Experience Files

It's a common struggle on drying projects: not enough outlets for all your equipment. The temptation to daisy chain air movers using their onboard GFCI outlets is strong. Plug one unit into the wall, then two more into that, and so on. Soon, you've got five fans running off a single circuit. Problem solved, right? The breaker isn't tripping, so everything must be fine. Not necessarily.

Consider this: five fans, each drawing a conservative 3 amps, totaling 15 amps. If you've daisy-chained them through 50 feet of wiring, you're likely relying on a 14-gauge wire. For 15 amps over that distance, a 10-gauge wire is actually recommended, not 14-gauge. Extend that chain to 125 feet, and even a 10-gauge wire isn't sufficient.

Why is this a problem? Voltage drop. As the voltage drops over inadequate wiring, the amperage draw in the wires increases, generating heat.

"But the breaker isn't blowing!" you might argue. Remember, a home's 15 or 20-amp breaker's primary role is to protect the wiring in the wall from overheating. It doesn't care about the equipment connected or protecting you from electrical shock—that's the GFCI's job.

Play it safe and protect your assets. In my opinion, you're much better off using a 10 or 12-gauge extension cord with a GFCI outlet assembly that offers three, four, or even six outlets, rather than relying on the built-in outlets on your equipment.

Over the years, I've disassembled a surprising number of air movers to replace cords with missing ground plugs, only to find the wiring at the GFCIs overheated and scorched. This overheating problem largely disappeared when I insisted technicians use appropriate extension cords and required permission to use the onboard GFCIs.