Double ended male adapters are immoral!

wbarnhill

wbarnhill

Final Approach
Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
7,901
Location
Greenwood, SC
Display Name
iEXTERMINATE
Home Airfield
KGYH
http://consumerist.com/5123592/ace-hardware-is-tired-of-people-asking-for-double-ended-male-adapters

At the risk of allowing this post to devolve into a discussion about the morality of "double ended male" products in general — we thought we'd share this photo of a sign spotted in the window of an ACE Hardware store. It reads:
Double ended male "adapters" are illegal, dangerous, a fire hazard, and possible [sic] immoral.
If you have need of this "adapter" you have hung a string of lights backwards.
​
Click to expand...
Picture of the sign at the link. Safe for work (though the ensuing discussion may not be!)

Seriously, how many people had to ask for one of these things for the store to feel the need to put up a sign!?
 
In the theatre we had an 50ft extension cord made up like that for some totally unknown reason. Flipping dangerous. Every time cords were laying everywhere, someone always needed another cord and plugged that thing in. More than one person got popped or popped something with it. Sparks and jumpy people everywhere.

The last time I saw someone grab it, I walked over, politely took it out of their hands, chopped the plug off one end with a skill saw and handed it back to them and said "there ya go, mr sparky is dead now" and calmly walked away. I got some pretty strange looks for the rest of the day.
 
fgcason said:
In the theatre we had an 50ft extension cord made up like that for some totally unknown reason. Flipping dangerous. Every time cords were laying everywhere, someone always needed another cord and plugged that thing in. More than one person got popped or popped something with it. Sparks and jumpy people everywhere.

The last time I saw someone grab it, I walked over, politely took it out of their hands, chopped the plug off one end with a skill saw and handed it back to them and said "there ya go, mr sparky is dead now" and calmly walked away. I got some pretty strange looks for the rest of the day.
Click to expand...

I've got a suicide cord that I made to plug yea olde generator into the garage outlet so I can power the rest of the house (after pulling the mains, of course). But it's not something to leave lying around for random people to plug in...
 
I bought the sub-panel and a couple of Honda I-waves at OSH (office expenses) this year, gotta get sparky over to wire them in. The gens have a box to hook them together for heavy work, but one of them should run the house except for the dryer and AC.

quote=Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe;394387]I've got a suicide cord that I made to plug yea olde generator into the garage outlet so I can power the rest of the house (after pulling the mains, of course). But it's not something to leave lying around for random people to plug in...
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]
 
fgcason said:
The last time I saw someone grab it, I walked over, politely took it out of their hands, chopped the plug off one end with a skill saw and handed it back to them and said "there ya go, mr sparky is dead now" and calmly walked away. I got some pretty strange looks for the rest of the day.
Click to expand...

:rofl:
 
fgcason said:
In the theatre we had an 50ft extension cord made up like that for some totally unknown reason. Flipping dangerous. Every time cords were laying everywhere, someone always needed another cord and plugged that thing in. More than one person got popped or popped something with it. Sparks and jumpy people everywhere.

The last time I saw someone grab it, I walked over, politely took it out of their hands, chopped the plug off one end with a skill saw and handed it back to them and said "there ya go, mr sparky is dead now" and calmly walked away. I got some pretty strange looks for the rest of the day.
Click to expand...

I would have given you a medal...I have been known to take a pair of linemans pliers and cut connectors that my tech terminated wrong...

They HATE that...
 
fgcason said:
The last time I saw someone grab it, I walked over, politely took it out of their hands, chopped the plug off one end with a skill saw and handed it back to them and said "there ya go, mr sparky is dead now" and calmly walked away. I got some pretty strange looks for the rest of the day.
Click to expand...

I've taken more than one bad cable out of service with a pair of wire cutters. Labels saying 'NFG' just don't hack it. If it's bad, make sure it is obvious to the most obtuse person in the lab (who could be me).
 
A friend has a maintenance shop. His dad would come around and from time to time he would pick up a pair of wire cutters and remove the male end of an extension cord for no apparent reason and pocket said member. Many times a mechanic would be heard cursing, "___ been in here again!":rofl:
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I've got a suicide cord that I made to plug yea olde generator into the garage outlet so I can power the rest of the house (after pulling the mains, of course). But it's not something to leave lying around for random people to plug in...
Click to expand...

You might already know this but..

If your generator is 120v you can do this fairly safely by plugging the non-generator side into a 240v outlet protected by a 2 pole CB. Wire the hot 120v output of the generator to both sides of the 240v plug. This still leaves the prongs on the 240 plug energized if you run the generator with the house end unplugged. But it eliminates any possibility of reverse powering the grid since the pole-pig will appear as a dead short to the generator if you forget to pull the main disconnect (or someone else turns it back on while the generator is running). AFaIK backfeeding a 120v circuit (e.g. connecting without a transfer switch) is illegal in many places but doing it the way I suggest is called out in (at least the old) National Electric Code. Note that this only works with a 2-pole CB between the 240v outlet and the service. With fuses one could blow leaving the other to energize the grid.
 
Backfeeding is illegal in the US as far as I know. There have been a few linemen zapped (and killed) by the misapplication of electricity to the grid in this manner.

I use a transfer switch as well. My grandfather installed it in the late 70s and has been used probably 14 days or less since then, still, considering the possibility of feeding 10KW back into the grid, it was a good choice even if it was expensive.

Just my two cents though.

--Matt Rogers
 
lancefisher said:
You might already know this but..

If your generator is 120v you can do this fairly safely by plugging the non-generator side into a 240v outlet protected by a 2 pole CB. Wire the hot 120v output of the generator to both sides of the 240v plug. ....
Click to expand...

When I Googled that I came across claims that there are issues because you aren't isolating the neutral.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top