Never too old to be stupid.

Should be, but I wouldn't bet my a** on it. I've seen plenty of receptacles where hot and neutral have been reversed. I probably wouldn't work on a live circuit like you did, though. It shouldn't be that hard to unplug the cord or flip the breaker. Even easier, if it's GFCI, you can trip it remotely.

Jim Joyce wrote on 7/19/2024 11:45 PM:

Europe's 220V electrical outlets have eliminated their stupid genes through "natural selection" via "survival of the fittest". "Stupid European" is a rarity these days.

China uses 220V, and India uses 230V. That's why students from China and India excel in our universities, while our own high school grads cannot read, write or do math. I suggest we raise our voltage to 220V to cleanse our gene pool.

All the dumb stuff micky does, he must have nine lives.

I thought you said you live in a condo. Doesn't your monthly HOA fee pay for landscaping? Why would you have a lawn mower? Also, you had to be in a location where you could collect and plug in a soldering gun or iron and pick up the tools to strip and scrape the wire. Most likely you either passed by or very near to where your lawn mower cord is plugged in or where the breaker box is located. Somehow this entire story doesn't pass my sniff test. Inquiring mind wants to know.

It's micky being micky but butane soldering irons have been around for years for field work. Many double as heat guns to apply shrink tubing over the splice.

There are rechargeable versions also though I have never used them.

Hey. it'd Micky - it doesn't have to padd any dtinkin' sniff test!!

I see now that I was not clear. I wasn't working on the white and betting the black was hot. I was working on the black one. ;-)

It is a GFI, because it's the outdoor outlet. It and outlets near sinks are all on one GFI, which I gradually learned after I moved in. I could have shorted the wire and tripped the breaker, but then it would have been as hard to reset it as, before you suggested tripping it, I claimed it was to trip it. (It's behind the dryer and to fix the dryer I had to pull it away from its spot, plus I disassembled it quite a bit and it bends a little now when I climb on top of it, and I'm no longer happy doing that. Afraid I'll bend some body parts permanently. I haven't been able to finish fixing the dryer, so it's still disassembled. Details on request. I dry clothes by hanging them from the shower bar or a towel bar.

I doubt they got rid of all of them this way. Recent voting patterns shows there are quite a few left.

But when I'm using 220 volts, in Europe for exacmple, for my laptop and phone charger. I still use a 110 volt extension cord, because they are much lighter weight. So far, so good.

That's a thought.

No, a townhouse. (Some call them townhomes but I consider that advertising blather. I should call it a rowhouse. I guess "townhouse" is meant to advertise that I live in the suburbs.)

No.

The boy who used to mow my lawn is now a VP of a Fortune 100 company, and he won't do it anymore

If I needed to solder something outside, I normally would plug the iron into this same extension cord.

But since the cord was broken, I ran it through the mail slot in the front door, through the hall and into the kitchen, where I worked on it.

Darm rogjt.

micky wrote on 7/20/2024 7:18 PM:

You must be lying. It's the opposite. For the same power rating, you use only half the electric current in 220V power outlet than in 110V power outlet. Remember that "power = voltage x current". You can use much thinner copper wire in 220V extension cord for the same power rating, hence American 110V extension cord would always be heavier than European

Be careful who you call a liar. You might get yourself shot, pardner.

None of this relates to what I said. The European outlet had 220 volts but I used a 110 volt extension cord, one made for and rated for 110 volts.

And the chargers for the laptop and the phone would run on 100-240 volts, so they were running on 220 on my vacation, but 110 at home.

You mentioned that you live in Motel rooms. I guess that was just temporary.

Anyway, I did something about as dumb. I put a new ...much longer cord on my shop vac so I don't need to use an extension cord anymore.

It's about two feet too short.

Just about any decent 110 volt cord is rated for - wait for this - --

Good to know, although it does somewhat damage my pleasing reckless macho self-image. As to the rating, the cord could be 40 or 50 years old and there is no rating on it. It's at least 30. It's definitely light and flexible, and the vinyl is in good condition, I did check that. (I've had one other cord where the rubber is crumbling off all the way down to the copper.)

I take two or three but only need one foreign plug adapter and then I can plug 3 american plugs into the extension cord.

That was a trip. A couple 4 or 5 day car trips.

Darn.

On Sun, 21 Jul 2024 06:47:58 -0500, philo posted for all of us to digest...

Put it in the cord stretcher, Bud probably has one. 8-)