12 amp Blender Overloading Bed Outlet

[PunkOuter]

Our power went out due to a recent storm, and while we waited for it to be restored, we plugged in our Vitamix blender into the outlet in the bed of the truck. Technically, we ran an extension cord from the blender to the outlet (same cord we use to plug the truck into a 110v outlet when travelling, so it's a pretty long extension cord). The blender is a 12a rated blender. Every time we'd turn it on, it would run for a second, then the truck would cut power to the outlet. It would repeat that three times before tripping something in the software which then would require us to go into the cabin and press the reset button on that outlet. It was essentially seeing we were overloading the outlet and turning it off. According to the manual, these should be rated to power up to 20 amps at a time. We had nothing else plugged in. The outlet works with our remote control car battery charger we plug in back there from time to time (which pulls in closer to just a few amps). So I'm a bit at a loss on why a blender was putting the truck into overload protection mode. In hindsight, I should have tried bypassing the extension cord and just plugging directly into the outlet.

Searches in the forum here show others have plugged in blenders without problems, so we are looking for advice. Anyone else run into the same problem? Will this require a dreaded service appointment if so (our service center is pretty awful). Maybe we should skip the long extension cord in the future?

Cheers!

Sponsored

 

[mongo]

Our power went out due to a recent storm, and while we waited for it to be restored, we plugged in our Vitamix blender into the outlet in the bed of the truck. Technically, we ran an extension cord from the blender to the outlet (same cord we use to plug the truck into a 110v outlet when travelling, so it's a pretty long extension cord). The blender is a 12a rated blender. Every time we'd turn it on, it would run for a second, then the truck would cut power to the outlet. It would repeat that three times before tripping something in the software which then would require us to go into the cabin and press the reset button on that outlet. It was essentially seeing we were overloading the outlet and turning it off. According to the manual, these should be rated to power up to 20 amps at a time. We had nothing else plugged in. The outlet works with our remote control car battery charger we plug in back there from time to time (which pulls in closer to just a few amps). So I'm a bit at a loss on why a blender was putting the truck into overload protection mode. In hindsight, I should have tried bypassing the extension cord and just plugging directly into the outlet.

Searches in the forum here show others have plugged in blenders without problems, so we are looking for advice. Anyone else run into the same problem? Will this require a dreaded service appointment if so (our service center is pretty awful). Maybe we should skip the long extension cord in the future?

Cheers!

How long of a cord and what gauge?
What were you blending, and at what speed?

Probably not the Cybertruck.

 

[jf64k]

My first question, when you mentioned the extension cord, was:

How long is the cord? then,

What gauge is the cord?

Your mixer draws, I'm assuming, 12a continuous, but on start-up (particularly if it's filled with something thick and/or ice) could be higher.

Couple the higher in-rush at start-up with a long or undersized extension cord and you could get a situation that trips the software circuit breaker on the CT.

 

[PunkOuter]

It's a 50' cord. I can look up the gauge when the wife brings the truck back from work later, haha. But it's a very thick cable. Not one of those cheap ones.

As to the blender startup, I tried starting it up on the slowest, barely moving speeds and it would still trip it. But yeah, I think the easiest answers will come with me just plugging the blender directly in and testing to determine if the cable is adding to the problem.

I'll report back later tonight!

 

[PunkOuter]

Yep. Plugging the blender directly into the outlet worked fine. I couldn't find the gauge on the extension cord anywhere, but did see it was rated higher on amps and volts than the blender's requirement. So I'm not quite sure why it didn't work through the extension cord, but whatever. No biggie.

 

[jf64k]

Yep. Plugging the blender directly into the outlet worked fine. I couldn't find the gauge on the extension cord anywhere, but did see it was rated higher on amps and volts than the blender's requirement. So I'm not quite sure why it didn't work through the extension cord, but whatever. No biggie.

50ft 12GA is rated for 15A.

I could see your blender momentarily exceeding the rated draw of the outlet with the software circuit breaker + that long cord.

Tesla may have the sensitivity of the circuit breaker set on the conservative side as well.

I’d be curious to see if a 10GA 50ft would work…but not curious enough to go buy one to try, haha!!

 

[CyberGus]

Our power went out due to a recent storm, and while we waited for it to be restored, we plugged in our Vitamix blender into the outlet in the bed of the truck.

A power outage without margaritas? It's a miracle you survived

 

[PunkOuter]

A power outage without margaritas? It's a miracle you survived

Well, I was rather persistent. I'd get 1 second of blending, wait for it to reset, 1 second of blending, wait, 1 second. Go into the truck and do the reset there to get 3 more attempts.

I managed to survive! haha

 

[Jedi2155]

I did some googling for in-rush current on a vitamix blender, and someone mentioned the inrush current could be as much as 6x the running current, so a 12-13A blender could be drawing up to 80A in the momentary in-rush. Coupled with a long extension cord, means you can easily trip the settings.

Electrical protection settings in reality are much more complex then simple amps (20A breakers don't necessarily trip at 20A), and are described typically in terms of "trip curves"

https://electrical-engineering-portal.com/time-current-curves

 

[mongo]

Yep. Plugging the blender directly into the outlet worked fine. I couldn't find the gauge on the extension cord anywhere, but did see it was rated higher on amps and volts than the blender's requirement. So I'm not quite sure why it didn't work through the extension cord, but whatever. No biggie.

I can run a 10 gauge extension cord test, but what were you blending?

 

[PunkOuter]

I can run a 10 gauge extension cord test, but what were you blending?

About half a cup of ice, 1/2 cup of concentrated black chai tea, 1 cup of milk or milk alternative, and 1 full scoop of chai tea powder mix.

It's quite delicious!

 

[TickTock]

If you really want to know the load, you can put a Kill-A-Watt on it to monitor the power. This is a useful thing to have around anyway to see how power much various appliances are using. Inrush current is certainly playing a dominant role but the steady-state could easily have been more than 15A in that configuration, too.

Nicer appliances (like a Vitamix) use a microcontroller to control the speed. The 15A rating is assuming the full 115V. If you have a long extension cord, IR drop results in much lower voltage than it was designed for so the microcontroller ends up telling the circuit to draw more current to get the power required to hit speed (power = voltage times current). However, the Cybertruck sees that current at the full voltage - so more power. Basically your extension cord is a second appliance in this case (an electric heater). If you were using a old school blender, it would have probably worked - just would have been weaker.

Gauge matters. If you need to use an extension for for a large load, make sure it is 10 gauge (or lower).

 

[Deleted member 17810]

Unless you go out of your way to get a low gauge 50ft extension it's likely in the 10 -14 amp range.

If it's higher rated on amps you'd likely know you bought it for that..

 

[CTMike]

It's my understanding that 20 amp circuit breakers actually trip at 80% of their load.

 

[mongo]

It's my understanding that 20 amp circuit breakers actually trip at 80% of their load.

I think you're misunderstanding the NEC 80% derating for continuous loads (>3 hours). A new 20 Amp breaker in isolation allows 20 Amps indefinitely. A 20A breaker that has been sourcing a 20A load for years may nuisance trip. As could one surrounded by other active breaker in a panel. So continuous loads require breaker derating to prevent that from happening.

In the case of Cybertruck, it's all software controlled so they can set the trip point a lot more reliably.

Sponsored