Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

[brokenoar]

NEED TO REPLACE PLUG ON THE CORD OF ON ELECTRIC CLOTHES IRON. Cut off old plug not realizing that one prong is wider than the other. Now I do not know which way is correct to install new plug. Took the back off and found the ends of te wires where they connect to the heating element. Tried to determine which one is ground using ohm meter. Neither one showed continuity from wire to ground. Of course I do not know what is ground since everything seems to be plastic. Even touching to bottom plate did not show continuity from either connection. One terminal has a very small diameter wire in addition to the cord wire running somewhere. I wonder if this terminal should be considered the hot wire or terminal? Any help in wiring this correctly will be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post-just trying to be thorough.

 

[brokenoar]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

sorry for the double post. How do I delete one?

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

Polarity doesn't matter on a resistive heating element.

 

[cajun555]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

Your plug that you cut off, is it a 3 prong plug or a 2 prong? The way I read your post is you only have 2 wires. If it is 2 wire the wider blade is neatrul. Normally on a 2 wire conducter the neatrul wire will have ribbs on that wire. Hope this helps.

 

[Plainsman]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

sorry for the double post. How do I delete one?

Just edit it and say opps 8)

 

[brokenoar]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

The wire on the iron is 2 conductors. Neither one has ribs. Appears that one wire has slightly larger diameter conductor inside insulation but I am not sure. Do you think that the connection inside the iron that has a very small wire also attached should be the hot ?

 

[levittownnick]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

A plug with one blade that is wider than the other is a polerized plug. The wide blade should be the Neutral terminal. Neutral should not be confused with ground for some very good safety reasons. Neutral should never be connected to the case of a device.
The Neutral blade of the cord should be connected to the "identified" conductor or to the white or slate color wire.
The identified conductor of a molded/extruded insulated wire usually has a textured surface like ribbs on the length of the wire. If it is inside a jacket, usually it is color coded white or slate.
Is it possible to identify the wire on the cut-off plug?

 

[ZmOz]

Re: Replacing a Plug on an Electrical Cord

As I said, the polarity makes no difference on an iron. Connect either wire to either blade. You're overthinking this. The only thing polarity makes a difference on are modern electronics and sometimes electric motors, and of course an iron has neither.