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Electrical Wiring

Laundry Room Washer on Dedicated Circuit?

14 years ago

Our laundry room has two 120V receptacles, one for the washer and another one on the opposite wall on the same circuit. Both are non GFCI. We are installing a laundry sink, cabinets and countertop next to the W&D on the same wall and would like to have another receptacle on that side of the room also.

Can we tap into the existing circuit to add the extra receptacle? I was under the impression that the washer was supposed to be on its own dedicated (GFCI?) circuit.

Thanks for any input.

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Comments (5)

hexus
14 years ago
yes you can do that as it will in the same laundry room.
You only are going to need to GFI them if they're 6 feet or less from the outer edge of the sink.
bus_driver
14 years ago
A washing machine does not have to be on a GFCI. In fact, the washer might cause nuisance tripping of the GFCI. Yes, you can add receptacles in the laundry room from the existing circuit. And it might be wise to cease accepting electrical wiring advice from your previous sources.
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NEC 210.11c2 code does not say the washer needs to be on a dedicated circuit. It allows all the circuits in the laundry room to be shared on a single circuit and does not specify how many - so if you put 8 receptacles in the laundry and had that shared with the washer that is fine. You just can't also share it with anything in any other nearby room/area like the garage. In my situation I happen have 3 circuits going to the laundry "area." One for the washer, one for lights & a cpl plugs. And a 3rd circuit for a gas dryer and a cpl other plugs even though this is not required. Because those 3 circuits "all" are in the laundry area - I can't share any of them with anything outside of the laundry area - by my reading of the code. It seems a waste since I could really use one of those circuits for the garage plugs. If anything, it is in my garage where I have table saws and chops saws which sometimes resets the GFCI receptacle when I turn them on anywhere in the garage. There is only one 20 amp circuit for all the garage plugs. It does not share with anything else like garage lights/door opener/furnace, but the GFCI still resets every other week when I initially run the saws. Then I reset the GFCI, and it works fine for a while. I have changed the GFCI twice with no difference.
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hexus
14 years ago
"And it might be wise to cease accepting electrical wiring advice from your previous sources."

that made me laugh, however for some reason GFI protecting the washer receptacle seems to be something people struggle with. I have one state inspector in one area I do work in that insists that we have to GFI it. I've tried arguing and finally decided it's not worth it and always just have to remember to throw in an extra GFI on the trim.
Tom Pultz
Original Author
14 years ago
Well, what if the washer receptacle is less than 6 ft from the sink? Is it still "exempt?" Maybe I should switch that from a duplex to a single receptacle.

When we add the laundry sink then the current extra receptacle and any others we add will need to be GFI protected because they will be within just a few feet of the sink.

Thanks for clearing up my question whether the washer needed a dedicated circuit. I thought I read that in this forum, but it was probably that the laundry room needed to be on a dedicated circuit.
petey_racer
14 years ago
Hexus IS right, under the 2008 NEC.

Any exceptions to the GFI rules for laundry rooms and basements have been removed.
If it is within 6' of a laundry sink it MUST be GFI protected. Period.
Appliances are much less likely to nuisance trip these days, and GFI's are getting smarter and less touchy. So the whole nuisance tripping thing is becoming less of an issue.

Tom, the "laundry" needs a circuit, not the washer alone. As the others said, you CAN add a receptacle to this "laundry circuit".

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