Eaton GFI panel

[wyowolf]

I bought this panel yesterday at lowes. BR50SPA. along with some 6/3 wire. Was 57$. That seemed pretty cheap but had good reviews. Just wondering if anyone has any opinions on it.

 

[spkguitar]

That's the one that I have installed in my electric brewery and I have zero complaints. It does the job that it is supposed to do.

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

I have one as well, works fine.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

That's the one that I have installed in my electric brewery and I have zero complaints. It does the job that it is supposed to do.

Did you wire it yourself? Im looking at doing my own and double checking everything before i triple check it again

I need to put the outlet on the opposite side of the garage as my breaker, so my plan was to put a 50A (non GFCI) breaker in my main panel, wired out to the 50A Spa panel shown which is mounted nearby, then run the power out of the spa panel up and over my garage ceiling in an appropriate metal conduit down to a box containing my 4 prong 220V outlet. The outlet is still GFCI protected through the spa panel right? Even if the spa panel is connected to a non GFCI breaker in the main panel?

Or do the spa panels themselves have places to put the power outlet and i should run the power out of my 50A(Non GFCI) main breaker, up and over the garage to the spa panel mounted near my brewery and plug in there?

And yes i realize i'll probably need like 10/4 SOOW or something depending on how long my run to the outlet is...

 

[SilverZero]

Did you wire it yourself? Im looking at doing my own and double checking everything before i triple check it again

I need to put the outlet on the opposite side of the garage as my breaker, so my plan was to put a 50A (non GFCI) breaker in my main panel, wired out to the 50A Spa panel shown which is mounted nearby, then run the power out of the spa panel up and over my garage ceiling in an appropriate metal conduit down to a box containing my 4 prong 220V outlet. The outlet is still GFCI protected through the spa panel right? Even if the spa panel is connected to a non GFCI breaker in the main panel?

Or do the spa panels themselves have places to put the power outlet and i should run the power out of my 50A(Non GFCI) main breaker, up and over the garage to the spa panel mounted near my brewery and plug in there?

And yes i realize i'll probably need like 10/4 SOOW or something depending on how long my run to the outlet is...

You can get spools of 10awg THHN for what works out to 30 cents a foot, or off the roll for 49 cents. Considering SOOW is $2.70 a foot, it's cheaper to get separate wires and run them in conduit. That's what I did in my last house. I used PVC conduit. I installed the breaker in my service panel and ran it up and out of the wall above it myself. Doing an external spa panel is the same process.

If you were using SOOW I'd say it qualifies as an extension cord. Do a short breakout from the service panel and then just run the cord up and around as you see fit, using PVC conduit clips to hold it to the wall and ceiling. That may or may not be code compliant, and I'm not an electrician, so don't take my word for it.

 

[SilverZero]

And yes, everything on the circuit will be GFCI protected (as it's all the same loop). Current moves the same everywhere in the circuit according to Kirchoff's laws.

 

[2bluewagons]

If you were using SOOW I'd say it qualifies as an extension cord. Do a short breakout from the service panel and then just run the cord up and around as you see fit, using PVC conduit clips to hold it to the wall and ceiling. That may or may not be code compliant, and I'm not an electrician, so don't take my word for it.

This is absolutely not code-compliant. No permanent installation of an extension cord is. Wiring in a garage must be protected from damage with a rigid material. I don't have the exact code wording handy, but that is the jist. You can run bare wiring along the side of joists (not the bottom) if your garage is unfinished, but as soon as it comes down below where the ceiling would be it must be protected.

And code aside, it is relatively dangerous to have that setup in a place where you're moving around sharp ish metal objects that could damage the wire, short the wires, and even pass some current onto whoever is holding that object.

The conduit recommendation sounds like the cheaper route anyways.

 

[wyowolf]

So you can run 10 wire instead of the 6/3 wire from the main panel??

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I put a 30 amp plug coming out of the spa panel.On brew day I just plug in a 25 ft 10/3 extention cord and run it to my brew area.When Im finished I just roll it up like any other extention cord and hang it on the wall...Easy pisey.Its not like Im brewing every day of the week..Sometimes under thinking works out just fine.

 

[SilverZero]

This is absolutely not code-compliant. No permanent installation of an extension cord is. Wiring in a garage must be protected from damage with a rigid material. I don't have the exact code wording handy, but that is the jist. You can run bare wiring along the side of joists (not the bottom) if your garage is unfinished, but as soon as it comes down below where the ceiling would be it must be protected.

And code aside, it is relatively dangerous to have that setup in a place where you're moving around sharp ish metal objects that could damage the wire, short the wires, and even pass some current onto whoever is holding that object.

The conduit recommendation sounds like the cheaper route anyways.

Well there you go then. I don't know what sharp metal you're thinking of, but regardless SOOW is too spendy anyway for anything but the panel supply line.

 

[30Bones]

What plug style does this use?

 

[jeffmeh]

If you are using a 50a breaker for overcurrent protection, you need 6awg wire, not 10awg.