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Haraldg · Nov 21, 2005, 06:37 PM

My house has wiring for two stoves on one 220v circuit. One is in the kitchen upstairs and the other in a second kitchen downstairs. I have just been using the upstairs kitchen and would like to put a stove in downstairs now. The former owner had a dryer in the downstairs stove location. The breaker is a double breaker, 50 amp. I see no indication of how heavy the wire is, but my best guesstimate is that it is adequate for a 50 amp circuit. I would like to know if I can actually operate two stoves on such a setup? Thanks for any input!
Harald

labman · Nov 21, 2005, 06:59 PM

If it was originally wired up for 2 stoves, it should be OK. Likely there is a plate on the stove giving the maximum current draw. If in watts, divide by 240 to get amps. Allowing a safety margin, as long as the total for both stoves is less than 40 amps, the breaker should be OK. Even if it is more, how often are you going to have all the burners and ovens on high on both stoves at once?

Try to check the wiring. Somebody could have easily stuck in too big of a breaker for the wire. If you remove the stove outlet from the wall, you may be able to see the wire rating on the end of the wire. If not, poke around where it might be exposed in the basement or crawl space. If you have to, pull the cover on the breaker box. Note, once the cover is off, you have access to an unlimited amount of 240 volt electricity. Keep you fingers away from the main breaker. Even shut off, it still has power coming into it. My old handbook has mislead me, but 10-3 is not heavy enough to connect to a 50 amp breaker. You need at least #8.

Haraldg · Nov 21, 2005, 07:13 PM

Thanks so much for the lightning fast response. I have looked at the wire and could find nothing on the black insulation or on the individual wires as to size. I checked where there were exposed individual wires in the junction box where the wires separated for the two stoves. From what I know about these things, it could well be #8 wire. I will have a look next time I am in a home improvement store. It almost looks to me that the wire coming from the panel is larger than the two going to the stoves from the junction box. However, I need to verify that. Thank you again for your help.
Harald

Haraldg · Nov 21, 2005, 08:46 PM

Hi,
I checked the wattage and the older of the two stoves claimed a wattage of 12.3 Kw for 240v and the newer of the two, 7.6 Kv for 240v. Together quite a bit higher than 50 amps. By the same token, the chances of both stoves being used "wide open" at the same time is very slim. If I have a chance I might just put in another breaker and run a second wire to the junction box to put each stove on a separate circuit just of the safety's sake.
Thanks again.
Harald

Borewyrm · Nov 28, 2005, 07:40 PM

50 amps would be #6