Can I use a regular GFCI wall outlet, (like in your bathroom)?

Some previous owner of this house was GFCI crazy. At least 2/3rds of the outlets are either GFCI or ganged to one.

The ones in my garage are GFCI, 15 amp service, 120 volt. I wanna run my RIMS off of them, (4500W 240V element, which will draw somewhere around 9 amps at 120V, if I recall right, march pump pulling 1.4 amps, and the PID, which will have negligible draw). I checked the outlets both with the "test" button on them and with the test button on one of these, and they check out.

So, am I safe to use them? With all the talk about using extra GFCIs and paying big money for them, it seems weird to just use one in the wall, but I don't see why not...

Why wouldn't it work?? I'm sure there's a clown on here that will tell you you'll die the second you plug it in.


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wildwest450 said:

Why wouldn't it work?? I'm sure there's a clown on here that will tell you you'll die the second you plug it in.


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I dunno...just seems like it's a huge deal on here and I haven't seen this suggested....maybe because so many people use 240V, and those GFCIs cost more?

A 15A/120V GFCI as found in a bathroom is perfectly safe to run 15A/120V devices no matter what they are.

Kal

Sweet. Thanks Kal and Wildwest. Glad I didn't buy that ShockBuster thing...

I wonder if he was really that GFCI crazy, the NEC requires a lot of areas to have GFCI. My bathroom, entire kitchen, garage, outside outlets, and some of my basement is all GFCI, they just wired the first outlet to be GFCI and everything beyound that point is protected as well (Exterior outlets are connected to GFCI in my basement for example)

Goblism said:

I wonder if he was really that GFCI crazy, the NEC requires a lot of areas to have GFCI. My bathroom, entire kitchen, garage, outside outlets, and some of my basement is all GFCI, they just wired the first outlet to be GFCI and everything beyound that point is protected as well (Exterior outlets are connected to GFCI in my basement for example)

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NEC requires GFCI in:
- kitchens/bathrooms/boathouses/wetbar areas (anything with water and electricity within 6 feet of each other)
- garages and accessory buildings at or below grade level
- basements/crawl spaces (again... the "at or below grade level" thing)
- outdoors

For some reason, laundry rooms get some exception, even though there is water and electricity right next to each other.

It would actually be nice if the NEC required it in laundry rooms, though.... a lot of people are building systems and running them off their dryer outlets. If the NEC required GFCI on those outlets, it would mean that those guys wouldn't have to incur the extra expense of adding GFCI for their brewing systems.

It'll work just fine. Myself I'm not a big fan of GCFI because I find that they tend to trip easily when there's lightning in my area. My garage had one, and I removed it (but will put it back whenever I decide to sell the house).

M_C