5 Soup Kettles on 1 circuit?

[Chris6245]

The setup, five 220V 3.5amp commercial soup kettles with FMC to a junction box the feed to this box is #10 THHN on a 2 pole 30amp OCD. This is NOT a factory assembly it has been custom made. The question, is there a code section that prevents this? I can't find anything. The name plate on each kettle only says volts and amps and nothing about overcurrent protection.

 

[Buck Parrish]

No. Although you may need individual disconects.

 

[augie47]

I would think there's a decent possibility it violates 422.11(E)

 

[raider1]

I would think there's a decent possibility it violates 422.11(E)

422.11(E) applys to a single non-motor operated appliance on a branch circuit.

Chris

 

[Dennis Alwon]

The setup, five 220V 3.5amp commercial soup kettles with FMC to a junction box the feed to this box is #10 THHN on a 2 pole 30amp OCD. This is NOT a factory assembly it has been custom made. The question, is there a code section that prevents this? I can't find anything. The name plate on each kettle only says volts and amps and nothing about overcurrent protection.

I don't see anything wrong with this install.

 

[Chris6245]

Thank you for the input, I found 422.11 (E) but as Chris said it only applies to single appliances. I couldn't find anything else but wanted to make sure before we went any further with the install.

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

Did they come with cord and plug from factory. Would check the ul listing first

 

[Chris6245]

They come with a built on J-Box, can be hardwired or cord and plug connected

 

[augie47]

I'm sure it's open to discussion, but, to me you have (5) appliances since, according to the OP, it;s not a factory assembly. I look at 422.11(E) as saying each (as in one single appliance) would need to have OCP not exceeding 20 amps.
If the "table" with all (5) kettles had been a factory unit I would approach it differently.
My opinion anyway.

 

[Jim W in Tampa]

Seems way over fused and would want a disconnect for each. If one goes bad do they want all of them down ?

 

[ultramegabob]

could you install a switch and a fuse block for each one?

 

[Chris6245]

seperate disconnects or switches and fuses have been discussed but the main question that I was trying to find an answer to was could they all 5 be fed from one 30amp circuit? I agree that if one shorts out they all 5 go down and all the other concerns, those will be addressed in the install. Getting one 30amp 220V circuit is easy, getting several 15 or 20 amp circuits is a bigger problem.

 

[LarryFine]

What size are the whip conductors? It would be hard to argue they could be smaller than #10, since they're yours.

 

[benaround]

Let's say that instead of soup kettles these were 4500w/240v water heaters, Would

anybody run a 125a/240v circuit to a j-box and splice all the tanks together? I know this

is kind of out there, but not really.

I think Gus got it right.

 

[iwire]

I think Gus got it right.

I do as well.

I think a small ten circuit panel with five 15 amp two pole breakers would solve the problem.

 

[slick 50]

I also agree that you would not want 16 gauge wire protected by 30amp breaker. By installing the way descibed originally, would that be like the tap rule?

 

[Chris6245]

We ended up installing 2 - 20amp circuits and installing DPST switch at each kettle. The sub panel idea was also thrown around but space was a problem. I think the way we did this was the best option we had..