What's with watts for blow dryer?

[ritelec]

Laying out a vanity area in a bed room. Guess she may want to blow dry hair etc ..
My question is how crucial is the circuit and what gives with hair dryers.

At my house I have a bed room circuit 15 amp with 400 watts in lighting. My wife plugs in to a recpt for her 2000 watt blow dryer. It holds. Sometimes she uses a recept I have designated for ac on either side of the room. With an ac running it holds. Upstairs bath lights and recept on a 15 it holds.

Are these blowers not a true 2000 watt and it's all advertising ?

Thank you

 

[iwire]

You need to look at the trip curves for the breakers. A 15 amp breaker might hold 10 minutes with a 20 amp load etc.

 

[petersonra]

Laying out a vanity area in a bed room. Guess she may want to blow dry hair etc ..
My question is how crucial is the circuit and what gives with hair dryers.

At my house I have a bed room circuit 15 amp with 400 watts in lighting. My wife plugs in to a recpt for her 2000 watt blow dryer. It holds. Sometimes she uses a recept I have designated for ac on either side of the room. With an ac running it holds. Upstairs bath lights and recept on a 15 it holds.

Are these blowers not a true 2000 watt and it's all advertising ?

Thank you

they are not really 2000 Watts as such things are rated at 125V. That would be 16A at 125V. At 115V it is closer to 1700 Watts.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Are these blowers not a true 2000 watt and it's all advertising ?

the best way would be to hook it up to a watt meter
or amp meter, and measure.... with a receptacle outlets
being run on #14 and a 15 amp breaker, 1,920 theoretical
circuit watts is getting a little thin..... and manufacturers
seem to draw the line at 1,800 watts for cord connected stuff.

i've checked a couple 1,800 watt dryers, and they came in
at 1,500 to 1,600....

when i was working at DWP, if you were in a switchhouse
with stepping regulators, about 8:15 in the morning,
everyone went outside for a smoke, when the stepping
regulators went nuts... and if one of them is going to fail,
and spit hot oil out the breather, that is when it usually happens.

it wasn't a brown out, more like a blow out...

 

[K8MHZ]

Laying out a vanity area in a bed room. Guess she may want to blow dry hair etc ..
My question is how crucial is the circuit and what gives with hair dryers.

At my house I have a bed room circuit 15 amp with 400 watts in lighting. My wife plugs in to a recpt for her 2000 watt blow dryer. It holds. Sometimes she uses a recept I have designated for ac on either side of the room. With an ac running it holds. Upstairs bath lights and recept on a 15 it holds.

Are these blowers not a true 2000 watt and it's all advertising ?

Thank you

I have one rated at 1875 watts at 125 volts. My readings were 1510 watts at 116 volts, a bit over 13 amps.

 

[templdl]

You need to look at the trip curves for the breakers. A 15 amp breaker might hold 10 minutes with a 20 amp load etc.

I agree if the breaker is calibrated on the low side. But it it is calibrated on the high side it may be 1 hour.At 15a that curve gets pretty vertical and a slight shift to the right from 15 to 20a extends the trip time significantly when the max calibration range is considered. A bit humbling at that.

 

[ritelec]

Thank you for the response.

I'll keep just that bed on a 15 and just the receptacles in that bed on that circuit.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

While it may trip, the product standard will permit a 15 breaker or fuse to carry 20 amps forever and still be in compliance with the standard.