Retractable Power Cord Reels

[Rod]

I appreciated that. Imagine back in 1932 (or some such far distant time), someone thought "make the cable yellow so it more visible and hence reduces trip hazard". They send the idea to a newspaper. A company starts doing it. The original "inventor" cannot have any protection because their idea has been disclosed. The company makes a fortune. The original "inventor" has to pay the premium for a yellow cable when he wants one!

I was trying to point out:

If I have any good ideas, I am not likely to disclose them in a public forum. Most especially not one available to anyone with an internet connection.

If I nonetheless do disclose them, and you *or anyone else on the planet* exploits them, I will feel really badly done by. (Even though it is my fault for disclosing it.)

If someone then went on somehow to get a patent on it (even though a disclosed idea usually constitutes prior art and that should stop it being granted), that would be really annoying. And I would probably not have the resources to fight it. (Have you ever fought a patent case in China?)

I was trying to seriously point out one of the limitations of your approach.

You might do better punting a few of *your* ideas and asking for comments. For example, you might have done a design in which the cable is tightly coiled and get a comment about it overheating if not fully unwound. Your next idea might therefore include a fan. That gets comments about noise, reliability of the fan, etc.

O - and an idea! Plaster, paint and everything else repellent surfaces to cable and reel so that any drips that hit it do not stick.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The use of this sort of lead should be discouraged in a workshop. Wires trailing over the floor etc are a safety hazard. There should be adequate power sockets installed to prevent this. A reel is also a bad idea in a workshop. If the lead is not fully extended it will overheat at full load and could cause a fire. So for the odd use in a workshop an extension should not be on a reel.

[David in Normandy]

Slightly unrelated, but I wish manufacturers of all power tools made the length of leads long enough to cater for "normal" usage in the first place without needing to plug the tool into an extension lead in the first place. I once bought a drill from Homebase that only had a four foot long lead - fine until you want to screw some fixings into the ceiling or even at head height into a wall - then you have the weight of an extension reel hanging from the other end or have to prop one up so the lead is long enough. All such power tools should come with at least two metres of cable in my opinion.

[Steve]

Absolutely agree.

Years ago, I changed to in-line connectors i.e. >

<for this reason.

All my power tools have this arrangement and with a few of the females connected to various lengths of cable back to the mains plug, it has proved to be quite versatile in practice.

Steve