Which wire for 240?

[schnackshack]

I need help knowing what gauge/conductor count wire to get for my run of 240v with gfci breaker. I need 30amps.

Running 55 feet exactly.
Have 2 5500w elements, running one at a time.
2, 120v pumps, both going.

Have 10/4 SOOW stranded wire available but fear it’s just a bit too small and too long of a run to over one resistance and not overheat.

Am I paranoid? should I go for 8/4? 6/4?

 

[day_trippr]

10 gauge should be good for that scenario.
fwiw, I have a 30K BTU AC unit almost 90 feet from my load center that wanted a 30A 240V run and the ampacity tables/calculators showed 10 gauge was the right choice...

Cheers!

 

[augiedoggy]

ditto 10/3 romex (its often red with 3 insulated wires plus one bare copper wire). I use about 70ft of it for my system with 2 elements /pumps ect. keep in mind the max any 5500w element will draw is 23amps and they are usually slightly less powerful than their max rating. if your using the standard 7gpm style pumps they draw less than 2 amps each I believe. And before anyone mentions it, the 80% rule does not apply here.

 

[Bobby_M]

10 is plenty for that run. You'd have to go to about 125 feet before you exceed the recommended 3% voltage drop.

 

[schnackshack]

Ugh, I think I may have the wrong wire though. Man oh man.

I currently have this wire, a 55ft run of stranded 10/4 SOOW 'Carol' brand wire. Apparently it's ampacity is rated at 25.
I've found a very similar wire, stranded 10/4 SOOW 'Flextreme' brand wire, apparently rated at 30ampacity.

Construction wise the two look identical. I'm trying to find out if these really are somehow different, or just the way they determine ampacity is different.

I'd really like to not eat the cost of this wire i have now, but id also rather not start a fire

My wire:
10/4 SOOW Portable Cord 600V UL/CSA

Other wire:
StackPath

 

[grampamark]

Ugh, I think I may have the wrong wire though. Man oh man.

I currently have this wire, a 55ft run of stranded 10/4 SOOW 'Carol' brand wire. Apparently it's ampacity is rated at 25.

Well, there’s your problem. You have an extension cord. You need 10 ga solid copper wire for your proposed installation.

 

[schnackshack]

Lol, great. Looks like I'll have plenty to connect my brew controller to my kettles with.

 

[itsnotrequired]

Lol, great. Looks like I'll have plenty to connect my brew controller to my kettles with.

you can get by with that 10/4 cord. the 25 amp capacity is based upon three conductors in the cord being current-carrying, like in a three-phase system. the neutral is only carrying imbalance of the two hot conductors so does not count as current-carrying. ampacity of #10 SOOW is 30 amps in your situation.

 

[Bobby_M]

While I'm not a fan of ultra long flex cable hookups, there's no reason it won't work. You really don't want to use flex line (portable service cord) in a quasi permeant setup though... like if you have the instinct to string it along the wall with conduit straps or something like that you should really be running conduit or fishing in the walls with romex.

 

[day_trippr]

If using stranded cable make sure to periodically re-torque any screw-type connections to avoid fried equipment due to self-heating...

Cheers!

 

[ehall]

and if you move to 8/3g you could eventually put in a 50A breaker.