{"id":4570,"date":"2012-10-10T07:15:41","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T14:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/?p=4570"},"modified":"2012-12-11T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T18:45:11","slug":"2012-10-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/?p=4570","title":{"rendered":"2012-10-10 Substandard Power Cord Is Fire Hazard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=5137\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5137\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5137\" title=\"DSC_0089S2\" src=\"http:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC_0089S2-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC_0089S2-234x300.jpg 234w, https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/DSC_0089S2.jpg 625w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px\" \/><\/a>I bought a PATA\/SATA to USB adapter that consists of the adapter, an AC power brick and assorted cables, including the power cord from the power brick to the wall outlet.\u00a0 This world standard power cord is just like the ones on PCs, monitors, printers, etc., but it&#8217;s short, about a\u00a0 meter long,\u00a0 But the most disturbing thing about it is the substandard wire used,\u00a0 This particular cord is marked 0.5mm<sup>2<\/sup> along its length, but other cords I&#8217;ve seen don&#8217;t have any markings.\u00a0 This wire is about the equivalent of 24 AWG.\u00a0 It&#8217;s tiny compared to a standard lamp cord, shown in the picture.\u00a0 The plug is labeled 10A 250V, implying that the cord itself can handle 10 amps.\u00a0 I cut off the plug and connected the line and neutral wires together (the colors of the wires are also non-standard &#8211; ground wire is blue instead of the standard green).\u00a0 I then measurd the resistance of the cord from the wall plug, and got 1.2 ohms.\u00a0 This is many times higher resistance than a power cord using 18 AWG wire.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s go through a scenario.\u00a0 The user leaves most of the cord bundled up with the wire tie around it.\u00a0 He then plugs it into a power strip and into a high current appliance, such as a big laser printer that draws 10 amps during the time the fuser element gets hot.\u00a0 The power cord&#8217;s 1.2 ohm resistance drops 12 volts at 10 amps.\u00a0 Power in watts is V times I, so 12V times 10 amps is 120 watts.\u00a0 What?!?!\u00a0 That means that the power cord will be dissipating so much power that it will overheat and catch fire!\u00a0 REALLY!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure why this is being sold in the U.S, because it will not meet the long established electrical and fire standards.\u00a0 Could it be that this is sneaking through the system without being caught?\u00a0 Every American made product such as inexpensive lamps must use a power cord that meets standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I bought a PATA\/SATA to USB adapter that consists of the adapter, an AC power brick and assorted cables, including the power cord from the power brick to the wall outlet.\u00a0 This world standard power cord is just like the ones on PCs, monitors, printers, etc., but it&#8217;s short, about a\u00a0 meter long,\u00a0 But the<a href=\"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/?p=4570\"> <\/p>\n<p> (Read More&#8230;)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lighting","category-meters-and-test-equipment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4570"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5133,"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4570\/revisions\/5133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rustybolt.info\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}