It's not a switch so it isn't recommended.

But most people do it anyway.

LTG : )

Game:

If the game has a power switch on the main power coming in, it literally will not see/feel/know anything different if the power is turned on at its own power switch or somewhere upstream of the cord. Makes no difference to the machine.

Breaker:

I would not use a breaker like a light switch - it should be able handle the load and spike, but it's not rated or intended for that kind of duty cycle. Electrical devices are tested for their purpose. A light switch is tested to see how many thousands of times you can flick it on/off before it fails, in addition to its electrical capacity, etc. A breaker is tested for how it handles a constant load, how it handles an overload, how it dissipates heat, etc. They are not designed to be flicked on/off in place of a light switch and therefore may fail a lot sooner. You don't want a breaker to fail, but you never want it to fail "on", which is a slim possibility even under the best normal-use circumstances.

A properly wired arcade would likely have a fused main disconnect on each circuit, which is meant to make/break under a load. Inside it looks like a knife-switch, but it's spring loaded to quickly open/close and has arc suppressors. (It's the actual device that makes that "chunk" sound effect you hear in movies when lights are turned on in a huge room.)

200-Amp-Disconnect-Switch (resized).jpg

If you want a main switch for a game room, then have an electrician wire in a main disconnect switch that is rated for your circuit under the worst case loading.

If you need anything larger than a standard 20-amp toggle switch, then it would probably look more like the disconnect switch above, albeit smaller.

See above.

Apple and oranges. See above.

"Every so often" is a lot more often than hardly at all, which is the normal case for breakers.

One big downside is a fire. How? If you have an overload and it cannot be interrupted because you have a breaker that has failed in the "on" position.

Doesn't matter, arcades turn on all machines using normal breakers for decades, every single day, without issue.

These are the same people that go out of their way to explain you need to screw in all 4 head bolts.

That’s how we’ve been doing it. Very rarely one of the games will have a hissy fit and all you have to do is usually power-cycle it.

We melted several breakers having 11 or 12 games on one. Still fine, just replace and keep going

I use breakers as main switches at my locations, it’s fine.

Look for SWD - Switching Duty rated breakers in 15 or 20 amp. They are engineered to be used as a switch.

I know several that do/did it.

I can't imagine how toasty the in-wall wiring would be at that point...

I don't have any strong opinion on this topic, but I will point out that all the 'evidence' of amps and how slowly the games power up is immaterial. I assume that people who offer that evidence don't understand electricity.

Surges have two basic components - impulse level and impulse rise time. Read IEEE 429 if you care to know more. That's a fancy way of saying how high does the voltage go, and how fast does it get there.

You can imagine that if the voltage peaks at 200V but gets there slowly, it will be 'less bad' for the insulation and other components that it 'hits' as opposed to a 200v peak that hits very fast. It's like getting hit with a 5lbs rock that's flying 1MPH versus a 5lbs rock that's moving @ 200MPH. Similarly, if both rocks are flying 1MPH the 5000lbs rock is gonna hurt more than the 5lbs rock.

So....the theory is that when you gate power, you hope to do it in a 'gentle' manner as opposed to a severe manner. I would be willing to bet that when you turn on 10 machines at once, there is a lot more 'junk' going on than 1 machine in terms of harmonics and reactances. There pretty much has to be. Whether that shows up as a damaged machine or not....you pays your money and you takes your chances.

I'd also be interested to learn if anyone has published papers/studies on how a breaker gates power versus a common toggle switch. My guess is someone has at some point...which might be what drives the idea that breakers should not be used as switches.

I am not sure that turning on 10 machines at once is WORSE than just one machine, but it definitely cannot be BETTER.

It's your house and your games. Do whatever you want.

That said, I'm still not clear on exactly how many things you had running while testing. I think it's safe to say the combined amperage rating for all the games plugged in was considerably over 20 amp, regardless of your readings. You are clear that four pins are 90's Bally/ WMS pins, which came with thermistors in the power boxes specifically to prevent inrush spikes. Turning those on via a single breaker won't hurt them. Worst case, you blow out a $1 thermistor and have to replace it. Testing amperage draw needs more than a ball search happening. Things like flippers and magnets use considerably more power than other coils in the game. If you want an accurate reading, have someone play each of the games while testing. I suspect your numbers will go up considerably.

Each of your games has a voltage and amperage rating. 90's Bally/ WMS games are rated at 8 amps for 120 volts. I believe some newer Stern Spike games are rated at 4 amps. Those are the numbers UL approved. Go above those rating and you take your chances.

We had a sub panel hooked up to a bunch of games via a single switch controller on a bunch of circuits as it was in the basement and difficult to get to on a day to day basis. As soon as that switch was activated it tripped half the breakers. I told the electrician that it was inrush current. (I could see the ? in his head). He made some calls and got a different type of breaker for these circuits that can accept inrush current. It's worked fine ever since.
I was always told in my past life as a motion picture projector installer (remember those?) as in REEL, REAL movies, breakers were not to be used as switches. But they commonly were used as switches, day after day.

For the record, *cough* ALL of my arcades used contactors. The light-switch powered (or not) a contactor which then had two 100A circuits running through them. The contactors, like the knife switch pictured, cut both hot AND neutral to many many games. We very rarely had issues with games acting up because of that. (I wanna say none, but.. it was a long time ago, and I'd be hesitant to say that some older arcade power supplies failed because of that. But.. eh.)

Plus, you know, that loud and heavy as hell KA-CHUNK as you flipped the light switch was jusy... just.. heaven.

When I get my new gameroom built, I'm having two of these babies installed for my equipment. Already have them, so I'm set.

I turn my machines on and off at a 20 amp breaker , 5 times a week, at my shop with 4 machines on that said breaker. Never an issue.

Not sure what you mean by 'contactor'...do you mean a circuit breaker or something like a definite-purpose contactor?

Very few circuit breakers break the neutral side of the circuit...in fact, I suspect 99% don't. But more to the point, breaking the neutral side is not necessarily good thing as it provides a path the ground for any surges. A big source of surges is the breaking of connections...so breaking two connections isn't gonna be better than breaking one.

It may be a problem, if the load (PB machines) is not a simple, resistive (real) load but a complex (resistive, capacitive, inductive).

Your consumer grade watt meter won’t tell you what happens with current and voltage during the few milliseconds when all loads are turned on.

It’s probably a problem worth considering if instead of 4 pinball machines you hook up a bunch of different motors.

Not a circuit breaker. Contactor. -
https://www.grainger.com/category/electrical/motor-controls/contactors/nema-magnetic-contactors

Think of it as one of those relays in an EM machine, but rated for 120/240v, 10-30 amps depending on the model.

Whether or not it's good or not, that's what my places used (not at my discretion, mind you - it's how the places were built before I got there), and I can't recall any issues directly related to them.

A magnetic contactor is built for repetitive switching whereas a circuit breaker is not. So they're better in that way.

But probably not much different than a toggle switch in the bottom of the game. The idea, though is the same - it's better to switch one machine on/off than to switch all of them at once. You're gating less power. A magnetic contactor won't offer much in the way of surge protection...and they're also made for inductive loads more than the resistive loads you'll find in a pinball machine. But again...that doesn't mean they're bad or won't work.

If you can find the datasheet for the breaker you might get some information about how many cycles you can turn them on and off.

Cutting on and off a 20a loaded circuit with a breaker is going to make an arc inside the breaker box which could shorten the life of the breaker (hammered EOS anyone). Less of a concern unloaded. I don't think breakers are intended to be used like a switch.

One of my friends has each pin on a wifi controlled relay. When he wants to turn the pins all on he has a routine where they all kick on with a couple seconds between each game so there is not a big surge from 20 different game's capacitors all charging at once that can blow the breaker.

Growing up my dad has an epic Christmas light display and we powered it with something like that. I remember throwing the big switch like I was turning on the electric chair.

I have mine on 3 20 amp circuits, roughly 6 games per, along w the associated toppers and subwoofers (at least 2 per circuit.) I turn them on via 3 wall switches. I don't flip all 3 on at once, I wait about 3 seconds in between but never had a problem. Probably 1 or 2 power strips sprinkled in there too.

If you are having an electrician install the surge protector, ask him.

Ask him about switching duty rated breakers and have him swap them out if you don’t have them already.

You are way over thinking this and overly conservative in your calculations. I’ve run 25 machines on 2 20 amp circuits for months before I could get an electrician in to add more circuits without issue. And this was with all of them in use many, many hours a week.

But it’s your house and your hobby so you get to obsess over anything you want.

You misunderstood what I said. Kill a Watt is fine for general readings, like you did. The first thing I was pointing out was the Underwriters Laboratories rating for each game. Look on the back of your games or on the right wall of the lower inside cabinet to see the 120 volt, 8 amp rating. 4 WPC games rated at 8 amps each equals more than 20 amps. That rating isn't an average draw, it's the maximum current the game may be expected to draw. If you go by UL ratings, two WPC is the most you should put on one 20 amp breaker. Go above that and all bets are off. Note that those rating were given with all incandescent lighting and a high voltage DMD. LED's and color DMD can significantly reduce attract mode current draw. Will still spike during gameplay.

Secondly, a ball search isn't a good estimate of typical current draw. The flipper and magnet coils usually draw the most power in a game and often multiple coils are firing at the same time. Ball search doesn't draw nearly as much current as a game being played. Voltage stays steady around 120 volts, current increases as needed. Have someone play while you watch the meter and you'll see. A single WPC game with all incandescent lighting and tired old factory DMD will occasionally spike over 5 amps while being played. Not for long, but you can see it on a Kill a watt.

You need to look at amps in the time domain if you want to spot high current (i.e. a transient). A Killawatt doesn't have the bandwidth.

Somewhere I actually have a some plots using a clamp on current probe and a scope (but I was looking at flipper coil current). Here's an example of what it would look like in the time domain: The current probe outputs a voltage based on the current (for example 1V=1A). If the scope measures 5V, then the circuit is drawing 5A.
pasted_image (resized).png

Regarding the switch vs. breaker discussion...why not just add a 15A or 20A switch and be done with it? Do you have access to the wires?

The issue is inrush current. You'd be amazed at how much current a power supply pulls in that split second after you turn it on. The difference between one machine and 10 machines is far more than enough to exceed the current rating of the wire. However since it's such a short burst the circuit breaker doesn't trip and the wires don't catch fire. However, it does shorten the life span of the wire.

That being said, the likely hood of you ever actually reaching the end of life of said wire is very small.

i use tp-link kasa smart plugs whenever i want to easily turn devices on/off without having to get to the device's on/off switch. i've used them for pinball & arcade machines, christmas lights, table lamps, and a sump pump. they're easy to set up and control from a phone app to manually and remotely turn things on/off via the app, and you can set things to run on timers or lengths of time, etc. the app also keeps track of overall runtime which can be handy.

there are many different brands, but i picked tp-link bc they seem to be decently well-regarded by security-minded folks. i don't use alexa or any other "smart home" things -- i don't trust them, that's my hang-up -- but these plugs have been very useful in multiple situations. they come in single and multiple outlet configs.

just my 25 cents. -chris

I'll add my $.02. First of all you need an instrument that is much faster than one
of the catch a KW thingees. I happen to have one and have looked at initial current
spikes for SS pins and arcade video game. 20+ amps is common but only for
a few milliseconds so its unlikely to weld a breaker even with a bunch of
games on a breaker.

Circuit breakers were not designed to be switches and will wear out mechanically
eventually. This has happened to me several times as thats how I turn on
pool pumps.

Is any of this a big deal? Not really.

I always think of Dr Frankenstein throwing giant switches when using the breaker. tumblr_ofm99qbwPQ1ql2w65o7_500.gif

Having to go into a breaker box to turn something on wont hurt but not my first choice. Its easier for me to turn things on using Kasa wifi smart plugs. I can turn games on individually or in a group. All my bar, room, pins, vids and is in groups and turn it on separately all by using the app on my phone. The newer plugs have energy monitoring. You can monitor connected device's real-time and historical power consumption.

https://www.kasasmart.com/us/products/smart-plugsdownload (resized).jpgadfasdf (resized).jpg

You beat me to it.

I love this app and the devices. I have a combination of the smart strips, outlets, and plugs (the cheap rectangles) to control about 50 machines in the house. It’s fun to group them together and press one button on my phone to control them all. There’s a very slow delay in them turning on too (less than a second) so I don’t have to worry about too much current all at once house-wide. I blame the DSL internet for that one.

They're pretty eFFing' awesome! Someone mentioned they used them a few years ago and I picked up a couple. Never looked back.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/wifi-enabled-smart-plugs

I did something very similar to you. I built a new house at the end of 2020 and as part of finishing the basement i setup my arcade room. I did outlets every 5 feet and I have the one room running off 2 20amp circuit breakers. The Only difference is I put an interrupter switch on both circuits. Breakers are not meant to be flipped off and on on any, even semi, regular basis. They will wear out similar to a plastic part moving back and forth. As a contractor I don't recommend using breakers as switches, it's just not made for it... but thats really the only drawback I can see.

IMG_6646 (resized).jpeg

I have 2 of these. I can tell alexa what game to turn on or just turn them all on. Works fantastic.

Yea you can and this is what I have done always in the past. 5-6 pins max per 20A and you’ll never have an issue. Go more than that, and you might have an issue. But from doing Pincinnati we push breakers to the limit and I’ve put as many as 10-12 games on a 20A and the breakers held.

All that said, not sure why you would use the breaker to turn them on and off. Use wifi plugs or wall switches.

I can't imagine why anyone would use wi-fi for anything that isn't absolutely required. I want less apps and less electronics in my life, not more. Aside from the general misery of it, I also don't think it's in my best interest that Google and the Chinese know every time I turn on a pinball game and/or how many games I own.

As for surge protection....it's a good idea but I seem to hear, a lot, that most cheap surge protectors (and some expensive ones) don't do much as they fall short on their specs...either in rise time or peak voltage attenuation. In other words, they are there but can't react fast enough or strong enough to stop a spike.

Kasa is a Korean company.

I'm not worried about surge protection. It's the opposite I get more worried about, a quick brown out or low voltage, that can wreck a lot of electronics.

Yea, I had to laugh when it took a customer 5 minutes to turn on a machine that I was supposed to adjust.

First he had to find his phone, then navigate through his screen to find the app, then find the right machine on the list.

Seems really silly compared to using a switch and proves again that high tech isn't always best. The fix took less than 5 minutes.

“Alexa. Pinball time”

Done.

the kasa switches have a button on the side - they can be manually turned on w/o the app.

the wifi switch doesn't know what's plugged into it or what you own, just that's it's off or on. how is that useful to google, china, big brother, martians? it's not.

Well...if that's true, how does the switch know what to do? The app, of course. The app knows your personal information as well as the details of your usage. When you downloaded that app, you gave away your rights to all of that. Many apps are 'cross-permissioned'. That means your wifi app knows what you do on your other apps, and even if it doesn't, Google/Apple does.

China? Korea? What's the difference? And how do you know the Korean company isn't using Chinese software? You don't, and never will.

When you download an app, the app is not the product - you are the product.

Imagine the advancement - instead of the old way of turning on a game by downloading an app onto a $1000 phone and involving hundreds of people you don't even know....you use your finger to flip a $2 switch in well under 500 milliseconds and in total privacy. Pure improvement.

So, it seems that we are unanimous in thinking that maybe it isn’t best to regularly use a breaker to turn a bunch of machines on and off.

It’s refreshing when pinsiders can find common ground!

(I use a ‘smart’ outlet to power machines from a remote. It’s from harbor freight, hence the ‘’s)

I have seen several large warehouses that you turn lights off and on via the breaker.
National electrical code must allow it, but not for me.

I use Kasa smart outlets as well. I have one that runs a 6-outlet power strip at the end of a long extension cord with a WPC, Spike, and Spooky TNA plugged into it. I have another one for TWD. My only automation is having them all shut off at 11pm so I can walk away at any time and know that they won't be on all night.