jtinge
Senior Member
- Location
- Hampton, VA
- Occupation
- Sr. Elec. Engr
Many industrial sites, including mine, have safety regulations that prohibit plugging high current heating devices like coffee pots and microwave ovens into power strips or extension cords and require that they be plugged directly into a wall outlet. It's pretty common, however, to see commercial coffee pots plugged into external cord connected timers. This seems to violate the spirit of not plugging the coffee pot directly into a wall outlet, however I have not found any guidance on or prohibitions against using external cord connected timers in this fashion. Most of the external timers I've seen used for coffee pots seem to be industrial timers with a flexible cord and plug added after the fact. Since this is not a UL listed assembly I can easily argue against its use. But are there UL listed cord connected timers that can be used for coffee pots and would there use be considered similar to using an extension cord or power strip? Do any of you have safety regulations that address external timers on coffee pots and if so what are they?