what will happen

If you plug in something that uses more then 15 amps it will trip the breaker. It should be changed to standard 15 amp receptacle because it shouldn't be on a 15 amp circuit. Do you know if the wiring is 14 ga or 12 ga?

It's 12 gauge wire. But I believe that some 14, somewhere else in the circuit

Why wouldn't a 20A receptacle be allowed on a 15A breaker? My understand is that the point would be that the weakest point in the system should be the breaker, and that is the case here.

jmans8666 said:

What will happen if I have a 20 amp outlet on a 15 amp breakervi know its not allowed but just I want to know the dangers

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nothing wil happen. What would be a concern is if you have a 15 amp outlet on a 20 amp breaker. What is your concern regarding this condition?

wareagle said:

nothing wil happen. What would be a concern is if you have a 15 amp outlet on a 20 amp breaker. What is your concern regarding this condition?

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A 15 amp duplex receptacle is perfectly fine on a 20 amp branch circuit and is code compliant.

WillK said:

Why wouldn't a 20A receptacle be allowed on a 15A breaker? My understand is that the point would be that the weakest point in the system should be the breaker, and that is the case here.

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I may be wrong, but I'm thinking that it's wrong because someone could see the 20a receptacle, and change the breaker to 20a with the wiring being 14 guage.

wareagle said:

nothing wil happen. What would be a concern is if you have a 15 amp outlet on a 20 amp breaker. What is your concern regarding this condition?

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Another concern is that someone will plug a 20Amp appliance into it and just blow the circuit - over and over and over again.

There is NO reason to do put a 20Amp rec on a 15 Amp circuit. And lots of reasons why not to do it.

sirsparksalot said:

I may be wrong, but I'm thinking that it's wrong because someone could see the 20a receptacle, and change the breaker to 20a with the wiring being 14 guage.

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An inexperienced person might do that. The breaker ampacity must match the conductor size and not the outlet. I would hope an electrician would see the conductor at the breaker and make the decision as to what size it should be. If the wire is #12 cu then you can swap the 15 to a 20 amp breaker. However, if in the circuit someone installed #14 cu then there may not be a way to see this if it is inside the wall.
As Leah said, you could plug a 20 amp load into the plug and trip the breaker. I would hope that would only happen once and a check of the circuit would lead to the problem.

wareagle said:

As Leah said, you could plug a 20 amp load into the plug and trip the breaker. I would hope that would only happen once and a check of the circuit would lead to the problem.

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yeah... you'd think that. :laughing:

a7ecorsair said:

A 15 amp duplex receptacle is perfectly fine on a 20 amp branch circuit and is code compliant.

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this is correct... noting that it is a DUPLEX, you may not have a single 15 amp receptacle on a 20 amp circuit, however, it does not happen the other way around, you may not have any number of 20 amp receptacles on a 15 amp circuit...

all it will do is trip the breaker, but just remember, breakers have failed before so why take the chance.. if the breaker trips over and over again it could get weak and fail to trip when you need it to, overheating the wire and causing a fire

Well I just replaced it. Now I feel safer

jmans8666 said:

Well I just replaced it. Now I feel safer

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:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

The worse thing that will happen is someone will plug a 20 amp device into it and it will trip the breaker.

A 20 amp breaker with 14awg wiring is more serious though. Adding a 20 amp load will put stress on the wires that it was not designed for, and the breaker wont trip to protect the wiring.

If you have the old faulty FPE breakers, then it really does not matter what size the breakers are, it's still going to catch on fire. :laughing:

As far as the, at this point hypothetical, possibility of plugging a 20 amp load into a 15 amp circuit with a 20 amp receptacle... How many 20 amp loads are there really that would not be able to plug into a 15 amp receptacle? I can't claim to know everything that might get plugged into anything, but frankly I can't think of anything I've seen that uses the 120V 20 amp plug shape.

not around motors or shops much huh.

the L shaped 20 amp 120v plug exists for a reason....just because YOU havent seen 20a devices doesnt mean they dont exist.

WillK said:

As far as the, at this point hypothetical, possibility of plugging a 20 amp load into a 15 amp circuit with a 20 amp receptacle... How many 20 amp loads are there really that would not be able to plug into a 15 amp receptacle? I can't claim to know everything that might get plugged into anything, but frankly I can't think of anything I've seen that uses the 120V 20 amp plug shape.

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Folks install 50 amp receptacles on 40 amp circuits all the time. What is the difference here? How many places have burned down from this? I'd be willing to bet that you can't think of =ANY=

jcrack_corn said:

not around motors or shops much huh.

the L shaped 20 amp 120v plug exists for a reason....just because YOU havent seen 20a devices doesnt mean they dont exist.

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They are quite rare in a typical home environment though. :laughing:

I have honestly never seen a home appliance that uses a 20 amp plug. My guess is they are seen more in commercial applications. I'm sure there are some home appliances out there that do have em, I just never seen any myself.

What equipment are you referring to which has a 20a plug? Very rare in residential applications.