gfi question

So my new house I just found out has a gfi protected outlet in the garage. It is, however, 15 amps and three prong. Can I just change out the gfi to a 50 amp one and re wire a new outlet with the right wire? An electrician would be hired for this of course.

All of this would be determined by your breaker panel, if you have room for a larger circuit...you would need to replace the breaker, run a 6 gauge wire from the breaker to your new 50 amp receptacle.

milesvdustin said:

So my new house I just found out has a gfi protected outlet in the garage. It is, however, 15 amps and three prong. Can I just change out the gfi to a 50 amp one and re wire a new outlet with the right wire? An electrician would be hired for this of course.

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1. You would be purchasing a 50A GFCI Breaker to put in your panel.

2. Running new 6gu wire from the breaker to the receptacle location.

3. Putting in a new receptacle rated for 50A

Not sure why you'd do this and rip out all the old stuff when you could just run it all new??!! You are essentially replacing everything anyway. If you've got the room in your breaker panel then just put a new 50A GFCI Breaker in.

There is no extra room in the panel, its a rental and I don't think they want extra outlets all over. So I'm gonna make the existing gfi in the garage a 50 amp one.

Oh, the outlet is like 8 inches under the breaker panel, no long wire runs.

You will need 2 open spaces on the panel for a 240v breaker. Swapping the 120 won't work.

You could put in a couple of tandem breakers to gain space, or add a subpanel. Since it is a rental, I would go with the tandems, then put your 240v50A receptacle next to the 120v one. You have to leave the existing one there. It is required to be there by code, and no electrician will remove it.

If it's a rental, how long do you plan on being there?

I'm in a rental and I'm building my brew pot to have 2 elements, which I will just run on two different circuits when I'm brewing. It's not worth the extra BS of dealing with it on move out day.

Once I own, I'll have a couple of 240 outlets in the garage.

B

I'll be here two years. If it is required to be there, how come my old house didn't have one? (Same town) there is a separate dryer outlet in the laundry room. Oh and the one in the garage is already 240 I think, it has two gfi breakers labeled for the outlet.

Well It is required that there be one a certain distance from the panel. I just assumed that that was the one. What exactly does the receptacle look like?

I'd go all new, doesn't make sense to replace an existing outlet. As a homeowner, if a tennant wanted to pay to add an extra outlet I'd likely be okay with that assuming it's done by a qualified electrician. I'd also want the outlets that are existing to remain there as they were probably there for a reason.

True, he probably did have a reason for it. It's right below the panel, and the one for the dryer is in the next room maybe five feet away. I'll get in touch with the homeowner and ask them. Thanks everyone!

The one in the garage and laundry room are both three prong dryer outlets.

Maybe you could take a pic of what you have? That would make things easier.

I stand corrected. The one in the laundry room is four prong and the garage one is three. I bet they did that because people rent here and have different dryers. So now I have a 4 prong outlet in the laundry room. That's 240 v right? I need to make some sort of extension to run my dryer now.

It really doesn't matter. If you want a 50 amp circuit, everything in the circuit must be rated for 50 amps, including the wire and the receptacle. A dryer circuit is 30 amps, so you will have to start from scratch, anyway.

Bernie Brewer said:

......you will have to start from scratch, anyway.

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That's what I figured.