WARNING-Check your Extension Cords!

[jfuller8400]

Hi All,

I was working on running an extension cord during setup today and just by (almost) random chance came across this:

I don't want to imagine all of the bad things that could/would have happened if this had become energized.

Just a reminder to carefully check all of your extension cords!

 

[Orville]

I always check mine as I lay them out to the item they're going to.  If I find bad or defective ones, get another cord and send that one to the repair pile to be fixed and used again at a later time.   I never toss any extension cords, instead of growing, they sometimes shrink and get used in location where a shorter cord would work better than a standard length one.  Even though I re-manufacture my own extension cords every year or build new ones if needed.

[TheDucks]

Was that Rat chew or a abrasion from something moving?

[rcktpwrd]

I have repaired a couple of ours that looked similar to that from possible squirrel damage!  Always good practice to look over all the wiring during install and take down.

[dibblejr]

I do not set up any cords without running them through my hands while setting up. If I feel anything I look. Luckily even with my barns and all the squirrels I have never had a problem with wires. Since I don't have complete feeling in either hand I have to look extra hard.

Did have a squirrel get into our shower one night. Came through the vent. Took forever to finally catch him.

JR

[wallleyes]

Watch out for those rabbits. They loved my green cords.

[Orville]

3 hours ago, wallleyes said:

Watch out for those rabbits. They loved my green cords.

I don't have that problem.  I have issues with idiot neighbors that allow their dogs to roam free all over the neighborhood.  Have had to run them out out my yard numerous times.  We have leash laws here and it's also a rule in the manufactured home park. 

But these buffoons don't follow them!   And animal control in my area is TOTALLY USELESS when you make complaints about these dadgum nuisances! Especially when I have to clean up after the miserable little crapper!

I swear I'm extremely tempted to buy a paint ball gun and start marking them on the butt!  Then tell the office manager, you want to know  which dogs are a nuisance?  Just look for a big GREEN splotch on their backsides then YOU WILL KNOW the culrprits and can violate the STUPID OWNERS of said MUTT{S}!

I've had to replace 2 cords already because of these so-called dogs running the neighborhood.  management here really needs to get on the ball and DO SOMETHING ABOUT THEM!  Or I'm going to start leaving things on full power during daylight hours when these mutts are coming around and then they may just fry when they bite into a nice LIVE electrical cord!    I dislike harming ANY animal, but when an owner doesn't follow the rules or take responsibility for their pet{s}, sorry, but then the gloves have to come off.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Orville

[Orville]

11 hours ago, dibblejr said:

I do not set up any cords without running them through my hands while setting up. If I feel anything I look. Luckily even with my barns and all the squirrels I have never had a problem with wires. Since I don't have complete feeling in either hand I have to look extra hard.

Did have a squirrel get into our shower one night. Came through the vent. Took forever to finally catch him.

JR

You should have videoed that and sent it to America's Funniest Videos, just think if you'd have won what you could have bought with that $10,000 prize for your display and we all could have seen a really amusing and funny video too!  I can just imagine someone chasing a squirrel all over the house to get it out.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[dibblejr]

18 minutes ago, Orville said:

You should have videoed that and sent it to America's Funniest Videos, just think if you'd have won what you could have bought with that $10,000 prize for your display and we all could have seen a really amusing and funny video too!  I can just imagine someone chasing a squirrel all over the house to get it out.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

He never got into the house.

Def wasn’t thinking about AFV I was think more like that Christmas movie with the family and the squirrel gets in the house and bites the grandma. Then the tree dries out and burns. I think John Candy is in that movie.

We were sleeping and I heard shampoo bottles fall. Thought that’s strange nobodies here.

Went to the bathroom and turned on the light and the squirrel was trying to jump through the glass shower door. He was jumping on the rack that holds shampoo bottles or whatever and it would sway so he couldn’t make the jump.

I didn’t want to open the door because then he would get in the house.

I was trying to catch him with my fish net from over the top of the shower door but after an hour was getting no where.

wouldnt have been a good movie for AFV because in the end I used one of those rodent sticky traps and just made him jump until he was stuck. Then I scooped him up and took him out in the woods.

He wasn’t there the next morning so thinking a fox or coyote had an easy meal.

Contractor that remodeled our bathroom failed to properly secure the vent fan/ light. Some new design- looks like a floodlight but also has a fan.

Our house is a death trap for squirrels. They always get in at the same point and for whatever reason they fall between the wall studs about 30’ to the next level. Stuck between dining room and boys bedroom wall. They will jump for a couple days and then silence.

Last year I hung bed sheets in that gap and haven’t heard a squirrel since.

JR

[Orville]

Wow.  I'd be thinking all those "dead" squirrels inside the walls like that would have created on awful smell in the house, unless they did finally manage a way out of there.  I'd be finding me some way to seal that vent to keep the squirrels out with something, if that's even possible without having to tear everything out and redo it.

Still sounded a bit amusing, even though it was only trapped in the bathroom.  I've seen some videos on AFV that I didn't think deserved to win, didn't find them all that amusing, but somehow they still won.   So you never know what someone will find extremely funny and others won't.

Never hurts to try, and by some fluke the video would win, just think of all the stuff you could buy for your display and get that vent fixed! LOL

[LOR Staff]

Inspecting your equipment is an integral part of any safe installation

Ensuring all safety systems (which for us are mainly fuses and GFCIs) are working properly is a MUST.

Safety can be maximized and faults minimized by treating both as chains:  Place as many links as you can into safety-- in turn they break the links that cause faults.

An accident is an accident only if you tried to prevent it before it occurs.  Otherwise it's an ON PURPOSE.  You don't want those.

[dibblejr]

2 hours ago, Orville said:

Wow.  I'd be thinking all those "dead" squirrels inside the walls like that would have created on awful smell in the house, unless they did finally manage a way out of there.  I'd be finding me some way to seal that vent to keep the squirrels out with something, if that's even possible without having to tear everything out and redo it.

Still sounded a bit amusing, even though it was only trapped in the bathroom.  I've seen some videos on AFV that I didn't think deserved to win, didn't find them all that amusing, but somehow they still won.   So you never know what someone will find extremely funny and others won't.

Never hurts to try, and by some fluke the video would win, just think of all the stuff you could buy for your display and get that vent fixed! LOL

NEver a smell but you can see bones with a video cam. I believe the decaying smell may go straight up the attic.

Yes the contractor (same company) came back and secured the fan to the studs in the attic, like it was sup to be 4 years ago. Even after that time once I told them what happened their crew was sent out to fix with no cost to me. Not my fault.

If I did everything to get cash I wouldn't be sharing all of my sequences. Man I could truly be rich then. LOL When my grandfather passed away in 1987 greed took over the family and the family farm was auctioned off. Had I not been overseas with the USMC I would have purchased the dairy farm that was his legacy and to this date miss him and milking cows dearly.

JR

[Orville]

55 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

NEver a smell but you can see bones with a video cam. I believe the decaying smell may go straight up the attic.

Yes the contractor (same company) came back and secured the fan to the studs in the attic, like it was sup to be 4 years ago. Even after that time once I told them what happened their crew was sent out to fix with no cost to me. Not my fault.

If I did everything to get cash I wouldn't be sharing all of my sequences. Man I could truly be rich then. LOL When my grandfather passed away in 1987 greed took over the family and the family farm was auctioned off. Had I not been overseas with the USMC I would have purchased the dairy farm that was his legacy and to this date miss him and milking cows dearly.

JR

I've had similar issues in my family, my great grandparents had a tobacco farm, they had around or over 500 acres, when they passed away, like you, family greed took over and they sold the farm.  When they sold it, they also lost a LIFETIME of revenue from the Railroad that paid a monthly fee to cross their land, curt right through the middle of the tobacco fields.  When they sold it, all right of way on each side of the tracks reverted to ownership to current RailRoad owners.  They acquired all that land and 300 feet {600 feet total} on each side of the tracks for any future expansion they may want to add.   Originally with the least it was the trackage and 75 feet {150 feet total} on either side of the tracks.  That was a nice deal they had made, and all lost when they sold the farm to strangers.   I still wonder what happened to the family cemetery that was on the site as well.

Relatives can sure be STUPID!   Especially when they think they can make a profit, but in reality, they lost it when they lost the Railroad revenue they'd have gotten every month.  And last count I had heard the current owners before the sale of the property was paying close to $125,000.00 for the right of way through the farm.  As said, STUPID!  Now the RR pays nothing and owns that strip of land because the farm is no longer in our family.  They thought they could sell it and still collect the revenue from the RR, they found out via contract signed by my late great grandparents, if the property was sold OUTSIDE the family, RR takes control and ownership of the property.   Some idiots just DO NOT bother to research things like that before making STUPID decisions!

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by Orville