If you are going to be using a dishwasher in your home, you may want to know how many amps a dishwasher uses. If you have many different appliances, this can be important in safely having power coming into your home.
Amps are an important thing to understand as you do not want too many or too few coming to your appliances. It is important to have everything set up safely so that everything is getting the power that it needs without being overloaded.
Keep reading to find out exactly how many amps a dishwasher needs to run safely in your home.
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How Many Amps Does Using the Dishwasher Use?
A typical household dishwasher is going to use 10 amps of power on average in most households. This does not include industrial dishwashers meant to be used in places like restaurants where it needs more power to run and will use more amps.
Though most people do not have to worry about how many amps their dishwasher uses, it could be good to know. If you are updating the electrical circuit panel in your home, you will want to consider these things.
If you plan on having all or more of the common household appliances, you want to ensure that you have the power to use them. Having too few amps for your home can be a fire risk or at the very least, cause issues with your power.
This is something that you should discuss with the professional who is doing or has done the electrical work in your home. They will be able to explain amps to you and show you what kinds of breakers you have to work with.
Can I Have a 10 Amp Circuit for My Dishwasher?
Because a dishwasher typically only runs on 10 amps and needs that amount of power to work, you may think you can just have a 10 amp breaker. But circuits should always be equipped with more amps than the appliance actually needs.
This is for safety purposes, as it is dangerous to have a circuit that isn’t supplying enough amps to the device. Your dishwasher may only need 10 amps to run, but this could fluctuate by the brand of the dishwasher or the size.
This could even be affected by how much you use it and if it is running for long periods of time. Amps can be different from what you may think, so it is always safer to have more amps going to that appliance than you really need.
This means that you should have a 15 to 20 amp circuit for your dishwasher. This gives it plenty of wiggle room so that it is going to get plenty of amps.
This is the perfect number so that you are not overloading the circuit with amps but have plenty to spare. Doing this is important for everything in your home that uses power, as it is best to have 5 to 10 more amps than you think you need.
Can My Dishwasher be Plugged Into a Normal Outlet?
If you have just bought a dishwasher for your home, you may be wondering if you can plug it into a normal outlet. Will it overpower the outlet or cause a fire hazard due to too much power being transferred?
The good thing is that the answer to this question is that you can plug a dishwasher into a normal outlet. Modern-day homes are made with outlets that can handle almost all medium to small-sized appliances.
This includes appliances like:
- Ovens
- Microwaves
- Blenders
- Mixers
- Dishwashers
As well as anything else you may want to use. There are only some instances where the dishwasher may be a high-end brand that requires a different kind of outlet.
This could also be an issue if your home is older and does not have updated outlets that can handle modern appliances. If this is the case, you should hire an electrician to fix the issue, as this could be a problem later on.
Does a Dishwasher Need Its Own Circuit?
According to the safe electrical code for dishwashers, your dishwasher should have its own circuit that is dedicated to it solely. This means that this circuit won’t be supplying any other appliance with power.
You should also have a circuit breaker for the dishwasher that can be easily located on your electrical panel. This allows you to turn it off or on if you need to do something with your dishwasher or replace it with a new one.
This is part of the reason why many major appliances have their own circuit as it makes it easier to turn them off when you need to. You may not want to do this if that circuit also covered things like lights, outlets, and other appliances.
This also ensures that your dishwasher is getting the number of amps that it needs. If it were to be shared with something else, you may end up having too many or too few amps for both appliances.
It is very important that everything in your home is supplied with the number of amps that it needs. This is why you will see many things in your home with their own circuit breaker so that the power is better controlled.
How Many Amps Does a Dishwasher Use When Running?
When a dishwasher is running, it is typically only going to need 10 amps. This applies to most household dishwashers though some higher-end brands or larger sizes could require more amps than the average dishwasher.
You should always have more amps than you need on a circuit to prevent power issues, so your dishwasher should have a 15 to 20 amp circuit. This gives it leeway if it needs more amps without being overcharged with excessive amps.
Most household outlets can also be used safely to plug in your dishwasher, it is only in rare instances that this isn’t possible. Thankfully this is an easy fix that you can have done by an electrician to get your outlets updated to handle modern-day appliances.
