Hi There,
I'm confused on if I can replace an 15 amp receptacle with a 20 amp receptacle. I want to be able to hook up a espresso machine in my kitchen and the machine requires a 20amp circuit.
The particular circuit I want to change out has a 20 amp breaker coming from the box using a 14 gauge wire to, 1 15 amp GFI receptacle & 2 15 amp receptacles in the kitchen.
Will I be able to switch out 1 of the 15 amp receptacles with a 20 amp receptacle without causing a problem?
Thanks, Dave
If it is #14 wire you must have a 15a breaker and 15a outlets. Are you sure it is #14? Kitchens have required #12 for a while now.
Yes, it is #14/2.
I do have a refrigerator that has a 20 amp receptacle in the kitchen with
12 gauge wire, but that's it. In my house, all the 12 gauge wire has a yellow sheath & all the 14 gauge has a bone white sheath.This is a brand new house (5 months old).
Your house was mis-wired! There should never be a 14ga wire on a 20A breaker AND the kitchen outlets are required to be 20A.
A 14 ga circuit should be on a 15 amp breaker, not a 20. Putting a 20 amp outlet on that same circuit is making the problem worse.
Even if the 20 amp breaker has 3 15 amp receptacles on the one circuit?
I have installed quite a few 20-amp receptacles in my house as replacements for 15-amp receptacles over the years. In fact, whenever I happen to replace a 15-amp receptacle, I usually use a 20-amp receptacle. Not because I'm actually going to draw 20-amps out of that socket, but simply because they are higher-quality outlets. It usually only takes a few minutes to swap them out.
I doubt if your expresso machine actually draws 20 amps. It probably draws less than 10 amps. A nice little gadget to have around the house is the "Kill A Watt" meter. It will tell you how much current any device with a plug is drawing. They are relatively inexpensive. Here's an example website
As others have said, all kitchen outlets are required to be on 20 amp circuits, it is Ok that the receptacles are 15 amp as long as there is more than one outlet on the circuit. The cable should be 12 gauge. If your appliance has a 20 amp plug on it, it requires a dedicated 20 amp circuit and outlet
Don't trust the color of the sheath. Color coding of the sheath is a recent feature. Older cable may have been used and it was all white or ivory for virtually all gauges. Read the gauge number printed on the side of the cable sheath to confirm the actual wire size used.
What you are doing is wrong, and you can get good quality 15 amp outlets. The cheap ones are residential grade. His espresso machine must draw more than 10 amps or it would have a 15 amp plug on it. There are actually certain codes to this stuff, it isn't just decided willy -nilly
Picture having two items plugged in, each drawing 10a. (or one misfunctioning item drawing more current than it should) What will happen?
Does your expresso machine have a 20-amp plug on it or a 15-amp plug? If it has a 20-amp plug on it and you have 14-gauge wiring, I wouldn't plug it in to your electrical system no matter what sort of socket you have.
What is the electrical rating of the expresso machine? You can usually find the electrical rating on the bottom or the back of the machine.
You don't need to buy a higher ampacity receptacle to get higher quality. Any quality that is available in a 20 amp receptacle is also available in a 15 amp one.
It doesn't make any difference how many 15 amp receptacles are on the circuit. Breaker size has nothing to do with the plug in appliances. The breaker size is based on the wire it has to protect.
I have one of those it's easy to use. When you first plug it in, it shows the line voltage. That's make it easy to check for voltage drop from load. Press one button and you're measuring current used by the attached appliance.
Do you mean a recepticle rated for 20amps, or one with a 20 amp plugin? The
20 amp plugin has one of the blades turned 90' (SeeNow, if you want to just user a higher rated standard outlet (See
The color coding of nonmetallic cable jackets is a relatively recent development. The cable is labeled every two feet along it's entire length to show it's gage and construction. Check the cable's labeling to determine the actual gage of the conductors. If it really is size fourteen American wire gage then you need to change the breaker to fifteen amperes or run new cable. Since were talking about a kitchen counter receptacle circuit it should be twelve gage wire.
And what kind of wire do you have in the walls? If it is 14 gauge you are just looking for trouble. 19 or 20 amps WILL overheat 14 gauge wire. Why have fuses and circuit breakers at all if you're going to encourage the use of loads that are bigger than the wire can handle?
You might not be planning to use bigger stuff, but what about your teen-age son, your brother in law, your wife, your father and anyone doing anything when you are out of town, out of the house, in the hospital, dead, or have sold the house to innocent but unskilled people.
I agree that he should get the rest of it checked. He might want to check with owners of other houses built by the same builder. If problems are not too many and not too big, maybe they can let the original electrician fix them.
My high school in 1963 came with a one-year warranty, and the school system people were supposed to check things out soon after occupying the building. Only because a truck hit a light pole and we lost power one day did they learn that the emergency lighting was done all wrong. There was supposed to be a back-up generator that ran one ceiling fixture in every interior room, but some rooms had no lights, and some exterior rooms had them instead. And I don't think the emergency generator went on at all. And some other problems. I'm almost sure the original electric company was allowed to do the repairs. Don't think there was any graft involved, just screw-ups.
If it really is 14 you don't try to put 20 amps on it. It is illegal and unsafe. If you need 20 amps you will need a new wire.
And just what makes you jump to the conclusion that if the wire is 14 gauge that it's NOT protected by a 15 amp breaker?
If it is, you could plug in a 30 amp load and the wire is still protected, 'cause the breaker will open the instant you plug in too great a load.
If you can
Same comment as above.
Simplest thing for him to do if he can't get at enouch of the cable jacket to see what's printed on it is to bum a couple of inches of 14 gauge and 12 gauge wire someplace and compare the conductor sizes to what he's got coming from that 20 amp breaker. The difference is pretty obvious.
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