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CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

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Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#301

Post by Shorel »

tyingq wrote: post #251
Shorel wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used them for over 20 years in South America. I even burned them many times, to the dismay of my dad. I burned them because I wanted hotter water, and closed the water line as much as I can, the resistance heated up to red and then melted. The fact that ground contacts the water is by design. As far as I know, no one has ever been electrocuted by using one of these showers, not even me, so used to burn them. The on…

I believe you that accidents don't happen often with them. But, on the other hand, you're describing a scenario where you: - Melted the enclosure, probably exposing the wiring, maybe near your hand if you reached up to see what was happening - While you might have been standing on a drain that was an excellent path to ground And, if the ground wire is meant to be constantly in contact with the water, there's certainl…

The enclosure doesn't melt. The resistance splits, and no longer provides a path for electricity to flow, so it stops heating. No wires are exposed.

It's similar to an old electric bulb failure.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#302

Post by pcdoodle »

moistly wrote: post #298
oliveshell wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone who doesn’t see why this is a bad idea: If you plug your generator in like this, you can backfeed the step-down transformers in your neighborhood, which then step up the voltage from your generator and energize your local utility lines with potentially several thousand volts. This can be a nasty surprise for utility workers trying to restore power to what they think are de-energized wires.

It gets worse: in BC, the local lines lead back to a substation, and from there to the switching yard, by which point tens of millions of volts backfeed into the grid that connects to the WAC Bennett or Revelstoke dams, causing them to run backward, sucking all the water upriver and absolutely decimating the salmon population. So just don’t use the cheater cords. Save the fish, save the planet, save your fingers.

This is bullshit. Having more volts does not mean your 10kw generator is going to spin a dam backwards.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#303

Post by aequitas »

CodeWriter23 wrote: post #266
aequitas wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my country (NL) it is advised against that (though it used to be common practice), since a bit of water pipe running from your house might have been replaced with a plastic one and the metal bit still sticking out into your house might not have the proper ground resistance to function as a proper earth wire.

Look down and see if the metal pipe is going into the ground? At least in cases where the different services enter the premise in close proximity.

Metal touching the ground does not guarantee a proper earth. The resistance might be to high to function properly under all circumstances a ground is needed.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#304

Post by meowfly »

1. This is a great PSA. I would absolutely buy this kind of cable not realizing it's dangerous.

2. What is wrong with our regulatory bodies that there hasn't been heat turned up on these marketplaces? Imagine going to CVS and searching for OTC ADHD supplements and getting results for research chemicals from XYZChems in Cambodia. I might buy them assuming that CVS would be more responsible than that.

Maybe someone can explain to me why my analogy doesn't track.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#305

Post by sgerenser »

pcdoodle wrote: post #302
moistly wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse: in BC, the local lines lead back to a substation, and from there to the switching yard, by which point tens of millions of volts backfeed into the grid that connects to the WAC Bennett or Revelstoke dams, causing them to run backward, sucking all the water upriver and absolutely decimating the salmon population. So just don’t use the cheater cords. Save the fish, save the planet, save your fingers.

This is bullshit. Having more volts does not mean your 10kw generator is going to spin a dam backwards.

I think it was a joke.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#306

Post by quickthrowman »

rascul wrote: post #297
riffic wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the 5 percent of professionals who insist on doing things the bad way deserve the consequences and subsequent removal of previously applied "professional" status.

I repair homes for a living and the amount of stuff I've found that's wrong which has presumably been done by a professional is staggering. The house I'm currently working at, I'm replacing all the flooring, most of the sub floor, some of the walls, and more. I'll have an electrician come in soon and do some work to fix the electrical. It's a metal roof and they did a real good job installing it except they apparentl…

> I repair homes for a living and the amount of stuff I've found that's wrong which has presumably been done by a professional is staggering.

That’s because the vast majority of actual skilled professional tradespeople work in commercial and industrial construction, the talent level for residential construction is not very high. There’s also a lot more oversight on commercial and industrial projects (engineer/architect/owner’s representative/construction coordinator) that catches a lot of laziness issues like the one you noted in your post. Commercial and industrial customers expect much better warranty terms than residential customers and it’s not as easy to cycle through a series of corporations on the commercial/industrial side since some opportunities require company history and experience to qualify for even working on a project, leading to contractors ensuring their work is done correctly, since they’re on the hook for repairs down the line.

I know there are skilled people that work in residential construction, but on average the skill level is much higher for commercial and industrial.

I may be biased as I work for a commercial/industrial contractor that uses union labor.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#307

Post by anonymousiam »

I bought one of these from Amazon last year and I've received two warning emails from Amazon, along with a refund. My use case is connecting a portable generator to my house. It's all completely safe if you know what you are doing. You turn off the main breaker (between the meter and the AC mains connection), then you plug one end of the "suicide cable" into some outlet, and the other end into the generator output. Another related use case is to connect the two different phases together so the generator can power the whole house instead of half the house. For that you need two of these.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#308

Post by Nifty3929 »

hajile wrote: post #249
Nifty3929 wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would they get 14kV, assuming the output from the generator is just 110v? Honest question, I was wondering this before and I assume you know more about it than I do.

Transformers work both ways. From the substation to your nearby transformer, it goes 14.4kV to 240v (ignoring split phases and 3-phase power). When you generate inside your house, it goes the other way and boosts from 240v up to 14.4kV (albeit with fewer total amps than the substation is generating, but enough to kill). The US NEC (national electric code) requires any backup generator to use a transfer switch. The sw…

Thanks so much for the explanation! That the transformer works both ways makes perfect sense, and I'm a little irritated that I didn't think of that in the first place.

Re: CPSC warns consumers to stop using male-to-male extension cords sold on Amazon

#309

Post by moistly »

pcdoodle wrote: post #302
moistly wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse: in BC, the local lines lead back to a substation, and from there to the switching yard, by which point tens of millions of volts backfeed into the grid that connects to the WAC Bennett or Revelstoke dams, causing them to run backward, sucking all the water upriver and absolutely decimating the salmon population. So just don’t use the cheater cords. Save the fish, save the planet, save your fingers.

This is bullshit. Having more volts does not mean your 10kw generator is going to spin a dam backwards.

Tell that to the fish, buddy, tell it to the fish.

Oh, wait, you can’t because they’re all dead now!

Now stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Mmmm. Smoked salmon.

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