On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 17:16:31 -0500, loutent wrote:

I had an electrical question a few months ago about this, and got
several varied responses - mainly because I did not have enough
information I believe. Now I actually have something to
work with!

I have a brand new Grizzly 1023SL sitting in the basement
(almost) ready to plug in. I have a copper,10 gauge (3 wire - ground,
neutral, hot) coming from a 30 amp (unused) breaker which used to
power a water heater (now gas). Our house has 200 amp service and
is less than 20 years old (just for reference).

Grizzly recommends 20 amp/220. Do I need to change
out the 30 breaker for a 20? If I leave it as is, will I
harm the magnetic switch or anything else?

Roger's analogy is right. You don't sweat running your electric shaver
on that 20A bathroom breaker, do you?

The other thing is make sure your terms are straight when you're
describing your situation. You actually have a copper, 10 gauge (3
wire - ground, hot,, hot) coming from a 30 amp (unused) breaker which
used to power a water heater (now gas). The fact that it used to power
a water heater tells us it's a 240V circuit protected by a 30A
breaker, thus the wires are hot, hot, ground. There is no neutral in a
240V circuit (North America).


- -
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net