# Worst dangerous use of extension cords you've seen?



## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

The 100' 16/3 I have zip tied to the ladder up the side of my grain silo for the flag light. :whistling2:


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## erics37 (May 7, 2009)

I've seen one used to plug in a boombox with a Creed CD in it.


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## white (Feb 5, 2009)

One feeding a wall switch with no jbox. It ran under the base board and then up the inside of the wall. The switch was glued to sheet rock.


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## backstay (Feb 3, 2011)

white said:


> One feeding a wall switch with no jbox. It ran under the base board and then up the inside of the wall. The switch was glued to sheet rock.


 :thumbup:


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## walkerj (May 13, 2007)

erics37 said:


> I've seen one used to plug in a boombox with a Creed CD in it.


That is pretty bad.

Sent from my iPhone using ET Forum


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## mrmike (Dec 10, 2010)

Just ran into one feeding an attached garage. It is spliced to 14/2 which feeds the lights & one outlet that a freezer is plugged into. It goes thru the house wall and plugs into an outlet by the kitchen.............
Makes no sense at all & told the lady what should be done but she didn't seemed too concerned !!


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## MDShunk (Jan 7, 2007)

Very recently.... TIG welder dude had a #12 cord through the hinge side of a closed steel door. The lucky guy to get nailed on the door was me. Figures. The electrician is the one to unsuspectingly get shocked. I unplugged his cord and started rolling it up, headed his direction. He met me half way, and we had a conversation. It included a reminder from me about the GC's recent email about running cords through doors, and a threat to have him kicked off the job. 

I'm not exactly a "rules" guy, but nothing pisses me off more than me being forced to obey the rules and someone else skirting them; right in my face.


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

mrmike said:


> Just ran into one feeding an attached garage. It is spliced to 14/2 which feeds the lights & one outlet that a freezer is plugged into. It goes thru the house wall and plugs into an outlet by the kitchen.............
> Makes no sense at all & told the lady what should be done but she didn't seemed too concerned !!


This isn't a code violation at all once it is unplugged, right?


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## BCSparkyGirl (Aug 20, 2009)

Who was it that had his Christmas decorations all done up using speaker wire spliced onto extension cords?


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## cguillas (Jun 25, 2009)

I once used an extension cord to run a speaker outside to the patio in a pinch. Heh.


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## ampman (Apr 2, 2009)

once seen 18-2 lamp cord feeding a golf cart charger zip tied to a propane gas line


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## doogie (Feb 16, 2011)

Seen 14/3 orange ext cord .for a drill so twisted look like French bread and knotted up.should have tripped.next time we see will take pic. And see circular saw with grey surge cord on it


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## JTMEYER (May 2, 2009)

A construction outfit here likes to use 240v halogens to light the steelspans they build. The use 120v cord ends and don't inform anyone on the job that it's 240v. Many a drill charger has lost it's life to that cord.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

One I know very well is suiduce cord what some handydolts used for generator useage and I have see the aftermath with one customer used and when the uility went back on it blew the generator apart.

Second was pretty insane ., 1.5mm²(16 awg ) extendsion cord half of length is buried in clay soil below the water table line and one part is actually in the pond and go to the plain jane handibox { non weatherproof verison } and that was all rusted out.

Merci,
Marc


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## keithbussanich (Apr 3, 2011)

cguillas said:


> I once used an extension cord to run a speaker outside to the patio in a pinch. Heh.


 whoa man you are lucky osha wasn't around you truely are a dangerous man


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## JoeKP (Nov 16, 2009)

BCSparkyGirl said:


> Who was it that had his Christmas decorations all done up using speaker wire spliced onto extension cords?


Me :laughing: just not exactly like that, I used the clear lamp/speaker cord with the replacement cord caps (maybe a few wirenuts and electrical tape too... :jester


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## cguillas (Jun 25, 2009)

keithbussanich said:


> whoa man you are lucky osha wasn't around you truely are a dangerous man


Well didn't David Carradine hang himself from one?


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

JTMEYER said:


> A construction outfit here likes to use 240v halogens to light the steelspans they build. The use 120v cord ends and don't inform anyone on the job that it's 240v. Many a drill charger has lost it's life to that cord.


I'm surprised they're not universal voltage 100-240v like laptop adapters by now, so they dont' have to build different versions for different country.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

JTMEYER said:


> A construction outfit here likes to use 240v halogens to light the steelspans they build. The use 120v cord ends and don't inform anyone on the job that it's 240v. Many a drill charger has lost it's life to that cord.


Even with our Euro powerpoints someone did make a cluster F. by trasponding a 415 volts instead of 240 volt power point { receptale } and it pretty much the same result as you mention a instat magic smoke source.



Electric_Light said:


> I'm surprised they're not universal voltage 100-240v like laptop adapters by now, so they dont' have to build different versions for different country.


I have one jobsite not too long ago someone misplace the note about the halogén lamps and we supposed to use the small transfomer for it but end up ran full 415 volts on it and you should see how the halogén bulb blow up they are worst than plain jane indentscet bulbs :no:.

Merci,
Marc


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## keithbussanich (Apr 3, 2011)

cguillas said:


> Well didn't David Carradine hang himself from one?


 actually it was a rope one end was tied to his neck the other to his wang


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## kevmanTA (Jul 20, 2010)

18g/6 conductor..
Paralleled..
600V 3P...
30A fuses....
Running a bandsaw in a busy shop.


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## raldous (Aug 6, 2009)

*Overhead span with 16/3 orange cord by City crew*

I can't find the photo I took of it, but the local City Public Utilities and/or Street Dept. used orange 16/3 extension cords in ariel spans (50-80') to power the Christmas decorations hung over the downtown streets. No messenger cable or othe support, except for wrapping the cords around the top of the street lights once or twice. At least they looked like new cords. Bet they were a few feet longer by the time they pulled them down.


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## electrictim510 (Sep 9, 2008)




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## Easy Al (Feb 28, 2011)

i cant see any of these pics anyone else having this problem


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## zoopenny (May 29, 2011)

*Scary Extension cord use...*

My favorite could have at least ruined my day, but I had a 50/50 chance and I got lucky... at a service call to a furniture warehouse in Seattle. Shut down by the fire marshall (that should have been clue #1). JW tells me to get busy unplugging the 20+ extension cords strung out all over the place. He's gonna plan the new circuits we're going to install to replace it all. Off I go, untangling them and rolling them up as I go (good apprentice, right?). Out in the middle of the floor, there's an office cubby divider thing with like 4 spaces for desks and such... the kind with built-in wiring. I'm on my hands and knees trying not to disturb all the office stuff, phones and faxes, the usual. Wanna know how they fed it??? Yep. DOUBLE MALE extension cord. Golly, I never thought of that! Just because it's unplugged, does NOT mean it is dead !


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## oldtimer (Jun 10, 2010)

zoopenny said:


> My favorite could have at least ruined my day, but I had a 50/50 chance and I got lucky... at a service call to a furniture warehouse in Seattle. Shut down by the fire marshall (that should have been clue #1). JW tells me to get busy unplugging the 20+ extension cords strung out all over the place. He's gonna plan the new circuits we're going to install to replace it all. Off I go, untangling them and rolling them up as I go (good apprentice, right?). Out in the middle of the floor, there's an office cubby divider thing with like 4 spaces for desks and such... the kind with built-in wiring. I'm on my hands and knees trying not to disturb all the office stuff, phones and faxes, the usual. Wanna know how they fed it??? Yep. DOUBLE MALE extension cord. Golly, I never thought of that! Just because it's unplugged, does NOT mean it is dead !




How about using an extension cord to tie off a ladder! You don't even have to plug it in! You see lots of oddities on a construction site!


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## John (Jan 22, 2007)

How about feeding a 208/120 3 phase machine and 120 V receptical on the machine with a 12/4 SO cord. :whistling2:


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## stars13bars2 (Jun 1, 2009)

John said:


> How about feeding a 208/120 3 phase machine and 120 V receptical on the machine with a 12/3 SO cord. :whistling2:


I'd like to see that.  all of that done with three conductors.


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## John (Jan 22, 2007)

stars13bars2 said:


> I'd like to see that.  all of that done with three conductors.


 I would to but I typed it wrong it, I should of typed 12/4. FFF
The feed to the machine was 3 phases with one of the phases feeding the 120 receptacle and using the green wire as the grounded conductor AND the GEC.

MN and SO cord are not specified the same.:no:


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## n5i5ken (Jun 5, 2011)

called into resi. basement, trouble with outlets. Owner had all outlets wired with 300 ohm flat antenna lead-in. He couldnt see what was wrong with that. Ken from Canada


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## JoeKP (Nov 16, 2009)

n5i5ken said:


> called into resi. basement, trouble with outlets. Owner had all outlets wired with 300 ohm flat antenna lead-in. He couldnt see what was wrong with that. Ken from Canada


Like the ancient stuff?


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## cguillas (Jun 25, 2009)

n5i5ken said:


> called into resi. basement, trouble with outlets. Owner had all outlets wired with 300 ohm flat antenna lead-in. He couldnt see what was wrong with that. Ken from Canada


Oh wow. On a related note, when I was in my early twenties in Toronto I lived in an apartment building with TV/FM antenna distribution via 1-15R receptacles. Every apartment had to have a 120V->F connector cable for the TV. I wonder how many tvs got fried by accident.


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## 220/221 (Sep 25, 2007)

> Worst dangerous use of extension cords you've seen?


 
It's gotta be the gray stuff they use to bring power into houses in the East.


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## Electric_Light (Apr 6, 2010)

cguillas said:


> Oh wow. On a related note, when I was in my early twenties in Toronto I lived in an apartment building with TV/FM antenna distribution via 1-15R receptacles. Every apartment had to have a 120V->F connector cable for the TV. I wonder how many tvs got fried by accident.


They're probably galvanically isolated like wallwarts.


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## chewy (May 9, 2010)

I popped my head up in a suspended ceiling in a small retail store and all the Fluro lights were running off multi boxes and extension leads, were talking about 20 or 30 with 4 fluro tubes in each fitting, I'm not a spark but that didnt seem right to me! "You need to ring a spark in to check this out, not the spark who did this, another one" Obvisouly those Indians got a super deal on that wiring job.


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## cguillas (Jun 25, 2009)

Electric_Light said:


> They're probably galvanically isolated like wallwarts.


Oh no... every tenant had to make their own. Take a lamp cord, chop the female end of, and wrap the leads around the screw lugs of a 300:75ohm adaptor.


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## wirenut71 (Dec 5, 2010)

I thought this one was really bad.


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## cdnelectrician (Mar 14, 2008)

I once rewired a house that was entirely wired with OLD 14/2 SO cord. It was so brittle you would touch it it just crumbled. Buried J-boxes everywhere. And on another job I found a 10 foot piece of 12/4 SO cord coming out of a 600 Volt 200 amp splitter ty-wrapped to some conduit and going into a fused disconnect which had 12/3 BX coming out of it going to a drill press. Worst part is this was installed by a licenced electrician working for the company I was with at the time.


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## 360max (Jun 10, 2011)




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## cdnelectrician (Mar 14, 2008)

360max said:


>


Some more runner ups for the Darwin awards...


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## Kirker (Sep 28, 2010)

electrictim510 said:


>


That's hilarious! Just wired a garage apartment where they were feeding two air conditioning units by an extension cord and thought it was safe because they had a surge protector... With their already overloaded Federal Pacific box... God was watching over them.


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## steelersman (Mar 15, 2009)

Worst use of a cord I've seen is this:


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## user4818 (Jan 15, 2009)

steelersman said:


> Worst use of a cord I've seen is this:


:laughing: :thumbup:


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