Fire incident

In message snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net>, David snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com writes snip

Me for 1. 4 *13 amp* sockets fitted to the reel casing! Generally used for supplying a single battery charger. No safety advice or inbuilt protection other than the supply fuse.

On 12 Jun 2023, mechanic wrote

Might be. Our vacuum is a SEBO canister job which has a retractable lead, and I've just checked the user manual.

And I'll be damned -- there it is in black and white:

"Operating Instructions. Please ensure that the on/off knob is in the off position. Pull out the cable completely and plug it into an appropriate mains outlet."

Who'd've thunk it....

I do - a very useful 100-footer on something like an open framed hose reel.

I don't worry too much about overheating it - it's not passing current for long enough when drilling a hole or sawing a piece of wood or the current is very low when charging a car battery. It is never used for heavy, continuous loads, such as heaters.

You guess wrong.

I have a few decent length cables, but no reel.

(You'll also find me over in uk.rec.sailing, which is where I learned how to coil things properly!)

Andy

You flake them?

It may also be sitting on top of the motor, as with the Henry.

Glasgow art college was destroyed when students were setting up a display at the bottom of an atrium or stairwell that was open up to the vaulted ceiling. They had rigged up some sort of halogen light for 'effect' and were then using solvent-based spray adhesive or something to add some decoration a bit close to the light. Whoof.

My Sebo airbelt?? something is like that too.

My SEBO instructions just say that this machine can be operated by children over 8 years old or people with mobility problems.

But no one has been able to identify any statutory basis for requiring a thermal cutout.

BULLSHIT.

More fool you.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

However, the Henry blows air over the internal cable reel. It also has a thermal cutout as I once discovered when the hose had been left blocked for several minutes with the motor running. John

Also what is classed as a cable “reel”. I have a 30m long one I made up myself using a decent quality

Would that be accepted by any new for old scheme? Not that I would exchange it, at 11 years old the rubber is still in excellent condition and the whole assembly is a lot more robust than many cable reels I have seen intended for the DIY market.

GH

While two pin outlets are grandfathered from a code perspective, devices use three pins now, for things where there is any chance of the chassis becoming "hot". All the desktop computers (with their metal chassis), have three prong plugs, and that also covers the front end filter design and its purposeful leakage current flow.

"NEMA 1-15 power receptacles, are no longer allowed in new construction in the United States and Canada since 1962, but are still sold for replacement purposes." <=== the two-hole variety

That's 61 years ago, since that was, um, "legal".

For items that are double-insulated (my electric drill), that does not have a ground pin. It plugs into the three hole outlet, and the ground is not used. And maybe they do it that way, so if you drill through a hot cable in a wall, the drill does not become part of the circuit.

The ones on the right, are no longer code (1962). The ones on the left, might be used in new construction.

For vanilla outlets, there are also tamper-resistant (shutter) versions.

"These tamper resistant outlets have spring-loaded shutters that must be simultaneously engaged by the blades of a plug in order to release, allowing the metal prongs to make contact to create an electrical circuit. Therefore, when a foreign object, like a paper clip or a pin for instance, is inserted, the safety shutter will not allow access to the live contact. When a plug is removed and the tamper resistant outlet is not in use, the shutters close and both contact openings are covered."

As for the Wikipedia article on "NEMA" and the bewildering array of photos in the article, be aware that this bewildering array, a lot of citizens have never seen *any* of those. These are seen occasionally in industrial situations (the outlet for the old floor cleaner), but it's unlikely any industrial situation has samples of that entire collection of "cruft". If you have 100HP water pumps like we had at work, those would be hard wired. There isn't a lot of call for sprinkling a site with dangerous outlets. Floor cleaners come in all sorts of form factors now, and the one at the grocery store is battery powered and can easily do lap after lap around the store, while cleaning. There is little call for the old style floor cleaner any more.

There are various outlet strip designs, and some come with mounting ears so the strip can be secured to something. This prevents the strip from moving around, or people walking on it. Like most quality strips, that one has a 15 amp breaker up near the cord entry point. There is no need to buy fire hazard kit, when good stuff is available.

If you want to run a kettle remotely, we have "air conditioner cords", single fitting on each end, for extending a high current load. Those handle a fifteen amp load, with more thermal margin.

Paul

Houses built until the mid 60s possibly didn't have three core cable to any of their outlets. I seen Youtube videos which indicates that a common bodge, especially with re-modelling a house for re-sale, where there are only two wires is to link the earth to neutral at the socket. This fools a lot of socket testers that inspectors use.

Possibly more worrying is when the pins that go into the mains socket are not chamfered at the ends and could damage the contacts in the socket. Often it's the plastic earth pin required to open the shutters.

How do you make a cat bark? Poor petrol on it, light a match and woof....

It's similar with a Henry.

I do that, too. I learned the hard way.

When I was still in school, and responsible for tending the garden, my father decided that he'd get one of those new-fangled electric hedgetrimmers for me, as a birthday present. After I accidentally cut through the cable, I realised I should have slung it over my shoulder....

I do that with vacuum cleaners now, too.