220 Volt Plugs

[gregz]

Easy experiment.

Greg

[gfretwell]

A charger like that is internally protected as part of it's "class 2" listing.

[clare]

Actually, in the case of a direct short in a lamp socket conected to a 8 foot 18 guage zip cord the breaker WILL trip, and a fuse WILL blow (15 amp). The cord may or may not show evidence of heat. I have had it happen without any visible damage to the cord.

[clare]

Assuming the class 2 listing is not simply a stamp on a cheap non-compliant part (which does happen WAY too often)

[trader4]

I'm not so sure about that. Is it in fact code compliant to change the plug, the cord, etc on a UL listed appliance to something larger than it was supplied with? If it comes with a 20A plug/cord, you can change it to 50A?

The permanent wiring and receptacle are

I think the issue here are differing interpretations of what Stormin posted, which wasn't clear:

"I tapped a wire off their 50 amp range socket, to power the wall AC which I put in the window. Ran a 14-2 WG wire from his range socket, and put the necessary socket on the end of that. "

I and I think most others took that to mean that he tapped into the wiring at the range receptacle, (ie wire nuts, etc) and ran 14-2 to the AC, putting a socket of some kind on the end of that. In that case, it's clearly a code violation because his new wiring is part of the circuit wiring protected by a 50A breaker.

I think your interpretation is that he made a crude extension cord out of 14-2 with a plug on one end, socket on the other end. Obvious problem with that though is you can't then plug in the range and the AC at the same time. Plus from a code standpoint, 14-2 is not rated for use as an extension cord.

Perhaps Stormin will clarify.

[Stormin Mormon]

I opened the range socket, (power off). I loosened the clamps that held the aluminum range wire, and loosed the romex connector. Slipped the 14-2WG in through the romex connector. Stripped the ends, put them in with the aluminum wire. Ran the 14 to a box, which I screwed to the baseboard. Or, more likely left the box loose on the floor. This was 20 plus years ago, the details are a bit faded in my memory. Plug the wall AC into the outlet box. Put the cover back on the range socket, plug the range back in.

I'm an outlaw. And a couple folks appreciated having AC that killer hot summer. And you can't prove a thing. ;)

[trader4]

+1

[trader4]

That's what I thought you meant. I think everyone here, including you, agrees that is a code violation. Somehow this got morphed into changing cords, going to a larger ampacity plug on the AC, is code compliant or not.

[trader4]

While what you did is a code violation, I agree it's incorrect to say the breaker will never trip and imply it has something to do with the range. What you did is extend a 50A circuit to a receptacle to be used for the AC using 14-2 wire. We all agree that's a code violation. But if the AC became a dead short, the breaker would still trip before anything happened to the wire. The danger is that if the AC has a partial short, or someone plugs in some other load that is 45A, then the wire can overheat and start a fire without the breaker tripping.

[Stormin Mormon]

Any way to convince your news reader to stop inserting lines between my text?

I'm sure that my wire off the range socket is code violation. Fortunately, no damage was done, and it brought comfort to good people.

[Pete C.]

The cord is rated for the device it's on, not for the circuit it's plugged into.

I don't recall that. The only ones I recall for permanent wiring are the welder duty cycle adjustment, and taps feeding transformers.

[Pete C.]

Yep, an outlaw for not putting a plug on the cord.

[Pete C.]

An extension cord is not required to have the Ampacity of the circuit it's plugged into. The receptacle at the end of the extension cord is not a 50A receptacle.

[Nate Nagel]

No, it's still not compliant because you used 14/2 between the range recep and the new recep. By code it should be a minimum 8AWG.

nate

[Nate Nagel]

No it wouldn't because 14 AWG is only rated for a 15A branch circuit.

That's not the one I was thinking of, there is (was?) something about being allowed to have two different cooking appliances on the same high-amperage range circuit and being allowed to use smaller wire to connect the lower draw appliance of the two. I'm a little furry on the details having read it once years ago and not had to worry about it again.

nate

[Nate Nagel]

For the *cord only* - and cords cannot be used as permanent wiring other than to make connections within e.g. a light fixture box.

nate

[Nate Nagel]

The light turns on?

There's a big difference between a lamp cord, which is not really intended to be protected by the breaker, and permanent house wiring.

Or am I misunderstanding what you did and you made an extension/adapter cord with a range plug on one end and a 6-15R on the other? If the latter that's more of a grey area; sounds like Not a Good Idea but I can't 100% say it's against code. I'd have been tempted to put a little box in line with the cord with one of those single gang fuseholders or something in case the cord got damaged, although that in and of itself would be an OSHA violation were it done in a workplace.

nate

[Ralph Mowery]

Probably several code violations. The 14 wire on the 50A breaker for one. Slipping and mixing the copper and aluminum wire is probably another one. When dealing with the aluminum wire it is difficult enough to keep from burning down a house. I lived in a house that had the aluminum wiring and I did tighten the wires at the fuse box several times. A house down the street that was built at the same time (aound 1965) did burn down and the cause was stated to be wiring in and around the fuse box.

[Ralph Mowery]

That is right. A dead short on small wire will trip a large capacity breaker and probably not harm the wire at all. The problem is that as current is drawn the smaller gauge wire will heat much faster than the correct size wire. It may take several hours to several weeks or years before the smaller wire heats up enought to catch things on fire, but it is possiable.

Also from what I get he put aluminum and copper under the same screws. They heat and expand at differant rates. A good way to cause major problems.

[Stormin Mormon]

You can't prove a thing! ;)