Thread: Storing long extension leads

Not too many people can roll up extension cords, my resident T.A. is not one of them.
Unless you have been taught to roll up rope, that will happen every time, it's all in the wrist movement.
The easiest way to store them is using a reel for a water hose.
Turn the handle 'till all the cord is on the reel and store away nice and tidy.
Cheers
Wolffie

How ever you roll it up just remember never to use the lead rolled up. It will over heat and go boom.
Regards

Originally Posted by Wolffie

Not too many people can roll up extension cords, my resident T.A. is not one of them.
Unless you have been taught to roll up rope, that will happen every time, it's all in the wrist movement.
The easiest way to store them is using a reel for a water hose.
Turn the handle 'till all the cord is on the reel and store away nice and tidy.
Cheers
Wolffie

Just don't be tempted to use it on the roll. if you draw a bit of current it heats up and melts.
A non neat way, but a tangle free way is to what as kids we called "finger knit" it.
Create a small noose, pull a piece out about a foot long yhru that loop making another, then the next piece thru that etc. all you do is undo the end and start pulling to the length you need. then go to where it unwound and knit it up again. My old man taught me this years ago and you can pick it up, chuck it in a van and it pulls out easy when you want it again.

Try bigger looser coils so they don't figure-8. And of course fully uncoil and straighten for jobs. That tends to work for me. Like garden hoses, sometimes a short lie in the sun is needed for my heavy duty ones.

I tie and hang the ones not in everyday use. I used to keep an emergency one with power board and bunnings $15 drill in a basic tool carry all until I discovered cheaper plastic can weld to itself and sometimes other things if under heavy weights.

Just read _fly_'s finger knot. Sounds like my tying method for most things longish. Can be easy to overtighten with shorter leads because you can be tempted to shorten the knot so to speak. With my method anyway.

A lot of people fall into the trap of using their hand/elbow as a bobbin, and winding the cord around it, far too small, and leads to tangles..... loose loops 600mm diam at least, unfolding and looping/twisting tendency as you go, like you do with rope as mentioned above....

Extension leads are notorious for developing a "memory" which makes them hard to unroll,lay it out straight on a sunny day,leave iit in the sun for a couple of hours bingo ,tangle gone

Originally Posted by _fly_

Just don't be tempted to use it on the roll. if you draw a bit of current it heats up and melts.

As usual these things are a bit over stated and one needs to keep an eye on what one is doing. A more significant risk than a meltdown or fire in some circumstances cases might be in completely unrolling the lead and turning it into a trip hazard.

It's not just having a roll and current that controls heat, it depends on many other factors such as the thickness of the conductors, ambient temp. the diam of the roll, the resistivity of the connectors, whether it's multi layer or not and how much ventilation the loop has and how long the current is drawn for.

If the roll is 30 cm in diam it will be ~1m in circumference so a 10 m roll is ~10 loops. If it is a standard 10A lead arranged in a single layer roll and it is not covered by anything insulating you can pull 10 A through this configuration all day and it will get a little warm but it will not get close to melting. A double layer will be warmer but it will still not melt if it is ventilated.

I have a 25m 10A roll that is tight wound and I use it to power hand tools including circular saws, belt sanders and drills up to 2000W on an intermittent basis. It is always well ventilated and yes it gets warm occasionally but it is a long way from melting. I do unwind it when I need to use it for longer periods with a welder.

I have seen a meltdown and lots of black smoke from a 30 m roll powering a welder while the roll was covered with a pile of hessian bags

What I had that melted was one of those plastic cases that the cord wound into. They had the female socket in the middle of it. It was only 5m maybe My folks pulled 2 metres out and used it for something. Next time I tried to use it, the 3m internal were all melted together, Not warmed and deformed, melted into one solid lump. The centre was maybe 3 inch that it was wound around.

i made a cord tidy upper out of some 16mm dowels & some 42 x 19 and it holds a 30 m cord & does not tangle and easily hags on a hook on the wall
regards Michael

Thanks for this idea, Michael, sounds neat and simple. Any chance of a photo please?

How far apart were the dowels spaced, and how long were the dowels projecting out of the timber base?

Do you fully unwind the cord before using it?

Jill. 10mtr leads are not really that long and don't require rolling on to a drum of some kind. I have a 30mtr lead that lives on a hose reel, it was the only way to stop it from becoming a "rat's nest" from being rolled by hand.
With your leads, when wanting to tidy up, pick up one end and hold on to it with one hand and using your other hand bring the lead to the first hand to make an easy loop about 500mm long and just keep filling the first hand with more loops until you come to the end. I then use velcro straps that stay on the end of the lead and just go around the hand full of lead in your hand and then live on a peg on a wall. Doing it it this way will keep your lead stress free and you too. The velcro straps I bought from Dick Smith. They weren't cheap (maybe around $15 for 6) but they do work well even when dragged through saw dust.
Just to add to those who commented on using leads on reels, we had a bloke who was welding off a lead and to stop the tripping hazard wound the lead aroung a steel hand rail in a slow sort of spiral. Well he got his physics right. With the hand rail making a conductive core and the big rush of electrons during welding the heat built up and the hand rail ended up being part of the lead and visaversa Result..... buggered lead.
Leads are a necessary evil that we have to deal with just to get through life but a bit of regard for the things we can coexist in harmony

Yes a tight roll can be a problem and I have seen a part drum smoke while feeding an airconditioning unit. More current, more smoke and very unpleasant inside a hangar right beside an aeroplane.

The coiled problem is inductance. That generates heat (inductance cookers) and ultimately smoke but when you want to put it back together, the issue is the way the roll has been unwound. Especially in cooler times where the cable refuses to lay flat. Cold plastic coated cable is the problem.

The secret is to completely unwind the roll.

In the warmer weather, leave it in the sun for a short time and guaranteed it will go back on the hook very nicely without an issue. Just like the garden hose.

In cooler times one needs to put the roll back together the way it came apart, direction diamater etc. When putting the roll back together by hand you will find the cable tries to fight, try and twist the cable as you collect it in your hand to avoid an ungainly roll. The cable will tell you where it wants to go. You just need to sort it out as the end approaches and the result will be fine.

Have a go....trust me it works for us old roadies
3RU

I have a 15mt cord that I roll all the time. All I do is roll it so that it is a least 1mt per coil. Never coil it around the arm but let hang and twist the bends out. Allways coil the same way ie: female plug first. I never have tangles.

10Mt is a baby lead, when coiling start with large loops and as you coil the lead watch for the tendency of the loops to twist, if they twist drop the coil and flick the lead in the opposite direction to the twist, you may have to do this several times ..

Jeff