Can you hook up two lines that are rated for 50 amps to a 100 amp breaker together or can you run a 50 amp line to a 100 amp breaker for an electric range?

Answer 1

Hire an electrician. While unintentional, the clearest statement of your question is that you don't know what you are doing. You want your over-current protection device to be the weakest link in your system, so it pops before anything is damaged. You're talking about hooking a 50A line up to a 100A breaker, making the wiring the weakest link. That is a good recipie for a house fire.

Answer 2

Not at the same time and not if the dryer is designed for a 30-Amp branch (it could catch fire if the 50-amp breaker takes too long to blow.

Circuit Breakers are commonly referred to as "Thermal-Mag's" which basically is a magnet that is controlled by a thermal overload device. The breaker, wire, and associated devices of a circuit are rated to function within the limits of which they are designed. In your case a Range rated at 50 Amps will be required to have a 50A breaker and receptacle and #8 copper or #6 aluminum wire. At any point of trouble heat will be the result. Once the heat generating in the line exceeds the heat rating of the thermal-mag (circuit breaker) it will disengage the mechanical mechanism releasing the magnet and opening the circuit de-energizing the circuit. After the trouble is cleared the circuit can be reset with no damage to any of the circuits components because of their similar ratings. If you were to introduce anything with less rating into this circuit, in this case a dryer who's components are only rated for 30amp, it would be virtually unprotected as the 50 amp circuits heat rating would not trip the breaker until the 30amp dryer was probably close if not in flames in the case of a trouble. The wire will take longer to generate the heat while the breaker itself has +/- tolerances that would keep it from reacting as quickly as a 30 amp breaker and #10 copper/#8 aluminum wire. If the wire is #10 on a 50A breaker the same results as the breakers trip level is the melting point of #10 wires insulation leaving live bare wire. In the first sentence of the N.E.C. {National Electric Code} it states {don't quote me it's been a few millenniums since I read it} "The sole purpose of this code book is to protect property {and person" has been since added I think}. Just because it will work doesn't mean it's OK.

Answer 3

It is not safe to connect two 50 amp lines to a 100 amp breaker as it can lead to overload and potential fire hazards. Also, it is not recommended to run a 50 amp line to a 100 amp breaker for an electric range as the breaker should match the ampacity of the wire to ensure safety and proper function.