Extension leads being filled with fucktons of lamps

[Memorex MP3]

Living with someone who wants lamps absolutely everywhere, have a ton of 4 port extension leads, way more than I need but looks like I'll just have to get a few 8 port ones. I'd just go the USB lamp route but all of these are direct AC. Prices seem to soar for 6-8 port and above so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for ones. There's basically always a risk of several fairly high power things being plugged in so what to avoid is pretty important too

Ideally I can just buy 2 or 3 of them that will endure everything up to a desktop PC or maybe an electric heater.
Alternatively, can I get away with daisy chaining extension leads if the daisy chained one never uses anything that needs a lot of power?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I bought some (one 8 plug, one 12) of these recently. The inbuilt usb was a selling point as it meant I could ditch all but one of my usb adaptors (my dac seems to create an earth loop if it's plugged into it) under the telly.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384734066964?var=652686609269

Before this I had a really long one that I'd nicked off the back of a server rack but it was a bit cumbersome.

[buzby]

Living with someone who wants lamps absolutely everywhere, have a ton of 4 port extension leads, way more than I need but looks like I'll just have to get a few 8 port ones. I'd just go the USB lamp route but all of these are direct AC. Prices seem to soar for 6-8 port and above so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for ones. There's basically always a risk of several fairly high power things being plugged in so what to avoid is pretty important too

Ideally I can just buy 2 or 3 of them that will endure everything up to a desktop PC or maybe an electric heater.
Alternatively, can I get away with daisy chaining extension leads if the daisy chained one never uses anything that needs a lot of power?

Not a good idea to use an extension with an electric heater, other than a dedicated single socket 13A rated one (and then it has to be totally uncoiled off it's spool). It's never a good idea to daisy  chain extensions together either, as it's far too easy to cause an overload (and with a lot of cheap extensions only using copper plated steel for the contacts and copper plated aluminium wire, it's easy for them to overheat and cause a fire).

The only way it can be safely done is to use the modular socket strips they use in office deskenvironments that are only meant for low-current devices (each socket in the strip has it's own 3A or 5A 20mm fuse in it). These can be daisy chained by the use of the special 3-pin Wieland GST interconnection leads, but will still be limited to a 13A fuse in the plug where it connects to the wall socket.

The reason the 6 and 8 way power strips are expensive is because they usually have some form of overload and/or short circuit protection in them. Most cheap 4-gang extensions simply rely on a 13A fuse in the mains plug for protection.

I bought some (one 8 plug, one 12) of these recently. The inbuilt usb was a selling point as it meant I could ditch all but one of my usb adaptors (my dac seems to create an earth loop if it's plugged into it) under the telly.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384734066964?var=652686609269

To be honest, Seb, I'd trust that as far as I could throw it. No mention of any BS/EU standards conformance there (other than BS1363/A, which is the standard for the UK 3 pin plug). John Ward has has some run-ins with Hulker-brand chinese extensions before:

[Memorex MP3]

RE: ones with USB baked in, I have had enough situations where a crappy USB charger eventually starts doing a high pitched hum when plugged in that I'd rather keep the USB stuff separate.

What's the risk factor with using heaters on standard 4 socket cheap ones? Just frying the cheap adapter or fucking everything else connected?

[buzby]

What's the risk factor with using heaters on standard 4 socket cheap ones? Just frying the cheap adapter or fucking everything else connected?

Although 4-way extensions are usually rated for 13A loads, they aren't really designed to see the whole 13A load through a single socket. The contact material in the sockets of a cheap extension is a fraction of the thickness of the material of the contacts in a wall socket (and instead of being copper or brass, on cheap extensions they are usually copper or brass plated 'mystery metal').

If you have 4 low current devices pulling 3A through each socket on the strip it will usually be OK, but an electric fire pulling something like 10A through one socket of the strip with a dodgy high resistance contact connection can cause it to heat up to the point of melting or setting fire to the strip, or if it's got a crappy copper plated aluminium mains lead, melting the flex (John Ward has a few other videos demonstrating these failures). The more expensive 4-way strips have a separate fuse or circuit breaker in the strip itself to prevent an overload overheating the flex or plug,

I've seen enough melted plugs (and even wall sockets) from high resistance connections on plugs of portable electric heaters over the years to be particularly wary of their use in general, never mind through an extension. We actually had one go up in one of the offices in work on Monday - the fan in the heater died, and it must not have had a high-temperature safety cutout in it as it the element then overheated and it went up in flames.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yeah when I do homebrew I tend to do 3 kettle loads of water back-to-back (just over a gallon) and I was quite surprised how warm the kettle pins can get into a proper wall socket.

Will look into those extensions to see if they're in danger of burning my flat down. Can't trust anything these days.

[Jerzy Bondov]

What's actually a good, trusted brand of extension leads? I had a gimmicky one behind my telly from Amazon and it got recalled due to, to quote the OPSS, "serious risk of fire". Ended up getting a Masterplug one to replace it as they seemed like a proper company instead of AUXIXIBAO or whatever.

[buzby]

What's actually a good, trusted brand of extension leads? I had a gimmicky one behind my telly from Amazon and it got recalled due to, to quote the OPSS, "serious risk of fire". Ended up getting a Masterplug one to replace it as they seemed like a proper company instead of AUXIXIBAO or whatever.

Ideally you want one that conforms to BS1363/A (the UK standard for plugs) and BS5733/A (the UK standard for electrical accessories) and has some protection device in the socket strip, such as surge protection, individual fuses per socket or a global fuse (in the strip itself, not just in the plug). Something like this from CPC.

[touchingcloth]

I don't bother checking all those sorts of things on my plugs, because as a member of the fire alarm community I trust that I will be alerted to any issues of overheating in a timely manner.

[gilbertharding]

I worked in an office once where four people's desk's worths of computers were daisy-chained off a load of extension leads - because the desks were in the middle of the room, and there were no floor sockets.

It all went fairly well until it got cold, and someone plugged a fan heater into his four-way.

It worked OK until it suddenly didn't. Once we realised *why* the fuse had blown, we found the entire cable was too hot to touch - the PVC sheathing had almost melted. Thing is, this fucking idiot should have known better (he was an architectural technician), but was as thick as shit.

Now - is it true that you should uncoil the whole 50m extension lead from the reel before you use it? Or is that only really important if you want to run it continuously?

[buzby]

I worked in an office once where four people's desk's worths of computers were daisy-chained off a load of extension leads - because the desks were in the middle of the room, and there were no floor sockets.

It all went fairly well until it got cold, and someone plugged a fan heater into his four-way.

It worked OK until it suddenly didn't. Once we realised *why* the fuse had blown, we found the entire cable was too hot to touch - the PVC sheathing had almost melted. Thing is, this fucking idiot should have known better (he was an architectural technician), but was as thick as shit.

Now - is it true that you should uncoil the whole 50m extension lead from the reel before you use it? Or is that only really important if you want to run it continuously?

The 'fan heater in desk socket' thing is the reason why proper office/desk extension wiring systems that are daisy chained with Wieland GST connector cables have individual 3A fuses in each socket. Anything with enough current draw to cause the long runs of cable to heat up from their own resistance will blow the fuse before there's a chance of a fire.

The 'uncoiling a reel extension lead' is definitiely true. It's not so much a functino of how long it's used for, it's how much current is being drawn through it that causes the coiled up cable to overheat and catch fire. Decent ones will generally have 2 power ratings printed onto the reel - one for when it's uncoiled (usually 13A) and one for when it's coiled up (generally about half the power rating - usually 5-6A). Again, the better ones usualy have a thermal cutout trip built into the reel to prevent them getting as far as catching fire.

[touchingcloth]

These British extension reels are a cunt



I've never seen ones that are designed to (try and) coil the cables internally in Europe, where the external kind more like a cotton reel is ubiquitous

[gilbertharding]

It's not so much a function of how long it's used for, it's how much current is being drawn through it that causes the coiled up cable to overheat and catch fire.

Yes... but if I just want to drill two holes, and only need to uncoil half the length of the extension lead to do so... it's probably (read: definitely) not going to fail on either account, is it?

[buzby]

Yes... but if I just want to drill two holes, and only need to uncoil half the length of the extension lead to do so... it's probably (read: definitely) not going to fail on either account, is it?

Provided your drill doesn't draw less than the rated current for the coiled-up reel then no. Most consumer-spec drills won't draw more than 5A so you would be safe. It's when you start getting to the big SDS hammer drills that have motors that are rated at 2000-3000W then it may become an issue (for drilling holes in walls these days most people would use a cordless drill anyway, unless it's in material hard or thick enough to require an SDS drill).

The conductors inside the cable will heat up almost instantly due to their own resistance (and the longer the cable is, the more resistance it will have) as soon as the current flows as copper (or copper plated aluminium) are both very good conductors of heat. It's the insulation's job to soak up that heat as best as it can and dissipate it to the surrounding air, and ifit's been specced correctly it will always stay below it's melting point for the current it was designed to handle. When the reel is coiled up, there is no air to dissipate it to so the insulation then reaches it's melting point faster. If you have a reel of cable of the same length with thinner insulation, it will overheat quicker.

The cable reel in the video I linked to was a heavy duty type with thermal protection and thicker insulation on the cable. Most domestic reels have no protection and use cable with thinner insulation, which will heat up quicker. These usually have a correspondingly lower rating printed on them (I have one here that's rated or 5A fully wound/10A fully unwound), unless it's a blag one from China where they either make it up or not put it on at all.

[gilbertharding]

What I was driving at was that time is a factor as well as current (which is why you were quoting Watts).

[bgmnts]

I've been using a small electrical heater, plugged into my 4 port extension lead all throughout the winter with no trouble at all.

Is my room going to set on fire soon or something?

[buzby]

I've been using a small electrical heater, plugged into my 4 port extension lead all throughout the winter with no trouble at all.

Is my room going to set on fire soon or something?

What is the power rating in Watts of the heater?
Do the live and neutral pins on the plug of the heater. the plug on the extension or the cable itself heat up to any appreciable degree while it's in use?

[bgmnts]

No I don't think there's any heat coming from the plug itself, so that's a good sign.