The wife got a ‘sauna’ that came with a 20-amp plug. Their solution was to just swap out the receptacle on the wall, and I was ‘Oh really’… It has a short quick spike in demand, and then droped down to fairly low demand, it’s on a dedicated circuit it turns out. It still freaks me a little, but it doesn’t get used very much at all (anymore).
One thing about circuit breakers: They are made to interrupt the power flow if there is a sudden demand spike (short) to avoid overheating and a potential fire, however, each time the breaker is tripped it wears on it, causing it to likely fail or trip again in the future. Especially with high load items, once it trips, it could start repeatedly tripping over and over, like a dryer circuit: we had one trip, and then it kept tripping sooner and easier. (My wife would just reset it, but it kept happening, until she finally mentioned it. The breaker was getting pretty hot after being reset a number of times for sure. It failed in less than a month) That first trip ‘cooked’/stressed the breaker. I replaced it, and it works fine, so far. Arc fault breakers can be ‘cooked’ too. A weak breaker can be more dangerous as it can heat up when it trips and repeated trips make the breaker unable to trip completely, or ever. ALSO Test your GFCI outlets every couple of months, they can stop working over time and not trip on a ground fault…
And DO NOT just pop a larger breaker into a circuit that trips a lot. The breaker is controlled by the gauge of wire for that circuit, so swapping a 20 amp breaker for a tripping 15 can allow the wire and any connections to overheat and cause a fire.
TMI? Get an electricians opinion before doing anything that might involve upgrading breakers or outlets.
It is fairly standard practice to build/wire houses now with 12 gauge for all outlets, very easily visible since it is yellow vs white for 14 gauge which you’ll see running to lighting and switches. I don’t believe that is code nationally but many municipalities require it to allow for 20 amp upgrades and a lot of installations are just done with 20 amp breakers at this point anyway. So while I agree that you shouldn’t normally just swap an outlet out for a 20amp, nor should you just swap out a breaker, most places are going to be wired to handle that.
Swapping the outlet is at least probably better than swapping the plug, not like your sauna is moving a lot so in that case wouldn’t have been a huge deal. I have a steam pressure washer that has a 20 amp plug, the extension cord it came with is 20 amp on the female end and 15 on the male end… I’ve only ever personally used it in commercial facilities with tons of dedicated 20 amp circuits, but it used to belong to a race team that likely kept finding 15 amp outlets in the pits and modified the extension cord.
Honestly, I think anyone would be crazy to buy a Kickr Run until Wahoo shows they are committed to service, support, and spare parts. You currently can’t buy many spare parts for a Kickr trainer. Wahoo’s attitude is that you have a $1000 paper weight after a few years.
If you look for spare parts for a NordicTrack treadmill or any Icon fitness made treadmill you can often find spare parts for a decade.
A decade? Thank the EU for that. The EU says that manufacturers have to allow for spare parts for years after the product is discontinued. I’m sure that many corporations market certain models JUST to avoid that requirement.
I’ll be contacting Garmin/Tacx to see if I have any coverage left for my gen 1 Neo Smart Bike. I think the bottom bracket fails over time.
I had a StairMaster stepper that I loved, and could get come parts, but ended up buying another one just in case. Grainger had had chains galore, and other raw parts, and some official parts were available but are likely not available now. I got very good at fixing old fitness equipment for sure.
The thought of buying another Kickr Bike, or Run, JUST FOR PARTS is insane!! Hands down… They, and all vendors of these expensive toys should stand (closely) behind their products. I would not be happy having to bu a Tacx Neo Bike Plus because Garmin decided to drop support for it. (I’d consider paying for a refurbed warranted ‘plus’ bike… I just want to ride!!
If the EU was responsible for this fact why doesn’t Wahoo provide parts and exploded diagrams for Kickr trainers?
I think it’s mostly just the way the fitness industry rolls versus the shitty bicycle industry. There is no reason that a $300-$700 electronic rear derailleur cannot be repaired or refurbished yet we tolerate that from the bicycle industry.
Maybe they (the industry lobbyists) carved out an exemption for their industry?
I’ve run into a lot of closed doors in trying to fix some items. CPAP machines, John Deere equipment, lots of computer equipment. iFixit is pushing for a nationwide right to repair law, and has gotten some states and companies to back the idea.
I think cycling just doesn’t hit anyone’s radar. First, the number of riders with a $700 defective derailleur paperweight is incredibly tiny compared to people with a $700 iPhone that needs repair. Farmers make a stink about a $300,000 tractor and politicians notice because of the agribusiness lobby. Cycling is just a small blip on nobody’s radar.
Right to repair in the cycling industry. Not sure who those people are, but they appear to have information on what’s happening in the industry. I hope right to repair would require Shimano to make their Di2 computer interfaces way cheaper and far more available. Their new one is pretty much completely unavailable for the many times I’ve looked for it, and the cost is stratospheric, and unnecessarily so. Someone should hack together a stand in using a Raspberry PI or Arduino, Beaglebone, etc. The cost of the Shimano device is highway robbery.
Not to derail the exciting talk about circuit breakers, but now that the treadmill is out and available for purchase, has anyone pulled the trigger and bought one? Opinions? I’d love it if TR could drive some of my run workouts to make me faster.
