How much electricity do these machines use?

[kaz1961]

Hi all! I just joined the board and have already had most of my questions answered by reading the posts. One question I could not find the answer to is, how much power do these machines use? I am making a gameroom in my house and will have a few of them and was wondering if I should run a new circuit to put them on? Should I give each one their own outlet or can two get plugged into the same outlet? Thanks in advance for any help.

[RKnarr01]

I plug 3 into one surge protector and plug that into one outlet.

[TANK]

just clamped an amp meter on the ones in the room with me: at idle they all draw less than 1 amp ran the terminator through a big bonus and it pulled .98 amps peak. the fire drift pulled 1.03 peak in bb as well as the ddk when the second set of reels spun up.so i would guess they will pull no more than 1.5-2 amps each. you will probably see a little higher draw on your spinluck and harley when you get those as the are driving that big reel up top!!:slaphappy

[slotter]

Bottom line. You can plug 6 or seven on a circuit with a 20 amp breaker (about the minimum you'll find in most homes nowadays) and still have plenty of room on that circuit for a couple of lights, etc. Don't run your microwave, vacuum, and toaster at the same time, though.

[RKnarr01]

TANK, my surge protector says plug no more than 15 amps into it should i would be safe plugging in about 5-6 machines into it?

[TANK]

even if each machine draws 2 amps you can pop in 6 with room to spare!!

[RKnarr01]

i thought that since each had a 5 amp transformer i could only plug in 4 max.

[arbycoffee]

on a 30 amp, I had 3 Amercian & 9 Japanese machines on at one time, found nothing warm.

[TANK]

think of electricity as water running through a pipe: the pipe is 5 inches in diameter (5amps) and can flow one heck of a lot of water if needed. but since there is only one house down line(1 machine) it will never see full flow as the house only draws water through a 3/4 pipe. the xformer is capable of providing 5 amps but it will never be required to as the machine will never draw that much unless you come home drunk on your very first piss-up and mistake it for the head!!

[jeffmo]

The 5 amp rating in on the secondary windings of the transformer. ie the 24 volt side.
Less than 1.2 amps draw from the 110 volt power source.

[jeffmo]

BTW I have 7 machines on a GFI power strip on the same circut with lighting in the basement 4) 4 foot bulbs. I only draw 11 amps with wheels spinning on machines.
Could be more if all machines went to Bonus round at same time.....................

[slotter]

New bottom line. Unless you're Arby, gwarzin or a select few here, not to worry about.

[gwarzin]

I run about 10 machines on a circuit. Draw is about 10 to 12 amps. I thought the turn on surge might pop the breaker, because it must be about 20 amps. But the surge is over so quickly that it doesn't seem to be a problem. Even so, just to be safe I usually split each group of 10 machines between several different outlet strips so they come on in stages, speading out the turn on surge.

[slotter]

My home was built in the mid-eighties, and it has all 30 amp breakers on the circuits. Don't know if that is typical or not, but most older homes have at least 20 amp, I'm pretty sure.

[lockburn]

I've actually been replacing the older wiring in my house, so I've been playing with breakers every weekend.

A 'basic' circuit in a house is a 15 amp line. You'll find these in most rooms.

By code a bathroom must have a dedicated 20 amp line. This higher amperage allows for hair dryers and other beauty appliances that suck juice. The same goes for a kitchen to supply countertop appliances.

Higher amperage lines (30 amp, 40 amp) are typically for dedicated purposes, electric dryer, electric range, etc.

I'd be surprised to find a 30 amp line connected to normal outlets. A standard 15 amp outlet has a pass-through current carrying capacity of 20 amps. So, you can hook up multiple 15 amp outlets to a 20 amp line. You wouldn't be able to hook up a 30 amp line to that, as it could pass enough current to melt the receptacle and start a file. (15 amp outlets have two vertical spades plus a ground. 20 amp outlets have 1 vertical, one 'sideways T' spade, and the ground).

To find out how much power you are using per machine, you can buy a device like a 'Kill-A-Watt'. It plugs into the wall, and you plug your pachislo or whatever into it. It then tells you how much power it is using. It will also average out the power used while the device is on, so that you can determine how much the machine costs to keep running (by multiplying your kWh cost by the measurement it made).

[gwarzin]

To find out how much power you are using per machine, you can buy a device like a 'Kill-A-Watt'. It plugs into the wall, and you plug your pachislo or whatever into it. It then tells you how much power it is using.

Don't know about the Kill-A-Watt, but I use a Watt's Up Pro. It also gives you peak current so you can see what the turn on surge is. And it will track the data over time and let you dump it to a PC. So you can see how the current draw changes while the machine is being played.

[bmatonte]

WOW...We got some brainiacs on this site!

[arbycoffee]

Mine all business applacation, It is all heavier and in cased in condutet. The code is what they did when I had these buildings all rewired and new box.