220v 6.5 air compressor wiring question

[nealtw]

You might find this interesting.
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-139959.html

 

[kenny6486]

Neil I found that very interesting I appreciate you sending that. It's almost identical to my situation

 

[nealtw]

Neil I found that very interesting I appreciate you sending that. It's almost identical to my situation

Like I said, I would try it on a breaker that you have. It wouldn't hurt anything if it trips a 40 amp breaker, then you would know.

 

[bud16415]

Like I said, I would try it on a breaker that you have. It wouldn't hurt anything if it trips a 40 amp breaker, then you would know.

You really wouldn’t know. My compressor starts much harder in the winter than summer. The manufacture stated what they want to see. People are free to take those suggestions and do whatever they like with them until something fails or they get inspected. I don’t doubt you could wire this to a 30 or 40 amp circuit and wire it with #12 and it would work. There are safety factors built into all systems and if you want to run at a 1:1 safety factor things will work.

I had a friend ask me the other day to borrow my PEX tools and I said sure what are you plumbing and he said my air compressor @130lbs. I told him it wasn’t a good idea as the tubing isn’t rated a lot higher than that and he would cut his safety factor down to nothing. He started telling me several guys that had been using it and it works. I told him that still doesn’t mean it is a good idea in the long run to be on the edge of your safety factor.

 

[afjes_2016]

Single strand. Will put in conduit

Single strand would be a solid conductor. When you refer to "stranded" it refers to the fact that there are more than one "wire" contained within the same insulation for that same "conductor" within the cable or individual conductors. I don't think you have solid #6 but I could be wrong.

Even Home Depot gets it wrong sometimes in their descriptions.

Here they say this is stranded UF in the main description and the "specifications" when in fact it is solid (well at least the picture shows solid).

Here is actual stranded. See the difference?

 

[Snoonyb]

Murphy's law; what can go wrong, will.

Because you followed somebody's advice on the internet.

 

[Speedbump]

I wouldn't put a lot of faith in the 6.5hp. I used to see all kinds of over rated motors in my shop. Most if not all are labeled with a 1.0 service factor and the amp draw tells the truth about actual horsepower. I wouldn't be at all surprised that motor could run on #12 with a 30 amp breaker. I'm not suggesting anyone do that, but I'm quite sure it would work. A real 5 hp motor for instance runs at around 28 amps on 230 volts under load. And that is a very large motor compared to that compressor motor.

 

[Kabris]

Single strand would be a solid conductor. When you refer to "stranded" it refers to the fact that there are more than one "wire" contained within the same insulation for that same "conductor" within the cable or individual conductors. I don't think you have solid #6 but I could be wrong.

Even Home Depot gets it wrong sometimes in their descriptions.

Here they say this is stranded UF in the main description and the "specifications" when in fact it is solid (well at least the picture shows solid).

Here is actual stranded. See the difference?

When he said single strand I think he meant individual conductors stranded, hopefully copper.

 

[bud16415]

There is a multitude of #6 single conductor stranded and solid wire out there with all different insulation ratings, heat ratings, smoke and flame ratings and permeability ratings for water and such. Not to mention copper and other materials. Not all of them are allowed by code to go inside conduit for home residential wiring. For example I can’t take 6-3 / ground Romex NM-B and strip away the outer sheath and then use the conductors in a conduit.

Would it work fine? Most likely yes.

With free wire I was hoping the OP would have told us what the identification on the wire said. Can he use it as I said before sure he can and it will most likely work fine. If he was to get inspected could he fail? Most certainly.

As to devices misleading their true HP and duty cycle sure it is common. Go to harbor freight you will marvel at how many HP they can get from little motors. Still I would follow the manufactures recommendation unless I had some other source telling me different.

It has been mentioned a few times now if this motor is set up for a different voltage than 240v take the time to make the proper changes to run on 240v.