Why are so many electricians using 20a receptacles in residence?

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Sierrasparky

Sierrasparky

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Location
USA
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Electrician ,contractor
I was wondering lately that I am seeing a tremendous amount of 20a duplex receptacles being installed in new homes ( laundry, kitchen, bathroom )
we are on the 2019 CEC or 2017 NEC

Am I missing something, as I thought that as long as its a duplex on a 20a circuit its not required to be 20a device.
That is unless its a load requireing such a configuration.
 
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Unless it is spec'ed then there is no reason. Sometimes an area gets one electrician or inspector that believes it has to be done that way and low and behold everyone starts to do it.
 
I'd say they don't have the drive and ambition to actually read the codebook. They assume they know what the book says , or just do what they're told.
 
i recently had an inspector fail me for not using a twenty amp receptacle on a washer/dryer circuit.. it was a renovation and the owner had the washer dryer there too....
 
I just looked at the "boilerplate" spec section that we would use on any project. For receptacle rating, it just says "as indicated." Then I looked at the legend sheet for a recent project. This sheet is essentially unchanged from project to project. The symbols for simplex, duplex, and quad receptacles all call for NEMA 5-20R. I don't know why. I suspect it is a matter of "we've always done it that way." I also suspect that my previous (non-government) employers would have similar information on their design documents.
 
It's because they cost more. Some people think if they pay more for something than it's better. You did say residential. If it's commercial, it's likely specked that way.
 
I can think of very few appliances I have seen in my career that have a 20 am male plug, maybe a plumbed in coffee maker, but it would require its own circuit.
 
I worked for a design house for six months - only cause I was between jobs and need to pay the rent.
All of their specs said 20A, 120V receptacles. Why is that?
These are commercial buildings (school, govt, ...) and we don't know what will get plugged in.​
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I bought some back and side wired federal spec, $3.50 instead of $0.69 for big Orange, 15A and 20A. The only difference I could see was the retention. One had to pull much harder to get the plug out of the 20A. Both 15A and 20A are good for 20A pass through. As I recall, (that means you will have to read it your self ), the listing says to hit the receptacle with a short circuit and then check the retention. The 20A had to have a better (more) retention after the short. This was 25 years ago. I wouldn't believe it with out reading the listing.

And I bought a few 69 cent receptacles to cut open. From purely anecdotal evidence:
The insides of the 15A and 20A fed spec looked the same. Retention on the 20A appeared much harder. The 69cent looked pretty flimsy inside.

I don't think I have ever seen a residential grade appliance with a 20A cord cap. When I built my own house, I bought fed spec back and side wired. 15A. I think a lot Less cords get damaged from in-plugging
 
Seems to me it’s the darn architect/engineer that specify these things on so many plans, it looks like all they do is copy and paste so much on the legends. Now everyone seems to think it’s law.
 
Residential its silly, if you want a better device go with spec. I too have never seen a 20 amp appliance in residential. I could see someone using a commercial type device , but those you would wire a dedicated circuit.
 
In residential and most times with commercial I would say it's because of ignorance.

Architects and engineers are clueless and think that there actually are things with 20A plugs that get used to warrant 20A receptacles all over.

Many electricians have no idea that there are different grades of receptacles so they think a 20A receptacle is heavy duty. They may also think that a 20A circuit requires a 20A receptacle.

-Hal
 
I ask for it in commercial because we have power PDUs, some power strips, and some work benches that have 20A plugs. I've never had a residential device with a 20A plug.
 
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