Well, it isn't the end of the world to trip a breaker so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I can however pretty well guarantee that motor isn't anything near 3.5 hp. regardless what they rate it at or tell you. Why would it have to be anyway, one horsepower is 550 foot pounds per second. Unless you are running an elephant or you have quite spectacular foot pounds you won't be taxing a motor anything like that hard.
----- Original Message ----- From: Edward Przybylek To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 3:11 PM Subject: RE: [BlindHandyMan] electric motor question Hi all, I've been following this thread with much interest because we just purchased a new treadmill. The unit has a 3.5 horsepower motor, is capable of a 12% incline and has a top speed of 10 MPH. This discussion thread has concerned itself with motors 2.5 HP and lower and whether there needs to be a concern about breaker ratings. Given that this unit has a motor with 3.5 HP, are there concerns I should be addressing? We use the treadmill for power walking and I'm quite sure it will never see speeds much over 5 or 6 MPH. We've had the incline up to 8 percent and I'm sure we'll have it up to the 12% maximum before too long. We haven't popped a breaker yet but I just want to be sure that there isn't something I should be doing just as a precaution. Thanks. Take care, Ed Przybylek From: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com [mailto:blindhandy...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Tom Fowle Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2009 1:43 PM To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] electric motor question David, One Horsepower is generally considered to require about 750 watts. so 2.25 HP will need a solid 1700 watts. This is probably a peak rating, but none th less it must be on a 20 amp circuit that isn't used much. If you have a coule 200 watt outside lights on at the same time, it will get very close to the max rating of a 20 amp circuit. tom [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]