prime day has some okay deals on extension cords. I've been looking to get some but want OB's advice.
Here's what I need them for
1) I use a short one to plug in trickle charger for boat batteries. I'm thinking a medium duty would work here
2) wife plugs in lots of christmas lights
3) running with generator to power household items....fridge, fans, window unit a/c. At some point will get to adding sub panel outside and have generator that can plug in 30A directly via breaker box so that's a whole different level I will deal with later. For now just wanting quality cords to use until then.

any advice?

southwire is what I see at home depot and on prime day. the prime day deal is a little better...$26 vs $31

12gauge

trip98 said:

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prime day has some okay deals on extension cords. I've been looking to get some but want OB's advice.
Here's what I need them for
1) I use a short one to plug in trickle charger for boat batteries. I'm thinking a medium duty would work here
2) wife plugs in lots of christmas lights
3) running with generator to power household items....fridge, fans, window unit a/c. At some point will get to adding sub panel outside and have generator that can plug in 30A directly via breaker box so that's a whole different level I will deal with later. For now just wanting quality cords to use until then.

any advice?

southwire is what I see at home depot and on prime day. the prime day deal is a little better...$26 vs $31

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I got an electrician I know to put in a suicide plug at a panel outside (male plug coming out of the house). Better know what you are doing with that, tho.

GeorgiAg said:

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I got an electrician I know to put in a suicide plug at a panel outside (male plug coming out of the house). Better know what you are doing with that, tho.

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You're gonna love that at resale!

I'll just take it off. I wanted him to do a female receptacle so I could just have a male-male cord that I could plug in when I needed it. Then I'd just move out with it. But he went ahead and wired it like that. Pretty dumb on his part from a liability standpoint.

I just looked up a gauge chart like below

wow just a male receptacle, thats messed up. I made a suicide cord for some lights one year for a brief period while I had them up but this was plugged in right away so no open ends and then cut the ends off after I was finished.

For the wife?

GeorgiAg said:

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trip98 said:

---

prime day has some okay deals on extension cords. I've been looking to get some but want OB's advice.
Here's what I need them for
1) I use a short one to plug in trickle charger for boat batteries. I'm thinking a medium duty would work here
2) wife plugs in lots of christmas lights
3) running with generator to power household items....fridge, fans, window unit a/c. At some point will get to adding sub panel outside and have generator that can plug in 30A directly via breaker box so that's a whole different level I will deal with later. For now just wanting quality cords to use until then.

any advice?

southwire is what I see at home depot and on prime day. the prime day deal is a little better...$26 vs $31

---

I got an electrician I know to put in a suicide plug at a panel outside (male plug coming out of the house). Better know what you are doing with that, tho.

---

If I follow what I think you are referring too (basically easily back feeding power into your house) by saying suicide plug then that's not what we were planning on doing.
ours would be subpanel that generator plugs into and then have interlock on the breaker box so we have to manually direct it to which power source.

For your #3, get a 30amp cord to 115v to make use of that outlet in addition to the regular 115v outlets on your generator. Plug in things like fridge, freezer, etc. on it that have higher amp draws when the compressor starts up so you don't worry about tripping the 15a breakers on the regular plugs.

Amazon Link

This. I have a short one from Northern tools that works great.

trip98 said:

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GeorgiAg said:

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trip98 said:

---

prime day has some okay deals on extension cords. I've been looking to get some but want OB's advice.
Here's what I need them for
1) I use a short one to plug in trickle charger for boat batteries. I'm thinking a medium duty would work here
2) wife plugs in lots of christmas lights
3) running with generator to power household items....fridge, fans, window unit a/c. At some point will get to adding sub panel outside and have generator that can plug in 30A directly via breaker box so that's a whole different level I will deal with later. For now just wanting quality cords to use until then.

any advice?

southwire is what I see at home depot and on prime day. the prime day deal is a little better...$26 vs $31

---

I got an electrician I know to put in a suicide plug at a panel outside (male plug coming out of the house). Better know what you are doing with that, tho.

---

If I follow what I think you are referring too (basically easily back feeding power into your house) by saying suicide plug then that's not what we were planning on doing.
ours would be subpanel that generator plugs into and then have interlock on the breaker box so we have to manually direct it to which power source.

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There is a switch at the panel outside. We have a subpanel in the basement too with a switch there. So here is what I have to do when the power goes out:

• turn off main breaker so no power will feed back up the line - protects linemen working on the line.
• turn off breakers to things we don't need or drain too much power. E.g., one of two water heaters, some of the HVAC, etc...
• start generator and let it warm up.
• plug in the cord coming out of my wall into the generator.
• flip outside switch on
• flip inside switch on at basement subpanel.

So there are two switches you would have to turn on to have a dangerous 220 hot cord but that is still not up to code. (AFAIK)