Conspiracy?
Yet again, in the Feb. edition of the Club magazine, some well meaning person has found it necessary to tell us that we must fully unreel our EHU cables.
Now, I don't want to start a discussion / fight about this, but I am suspicious at how often this subject is brought up. Are there members who feel we need "educated" or could it be that the CC is behind this? Hmmmmm....
Comments
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Has anyone actually seen one of these coiled up extension leads burst into flames ?
I'd have thought that tripping over a randomly unfurled cable was a much more likely hazard.
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Has anyone actually seen one of these coiled up extension leads burst into flames ?
I'd have thought that tripping over a randomly unfurled cable was a much more likely hazard.
Never seen one burst into flames, but I've seen a few extension leads become a melted mass of insulation.
If you trip over my unfurled cable I would want to know why you were under my bathroom window
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I rarely unwind my cable fully. Next time your on an industrial site look at how many cables are tightly packed on cable trays and often cable is left on drums (particularly what's called temporary light) and powered up for long periods with no effect.
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There was a very good photo published in one of the magazines of a flaming umbilical coiled up under the vehicle. I don't do it and if you trip over mine you shouldn't be in my space! Its the TV aerial cables that are a real hazzard as they don't lie flat
on the ground. At least one of the extension cables I have at home has the direction on it to unroll it before you switch on. Why take the risk?0 -
Good grief. What a load of tosh. If the club wanted to bring it to our attention they would merely insert a small article in the magazine.
Letters are one of three things
1. Praising the club to the high heavans
2. Taking errant fellow members to task about dogs or kids on bikes or speeding or speeding dogs on bikes or cables not being unwound etc.etc.
3. Passing on some bit of information that will make our life easier or harder depending on which way you view it.
Conspiracies they ain't.
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... Next time your on an industrial site look at how many cables are tightly packed on cable trays and .....
They're not coiled up though are they
and that's the difference. You can get away with leaving a cable in a coil if the load is small eg lighting
but it's not a good idea0 -
I've just read it , did not take very long to read , and yes it came up about the cable , why we wonder ! Volvo which costs a mere £40,000 if I had one of those would I bother to tow a caravan no I would be booking into a 5 star hotel , I read in dismay
about the pitch fees for Easter everyone time to book a travel Lodge !! Caravan Club let's have some down to earth reviews on cars and caravans which we can all afford !!!0 -
...., why we wonder ! Volvo which costs a mere £40,000 if I had one of those would I bother to tow a caravan no I would be booking into a 5 star hotel .... Caravan Club let's have some down to earth reviews on cars and caravans which we can all afford !!!
You could equally say the same about £100k motor homes, but people buy them.
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Read through the letters, nice to see a compliment for the Rowntree Park wardens following the flood warnings. I do hope there weren't many who abused the wardens, surely the site is a known flood risk and with all the news and forecasts it could hardly
have come as a surprise.I'm wondering what was the actual article about the Dusseldorf Caravan show, photos of vans and banal comments on the manufacturers, took up two pages, but I learnt nothing.
I have to agree with some who say they don't bother with the magazine. I find it very formulaic and the articles on sites are so short on real detail, 4 sites in 6 pages two of which are a photo of a pier, really just a description of the site and a few
bits about hte area, almost what you can get from the site handbook.I'm a great reader and used to enjoy the mag, but find I skim read most of it these days sadly.
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Every electrician I have spoken to has said coiled cables can be dangerous confiming what little of the physics we did at school. I do know using an extension cable at home and not uncoiling it to save time I did find it getting rather warm.
I do see lots coiled on site despite the warnings but you have to kerp pushing the point. From what I know even if they are not catchi g fire they can be destroyed and at best there working life eill be shortened. The saving grace is that in general the
amount of current passing through does ebb and flow so high power use is going to be limited.0 -
Without sounding like the cable police, As a qualified electrician/ electrical engineer I can advise that it is advisable to unreel cables. The reason being is to avoid heat build up which could melt insulation and cause a serious problem.
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Read through the letters, nice to see a compliment for the Rowntree Park wardens following the flood warnings. I do hope there weren't many who abused the wardens, surely the site is a known flood risk and with all the news and forecasts it could hardly
have come as a surprise.I'm wondering what was the actual article about the Dusseldorf Caravan show, photos of vans and banal comments on the manufacturers, took up two pages, but I learnt nothing.
I have to agree with some who say they don't bother with the magazine. I find it very formulaic and the articles on sites are so short on real detail, 4 sites in 6 pages two of which are a photo of a pier, really just a description of the site and a few
bits about hte area, almost what you can get from the site handbook.I'm a great reader and used to enjoy the mag, but find I skim read most of it these days sadly.
Agree again Bakers. The only things I really look at are the updates for club sites and CLs. Takes me about 10 mins to get through it.
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Personally I think it a good policy to fully unwind the cable at all times. Just a week ago our fully unwound cable, when pulling 3kw was sufficiently warmer than the inch of snow that it melted the covering. In a coiled heap it would generate significant
heat. In the summer, depending on what you are pulling, I don't suppose there would be much of a problem. One of my home cable reels states it can be used for 8amps fully wound, 13 amps unwound. Although a home extension lead is not generally in use 24 hours
a day. The best policy is to take no chances and fully unwind.0 -
I rarely unwind my cable fully. Next time your on an industrial site look at how many cables are tightly packed on cable trays and often cable is left on drums (particularly what's called temporary light) and powered up for long periods with no effect.
Write your comments here...Because they are not fully unwound and there has not been an incident does not mean that it is acceptable to do so. Magnetic fields are generated due to wound coils of live cable.
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I understand how coils of wire with current flowing through generate a magnetic field, the basis of a solenoid for example, but how does a magnetic field generate heat? I thought that electrical resistance did that, if so how does a coil provide the right
level of resistance to set fires?0 -
I haven't got a cable drum. I just coil it loosely for stowage and in use lay out as much as I need. The rest lays in an approximately random coiled pile.
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Can we dismiss the nonsense about magnetic fields.? The heating effect is all about trapping the heat in a small space i.e. a coil. The effect is present in dc systems as well. Keeping your mains lead coiled up is bad practice and the letter writer was doing
no harm in pointing that out.0 -
If someone is casual about how they treat their cable, I feel it is more likely that there was a fault in their cable, rather than got overheated. Once a short has established, it could blow a circuit but should ideally be contained to the bollard.
The overheating thing is possible but I think you’d need to work hard at it to be ‘successful’. There seems to be enough people trying.
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Of course the other good reason to uncoil it each time, is, that it then tends to lie fairly flat when you do need it all uncoiled. I have two one 10 m the other 25 m. When the 25 m has not been used for several months, as we have been using the short cable,
it takes ages to flatten out.0 -
Steve, that's because you are not coiling properly when stored. As any sailor will tell you you should coil it as follows: one normal over the hand turn then the next twist your wrist backwards and place cable over hand do this atenating until all coiled.
A quick shake and it drops neatly no knots and lays flat. Hope you can understand this; there is a video somewhere showing this but can't find it.0
