Hello,
I have some parts laying around and decided to build my own carpet extractor (hot water carpet cleaner). The machine will run off two separate 120V power cords (each on it's own 20AMP circuit). The two cords will need to power 3 main components (2 vac motors, 1 pressure pump)... so I have a total 40 amps to work with (less than that because you don't want to max out breakers).

Each vac motor pulls 14 amps, so that's 28 amps total... the pressure pump pulls about 9 amps. So basically, it's a total of 37 amps needed to run the machine. However, since each circuit only has 20AMPs available, I can only hook 1 component to each cord... if I try to hook a vac motor and pressure pump together, for example, it would be 23AMPS and I'd blow the fuse. So my questions is this... how do I hook up the vacuum motors and/or the pressure pump to pull needed amperage from each cord? Is there a device that I can plug in two cords (from two separate circuits) and then evenly distribute the output to the needs of each component?

It's been a long time since circuit class, so thanks for the help.

 

Reduce the current draw... For example

1. Do you really need two vac motors? Why won’t one suffice?
2. Don’t run the vac and pump at the same time. Run one vac and one pump or don’t use the two vac motors when using the pump.
3. If an idea like this cannot work, you can’t get there from here...

 

Reduce the current draw... For example

1. Do you really need two vac motors? Why won’t one suffice?
2. Don’t run the vac and pump at the same time. Run one vac and one pump or don’t use the two vac motors when using the pump.
3. If an idea like this cannot work, you can’t get there from here...

Thanks for the response but it was not really helpful to my question. To answer YOUR question, it is necessary to run ALL the components (you need a certain amount of water lift, for example, to clean rugs and you cannot achieve that lift running one vacuum motor) ... most commercial carpet extractors are designed with two power cords (and built in "separate circuit" locators). And those units DO have a way to distribute amperage from two different 120V breakers. I just don't know how they do it.

Many pumps, for example, are advertised saying they pull 8AMPS using 1 cord configuration... or 4.2AMPs per cord when both cords are plugged in. Does anyone know how they do this?

 

Seems like I could just wire both positive leads to positive side of motor... and the other two leads to the neutral side (sharing a common ground). Same voltage but current would be divided. Any help would be appreciated, thank you.