# Swapping a 3 pin for a 2 pin (Euro) plug?



## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

I bought an Esatto attachment to the Baratza Preciso. Didn't consider that buying from Europe it would be tricky because the grinder plugs in to the Esatto attachment. I can't use a plug adapter because the UK plug is too big to fit in the space.

The plug on the Preciso is moulded on to the wire so I can't just check but I assume it'll have 3 wires, if I want to put it on to a Euro style 2 pin plug will I be left with a third (earth?) Wire with nowhere to put it? Is their any way around that or am I just out of luck?


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## destiny (Jun 4, 2015)

So if understand correctly the machine end is permanently wired inside and you have a moulded 2 pin euro plug to connect to the socket?

Is that 2 pin plug like the first or 2nd picture:

1.
View attachment 15901
2.
View attachment 15902


Europe, doesn't have a fuse built in into the plugs, so no 1 doesn't have earth, while no 2 uses the central top hole to connect to the earth.

You could try to find these adaptors on ebay for no 1:

View attachment 15903


which have a UK style 3 pin termination (incorrectly shown on the above picture as its a US version)


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

try a shaver fused plug, put higher rated fuse in,


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## Rhys (Dec 21, 2014)

As I understand, the earth on two pin plugs goes into the neutral?

Just watching this vid, and the plug has two flat blades (though is that US?)


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## Thecatlinux (Mar 10, 2014)

Cut the plug off , and just fit a regular 13 amp plug .

if it's two wires it's brown into the live blue in to the neutral.

3amp fuse for up to 750w

13amp fuse thereafter

do not wire the neutral wire into the earth pin ! This is not permissible !


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## Rhys (Dec 21, 2014)

Thecatlinux said:


> ..do not wire the neutral wire into the earth pin ! This is not permissible !


or the other way round (I mentioned the earth wire into the neutral). I couldn't remember if this is how foreign two pin plugs work as there must be an earthing connection somewhere.


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## Thecatlinux (Mar 10, 2014)

Rhys said:


> or the other way round (I mentioned the earth wire into the neutral). I couldn't remember if this is how foreign two pin plugs work as there must be an earthing connection somewhere.


Not necessarly , but that's quite a large subject about first fault systems and distribution.


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## teejay41 (Mar 9, 2015)

Rhys said:


> As I understand, the earth on two pin plugs goes into the neutral?
> 
> Just watching this vid, and the plug has two flat blades (though is that US?)


Two parallel flat blades is indeed USA. Two angled flat blades is Australian.

If I'm not mistaken, Europe (or parts of it at least) has a 220V balanced-earth system where although there is 220V across the two pins, each pin is 110V with respect to earth. As the UK's mains system has its live at 230-240V relative to earth, with the neutral only 3 or 4V above earth (it's earthed at the power-station) it's important to wire 13A plugs correctly with brown to live (the side with the fuse) and blue to the neutral pin. This ensures that appliances switch the live rather than the neutral, thereby enhancing safety. The yellow/green goes to the larger earth pin of course. When wiring 13A plugs, it's good practice to make the earth cable at least an inch longer (i.e. cut the brown and blue somewhat shorter) and leave the excess of earth wire crammed inside the plug. Thus, if the cable should ever be ripped out of its plug, the earth would be the last to disconnect, maintaining safety to the very last moment.

Note that years ago, products made in Germany tended to transpose the brown and blue conductors such that it was the blue which was switched. Very confusing!

There are standard 5A and 10A fuses between 3A and 13A, which I often use.

Hope this helps.

Tony.


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## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

Just to double check. I have the Esatto attachment from Europe and Preciso from UK. The Preciso with its 3 pin plug needs to plug into the Esatto. It's essentially a new made for the Preciso and the Preciso plugs in to the Esatto which then plugs in to the wall. Below a photo of the part of the Esatto that the Preciso would plug in to. I need to take the 3 pin plug off from the Preciso and use a 2 pin European style plug for it to fit into this socket in the photo. Sorry if it's already covered by a post here and I'm being dense (imminently possible) but how would I do that?

View attachment 15912


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

ARGH there is some seriously bad advice in this thread, that was touched upon by the electrical safety thread recently. (thecatlinux excepted being an electrician and talking sense, and destiny who was right)

Nobody should be plugging anything that needs an earth into a shaver adaptor, ever. Unless you want a ~230v shock - then knock yourself out. Nobody should be wiring the ground into one of the 2 pins on a 2 pin only plug either in the UK.

In this situation I honestly think your best bet is to return the Esatto and buy a UK one. Otherwise what you need to do is fit an EU* plug to your current grinder, then plug that into the Esatto. You then need the fit a UK plug to the Esatto, or use a fused adaptor to connect it to the mains.

* I cant see whether it is a 2pin plug (labelled 1 in destiny's post) or a schuko plug (labelled 2 in destiny's post). If it is type 2 you MUST have the earth connected correctly, and again into the UK plug (or if using an adaptor it needs an earth pass through).


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

Actually a potentially sloppier way of doing it that wouldn't involve cutting off plugs would be a short EU extension cable (schuko again) coming out from the esatto, then a schuko to UK adaptor to plug the grinder into.

Messy though. And it might not work depending on how the grinder sits on the esatto, you would need a way for the cable to get out.


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## teejay41 (Mar 9, 2015)

jlarkin said:


> Just to double check. I have the Esatto attachment from Europe and Preciso from UK. The Preciso with its 3 pin plug needs to plug into the Esatto. It's essentially a new made for the Preciso and the Preciso plugs in to the Esatto which then plugs in to the wall. Below a photo of the part of the Esatto that the Preciso would plug in to. I need to take the 3 pin plug off from the Preciso and use a 2 pin European style plug for it to fit into this socket in the photo. Sorry if it's already covered by a post here and I'm being dense (imminently possible) but how would I do that?
> 
> View attachment 15912


Sorry J, your photo is not showing, so I really can't advise you.

Tony.


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## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

That would be handy to find a schuko plug with small lead for UK plug to plug into, can't find one but I'll have another look.

The Esatto has it's own plug to plug into the mains and that powers it and the grinder, using the Preciso plug (that's plugged into the Esatto) as a sort of relay I guess (not in the technical sense necessarily).


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

jlarkin said:


> That would be handy to find a schuko plug with small lead for UK plug to plug into, can't find one but I'll have another look.
> 
> The Esatto has it's own plug to plug into the mains and that powers it and the grinder, using the Preciso plug (that's plugged into the Esatto) as a sort of relay I guess (not in the technical sense necessarily).


You would probably find it easier to buy a schuko extension lead, and a separate uk to schuko adaptor with ground. that allows you to plug the grinder into the esatto. Then a fused grounded schuko to esatto adaptor to plug the esatto into the wall.

If the grinder is meant to fit snugly on top of the esatto then it wont work, a you will have a cable sticking out preventing it from sitting.

It's just cutting the power to the grinder when the desired weight is reached, or about to be reached.

Honestly, I would return it and buy a UK version.


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## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

Thanks, good points. I would have bought a UK version if their was one. They didn't release it here - I'm thinking maybe because the design prohibited it from working with our style of plug


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## destiny (Jun 4, 2015)

I have only seen 2 pin EU plugs (without earth hole) only used on very low current devices like old radios, VCRs etc, although I have actually seen it on hair dryers and like! (especially interesting when you realise that EU doesn't prohibit regular socket installation within bathroom environment).

You can buy EU 2/3 pin converters for UK but I have not yet seen one that would include earth connector for the 3 pin shuko plug.

I can have a look for something while Im out of UK soon, but dont know if you are prepared to wait just over 2 weeks for it


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## Thecatlinux (Mar 10, 2014)

destiny said:


> I have only seen 2 pin EU plugs (without earth hole) only used on very low current devices like old radios, VCRs etc, although I have actually seen it on hair dryers and like! (especially interesting when you realise that EU doesn't prohibit regular socket installation within bathroom environment).
> 
> You can buy EU 2/3 pin converters for UK but I have not yet seen one that would include earth connector for the 3 pin shuko plug.
> 
> I can have a look for something while Im out of UK soon, but dont know if you are prepared to wait just over 2 weeks for it


you can have a socket in your bathroom in this country, providing your bathroom is big enough


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

destiny said:


> I have only seen 2 pin EU plugs (without earth hole) only used on very low current devices like old radios, VCRs etc, although I have actually seen it on hair dryers and like! (especially interesting when you realise that EU doesn't prohibit regular socket installation within bathroom environment).
> 
> You can buy EU 2/3 pin converters for UK but I have not yet seen one that would include earth connector for the 3 pin shuko plug.
> 
> I can have a look for something while Im out of UK soon, but dont know if you are prepared to wait just over 2 weeks for it


Maplin sell schuko to uk adaptors with through wired earth and fuse and have done for many years, so im sure there are many other places too (as Maplin sucks in general).

Hair Dryers can be double insulated so they don't need a ground.


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## grumpydaddy (Oct 20, 2014)

I see Attachment 15912 on the page but get invalid attachment when I try to open it. so.....

From your description the new part has a socket like this I guess....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuko

scroll down to the bit about safety features.

If I am wrong the go to the wiki page about plugs and sockets and try to find it there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets

Once the socket is identified it is just a matter of putting the right plug on the Preciso (safely)

The essato can just have a BS1363 "UK 13 amp plug" fitted

Try posting another photo of the socket and hosting it (tinypic, photobucket etc)


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## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

grumpydaddy said:


> I see Attachment 15912 on the page but get invalid attachment when I try to open it. so.....
> 
> From your description the new part has a socket like this I guess....
> 
> ...


Thanks! Thinking about it, I think it's more like the first one in destiny's reply to me (second post on the thread if you can see it - hopefully pasted below) because it's very restricted space. I'll try to post another picture of the Esatto as well to tell.

In case you're all wondering why I'm bothering in the medium term I'd like to do some sort of coffee cart, coffee stall etc and think this would really help (getting an accurate weight straight out of the grinder) for brewed or decaf out something like that...

So if understand correctly the machine end is permanently wired inside and you have a moulded 2 pin euro plug to connect to the socket?

Is that 2 pin plug like the first or 2nd picture:

1.







2.









Europe, doesn't have a fuse built in into the plugs, so no 1 doesn't have earth, while no 2 uses the central top hole to connect to the earth.

You could try to find these adaptors on ebay for no 1:










which have a UK style 3 pin termination (incorrectly shown on the above picture as its a US version)


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

No 1 has no ground, and is only suitable for double insulated appliances with low current. No 2 has a ground that is a trip of metal running along the top and bottom of the plug, this makes contact with the socket when plugged in.

From what you are saying the grinder plugs into the esatto which plugs into the mains (I assume the esatto has a schuko plug on it?).

Try and avoid buying cheap adaptors and the like from ebay, in a lot of cases its cheap rubbish made in China that doesn't meet EU safety standards. Maplin sells them, Amazon should sell them (buy direct not marketplace for same reason).

To be brutally honest that grinder is more a home grinder than a commercial one, you may struggle a bit using it in a coffee cart?


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