How does a 2hp motor come with a 15A plug

The Chinese worked their electrical magic.

 

Service call for small new machine shop:
-multiple ckts tripping in grinding/abrasive room
-I made a list of equipment being used and piped out 6 new ckts where there was one before
- this whole shop is an upstart, with mostly tools from harbor freight
- there were 2 harbor freight dust collectors with no nameplate on the motor (voltage and freq only), with factory 15 A cords, I put them both on one of the new 20A ckts
-a week later that ckt tripped, so I finally looked up that pos on the harbor freight website and found that it is a 2hp motor with 20FLA
-the website says that it is UL listed
-a 2hp motor requires 24FLA in the NEC (30A of conductor)
-this thing comes with a 15A plug
My question is would you size the ckt to the motor, or put each on their own 20A brkr. (How is this UL listed?)

I've got one that came from a dairy farm. It "HAIR DRYER" for cows after they get washed It's tag says 19.9 amps, but there's a 10% heat boost button, with that pushed in, the thing draws 21.8 amps on a 15 amp cord and plug:blink: Brand new.

 

A dairy farm with a beauty salon, Wow. Do they have a bovine stylist on staff??
:laughing::laughing::jester:

 

Here are some examples from their website. I wired most everything on the farm.(except really old stuff)

http://www.quakerhillfarm.com/herdsires/Rito2V1of25361407.html

 

I would call the harbor freight tech support and see how they get around T210.21(B)(3). If the circuit must be rated 30 amps then the receptacle must be rated 30 amps.

I would run a 30 amp circuit-- put a 30 amp disconnect and direct wire the unit. Or change the receptacle to 30 amp and install a 30 amp receptacle.

 

I would run a 30 amp circuit-- put a 30 amp disconnect and direct wire the unit. Or change the receptacle to 30 amp and install a 30 amp receptacle.

I would not do any such thing, that is a clear violation of at least a couple NEC rules.

I would install a 20 amp circuit with receptacle for each unit and if that does not work the customer can return the junk to Harbor Freight but they are not going to get me to try to modify what is already marginal equipment.

 

Seen the same thing with air compressors that I was messing with a while back. Rated 22 amps with 15 amp cords. Customer doesn't know any better when they buy it and plug it into their 15 amp circuit.

 

The part I found amusing in the original post is:

"The website said it was UL listed"
If there no label on the equipment ,for the entire piece of equipment not , then guess what -
It's most likely NOT UL listed.

Surprised ?? I'm NOT

 

Okay, I read the OP again and it seems he has both these units om one 20 amp circuit-- well no wonder it tripped. I thought each machine had it's own circuit. According to the website this unit has a 20 amp peak demand and is UL listed so I would do what Bob said. Give then two circuits each with a 20 amp receptacle and be done with it. If the unit is UL listed with the 15 amp plug then don't worry about it. I assume this unit must normally run at 16 amps or so and that's how they get around it.

What is the gauge of the cord and depending on the insulation the cord could be listed for 25 amps. Why a 15 amp cord cap is your guess as good as mine.

 

I have found that anything electrical from Harbor Fright is a complete piece of sh1t, makes absolutely no sense as to why it's wired that way and will probably burn out, spontaneously combust or shock the hell out of someone.

I would put each collector on a dedicated 20 amp circuit and see what happens.

 

- this whole shop is an upstart, with mostly tools from harbor freight

This is hilarious. They're getting what they paid for now, and they'll keep getting what they paid for.

 

Thank you for the replies. I ran out of space in the panel for another 20A ckt so i put both hots under the same brkr (QO) and rolled the dice. I'll be opening more space on the panel next week when I relocate some other equipment to other panels, and i'll measure the current and put each on their own new 20A brkr.
(I see JET's similar 2hp dust collector is 230V/8A/1ph.)
Judging from the comments on harbor freight's website, I don't see these lasting longer than 6 mos of daily use.

 

Companies play games with horsepower ratings all the time. I've seen them convert the locked rotor amps to what it would be for horsepower, and call that "peak horsepower" or something like that, when the real running amps shows it's actually a fractional horsepower motor. I've also seen companies flat out lie about the horsepower rating of the motor, and call it stuff like "equivalent horsepower", whatever that's supposed to mean.

 

Companies play games with horsepower ratings all the time. I've seen them convert the locked rotor amps to what it would be for horsepower, and call that "peak horsepower" or something like that, when the real running amps shows it's actually a fractional horsepower motor. I've also seen companies flat out lie about the horsepower rating of the motor, and call it stuff like "equivalent horsepower", whatever that's supposed to mean.

Yeah and there are few case I have see the marking on the motour housing that say SPL on HP rating which I know it is a Conneries no question asked and I have one guy yapping up and down tell me about this so so called motor have alot of power.

I all I did stand firm he claim that is 5 HP motour I say nope a faux 5 HP motour and I did show him the real deal after that he shut up.

I told him that faux motour don't last very long if you try to run at true HP rating.

I have see that with socalled HP rating on compressor or other motours and one time I asked one big box guy to order a air compressor with real 5 HP motor he say no way it can not order that. I did ask him whynot ?? he say not in the listing use the stock item PFFT .,,

I got it somewhere else { the real air compressor shop }

That why many pepoles called me up to hook the air compressor almost 90 % of the time they got faux motour in there.

Merci.
Marc

 

I just looked in UL 498 (the standard that covers cords on all the stuff we buy), and they test 15 amp cordsets at 58.8 amps.

 

I know they will handle that, I worked on a portable fan today that pulls just north of that on start up and its not a quick start up either, it's got a 16AWG cord with a 15 amp end.

 

Depends on how they arrived at the 2HP rating, often this number is the peak HP at LRA. Meaning the 2HP is a gimmick come on for those unsuspecting tool buying on HP alone.

 

What I like is this idea that these electrical values even mean anything.

Sure, with all things being equal, a compressor with a 5HP motor will outperform a compressor with a 1HP motor, but unless you know things like delivered CFM at a given pressure, the horsepower rating is totally meaningless. I could rig a 10HP compressor so it would barely inflate a balloon. Who cares what the horsepower is?

It's like when I see upright vacuum cleaners labeled in amps. Big ass letters on the front "13.7 AMPS" Great, so it's basically advertising that it's guaranteed to trip circuit breakers; that doesn't tell me anything about how clean it gets the carpets.

It's all advertising gimmicks.

-John