Garage receptacles


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Old 03-04-03, 04:46 AM
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Question Garage receptacles

I wired receptacles on my attached garage as dedicated 20 A circuit wire in external solid aluminum conduits. The receptacles are housed in external metal boxes. Garage light is on separate 15 A circuit. Can I use 20 A regular receptacles in garage or I have to use CFCI receptacles only in garage? If I have to use CFCI where can I find 20 A CFCI receptacles? The only CFCI receptacles I found in Home Depot are 15 A. Since I will be occasionally using some power tools in garage I need receptacles to be 20 A.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 06:52 AM
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All receptacles in a garage (with a few exceptions that don't apply to you) must have GFCI protection. You can use either 15-amp or 20-amp GFCI receptacles (even on a 20-amp circuit). Both are commonly available at home centers, although the 15-amp (with 20-amp feed through) are a bit easier to find. It is very, very unlikely that you actually have any tools that need 20 amps or 20 amp receptacles.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 06:59 AM
hotarc
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You can get 20 amp GFCIs, but the only real adavntage to them is the ability to accept a 20 amp plug. Think about what you will be plugging in. Do any of those items have an actual 20 amp plug? You can use the 15 Amp GFCI receptacle. It will work fine on a 20 amp circuit. Remember, all accessible garage receptacles need GFCI protection. Depending on how you've done your wiring, you may be able to place just one GFCI at the first receptacle and protect your other (standard) receptacles from there. Hopefully you have used good sized boxes, preferably not those small "handy" boxes. I mention this because a GFCI takes a bit more space than a standard receptacle and you don't want to be cramming everything into the box.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 07:03 AM
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Lowe's and home depot have the 20A GFI's - you just have to look a little harder. You don't need one for your application - they are generally used in commercial applications.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 08:43 AM
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Lightbulb

Originally posted by mcjunk
Lowe's and home depot have the 20A GFI's - you just have to look a little harder. You don't need one for your application - they are generally used in commercial applications.
I have 2 HP table saw and it manual recommends putting on separate 20 A breaker. 3 HP plunge router also I believe needs 20 A circuit.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 09:10 AM
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But what does the plug look like on those tools? Are the two blades parallel or perpendicular?
 
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Old 03-04-03, 09:40 AM
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Originally posted by John Nelson
But what does the plug look like on those tools? Are the two blades parallel or perpendicular?
These tools have regular 110 V plug.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 09:41 AM
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Dedicated circuits are recommended for those pieces of equipment because they have motors that require high amperage on startup. If you try to use them on a circuit with other loads (i.e. freezer, space heater) there is a good chance you will trip the breaker. If not a tripped breaker, your circuit may experience a voltage drop which could be damaging to your piece of equipment.

In your situation, it sounds like you only have a few receptacles on the circuit (which are not dedicated), Know which receptacles those are, and can therefore control the amount of load applied to the circuit. For instance, you would know better than to plug a 1500 watt space heater into one of the receptacles aattempt to use your router on another.
 
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Old 03-04-03, 10:03 AM
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If they have a regular plug, then that's a 15-amp plug. So you can use either a 15-amp or 20-amp receptacle. Actually, most 20-amp receptacles are designed to support either 15-amp or 20-amp plugs.

The fact that the tool's instructions tell you that you need a 20-amp circuit does not by itself mean you need a 20-amp receptacle.
 
 

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