC
Input current = 77A
Idle current = 2.8A

230VAC operation with PFC
Input current = 52A
Idle current = 49.5A

If the welder is in idle with PFC the input current is high. It indicates that if you are TIG welding, which is a slow process, the idle time is expensive. As it was explained to me, unless you are welding all day the PFC capacitors are not saving you electricity (according to the print). As it is the PFC kit is a bank of two capacitors. If the amperage they state in the manual is not REAL current then I would like to know about it.

The back panel has a chart for jumping single phase input voltages:
200V
230V
460V
 
I understand that the capacitors are across the AC line once the welders power switch is turned on. My point was that for marginal electric service, the PFC capacitors prevented my main circuit breaker from tripping.
Also note that the idle current is one heck of an apparent (leading reactive) power, most of which the power meter does not measure, unless it's balancing a very large inductive power (which is what the power company wants).
 
I understand that the capacitors are across the AC line once the welders power switch is turned on. My point was that for marginal electric service, the PFC capacitors prevented my main circuit breaker from tripping.
Also note that the idle current is one heck of an apparent (leading reactive) power, most of which the power meter does not measure, unless it's balancing a very large inductive power (which is what the power company wants).

You are correct about the line.

I remember that a welding acquaintance and the Miller website or someone in Miller service had warned me off about the PFC capacitors.
I'm going to look at it again. Thanks for the message.
 








 
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