Welding Tips and Tricks

I found a dedicated 30 amp circuit in my house that I'm renting. To make sure, I plugged a fan into the recepticle and turned off the breaker -- the fan turned off. I'm pretty sure there's nothing using this circuit -- it's labeled as "dryer" on the breaker box.

But the recepticle is only 15 amps, standard household recepticle. My welder is a Sungold Arc200 (inverter) with a 32 amp input rating.

Would it be dangerous to use my welder on this?

A 240V receptacle that only handles 15A? What kind of Californian non-sense......

Wait, standard household 15A duplex outlet? On a 30A breaker? So someone was running 120V "dryer" on that?

Either way, dont use it. Don't burn your rental house down. Get it done right.

Can you open the socket and breaker panel to see the size of the wires feeding it. The breaker protects the wires. The outlet protects you from plugging in a device that requires more power then the circuit can safely provide causing a constant breaker tripping.

If I remember correctly you’ll need 10awg wire for a 30 amp circuit.

@ Homemade. When putting my wire gauge around the core of the recepticle wire, it fits the 12 gauge slot best. So I think it's 12 gauge wire in the wall

At 12awg you should only be putting 20 amps three that wire. If it’s hooked up to a 30 amp breaker, someone might have slapped that in there because that was what they had on hand. Hence why it is only a 15 amp outlet.

@homemade. I also wonder why someone installed a 30 amp breaker on the 12awg wire bus. Lol. This whole picture seems to be messed up. 30amp breaker on 12awg with a 15amp recepticle.

I ordered a welder extension cord so I could reach the 30amp circuit...ie nema 6-50. But since the 30amp setup all micky mouse I'll just use the 240v recepticle right next to it instead. I'll need a pricy adapter but it looks like that's my only option...

Our oven uses the 240 recepticle. I'll have to unplug it to plug my welder in. I'm tempted to open up the 240 recepticle to make sure the wiring is appropriate. If the 30amp bus is rigged who knows what I'll find in the 240...

Wire size has exceptions depending on usage. Per the code in the us. Imagine it’s not much different elsewhere. Plug rating is only relative if you put an under rated plug on a device that draws over its rating. You can put an undersized plug on a circuit that’s able to handle more amps. Theory is the plug will burn up where you can see it and put it out, but the wires in the wall won’t melt.