The wire has absolutely no risk of being damaged. The OCP is sized for the wire and will protect it. That is not what my concern is. My point is, in most any other circumstance, if a piece of equipment has a nameplate current rating of "X" amps, how can the NEC dictate some lesser rating? Please refer to my motor example and explain the difference. I also have a more direct question. If a range has a tag, which says it will draw 75A at full load does it actually draw that much with all elements on? If so, how can a 50A breaker hold this load? It is very conceivable that a person cooking for a large group (perhaps a family get-together) will use all four burners and the oven at the same time. Will the OCP allow such an action dependably? If I just had my new range installed and properly wired up by a licensed electrician, I would be VERY upset if the code allowed my breaker to trip! I am led to believe that the VA's listed on ranges must be quite inaccurate or 220.19 would not be used for branch circuits. To be clear, I totally understand 220.19's use for service load calculations. Using it to size the wire and breaker for a single range in a household seems to go against everything else in the code book!
