why?

Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
Why does a 50 amp generator outlet use a non twist lock receptacle instead of a twist lock as the 30 amp generators use. I assumed the twist lock was to avoid loosening with the generator's vibrations. So why do they use a non twist lock outlet?
 
Because the 14-50 recepacle is so popular already, that everyone has parts for it. Those CS style connectors are big $$$$ and I've never seen one at the home store. The L14-30 is the same for 30amp, all the home stores have them.
 
VirutalElectrician said:
Because the 14-50 recepacle is so popular already, that everyone has parts for it. Those CS style connectors are big $$$$ and I've never seen one at the home store. The L14-30 is the same for 30amp, all the home stores have them.
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The female end is twist lock and I just saw a 50 amp 4 wire twist lock male plug for $35.00. That is as cheap as the 30 amp

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Nobody seems to use the right 50A plug/cord-cap for anything, and everyone calls their preferred 50A plug standard, ranges still seem to use a 10-50 even when 4-wires are in the box I have see that many times even in newer construction, EVSE's seem to 14-50 even-though they never have a neutral and the most common 240V plug to have in a garage or shop where you'd plug a car in is a 6-50 welder plug.

Some years back I had a job that involved converting 3 generators to those 50A CS style plugs for a events company, the customer called the CS plugs 'standard 50A plugs'.
All their cords and spider boxes were the CS style so I'd suppose I'd call that standard too if all my cords were that way.
When I went to the supply house I had a brain fart asked for, you know NEMA standard 50A twist-locks, the guy went in the back for a while said he would have to look into it and call me,
well thats because you can't get a NEMA standard 125/250V twist-lock, the only thing made is 'non-nema' woops sorry man I meant CS 'oh we have tons of those' LOL.
 
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