Generater Inlet Boxes and Weatherproof Requirment

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peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
So the next obvious question is - does the NEC address the issue of weather resistance for cords connected to inlet boxes? It would seem it does not. This is important especially because portable generator inlet connections are so common now. I have often wondered if I should start providing the in-use inlet that was linked to in this thread.

I don't have any experience with the large Meltric connectors, but I would assume they are waterproof?
 

jwelectric

Senior Member
Location
North Carolina
Call it whatever, my question is the generator approved for use in a wet location or is the receptacle on the generator listed for wet location.

Let?s look at the entire picture instead of just looking at one insert from the picture, of course next code cycle all this will be put to rest anyway.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Call it whatever, my question is the generator approved for use in a wet location or is the receptacle on the generator listed for wet location.

Let?s look at the entire picture instead of just looking at one insert from the picture, of course next code cycle all this will be put to rest anyway.

I don't know just what to say about the wet location, but can assure you most instruction manuals will not recommend running the generator indoors, as there is a risk of carbon monoxide hazards.

So we can't use them indoors and we can't use them outdoors - why do people still buy them?:)
 

jap

Senior Member
Occupation
Electrician
Your making me question why I own one myself.:)

I cant afford one large enough that will run my air conditioner in the summer time.

The oil gets so thick in mine in the wintertime that you can't hardly pull the rope to make it turn fast enough to start,then when it does its too loud to want to listen to it anyway
and you wouldnt want to leave it unattended because if you did the vibration it produces makes it walk right out the garage door.

If its cold enough outside I can just move the stuff from my freezer outside in the 6 spare coolers laying around that I've collected over the years that I never use.
I'm not set up with a manual transfer switch or anything else so usually the power comes back on before I have a chance to get everything I want changed over.

It has no GFI protection on it so if your wet and holding onto the end of the cord plugged into it and something goes wrong, your just out of luck.

I graduated from a generator to an Inverter on my truck to run my power tools. i've probably used my portable generator 3 times over the last 5 years.

I think the only reason I own one is because its just something else that I can say I have.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
For the sake of this thread the generator is irrelevant.

I just took a look at one of those inlet boxes and on the label it's called a Ul Listed, Fuseless Attachment Plug making the receptacle requirement null.
 

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
And here I thought we doing the right thing directly addressing the OPs picture and the code section the OP was wondering about. :p:D

I agree, the generator itself is irrelevant to the discussion since the NEC has no jurisdiction over the receptacles installed on the generator anyway.
 
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