I have a friend with a washer, dryer, and refrigerator in one room of her old house.
The washer and dryer are 3-prong, the refrigerator is old and has a regular plug.
The washer and refrigerator are plugged into one outlet. When the dryer is needed, the washer must be unplugged to free up that outlet (and the refrigerator remains plugged in at all times.)
She wants to buy one of those triple adapters and plug everything into the one outlet. I don’t know much about electricity, but I don’t think this is a good idea! Wouldn’t it be safer to have an electrician come and put in another outlet down there? Would it cost a lot?
The appliances you are talking about can all draw a fair amount of current, and those adapters can easily wiggle loose and in my experience they aren’t very well made and can fail over time. Using an adapter is therefore a really bad idea.
Installing a separate outlet is better, but then you run into the problem that you could easily end up blowing the breaker/fuse a lot. It’s a very bad idea to depend on not turning everything on at the same time to not blow the breaker/fuse, so I’m going to disagree with the previous posters and say that this is a bad idea. Though, to be fair, it’s definitely much better than using an adapter.
What you really need to do is have another circuit run for the new outlet. This unfortunately is also the most expensive of your options. How expensive though depends on a lot of things, like do they have to punch through drywall and route around things or can they just run the wire straight across an unfinished ceiling and that sort of thing. It doesn’t hurt anything to get an estimate from an electrician. It may not be as bad as you are thinking, cost-wise, especially if there’s another circuit nearby that they can tap into that isn’t heavily loaded already.
Please don’t use an adapter. That’s just asking for a fire at some point.
Assuming this is the case, the proper way to do this is to determine the current draw of each appliance, add them up, and see if it exceeds the max current rating of the circuit. If it’s a 15 A circuit (15 A breaker and 14 AWG wire in the wall), then all the appliances – plus whatever else might be on the circuit – shouldn’t draw more than 15 A. If it’s a 20 A circuit (20 A breaker and 12 AWG wire in the wall), then all the appliances – plus whatever else might be on the circuit – shouldn’t draw more than 20 A. Even then, surge currents with motors and whatnot can still cause trouble.
Now if this was new construction, I’m pretty sure the refrigerator needs to be on a dedicated circuit according to the NEC. Not sure about the other appliances.
Even with energy efficient appliances she’d likely exceed 20 amps running all three. The outlet may only be 15 so could be very strained running 2 of them.
Washer 8-12 amps, fridge 5-17amps, gas Dryer 4-7amps
Blown breakers are a hassle and if your overloading a circuit it’s possible the breaker isn’t the weakest point so you could do damage elsewhere.
None of those devices manufacturers instructions would allow the use of an extension cord for good reason. Adapters usually have less copper and are more prone to heat damage and voltage throttling. Use of such a device would void your warranty(not that that ever comes into play)
The base cost for a new outlet will be in the hundred and fifty dollar range if it is straight forward. If it’s difficult to get wiring to that location it can get more expensive.
I don’t think that’s an NEC requirement. Standard practice in new construction though is to do it this way. It’s also standard practice to run a dedicated circuit for the microwave too, but again this is just standard practice and isn’t an NEC requirement.
IIRC, the NEC requires at least two 20 amp circuits to serve the kitchen area, but if you are using a dedicated circuit for the refrigerator the NEC allows it to be 15 amp instead of 20.
I’m just going from memory here though so all bets are off.
Look at the back side of each appliance, and see if there is a label indicating current draw (e.g. 8 A), real power (e.g. 800 W), or apparent power (e.g. 800 VA). Record the value. If there is no label, try looking up the specs on the internet using the model number.
Go to the circuit breaker panel and determine which circuit the receptacle is on. The max ampacity of the circuit will either be 15 A or 20 A, and it should be written on the circuit breaker’s lever switch. Record this value.
There are probably more receptacles on this circuit. Determine what (if anything) else is connected to the circuit via other receptacles.
Find a nearby receptacle that is on a different circuit breaker. What is the ampacity of this circuit? Is anything else connected to this circuit?
Absolutely, positively do not use one of those “triple adapters”. The weight of the plugs over time will cause the adapter to slip out of the receptable ever so slightly over time. Even if you don’t notice it. The more it comes out the more heat will be generated and eventually you’ll have a fire or at least a melted plug and receptacle.
I personally know better but this has happened to me twice. Once with a heavy DC transformer and once with another cord that had a bit of weight to it. In both cases I was lucky to not have major property damage.
Since these 3 are permanent appliances the NEC is rather strict. It’s clearly not allowed in any case. But we’ll assume the rules are out the window because I have a feeling she’s not going to do the right thing by hiring an electrician for a new circuit. See it’s not just another receptacle you need, it’s a whole new cable run from the panel.
That would be the safest thing to do. Read no further if you want the safe/legal answer.
You can buy a 2-gang surface mount receptacle setup so that you have 4 “outlets” down there. That way you don’t have to cut holes and eliminates the risk from any dicey adapter.
My major concern though is that in an old house this circuit could be overfused to 20A on 14ga wire. Short of telling you to examine wire runs, possibly disturbing cable and causing an even bigger unrelated problem, I don’t know what to recommend there without knowing your level of knowledge. If it’s overfused it could have been fine all these years, just running a bit warm. Time bomb, made worse by more receptacles.
If it were me, being lazy, I’d make sure the circuit breaker is the correct size for the circuit. Then install the 4 receptacle setup. And make sure I don’t operate both the biggies at once. This is no worse than the whole house is now. A better setup would be to grab a neighboring (different) circuit nearby and install a second receptacle for the dryer or refrigerator.
My house, built in the 1960s, originally only had one power socket in the kitchen. At some point someone had added a separate double socket on the other wall, but even so we had to have the washing machine, fridge and dishwasher plugged into an extension lead off one circuit. (A trailing linear four-way adapter, not those square ones that fit into the wall.). If you forgot and switched on the dishwasher while the washing machine was running, it would trip the breaker. Other than that, it didn’t cause any problems!
I definitely recommend using extension leads rather than “cube” adapters, though. Actually, I recommend getting a new socket spur put in. (We now have four double sockets, plus most of the appliances hard wired in.)
And I’d like to counter that they NOT use an extension. Especially if you are talking about a long power cord extension. It’s never a good idea to put a major appliance on an extension cord. While some well built power strips may be able to handle it many are poorly constructed and, like the adapters, can become a fire hazard after repeated use.
Please pay attention to what this guy says -
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(I’m an electrical engineer, btw)
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If you were messing around with radios, lamps, stereo equipment etc I’d be just fine with the use of an extension strip. But washers, dryers, and refrigerators are fairly big motor load appliances. They shouldn’t be operated via extensions and adapter plugs.
One of the most embarrassed men I’ve ever known was an accountant at an electric utility who had to come to work with a roomful of electrical engineers right after his house burned to the ground because he thought he’d save some money by putting a refrigerator on an extension cord instead of paying an electrician to run a circuit for him.