Hens Teeth, Unicorns, Rocking Horse Droppings, Braided 3 core cable for an iron.

I have a steam iron that works perfectly, save for the flex.

The difficult bit was supposed to be getting the rear panel off the iron (doddle - one security screw and gentle pressure to release plastic tangs), not sourcing the bleedin' cable.

All I need is 2.5 or 3 metres of 1mm^2 3 core rubber insulated cable with an overall cloth braid, and the thing will work again. The only problem is that this cable (aka 2043Y) seems to be be made of unobtainium.

B&Q reckon they have 2.5metres for £7 in their range - pity it's out of stock at every store. Nowhere with any kind of local bricks and mortar presence seems to sell it.

Yes it's only £10 more to buy an identical replacement, but it's a lot easier to recycle 3 metres of worn flex than 1.5kg+ of mixed materials.

rant over.

How about:

He did say bricks and mortar, ie shop.

There used to be a wonderful stall in Epsom market that sold this kind of thing some years ago, I bet its now full of foody geek shops like Kingston Market is. Nobody wants tatty nick nack shops or stalls contaminating their high streets these days it seems.

Brian

Yeah, I had to go online to buy some braided Steam iron flex a couple of years ago.

It did mean that I could get 3metres or so - much more useful than the original length you normally get fitted.

Also - FWIW I think I had to crimp some connectors of some sort onto the cable in order to fit into the iron. I can't recall the exact details, they were possibly spade connectors. I remember thinking that I could probably bodge it, but decided not to. Your Iron May Vary, of course...

J^n

My experience of Iron Flex is that it somes in two diameters: thin and tangly, and too thick to fit the existing grommet.

Owain

But with postage that's £11.48 - I could buy a new iron for less.

Three way choc block under the cover. There's nothing special about the iron, apart from the fact that it still works despite the imminent danger of blown fuse/electric shock from a one inch section of cable that formed a kink with the inner cores hanging out (bad), and local cracking of the rubber insulation (worse).

The only "special" item required is a bit of tape at both ends of the flex to keep the braid from unraveling.

For the record, the iron has the marker 12W47 which means it's less than

Also the thing has a sensible strain relief where the cable emerges - the cable is easily threaded through. The thing is the antithesis of Apple design - cheap and completely repairable (if you can get the sodding cable...)

Ebay seems to have lots of cloth covered cable in various colours etc. Sold by the meter and free postage.

TWO core

Or free click and collect - Argos, I assume.

Sometimes stuff isn't worth repairing even with free labour

It doesn't have to be cotton covered, heat resistant silicon cable should be fine, immersion heater cable is temperature resistant and fairly flexible too.

True. If it's good enough for a soldering iron, a smoothing iron should be OK.

Only reason these days for a fabric cover is looks.

Silicon would be very inflexible.

Silicone would be good though.

I think the fabric cover was supposed to be better than rubber (not necessarily silicone) because it didn'r bind on the edge of the ironing board.

Don't you plug the iron into your central light via a BC adaptor, like everyone else on here? ;-)

Rubber flex is rated to 60C. It tolerates far higher, but it does it no favours. The cloth cover prevents direct contact, reducing peak temps.

It should not be hard to find online. Locally you likely won't get it, as it's only used for clothes irons these days, and few folk repair their stuff now.

Immersion heater flex is completely unsuitable. It's too thick & stiff, and is 90C rated PVC. A momentary touch of that on a hot iron will melt it.

Silicone is more £ & very soft.

NT