Treadmill needs a 20 amp outlet. What to do?

Talk to an electrician. A 30 amp outlet will be fine BUT your dryer's outlet is might be a triple-phase outlet. I don't know if you can convert this to regular single phase electricity. An electrician will know though.

It will take an electrician all of 30 minutes to complete the job as long as the house electrical is vaguely modern. (last 40 years)

He'll probably have a breaker and plug in the van.

pop_pop! wrote:

It will take an electrician all of 30 minutes to complete the job as long as the house electrical is vaguely modern. (last 40 years)

He'll probably have a breaker and plug in the van.

But if he upgrades an outlet and the breaker to 20 amp, won't he have to upgrade the wiring between the two also?

I was in the same boat a couple years ago. In the end I just got the $8 outlet cover (with the 20A-shaped plug) from Home Depot and spent a total of 5 minutes swapping it out with the existing outlet cover and leaving the wiring. The house was built in 1940 and still has the original wiring whatever gauge that may be. Never a hint of problem for me.

If you have kids in the house or extra money laying around then obviously it's better to be safe than sorry and pay an electrician to upgrade the entire circuit. As a non-expert it was my opinion that it's never going to draw near 20 amps from regular use of a sub-200 lb person unless they're taking it instantly to sub-5:00 pace from a dead stop or something weird like that.

Can you use 2 10A outlets together?

electrical idiot wrote:

pop_pop! wrote:

It will take an electrician all of 30 minutes to complete the job as long as the house electrical is vaguely modern. (last 40 years)

He'll probably have a breaker and plug in the van.

But if he upgrades an outlet and the breaker to 20 amp, won't he have to upgrade the wiring between the two also?

Usually it's not that hard to pull 12 wire through the wall. May take the electrician another 30 minutes. It might even be easier to have them run a separate line and put a new outlet in where you want it.

pop_pop! wrote:

It will take an electrician all of 30 minutes to complete the job as long as the house electrical is vaguely modern. (last 40 years)

He'll probably have a breaker and plug in the van.

Putting in a new breaker and running a line through the attic might cost $50 to 100 bucks at the most. You can usually find motivated electricians from craigslist.

However, I'm running my Landice treadmill from a 15 amp breaker and no issues at all. I think the wire is already 12 gauge, not sure about yours, but if so you could just change the outlet. I'm curious what TM you have that requires a 20 amp outlet.

If the dryer is normal voltage you can use that I think. If it's a 220v outlet, the plug won't be compatible. If it's an electric dryer it might well be 220 but gas dryers are often 110v.

Disclaimer. .. Not an electrician.

electrical idiot wrote:

pop_pop! wrote:

It will take an electrician all of 30 minutes to complete the job as long as the house electrical is vaguely modern. (last 40 years)

He'll probably have a breaker and plug in the van.

But if he upgrades an outlet and the breaker to 20 amp, won't he have to upgrade the wiring between the two also?

Disclaimer: I'm not an electrician.

It's not the breaker or the plug that's the potential hazard. It's the wiring. If you have a 15amp breaker and 15amp wiring, then changing the plug only should be safe. It the treadmill tries to draw too much current, it will pop the breaker. That's why it's called the circuit breaker. It's your safety valve.

It might blow the breaker occasionally. If it does, you'd need to replace the wiring. It's unlikely the treadmill actually pulls 20amp except when rapidly accelerating, so avoid doing that. You might want to turn off everything else that's on that circuit when using the treadmill.

Hopefully, a real electrician can chime in on my thoughts. I'm not an electrician.

why do you want to give up running and start this treadmill sport thing?

OP

I'll walk you through this.

Turn off the power in your house. (flip breakers)

Take a screw driver and remove the cover plate for the outlet you would like to use.

Remove the outlet.

Replace this outlet with a three prong outlet.

Replace the cover plate.

Turn on the power.

Plug in your treadmill.

All is good if you have a 200 amp home.

A 200 amp home implies both the box and the wiring.

Injured runner wrote:

OP

I'll walk you through this.

Turn off the power in your house. (flip breakers)

Take a screw driver and remove the cover plate for the outlet you would like to use.

Remove the outlet.

Replace this outlet with a three prong outlet.

Replace the cover plate.

Turn on the power.

Plug in your treadmill.

All is good if you have a 200 amp home.

That has nothing to do with amps. A two prong outlet only means it is not grounded. You can have a two prong outlet that is 20 amp as long as there is 12 wire going to it. By code, it is not allowed to simply put a 3 prong outlet on a non-grounded wire. You can "cheat" a simple test by running a jumper wire from the neutral to the ground screw but that still isn't grounded.

If you want to get rid of those 2 to 3 prong adapters, you can put a gfci outlet on a non grounded wire so it meets code and you have a 3 prong outlet .

The correct solution is to have an electrician put in a 20 amp circuit to where ever you want the treadmill. This probably isn't as hard as you imagine but it will be a few hundred bucks.

There are adapters that will allow you to plug a 20 amp plug into a 15 amp receptacle. Assuming the circuit breaker is working properly, this will protect the current through the wire from exceeding its rated 15 amps which is the point of concern. When you start the treadmill, the circuit breaker will trip or not. Electric motors typically draw their greatest current when stalled, which is the condition at start up, so if the circuit breaker is going to trip, it will probably do so immediately. If it trips, unplug/turn off everything else on the circuit, reset the breaker, and try again. If the treadmill runs off the 15 amp circuit you should be reasonably safe to operate it that way.

Again, the correct solution is to have an electrician put in a 20 amp circuit.

Thanks for all the helpful responses.

It's a Cybex 550T with a 2.5 hp motor. Decent machine. Very sturdy with a big deck. For as little as I paid for it, if it lasts only a year, it would be worth it.

For now, I got an adapter to plug it into a 15 amp outlet. So far, it hasn't tripped the circuit breaker. When I initially posted, I figured it probably wouldn't run at all without a 20 amp circuit. I haven't decided for sure where I want it in the house. Then I might rewire the circuit to avoid breaker problems. But for now, at least the adapter works and it hasn't tripped it yet. If I install a tv and a fan, that might overdo it though. We'll have to see.

Thanks again.

adsfsfd wrote:

Talk to an electrician. A 30 amp outlet will be fine BUT your dryer's outlet is might be a triple-phase outlet. I don't know if you can convert this to regular single phase electricity. An electrician will know though.

Wow, no.

First of all, a 30amp outlet won't be fine because the plug won't fit the outlet.

Second of all, in the US, residential power is split phase. No part of your house is three phase. The treadmill will convert the single phase power to three phases to run the motor.

Why would you even answer a question like this if you don't know what you're talking about?

It's also likely that your garage has 20A circuits.

If you go at full speed for a while you might draw more than 15A and flip the breaker. The worst that can happen is the breaker annoyingly flips whenever you try to run too fast.

Well again, that's not the worst that can happen, but is likely the worst that will happen.