ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Air Compressor and GFCI

I plan on installing a SEARS 1.5HP air compressor in my garage. THe unit is rated for 15 amps at 120V. My question is will the GFCI recepticle handle the duty cycle of the compressor? Or will there be a problem with nuisace trips? The unit is on wheels so it can be moved within the garage. Thanks.

The easiest way to tell may be to plug it in & see if it nuisance trips.

Dave

I wouldn't worry too much; retail tool suppliers often market stuf with wildly inflated "horsepower" ratings.

Forgot to add that I want to run a dedicated circuit for the compressor.

I would put it on a dedicated 20 receptacle. It should run fine on a GFCI. If it rolls around you might have a hard time saying it was fixed in place for the exception.

I have the same type of setup in my garage. 1.5 HP compressor 15A@120V running through a GFCI. I have been running this setup for many years and have never had a problem with nuisance tripping. A dedicated 20A GFCI circuit will be just fine.

Seperate dedicated circuit, 20 amp, # 12 awg using a single recepticle would not have to be GFCI protected in the garage if installed for a freezer, just use this circuit for your compressor, or maybe get a twist lock plug and recepticle for your compressor so that other things won't be used on this unprotected circuit.
That's what I would do.

Festus, the twist-lock plug and receptacle probably costs more than a GFCI receptacle does.

Disclaimer: I am not an electrician.
However I do have a Sears 1.5HP compressor, on a dedicated 20 amp GFCI and use it all the time when working on my car.
Going on 4 years without having the compressor trip the GFCI yet.

While I know that a GFCI would not be required if you ran a dedicated circuit, I would run one anyway. GFCI recepticals are not prohibitively expensive so, for the added safety, it's cheap insurance.
Just my 2p