Throughout my career as an electrician, and everyone in the company were volunteer and paid professional firemen. I lost count how many fire jobs I rewired. The #1 reason a home burns to the ground in NY is they used a 400W lamp cord cube or light duty extension cord for an electric heater. In houses with fuses, I have removed cabling that was so badly overheated, that the wire insulation disintegrates when Touch it.
So you saw these issues first hand! We should have fuses in those extension cords. "the wire insulation disintegrates when Touch it" - thats exactly what happened in my 14/2 in fiberglass experiment!
The new lamp cord cube extension cords today have a 4amp fuse in the cube. Purposely to prevent fires. 4 amps is roughly 500 watts. Plugging a 1500W heater or a wall air conditioner will instantly pop the fuse.
To further protect from fire. All receptacles switches and sockets in residential settings must be Arch fault protected per article 210.12 of the NEC. The Slightest circuit issue will trip an AF breaker.
As someone who lives in an older house (built before electricity in homes was a thing) in upstate New York, I can say that at least some of the wiring here is so old and made of such dubious materials, that the insulation turns to dust when the wire is bent, although it has never been overloaded. There are at least five wiring systems: knob and tube (thankfully with no wires now), cloth covered wires (still used in most of the overhead lighting circuits, and some outlets with wiring dropped down from the fixtures), what appears to be gutta-percha insulated wires in black iron pipe conduits (this is the stuff that turns to dust when disturbed), THHN in galvanized conduit, and Romex. About a decade ago, I had an electrician replace the fuse boxes (Edison base screw type) with a modern breaker box, after I noticed that house fires due to "electrical issues" were rather common in this neighborhood.
@@robertlapointe4093 When I was teenager we lived in the same house in Ontario! Although no THHN in galvanized conduit or black iron pipe. I'm sure you felt much safer after the panel upgrade. I Suspect the old dry wood in historic houses also makes it easier for an electrical fault to cause a fire. You probably are aware of this, but if not: there are combination arc fault breakers (CAFCI) available that fit most modern panels and are designed to trip if there is an arc due to a short or an break in the wire/connection. Depending on how you feel about the old wires, that might be a consideration. But unfortunately they are quite expensive.
Most home circuits in the United States well 10 years ago were 15 A with the occasional 20 here or there, but I would think in order for that white cord to be allowed to be used. It must have at least a 15 amp rating because we don’t have eight amp circuits😳 Fantastic video even better narration kinda like watching paint dry until it burst into flames. Thank you.
From what some people have commented, in many places 12-2seems to be used for most circuits these days. I wish we did allow lower current breakers for things like lighting only circuits - less is batter from a safety standpoint. . While I like the idea of 12-2 in more places particularly when embedded in insulation, I would still like them to be attached to 15A breakers which I'm sure is not the case. I really think more 15A circuits would be better than fewer 20A circuits - with 20A its even easier for cheap extensions cords to be overloaded and cause fires. And yes - its boring at first - but its real! And its always great to be able to speed up youtube videos - I do that all the time!
I once used a new 10-foot 12-gage heavy duty power tool extension cord with a 15 amp 120 volt table saw. The saw started much slower with the extension cord than without. I determined the cord had a 30 volt drop during saw startup and one plug got warm in a few seconds. Breaker never tripped. I now check the temperature of the plugs whenever I use an extension cord.
I never trust those extension cords plugs and sockets - the softer plastic just doesnt give me much confidence. 30V drop is huge! Amazing with that 12 cord.
@@ElectromagneticVideos I check the resistance of my extension cords before using them. There should be minimal resistance (0.2 ohm or less for most plus whatever the resistance of the multimeter leads are). Dropping 30 volts on a ten foot cord is ridiculous! Even 500 feet of 12/2 shouldn't drop that much.
@@mharris5047 Yeah - anything more than a few volts drop is too much! One things I have often wondered about is the effect of old tarnished blades on plugs. I should test that sometime.
Looking at the Siemens breaker curve, a 20A breaker will trip between 60-400 seconds at 30 amps. Should be enough time to prevent a fire unless you're maybe using an 18ga cord, which def should be illegal anyway. Not everyone understands current ratings like most of us here, and some people are bound to unknowingly abuse the ratings of these cords. Or like Christmas lights, these small gauge lamp cords should have built in fuses.
one of the core troubling issues I find with normal light duity extension cords is the fact the plug on the end often makes a very poor high restance conection to the device pluged into them.. people do things like plug hair dryers into them in bathrooms when there cords are not long enougth and quiclky discover that it melts the plug on the hair dryer ,, the worst thing someone could ever do is plug a space heater into them as they will not trip the 15 amp circut breaker and you will end up with a fire (usully at the plug on the end) , a bad receptacle with a loose fitting contacts same serious issue and many low quality receptacles instaled in houses over the years develop this issue as they age resulting in house fires when people plug in unatennded long turn high currrent devices like space heaters .. they make 20 amp high current recepticles for use in areas where high current loads are used like on kitchen counters and I recomend there use everywhere.. never use an extension cord with a space heater unless its a special one rated for constant high current loads .. same with power normal strips the poor contact they make with the plug can not handle the constant high current (12 amps ) load and will likly set the plastic power strip on fire..
Electrical safety should be better taught in schools, imo. A lot of people seem to judge load by how many things they plug in and not *what* they plug in. If you fill a powerbar up with six 5 watt phone chargers it'll be completely fine. But when you put just one space heater, kettle, hair dryer, etc, you're putting way too much faith in a product which usually is designed as cheaply as possible. Sadly alot of people who dont know any better would look at the latter situation and think "its just one item, its fine". Of course, what we should really do is copy what the UK does, and fuse our plugs if they aren't going to be up to the same spec as the home wiring, which the panel breaker is sized for.
We should at a minimum have fuses in these light duty cords - it can be done - some xmas lights do and the plug is barely bigger. I was amazed at how well the modern cords did - but still! Your points are so true!
I'm not surprised! I lived in Germany and Iraq (which used UK plugs) when I was a kid. Both German and UK plugs seem so much more robust (over engineered?) than ours. The UK 13A plug is about the size of our 240V 30A one for example.
@@ElectromagneticVideos I am not a fan of Christmas lights, either. They are usually wired with 22 or 24 gauge cable and have a three amp fuse in them! I know I don't like running three amps through 24 gauge wire -- I plug each string of lights into a power strip separately and don't daisy chain them. If I need a short extension to make it work I have several green 16/2 extension cords to connect them with in the Christmas tree box. One incandescent string of Christmas lights draws less than an amp.
They are all Noma cables, including the brown one. The brown one is late 60s, the white ones are mid 90s. There was a generation in between that had the newer plug style seen on the white cables, but no polarization - made in the mid to late 70s. All of them in the video represent a period where Noma manufactured cords in Canada. Unfortunately, in the late 90s or early 00s, Woods bought Noma brand and shortly after shifted production to China. The new product is inferior and a lot of the cost cuts are evident, especially in the cord receptacles/plugs. On a side note Noma also made an integrated “cord caddy” reel of cord with an integrated outlet in the reel body. Considering the cord stays wound when not fully extended, would be nice to see in a torture test like this.
Well they were really old so I'm not sure. Extension cords today of that type today are usually AWG #16. #18 ones were available at one time - not sure if they still are. So my guess is #16 or #18.
Oh yes the good old Federal fire pacific electrical panel which will let you are arc weld anywhere you would like in your house since the breakers don't actually trip. That's what a check under the UL laboratory store at the time of manufacturer got you. So you could theoretically see upwards of 50A easily on any circuit. There's definitely an era of plug and and cord options that I would not trust like that brown one I never did like them as well as than that they were brown.
Yes - there must have been some terrible incidents as a result of those breakers. Funny - I don't trust those extension cords either and was in the process of putting them in the garbage and had a thought - might be fun to see what happens when too much current goes though them. What you don't see in the video is how vile the smoke was from the old brown one.
@@ElectromagneticVideos I believe Federal Pacific manufactured outdoor breaker boxes. 40-50 years of weather is what does those breakers in -- even with the breaker box door closed basically the whole time. My brother has an outdoor breaker box on his house but I sure as hell won't have one if I can avoid it.
Just checked one I have - 16AWG 13 Amps. I would be wary of 13 Amp over a cord like that - particularity if all though just one of the three sockets at its end. I really have misgivings about how good those sockets made in soft plastic are.
It is a (vintage) AC welder, In the old days, high current semiconductor rectifiers were unavailable or expensive, so almost all welders welders AC. Skin depth: the skin depth at 60Hz in Copper is about 8mm, so any household wires like these are not really affected by it. Its a different situation for larger conductors (over a few cm dia) where the parts of the wire close to the center become unused. It is much more of a problem in RF. At the Wifi and Cellular phone bands, skin depth is around a micro meter. For AM radio its about a mm. Once of the tricks that is used for higher powers in RF is to use copper pipe as conductors - no point in having any copper in the center since no current flows. Its also a problem when trying to communicate with submarines since the skin depth of salt water keeps radio waves from penetrating deep into the ocean. I did a video with a simple expeua-cam.com/video/cPxYYwFiK0kr/v-deo.htmliment you can do with a cell phone here: ua-cam.com/video/cPxYYwFiK0k/v-deo.html
The Brown Extension Cord was before the NEC was revised to make sure electrical cord insulation wouldn't burn or "sustain combustion"... you could have started a charcoal BBQ without any starting fluid with that brown cord... food would have tasted funny, though...
Thats why! So there was a change in the code! I can totally see your BBQ points. I wonder if the code also has some toxic fume rules - the smoke from the brown one was unimaginably bad.
@@ElectromagneticVideos Yeah, the first were about 45-50 years ago... there were more added in the wake of the MGM Hotel fire in 1980 that killed nearly 100 people. I think the codes were amended for toxic fumes from insulators used on inter-floor wire ducts/raceways on multi-floor buildings. Not sure when it applied to Extension cords, but it was in the 1970's, IIRC.
@@36736fps Its actually a vintage AC out welder. I control the output current by running it off a variac. Since only a low voltage is needed at high current, the welder is much safer than using line voltage and produces the same heating for the same current.
Funny how when plugging household appliances with power consumption of 1200-1500W, such as vacuum cleaner, makes their cable connector very hot at receptacle. Even the cables often get quite warm. And there are people connecting multiple devices into extension cords and exciding their current rating.
I think the black smoke was due to it actually flaming. Any smoke particles that weren’t completely consumed would be charred into carbon at flame temperature.
I'm just small potatoes compared to them! The each have about a million more viewers than I do :) But one could certainly imagine some really neat grand experiment by collaborating like that!
@@mharris5047 I have seen many of his videos - great teardowns of things. I'm always amazed at some of the Chinese gizmos he talks apart and finds components that have no actual use.
You know, you wonder why some other company didn't make drop in replacements for them that were safe - probably would have been real market opportunity there.
Hi, are you an electrician? May I ask if the cooking stove overheated and the extention I was using also got burnt, the wire is getting hot. Than the end plug of extention is burnt. I also saw there is a burnt on the wall outlet. Now my question is does the wall outlet still safe to use? is it not going to ruin other appliances?
I'm an Electrical Engineer. Don't use your burnt outlet - there could be charred plastic (even in places you cant see) that could conduct electricity, heat up, and cause a fire. In fact you should turn off the circuit breaker or remove the fuse for the circuit with the burnt outlet untill you can have it replaced. The overheating will also cause the contacts in the outlet to oxidize making them worse contacts and even more prone to heating than before and that could damage the plugs on anything plugged into it. I did watch your video of it - the bad news is all the things that melted and/or burned have to be replaced. Please don't risk your health or life on anything damaged like that. A bit of advice - any sort of heating appliance like your stove burner really should not be used with an extension cord - the wire, plug, and outlets on almost all extension cords are not made to handle the high currents created by heating devices. Extensions cords with sockets like the one you had that allows devices with different types of plugs to be used are the worst in terms of ability to handle higher currents from heating devices. They can be used carefully with a few low power devices like lights, electronics etc but dont use any heaters, vacuum cleaners or other high power devices with them! If you absolutely have to use an extension cord with a device like your cooking stove element, ask a local electrician what type of extension cord to use with it and unfortunately it wont be a cheap one. Hope that helps!
@@ElectromagneticVideos I am actually using the burnt wall outlet but nothing happened with the appliance. There are two sets of it on each wall, so is it just the burnt one that should not be use? the left side is not burnt so it's fine to use? Well I use extention because I cook outside. The cats turned it into highest heat when I left. It is still running but burnt on the bottom. So you mean I have to change that wall outlet? What kind of extention do you think is better, what is the name and specs of that? If the wall outlet is change is it just the square outer part or is there something inside that needs changing too? I am surprised that it was overheating and the stove did not shut down, it says it has thermal fuse.
@@meilih2030 I would certainly not use the burnt one. I dont know how attached the two outlets are behind the cover plate - your outlets have the same pins as ours but are clearly mechanically different behind the cover. Are you in the Philippines? Looks like you use the US/Canada pinout but have 220V power which might be why the outlets are somewhat different from ours. As far as extension cords, you really need some local expertise to help you with what is locally available and suitable for a cook top. The power cords we have here are all made for 120V so if I am right in thinking you are in a 220V country nothing I know from here would be right for you. As far as the stove overheating, as you said it shouldnt have happened with a thermal fuse. But these days you never really know if it actually had one or not, or if it did, what the quality and reliability of the thermal fuse actually is. And even if it had a good one, things fail. Good thing is, sounds like no-one got hurt which in the end is the most important thing.
"Fumes like that could kill a person". Meanwhile I bet 1000's of people world wide are using fire to strip copper wire before recycling. The fumes may kill them eventually.
I'd barely even want to put 5 amps on those things. The only place in my home those are used is to connect my router and network switch to the UPS, which needs to be far away since the switch and router are mounted on the ceiling. They combined have a theoretical total power draw of about 25W or 210mA@120v going by what's stated on their power adapters. In practice they're way lower, the UPS doesn't even register them as connected and just shows 0w output unless I turn on my PC (That's not on the extension cord)
That's the way I feel! I was stunned how well the newer ones do, but even so I woudnt put more than 5A on them either. I have a few (LED) lamps on cords like that - like your router, shouldnt be an issue.
Agreed. I only use them for what the name would imply, lamps! With LED bulbs I'm not even pulling a quarter of an amp. I avoid molded-plug PVC cords for other heavy loads as much as possible, I have many heavy cords made with SO/SEO cable and commercial grade ends for garage/yard and workshop use.
The eye-opening thing about the coughing was that I wasn't breathing in any of the visible smoke. Just the highly diluted fumes in the surrounding air was enough to make me cough. It sure made me understand how its the smoke in house fires that often kills people. The other interesting thing it seemed like the fume from older extension cords were the worst. I'm guessing the newer plastics are made to have less toxic fumes...
@@kirkdoray3393Thanks! For the record this was done close to the open door of my garage and I made sure didnt breath any fumes directly. As mention, even just the fumes that seemed to diffuse slightly into the clean air was enough to make me cough.
Nice video for the amp rating. It seems like only wire part burns out but not receptacle and plug. I have a question. Is it okay using higer amps than receptacle and plug's rating amps as long as breaker and wires are okay?
No - never use more current than the rating of the lowest current device in the circuit! Just becuase the wire may have burnt first here doesnt mean that will always happen. The wires and other components have been extensivly tested to give them the current rating that they have. So dont take a risk just to save a few cents on a cheaper componet that is rated less than it should be! Glad you liked the video!
@@ElectromagneticVideos Thank you for the quick reply. Here's my problem. My breaker and wires are rated for 30A but my receptacle and plug are rated for 20A. This system is for electric car charger. 1. Can I use 20A or Do I need to use 16A to meet the code? 2. In order to use 24A, Do I need to replace 30A's receptacle and plug? Thanks.
@@최명철-g9r So for code questions you really need to check with an local electrical insoector or electrician. But a 20 Amp receptacle and plug on a 30 Amp circuit is definitly dangerous. Yes - change to a 30A receptacle and plug since your wires and breaker are 30A. Are you 100% sure your wire is 30A? Make sure it is! You are right about derating - so in general for continuous usage like charging a car, use no more than 80% of the max current. So for a 20A receeptical/plug you are right - max 16A and for a 30A one, max 24A. But again, check what the local code requires.
@@victorwanstreet3038 I sort of recall now there were eventually some inserts to make it harder to to put things like pennys in the fuse box. I wonder if that made a difference.
Yes - if I recall correctly, that was an older one with earlier plastics. More modern cords have all sorts of flame inhibitors and things to reduce the toxicity of smoke but are still very lethal in that way. Doing this and getting the odd whiff of just a little smoke really made me understand better than any safety document how its the smoke that kills in most house fires.
I would actually trust the molded plastic courts better than the solid plastic ends. Not only can the hard plastic ones break easier they also melt easier from firsthand experience unfortunately with a space heater and an unusefully located outlet add a facility I was working at.
That old cord looks like it has a similar plug style to the plug i first shocked myself with when i was a young boy. There is no flange to help keep your fingers from sliding up onto the conductors when you plug it in.
Could you do a "real life" scenario of someone plugging different loads into a extension cord that was used for a lamp temporarly, near curtains and other flammable furniture How long would it take to actually notice the smell, the smoke, catch fire etc
Actually I did have both an ammeter and voltmeter on the input for that reason, but with the resistance of each connection being different, the voltage which is the sum is not that useful. To your point, a much better test would be each connector tested by itself with current and voltage being recorded. And maybe also the voltage measured on the wire just before and after the connector so we essentially have the voltage and current across the individual connector and get a much better idea of whats going on...
I was careful to start away from the fumes. But yes - are they ever toxic - even just slight whiffs of them sure made me appreciate how people succumb to smoke in house fires.
Lets face it, it's just fun to blow stuff up with electricity isn't it? I will tell you from first hand experience that applying 480 volts across ANY 120 volt equipment is 👌
I'll bet you have some stories to tell! Probably not as much fun when it it happens unexpectedly but very exciting I'm sure. Since you brought up 480, let me ask you a question. From what I have heard, one of the very few differences between Canada and US electricity is that we often use 600/347 and while you use 480/277 for similar applications. Have you ever seen 600/347 in the US? I'm not sure what state you are in but I have heard 600 is used in some of the northern states but not sure how much truth there is to that. Very odd that Canada and US would diverged on that one voltage - I wonder how that originally came about?
@@liam3284 Coiling cords while using them isn't a great practice. In some states the maximum rating of an extension cord intended to be coiled is derated with a 16 AWG only rated for 10 amps, a 14 AWG rated for only 13 amps and so on.
They actually do handle current well due to the large surface area of the contacts. I think the main issue is the ability to touch a prong while plugging it in. What we really need is an insulated top part of the prongs near where you hold the plug like many of the 240V counties have done over the years.
Your volt meter was reading incorrectly. There's no way 4 volts is outputting 22 amps (lol). Your test leads weren't making good contact inside that receptacle. It would have been better to touch the leads directly to the screw terminals on the receptacle. But really the voltage doesn't matter in this test - all we care about is the amperage.
Look at the setup - its essentially shorted and very low resistance. Easy to push 22A though a wire. Your right that all that matters is the current. The voltage is simply a good way to get a sense of what is happening (insulation shorts cause a sudden voltage drop) and also when multiplied by the current, the total power being delivered and therefore causing the heat.
God, quit messing with it.. yea shits gonna be hot.. let it burn.. "lets see if its melty yet. Oh wow look at this its hot". Yea fuckin a.. jeebus.. lamo..
That's abuse of a welder man I bet it really welds very well but it won't after this experiment I never would do this to a welder at all that's not what it was intended on doing
Throughout my career as an electrician, and everyone in the company were volunteer and paid professional firemen. I lost count how many fire jobs I rewired. The #1 reason a home burns to the ground in NY is they used a 400W lamp cord cube or light duty extension cord for an electric heater. In houses with fuses, I have removed cabling that was so badly overheated, that the wire insulation disintegrates when Touch it.
So you saw these issues first hand! We should have fuses in those extension cords. "the wire insulation disintegrates when Touch it" - thats exactly what happened in my 14/2 in fiberglass experiment!
The new lamp cord cube extension cords today have a 4amp fuse in the cube. Purposely to prevent fires. 4 amps is roughly 500 watts. Plugging a 1500W heater or a wall air conditioner will instantly pop the fuse.
To further protect from fire. All receptacles switches and sockets in residential settings must be Arch fault protected per article 210.12 of the NEC. The Slightest circuit issue will trip an AF breaker.
As someone who lives in an older house (built before electricity in homes was a thing) in upstate New York, I can say that at least some of the wiring here is so old and made of such dubious materials, that the insulation turns to dust when the wire is bent, although it has never been overloaded. There are at least five wiring systems: knob and tube (thankfully with no wires now), cloth covered wires (still used in most of the overhead lighting circuits, and some outlets with wiring dropped down from the fixtures), what appears to be gutta-percha insulated wires in black iron pipe conduits (this is the stuff that turns to dust when disturbed), THHN in galvanized conduit, and Romex. About a decade ago, I had an electrician replace the fuse boxes (Edison base screw type) with a modern breaker box, after I noticed that house fires due to "electrical issues" were rather common in this neighborhood.
@@robertlapointe4093 When I was teenager we lived in the same house in Ontario! Although no THHN in galvanized conduit or black iron pipe. I'm sure you felt much safer after the panel upgrade. I Suspect the old dry wood in historic houses also makes it easier for an electrical fault to cause a fire. You probably are aware of this, but if not: there are combination arc fault breakers (CAFCI) available that fit most modern panels and are designed to trip if there is an arc due to a short or an break in the wire/connection. Depending on how you feel about the old wires, that might be a consideration. But unfortunately they are quite expensive.
I love those chaotic uncontrolled tests, I require more xD
Verry entertaining videos keep it up
It was fun! Ill do a few more!
Most home circuits in the United States well 10 years ago were 15 A with the occasional 20 here or there, but I would think in order for that white cord to be allowed to be used. It must have at least a 15 amp rating because we don’t have eight amp circuits😳
Fantastic video even better narration kinda like watching paint dry until it burst into flames. Thank you.
From what some people have commented, in many places 12-2seems to be used for most circuits these days. I wish we did allow lower current breakers for things like lighting only circuits - less is batter from a safety standpoint. . While I like the idea of 12-2 in more places particularly when embedded in insulation, I would still like them to be attached to 15A breakers which I'm sure is not the case. I really think more 15A circuits would be better than fewer 20A circuits - with 20A its even easier for cheap extensions cords to be overloaded and cause fires.
And yes - its boring at first - but its real! And its always great to be able to speed up youtube videos - I do that all the time!
I once used a new 10-foot 12-gage heavy duty power tool extension cord with a 15 amp 120 volt table saw. The saw started much slower with the extension cord than without. I determined the cord had a 30 volt drop during saw startup and one plug got warm in a few seconds. Breaker never tripped. I now check the temperature of the plugs whenever I use an extension cord.
I never trust those extension cords plugs and sockets - the softer plastic just doesnt give me much confidence. 30V drop is huge! Amazing with that 12 cord.
@@ElectromagneticVideos I check the resistance of my extension cords before using them. There should be minimal resistance (0.2 ohm or less for most plus whatever the resistance of the multimeter leads are). Dropping 30 volts on a ten foot cord is ridiculous! Even 500 feet of 12/2 shouldn't drop that much.
@@mharris5047 Yeah - anything more than a few volts drop is too much! One things I have often wondered about is the effect of old tarnished blades on plugs. I should test that sometime.
Looking at the Siemens breaker curve, a 20A breaker will trip between 60-400 seconds at 30 amps. Should be enough time to prevent a fire unless you're maybe using an 18ga cord, which def should be illegal anyway. Not everyone understands current ratings like most of us here, and some people are bound to unknowingly abuse the ratings of these cords. Or like Christmas lights, these small gauge lamp cords should have built in fuses.
one of the core troubling issues I find with normal light duity extension cords is the fact the plug on the end often makes a very poor high restance conection to the device pluged into them.. people do things like plug hair dryers into them in bathrooms when there cords are not long enougth and quiclky discover that it melts the plug on the hair dryer ,, the worst thing someone could ever do is plug a space heater into them as they will not trip the 15 amp circut breaker and you will end up with a fire (usully at the plug on the end) , a bad receptacle with a loose fitting contacts same serious issue and many low quality receptacles instaled in houses over the years develop this issue as they age resulting in house fires when people plug in unatennded long turn high currrent devices like space heaters .. they make 20 amp high current recepticles for use in areas where high current loads are used like on kitchen counters and I recomend there use everywhere.. never use an extension cord with a space heater unless its a special one rated for constant high current loads .. same with power normal strips the poor contact they make with the plug can not handle the constant high current (12 amps ) load and will likly set the plastic power strip on fire..
We in Europe never had similar issues.
Electrical safety should be better taught in schools, imo. A lot of people seem to judge load by how many things they plug in and not *what* they plug in. If you fill a powerbar up with six 5 watt phone chargers it'll be completely fine. But when you put just one space heater, kettle, hair dryer, etc, you're putting way too much faith in a product which usually is designed as cheaply as possible. Sadly alot of people who dont know any better would look at the latter situation and think "its just one item, its fine". Of course, what we should really do is copy what the UK does, and fuse our plugs if they aren't going to be up to the same spec as the home wiring, which the panel breaker is sized for.
We should at a minimum have fuses in these light duty cords - it can be done - some xmas lights do and the plug is barely bigger. I was amazed at how well the modern cords did - but still! Your points are so true!
I'm not surprised! I lived in Germany and Iraq (which used UK plugs) when I was a kid. Both German and UK plugs seem so much more robust (over engineered?) than ours. The UK 13A plug is about the size of our 240V 30A one for example.
@@ElectromagneticVideos I am not a fan of Christmas lights, either. They are usually wired with 22 or 24 gauge cable and have a three amp fuse in them! I know I don't like running three amps through 24 gauge wire -- I plug each string of lights into a power strip separately and don't daisy chain them. If I need a short extension to make it work I have several green 16/2 extension cords to connect them with in the Christmas tree box. One incandescent string of Christmas lights draws less than an amp.
They are all Noma cables, including the brown one. The brown one is late 60s, the white ones are mid 90s. There was a generation in between that had the newer plug style seen on the white cables, but no polarization - made in the mid to late 70s. All of them in the video represent a period where Noma manufactured cords in Canada. Unfortunately, in the late 90s or early 00s, Woods bought Noma brand and shortly after shifted production to China. The new product is inferior and a lot of the cost cuts are evident, especially in the cord receptacles/plugs. On a side note Noma also made an integrated “cord caddy” reel of cord with an integrated outlet in the reel body. Considering the cord stays wound when not fully extended, would be nice to see in a torture test like this.
nice variac and nice welder
For this sort of thing you cant beat the old stuff! Heavy though - you'll notice I put the welder on wheels and the variac usually lives on top of it.
@@ElectromagneticVideos yes I did notice the welder is sitting on the custom wooden frame with wheels on it yeah the old stuff is really good. 👍👍👍👍👍
You are amazing Peter.
First time I have been called that on UA-cam! Thanks :)
cool stuff! curious to see what it would look like under a thermal camera
I did get a thermal camera - but only after doing that video. It such a great tool!
What gauge were those cables?
Well they were really old so I'm not sure. Extension cords today of that type today are usually AWG #16. #18 ones were available at one time - not sure if they still are. So my guess is #16 or #18.
8:41 I never knew chocolate was used as wire insulation! 😆
Hot enough and its chocolate syrup!
Oh yes the good old Federal fire pacific electrical panel which will let you are arc weld anywhere you would like in your house since the breakers don't actually trip. That's what a check under the UL laboratory store at the time of manufacturer got you. So you could theoretically see upwards of 50A easily on any circuit. There's definitely an era of plug and and cord options that I would not trust like that brown one I never did like them as well as than that they were brown.
Yes - there must have been some terrible incidents as a result of those breakers.
Funny - I don't trust those extension cords either and was in the process of putting them in the garbage and had a thought - might be fun to see what happens when too much current goes though them. What you don't see in the video is how vile the smoke was from the old brown one.
12:28 Federal pacific Electric panels are a wee bit dangerous. The breakers won't trip.
At some point I want to try a Federal Pioneer. I wonder what the "dont trip" statistics are? 1 in 10? 1 in 100?
@@ElectromagneticVideos I believe Federal Pacific manufactured outdoor breaker boxes. 40-50 years of weather is what does those breakers in -- even with the breaker box door closed basically the whole time. My brother has an outdoor breaker box on his house but I sure as hell won't have one if I can avoid it.
The first outgassing is probably plasticizers in the insulation. Plasticizers make the plastic flexible.
😳I think there is a youtuber out there that harms power cords just for views, likes, and subs! 🤣🤣🤣 pretty wild and informative.
I have a Noma extension cord exactly like that, and mine says its good for 13 amps.
Just checked one I have - 16AWG 13 Amps. I would be wary of 13 Amp over a cord like that - particularity if all though just one of the three sockets at its end. I really have misgivings about how good those sockets made in soft plastic are.
Is the output of the welder AC or DC? I have read somewhere that wires can handle more current in DC than AC because of skin effect
It is a (vintage) AC welder, In the old days, high current semiconductor rectifiers were unavailable or expensive, so almost all welders welders AC.
Skin depth: the skin depth at 60Hz in Copper is about 8mm, so any household wires like these are not really affected by it. Its a different situation for larger conductors (over a few cm dia) where the parts of the wire close to the center become unused.
It is much more of a problem in RF. At the Wifi and Cellular phone bands, skin depth is around a micro meter. For AM radio its about a mm. Once of the tricks that is used for higher powers in RF is to use copper pipe as conductors - no point in having any copper in the center since no current flows.
Its also a problem when trying to communicate with submarines since the skin depth of salt water keeps radio waves from penetrating deep into the ocean. I did a video with a simple expeua-cam.com/video/cPxYYwFiK0kr/v-deo.htmliment you can do with a cell phone here: ua-cam.com/video/cPxYYwFiK0k/v-deo.html
The Brown Extension Cord was before the NEC was revised to make sure electrical cord insulation wouldn't burn or "sustain combustion"... you could have started a charcoal BBQ without any starting fluid with that brown cord... food would have tasted funny, though...
Thats why! So there was a change in the code! I can totally see your BBQ points. I wonder if the code also has some toxic fume rules - the smoke from the brown one was unimaginably bad.
@@ElectromagneticVideos Yeah, the first were about 45-50 years ago... there were more added in the wake of the MGM Hotel fire in 1980 that killed nearly 100 people. I think the codes were amended for toxic fumes from insulators used on inter-floor wire ducts/raceways on multi-floor buildings. Not sure when it applied to Extension cords, but it was in the 1970's, IIRC.
Does the welder rectify the AC input current to DC at the extension cords? Why is the welder in the circuit?
The DC welder provides easily controlled electrical current and is much safer than AC.
@@36736fps Its actually a vintage AC out welder. I control the output current by running it off a variac. Since only a low voltage is needed at high current, the welder is much safer than using line voltage and produces the same heating for the same current.
Funny how when plugging household appliances with power consumption of 1200-1500W, such as vacuum cleaner, makes their cable connector very hot at receptacle. Even the cables often get quite warm. And there are people connecting multiple devices into extension cords and exciding their current rating.
Yes! And apparently overloaded extension cords as you describe are a significant cause of house fires. They really should have builtin fuses.
I think the black smoke was due to it actually flaming. Any smoke particles that weren’t completely consumed would be charred into carbon at flame temperature.
You, ElectroBOOM, PhotonicInduction and BigClive need to do a collab!
I'm just small potatoes compared to them! The each have about a million more viewers than I do :) But one could certainly imagine some really neat grand experiment by collaborating like that!
Including Clive on that would be difficult since he is in the Isle of Man and EM isn't.
@@mharris5047 I have seen many of his videos - great teardowns of things. I'm always amazed at some of the Chinese gizmos he talks apart and finds components that have no actual use.
The Zinsco and Federal Pacific breakers did fail all the time and the wires would overheat and burn the house.
You know, you wonder why some other company didn't make drop in replacements for them that were safe - probably would have been real market opportunity there.
Reminds me of Photonicinduction but just with a lot less current.
And a lot less exciting :)
Hi, are you an electrician? May I ask if the cooking stove overheated and the extention I was using also got burnt, the wire is getting hot. Than the end plug of extention is burnt. I also saw there is a burnt on the wall outlet. Now my question is does the wall outlet still safe to use? is it not going to ruin other appliances?
I'm an Electrical Engineer. Don't use your burnt outlet - there could be charred plastic (even in places you cant see) that could conduct electricity, heat up, and cause a fire. In fact you should turn off the circuit breaker or remove the fuse for the circuit with the burnt outlet untill you can have it replaced. The overheating will also cause the contacts in the outlet to oxidize making them worse contacts and even more prone to heating than before and that could damage the plugs on anything plugged into it.
I did watch your video of it - the bad news is all the things that melted and/or burned have to be replaced. Please don't risk your health or life on anything damaged like that.
A bit of advice - any sort of heating appliance like your stove burner really should not be used with an extension cord - the wire, plug, and outlets on almost all extension cords are not made to handle the high currents created by heating devices. Extensions cords with sockets like the one you had that allows devices with different types of plugs to be used are the worst in terms of ability to handle higher currents from heating devices. They can be used carefully with a few low power devices like lights, electronics etc but dont use any heaters, vacuum cleaners or other high power devices with them! If you absolutely have to use an extension cord with a device like your cooking stove element, ask a local electrician what type of extension cord to use with it and unfortunately it wont be a cheap one.
Hope that helps!
@@ElectromagneticVideos I am actually using the burnt wall outlet but nothing happened with the appliance. There are two sets of it on each wall, so is it just the burnt one that should not be use? the left side is not burnt so it's fine to use? Well I use extention because I cook outside. The cats turned it into highest heat when I left. It is still running but burnt on the bottom. So you mean I have to change that wall outlet? What kind of extention do you think is better, what is the name and specs of that? If the wall outlet is change is it just the square outer part or is there something inside that needs changing too? I am surprised that it was overheating and the stove did not shut down, it says it has thermal fuse.
@@meilih2030 I would certainly not use the burnt one. I dont know how attached the two outlets are behind the cover plate - your outlets have the same pins as ours but are clearly mechanically different behind the cover. Are you in the Philippines? Looks like you use the US/Canada pinout but have 220V power which might be why the outlets are somewhat different from ours.
As far as extension cords, you really need some local expertise to help you with what is locally available and suitable for a cook top. The power cords we have here are all made for 120V so if I am right in thinking you are in a 220V country nothing I know from here would be right for you.
As far as the stove overheating, as you said it shouldnt have happened with a thermal fuse. But these days you never really know if it actually had one or not, or if it did, what the quality and reliability of the thermal fuse actually is. And even if it had a good one, things fail. Good thing is, sounds like no-one got hurt which in the end is the most important thing.
28:48 the insulation on the cord is flammable!
I sure is - just imagine that under a piece of furniture!
"Fumes like that could kill a person".
Meanwhile I bet 1000's of people world wide are using fire to strip copper wire before recycling.
The fumes may kill them eventually.
I'd barely even want to put 5 amps on those things. The only place in my home those are used is to connect my router and network switch to the UPS, which needs to be far away since the switch and router are mounted on the ceiling. They combined have a theoretical total power draw of about 25W or 210mA@120v going by what's stated on their power adapters. In practice they're way lower, the UPS doesn't even register them as connected and just shows 0w output unless I turn on my PC (That's not on the extension cord)
That's the way I feel! I was stunned how well the newer ones do, but even so I woudnt put more than 5A on them either. I have a few (LED) lamps on cords like that - like your router, shouldnt be an issue.
Agreed. I only use them for what the name would imply, lamps! With LED bulbs I'm not even pulling a quarter of an amp.
I avoid molded-plug PVC cords for other heavy loads as much as possible, I have many heavy cords made with SO/SEO cable and commercial grade ends for garage/yard and workshop use.
"It's melting, I'll just plug it back in". Educational but sorry to hear you coughing from the fumes.
The eye-opening thing about the coughing was that I wasn't breathing in any of the visible smoke. Just the highly diluted fumes in the surrounding air was enough to make me cough. It sure made me understand how its the smoke in house fires that often kills people.
The other interesting thing it seemed like the fume from older extension cords were the worst. I'm guessing the newer plastics are made to have less toxic fumes...
Definitely take care for your future health :)
@@kirkdoray3393Thanks! For the record this was done close to the open door of my garage and I made sure didnt breath any fumes directly. As mention, even just the fumes that seemed to diffuse slightly into the clean air was enough to make me cough.
Nice video for the amp rating. It seems like only wire part burns out but not receptacle and plug. I have a question. Is it okay using higer amps than receptacle and plug's rating amps as long as breaker and wires are okay?
No - never use more current than the rating of the lowest current device in the circuit! Just becuase the wire may have burnt first here doesnt mean that will always happen. The wires and other components have been extensivly tested to give them the current rating that they have. So dont take a risk just to save a few cents on a cheaper componet that is rated less than it should be! Glad you liked the video!
@@ElectromagneticVideos Thank you for the quick reply. Here's my problem. My breaker and wires are rated for 30A but my receptacle and plug are rated for 20A. This system is for electric car charger.
1. Can I use 20A or Do I need to use 16A to meet the code?
2. In order to use 24A, Do I need to replace 30A's receptacle and plug?
Thanks.
@@최명철-g9r So for code questions you really need to check with an local electrical insoector or electrician. But a 20 Amp receptacle and plug on a 30 Amp circuit is definitly dangerous. Yes - change to a 30A receptacle and plug since your wires and breaker are 30A. Are you 100% sure your wire is 30A? Make sure it is!
You are right about derating - so in general for continuous usage like charging a car, use no more than 80% of the max current. So for a 20A receeptical/plug you are right - max 16A and for a 30A one, max 24A. But again, check what the local code requires.
Boy, That's toxic fumes!!
No kidding! I was coughing without breathing in any of it directly. Gave me a real sense of how fumes like that can incapacitate someone in a fire.
And if the BIGGER fuse keeps blowing, put a penny behind it :)
It would be fascinating to know how common that was and how many house fires it caused!
@@ElectromagneticVideos it was very common
@@victorwanstreet3038 I sort of recall now there were eventually some inserts to make it harder to to put things like pennys in the fuse box. I wonder if that made a difference.
Going Shakespeare; Lots of people have been made "Dead for a Penny, Dead!"...
The last extension cord burst into flames like a cell phone battery would do... very toxic and dangerous !
Yes - if I recall correctly, that was an older one with earlier plastics. More modern cords have all sorts of flame inhibitors and things to reduce the toxicity of smoke but are still very lethal in that way. Doing this and getting the odd whiff of just a little smoke really made me understand better than any safety document how its the smoke that kills in most house fires.
Those breakers you mentioned. Bet you were thinking of federal pacific.
I cringe when I see those cheap little cords with two or three of even *Four* sockets on the female end.
Same here! And I'm sure the average person does not have a sense of what draws a lot of current ans what doesnt!
I would actually trust the molded plastic courts better than the solid plastic ends. Not only can the hard plastic ones break easier they also melt easier from firsthand experience unfortunately with a space heater and an unusefully located outlet add a facility I was working at.
That sounds like an unfortunate experience. So the plugs that melted/broke - were they the old black ones or the newer yellow ones?
That old cord looks like it has a similar plug style to the plug i first shocked myself with when i was a young boy. There is no flange to help keep your fingers from sliding up onto the conductors when you plug it in.
Could you do a "real life" scenario of someone plugging different loads into a extension cord that was used for a lamp temporarly, near curtains and other flammable furniture
How long would it take to actually notice the smell, the smoke, catch fire etc
Maybe put an ammeter at the beginning of the setup to see what kind of line loss there is?🤔
Actually I did have both an ammeter and voltmeter on the input for that reason, but with the resistance of each connection being different, the voltage which is the sum is not that useful. To your point, a much better test would be each connector tested by itself with current and voltage being recorded. And maybe also the voltage measured on the wire just before and after the connector so we essentially have the voltage and current across the individual connector and get a much better idea of whats going on...
Sir your not using PPE.
gotta feel for the wild life down wind slowly dying..............................................
Yes - imagine how much smoke is given of if a whole house full of wire burns down.
Don't cha feel standing upwind of those fumes is dangerous. Please be careful!
I was careful to start away from the fumes. But yes - are they ever toxic - even just slight whiffs of them sure made me appreciate how people succumb to smoke in house fires.
The smell really stinks when it’s burning
It sure did - even outside it was terrible. Made me really appreciate how toxic burning plastic would be inside a house.
Try some soow wire and see if it melts.
That's an interesting thought. Particularity compared to the cheapo extension cords I did a month ago.
Lets face it, it's just fun to blow stuff up with electricity isn't it? I will tell you from first hand experience that applying 480 volts across ANY 120 volt equipment is 👌
I'll bet you have some stories to tell! Probably not as much fun when it it happens unexpectedly but very exciting I'm sure.
Since you brought up 480, let me ask you a question. From what I have heard, one of the very few differences between Canada and US electricity is that we often use 600/347 and while you use 480/277 for similar applications. Have you ever seen 600/347 in the US? I'm not sure what state you are in but I have heard 600 is used in some of the northern states but not sure how much truth there is to that.
Very odd that Canada and US would diverged on that one voltage - I wonder how that originally came about?
Coiling the extension cord would help make it warmer due to the magnetic fields the coiling makes because the wires are next to each other.
@@liam3284 Coiling cords while using them isn't a great practice. In some states the maximum rating of an extension cord intended to be coiled is derated with a 16 AWG only rated for 10 amps, a 14 AWG rated for only 13 amps and so on.
The American plugs and sockets are so flawed. They look flimsy as hell!
They actually do handle current well due to the large surface area of the contacts. I think the main issue is the ability to touch a prong while plugging it in. What we really need is an insulated top part of the prongs near where you hold the plug like many of the 240V counties have done over the years.
You shouldn’t smell those fumes!! Or touch exposed cords without rubber gloves!! 🙉
No way this isn't a Florida man
Hate to destroy the illusion. I'm in Canada :)
I enjoy these tests. but is it just me that thinks its not a great idea to be sitting on a concrete floor with shorts on??
:) Its actually a pretty clean garage floor!
I'd be more worried about sucking down those fumes!
Your volt meter was reading incorrectly. There's no way 4 volts is outputting 22 amps (lol). Your test leads weren't making good contact inside that receptacle. It would have been better to touch the leads directly to the screw terminals on the receptacle. But really the voltage doesn't matter in this test - all we care about is the amperage.
Look at the setup - its essentially shorted and very low resistance. Easy to push 22A though a wire. Your right that all that matters is the current. The voltage is simply a good way to get a sense of what is happening (insulation shorts cause a sudden voltage drop) and also when multiplied by the current, the total power being delivered and therefore causing the heat.
God, quit messing with it.. yea shits gonna be hot.. let it burn.. "lets see if its melty yet. Oh wow look at this its hot". Yea fuckin a.. jeebus.. lamo..
That's abuse of a welder man I bet it really welds very well but it won't after this experiment I never would do this to a welder at all that's not what it was intended on doing
IIRC it is an old welder. If he actually welds he probably has a much newer and nicer welder.