Extension Cords.. where to keep, and how many to keep??

[notherone]

I have a stack of extension cords in my garage and want a better plan for keeping them. Put them in the shed instead of garage? How many should I keep? They don't get much use outside of Xmas.

 

[RPH]

Only you can choose. My ideas of storage fit my needs. My excess sits on the pallet rack in the barn.

 

[isb cornbinder]

You must keep a few for your own amusement. I use the female ends for fun and threaten my wife with the male ends.

 

[notherone]

Only you can choose. My ideas of storage fit my needs. My excess sits on the pallet rack in the barn.

I just didn't know if they'd get chewed up by mice in the shed.

 

[LB-1911]

I have a stack of extension cords in my garage and want a better plan for keeping them. Put them in the shed instead of garage? How many should I keep? They don't get much use outside of Xmas.

If you're just talking about 16 & 14 Ga cords coil them up in a bucket(s) and get a few of these.

Gamma Seal Lids for 3.5, 5, 6 and 7 Gallon Buckets​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BNPDSM5V/?tag=atomicindus08-20

shop'em you'll find them for less.

 

[mm08822]

How many do you need for Christmas? Start your answer there.

 

[vwpieces]

Price new 100ft 12awg lately?
Well worth keeping them.

 

[BillK]

I dont have that many but am sick of them I was looking at one of these a few days ago. If I mount it right inside of the garage door it should reach anything I need to do inside or in the driveway.

https://www.griotsgarage.com/retractable-extension-cord-reel-45-foot/

I do have a nice 100 ft hanging on the wall in the detached garage. It would cover almost anything else I need.

I actually just sacrificed two of the cheap brown 16ga ones to repair an old sewing machine for someone.

 

[micromind]

If you count my temporary construction cords, 3 phase ones and welder cords, I have well over 1000' total. Some I haven't used in a few years, others were used in the past month.

My normal 120 volt cords are 3 - 100', 3 - 50', 3 - 25' and 3 - 12', all #14. You'd be surprised how often I use the 12' ones.......

I will very likely never get rid of any of them.

 

[sparky 1971]

I have a 100', two 50', and I don't know how many 25' cords hanging on hooks in the shop that haven't been touched for years. When I do need a cord in there I choose one of three retractable reels. In my work truck there is another 50' that hasn't been used for 10 years, and a 25' that comes out to charge the scissor lift and occasionally run the heat gun or ground rod driver. Extension cords are almost a thing of the past.

 

[mopar66]

I have a retractable reel hanging from the ceiling in my garage. Have two 50' cords hanging in the shed I don't use very often. I think once in the last 2 years. I have a few 6' cords floating around. Between my reel and battery tools, I decided to sell off a bunch of ext cords a few years ago. Sold about 10 cords between 15'-50'. Most of my corded tools I use in the garage or have a decent size cord.

 

[southalabama]

Chose wisely

 

[nadogail]

Whoever invented the Cord Wheel deserves to be Rich. I keep two 50’ cords, one 12 gauge and the other 14 gauge on the same wheel in my Service Van.
My other cords hang on hooks in my workshop.

 

[Sumboodie]

How many do you need for Christmas? Start your answer there.

Zero, who has time to waste hanging off a ladder at -10 putting up lights

 

[Sumboodie]

I have a 100', two 50', and I don't know how many 25' cords hanging on hooks in the shop that haven't been touched for years. When I do need a cord in there I choose one of three retractable reels. In my work truck there is another 50' that hasn't been used for 10 years, and a 25' that comes out to charge the scissor lift and occasionally run the heat gun or ground rod driver. Extension cords are almost a thing of the past.

Use a bunch of them for battery trickle chargers and block heaters.

 

[Snapped-off]

Keep atleast one in the car to plug the block heater in at work.

 

[sparky 1971]

Use a bunch of them for battery trickle chargers and block heaters.

I don't have anything with a block heater and the only trickle charger I have is on the dirt bike, it sits close enough to a receptacle that I don't need an extension cord. I could go back and edit my post to say "For me, extension cords are almost a thing of the past", but I'm not.

 

[T444e]

Zero, who has time to waste hanging off a ladder at -10 putting up lights

That's why you put them up in July/August and never take them down.

 

[LopezBart]

I coil extension cords, and use a 8-12" diameter loop of 3/16 nylon cord to hang each extension cord from a screw or hook.

Unless I need a 100' cord in a particular place, I prefer shorter cords. When the 100' cord ends become too worn to use, I cut them into 2 or 3 lengths and make a quad outlet metal box for each end. The male end gets a proper heavy duty plug.

With my M18 tools, I find my need for numerous extension cords has dropped somewhat - but I still have to plug in the stationary tools and the battery chargers.

 

[johnre]

One 100 ft. 14/2G. one 50 ft. 12/2G, numerous 25 ft. including one on a retractable reel on the garage ceiling.

But they're useless if tangled, so to keep them well managed and tangle free. I first do this with them, and toss them in a basket to store them:

Besides not tangling, there are several other advantages with this technique:
1. You can partially pull out the two ends to get exactly the length you need, and leave the rest braided. The excess is thus contained and won't then be underfoot.
2. It won't "wind up" the cord like coiling does.
3. Once you learn the technique, it's faster than coiling.

 

[duneslider]

My cord that gets used the most is on a cheap orange plastic wind up reel from home depot (It got broken 15 years ago dropping it off a balcony on a job site) but it is so much easier to use than all the others that aren't on reels. You would think I would put all of them on reels, or replace the broken one, but no I just use the others when more length is needed.

The one on the reel is about 75' 12ga (it was 100' but got run over by something on a job site and I had to shorten it). This one usually is long enough to do most jobs but if I need more, or have longer runs I have a couple 100' 12ga that I use. I have a bunch of shorter stuff that gets used around the house and in the garage when I only need 10-20 feet. Some how I always feel like I need more than what I have yet I have them all over the place. I have never thrown one away that was still usable/safe.

I made a really nice 130' 10ga cord for job site work, of course it walked away while I wasn't looking and nobody took it.

 

[kj_mustang]

I hang my coiled cords on some wall hooks I got off Amazon.

 

[SlappyWhite]

I have Velcro straps with a grommet hole in them. I wrap the cords with them and hang them on clothes hooks mounted to the wall.

 

[CoogarXR]

I probably have about 20. I keep a couple in my shed with my generator, about a dozen in the shop of different lengths/gauges (all hung on the wall), a half-dozen with my road-tools for running power tools/lights on job sites (also hung on the wall, but in a different spot), and 3 with my camping stuff (1 heavy duty for main power, one light-duty for lights, and one extra for "whatever").

The one I use most is my shop trouble-light. It has an outlet in the handle. It's always plugged in, and it reaches anywhere in the shop, plus the trouble light has the hanger on it, so I can hook it on things.

I use all my cords quite a bit. The house I am working on right now has cords strung all over it because there's barely any electric installed in it at the moment.

When we have evening back yard parties, I'll have cords running everywhere; bug zappers, projector/laptop, crock pots, etc.

You can never have too many!

 

[Stick-man]

I have over 1000' of welding lead, most is 1/0 - 3/0. Then, because I am nuts, I bring home any and all bad extension cords from job sites. If the ground prong breaks, they end up in the trash. I literally have a gang box filled with them. I started putting new ends on them, but I usually give them away to someone I know if they need one. I got tired of buying ends and putting in my time. They're getting a free cord, be happy!
Anyway, I have so many, I just keep them in a gang box.

 

[Hal]

You guys are the exact opposite of me. Extension cords go where the 10 mm sockets go, away. Part of the problem is multiple users, and multiple use sites. Add to that, unclear ownership, outright theft, and normal wear and tear, plus damage. Got most of them together two weekends ago for an outdoor party, to tie in the generator for lights etc. right now I know where three out of six of them are. That doesn’t count five being used for (ahem) sketchy “temporary” hookups in my shop.

 

[PoorUB]

Zero, who has time to waste hanging off a ladder at -10 putting up lights

My wife and I had a bit of a discussion about Christmas lights when we bought our first house. She got all excited and wanted the house covered in lights. I told her to "knock herself out" and do what ever she wanted to do. She came back with the comment that she wasn't going to climb ladders and hang lights in the cold! I told her that I wasn't going to either!

It was funny how she expected me to run out and hang lights while she stayed in the warm house!

I have no issues with ladders. At the time I was a commercial HVAC tech so I was on ladders pretty much every day. But i saw no reason to do it any more than necessary!

 

[PoorUB]

I have maybe two 50 foot 25 gauge cords, I think four 25 footers, and a 100 footer. I keep them around for when a remodel comes up. I just loop them up and put a tie around them, and hang hem out out of the way.

How many cords you need depends on what you do around the house. I know guys that might have a couple screw drivers, and hammer and a pliers, not one power tool. They don't know how to use the tools they have, so why would they need extension cords? I do pretty much all my own home repairs and remodeling, and have a bunch of corded tools so I use extension cords fairly often.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

Depends on your needs. I have a 25 ft and a 50ft hanging up in the garage, a 25ft in the truck, and a couple 6ft in the house. There's also a bunch of the really light duty cords in the box with our lights. The majority of my daily use tools are battery powered, so I don't worry about cords much.

 

[no704]

Keep in mind the load u are putting on the cord. My girlfriend’s dad in a past life was running a carpet cleaner off of a 100’ cord that was still mostly coiled up. That coil got hot and melted into the carpet in the next room.

 

[PhantomEB]

She’s got a 100’ that she’s had before me…..it sits wrapped out in the shed. Got a bunch of 12/14s of shorter lengths (<12’) that live in the garage. I believe more in electrical reels to keep everything neat.

she recently said are we ever gonna need that 100’er? Not with my plans to put electrical reels on both sides of the porch when I build it this summer.

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

I've reduced my extension cord use a lot by having an EcoFlow Delta. It replaced about 80% of the cases where I would pull out an extension cord before.

Also, I don't think extension cords are safe in North America because they have no fuses on them. If you plug a 16ga extension cord into a normal outlet it will melt before the breaker trips because the breaker is designed for 14ga wire. So I only buy 12ga cords which are expensive. I'd actually rather use a power strip even if the power strip is overloaded because at least power strips have a circuit breaker on them to protect their own cord. Why we can't put fuses in extension cord plugs is beyond me. Somehow they figured out how to put them in $5 christmas lights but not normal extension cords no matter how expensive.

 

[tworley]

I actually counted mine the other night. I have 8 total. At least one 100-footer, 50s, 25s and some smaller ones <10s.

 

[ToolsRCool]

My fav is the extension cords with integrated reels, the open ones seem to do the best. But, with the advance of battery tools, I'm finding I use x-cords less and less. Same with air hose.

 

[dave*99]

I've reduced my extension cord use a lot by having an EcoFlow Delta. It replaced about 80% of the cases where I would pull out an extension cord before.

Also, I don't think extension cords are safe in North America because they have no fuses on them. If you plug a 16ga extension cord into a normal outlet it will melt before the breaker trips because the breaker is designed for 14ga wire. So I only buy 12ga cords which are expensive. I'd actually rather use a power strip even if the power strip is overloaded because at least power strips have a circuit breaker on them to protect their own cord. Why we can't put fuses in extension cord plugs is beyond me. Somehow they figured out how to put them in $5 christmas lights but not normal extension cords no matter how expensive.

Not true. For a couple reasons. A 16 ga extension cord in open air is entirely different than a piece of Romex buried in an insulated wall. The cooling effects from open air are far different than wire jammed inside a wall. Do understand that extension cords are expected to be uncoiled during operation for this very reason. Leave them tightly wound on a roll and they can melt.



If you apply a direct short to the extension cord, the breaker will trip before the cord melts.

As for power strips, there are some heavy duty ones with sizable internal conductors. Others have very little. But they do not adjust the breaker size to match.

 

[toolmiser]

With all the battery operated tools, how much will you use an extension cord? Makes me rethink my inventory!

 

[The Cobbler]

They don't get much use outside of Xmas.

all my Christmas cords are with the Christmas decorations. I no longer put much stuff out for decorations. i should get rid of most of it
I have a few cords int he house. more in the shop, and yet more in the shed.
I have way too many. some even new in package, never used.

 

[Dagny]

I can take a cord wind it up nicely then carefully place it in the back door of my step van then drive one mile and it will have 4 freon cans two rolls of nm several spools of thhn the handle and some hose from my torch and a partridge in a pair tree tangled in it. I hate extension cords more than anything on this earth. With the possible exception of fishing tackle. I own hundreds of them from 6awg to 16. It is quite obvious that they hate me even more.

 

[PhantomEB]

Custom cut with a little extra 12/3 for both of our dailies in the driveway. GFCI under the lower soffit.

She leaves hers at home, I take mine to work with me as I got free block heater outlets for us.

garage has a few, 8, 12, and 20’ lengths of 12/3. There’s also a 50’ reel at the big door and another one sitting there on the floor to go somewhere else. I am thinking off the front porch when I build it so all she has to do is retract It when she Leaves.

I know she’s got a 100’ out in the sheds…..why, I don’t know.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I keep a few on hand. Not so many anymore since most of my regularly used power tools are battery-powered. I keep a 25' and 50' in the garage, plus a couple 6' for plugging in the tractor heater or snowblower electric start. I keep a 25' in the truck, just in case.