50 or 30 amp

Originally posted by lostagain Tars, I should add a comment regarding legal responsibility for taking risks.

Respectfully, I would suggest maybe you shouldn't.  As mentioned earlier, you are talking to 8 forum regulars, mostly Senior Members, and mostly, I think, somewhere between mature and very mature.  I'm pretty sure we all realize that actions can have consequences and that we are responsible for our own deeds or mis-deeds.  Good odds.

I think it's absurd, not to mention condescending, to suggest that we better have our money offshore if we want to use a dogbone.  (I think that's what we're talking about.)  If I use one and I blow a fuse, I'll pay for the fuse.  If I burn up my cord or converter, or my Pod, I'll buy another one.  If I burn down 14,000 homes, or by some Rube Goldberg sort of scenario I somehow manage to cause the end of the world as we know it, well, I know I'll suffer the consequences.  In the latter case, crazy as it is, but nevertheless conceivable, I hope my suffering will be brief.

Aside from absurd, or maybe because of that, this is getting to be kind of funny.  You think the thread must be done, but then someone comes up with something else, a la when Colombo is leaving the room and he turns and says, "There's just one more thing...." 

Columbo had better writers.

TT

Tars, I guess I have to weigh in on this.  I was not comparing the use of a 50/30A dogbone to driving 100 in a school zone.  The point was we all take risks, some mundane, some extraordinarily foolish but when we do so we have to take personal responsibility for what we do.  Some risks are so minimal that the chance of hurting someone is nearly non-existent, while others present dangers that approach engaging in reckless disregard for the safety of others, indeed a criminal act.  

I have read all the posts here and have learned a lot about not only the consequences of a dead short when using a 50/30A dogbone, but also the consequences of heating the conductors up by putting too much of a load on the circuit.  I also note that FR and other manufactures caution against this type of amperage conversion.  One cannot say it is risk free.  The real issue, and one that hasn't been answered here is how small is the risk?  If I get into an elevator I know I have about a 1 in 3M chance of sustaining a medically treatable injury and I chose to take the risk.  When I boarded the Avianca flight to Colombia a week and a half ago, I knew I had about a 1 in 350K chance of getting hurt.  Here, we don't have information to assess risk probability.  All we can say is that it is theoretically possible.

I understand people using the dogbone and someone like StephenH has some pretty darn good reasons to use it to run his CPAP machine and possibly other medical devices.  Each person hast to make his own risk assessment and pray for the best outcome.  My comment about personal responsibility is that if you make a conscious choice to take a risk, you have the moral imperative to accept responsibility for the consequences, even if it bankrupts you.  Sadly, in our culture, we have moved far away from taking responsibility for our conduct and are always looking to blame others for the consequences of our acts. 

Bottom line, if you chose to take the risk, by all means do it.  But in the very unlikely event it turns out badly, don't whine about having to compensate those who got hurt and don't say it was someone else's fault. 

By all means, post away.  I'm not sure whose mind you think you might sway at this point; there are only about 8 of us, all regulars, most, if not all, Senior Members, participating anymore. 

And I'm sure Lostagain's intentions were good, as I know yours are, but comparing dogbone users to people who drive through school zones at 100 mph or saying they might kill 79 people and burn down 14,000 homes, is, intended or otherwise, in my opinion, one very tiny step away from the fulfillment of Godwin's Law.

TT