Quote:
Originally Posted by Laco
Couple of things, first, though the AC compressor is an inductance motor, it will draw a lot of amps on startup, but that should be for such a short period of time that even a 20 amp breaker should not trip. You could in all likelihood safely put a 30 amp breaker on the AC line, because the only time it would draw over 30 amps would be if there was a short on the motor feed line, or if the motor (compressor) froze, and then it would try to draw hundreds of amps, so the 30 amp breaker would trip. I don't know what your Colemans current draw specs are, but my Dometic 13500 AC draws 15.01 amps, but will draw less in cooler weather. That, of course, is not the start up current, which my guess would be 30 to 35 amps, but not positive on that one. Just for reference, my home AC which is a 4 ton, or 48000 BTU unit is on a 40 amp circuit.
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There is a lot of "in-between" between the motors in the AC running normally and the unit drawing less than 20 amps; and one of the motors stalling and drawing a large surge of current to trip a 30 amp breaker. If either the compressor or the fan motors load up due to failing bearings, high head pressure, or any other reason or you have a high resistance connection, the unit could pull 25 to 30 amps long enough to heat up the supply cable and connections and cause a major issue.
This is akin to replacing a fuse with a penny. I'm certainly not a card carrying member of the Internet Safety Patrol, but I would never advocate replacing a 20 amp circuit breaker with a 30 amp breaker without upgrading the circuit.
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