Advice needed on new extenison cable reel...how much choice?

[Lusi83]

Not sure if this shouldn't be in electrics but ...
I had a good quality professional 40m one - old though so no thermal cut out. Someone (not me!) managed to overload it (an electric convector heater) -the coils all melted together..

Need a new one -with thermal cut out but got all confused now - amps? cable size? open or enclosed reel? IP44 rated? fixed sockets?

Just for DIY/gardening...

Not sure I need 40m (choice seems to be mainly 25 or 50m) -never used it at full stretch- but moving to a new house soon - bigger garden is about 28m long.

I will need to use it with hedge trimmer but all the hedges are closer to the house. At bottom of garden there are trees I might need to take a power saw to at some point ...and I will need to mow down to about 23m from socket but lawnmower has long lead.

Thinking maybe I should get a 25m one (so not so heavy/bulky) and then plug in to a small extension lead if I really need to get right to the bottom of the garden. (unless this will be too annoying in anyone's experience?)

Think highest power consumption will be using power tools (eg drill/angle grinder/ pmf), maybe work light, and a hoover when it is preferably not fully uncoiled....amp rating for that? does having open/handbag style or enclosed reels make a difference to that? (I'm inclined to enclosed/handbang cos old open reel cable tangling used to annoy me.)
Is IP44 rated worth it? (thinking you shouldn't be using electric tools in the rain anyway? -but have managed to angle grind through a pipe in past filled with standing water which sprayed everywhere )
Fixed sockets? (can see why- an annoyance in the past - but unless I'm missing something they all seem to be a lot of extra £££££ )
(What I do think would be handy too are switched sockets -less faff changing blades/bits etc but I often use a switched double adapter)
House has RCD protection -so don't need to worry about that

Help - just too much choice!

 

[dhutch]

Not sure if this shouldn't be in electrics but ...
I had a good quality professional 40m one - old though so no thermal cut out. Someone (not me!) managed to overload it (an electric convector heater) -the coils all melted together..

Need a new one -with thermal cut out but got all confused now - amps? cable size? open or enclosed reel? IP44 rated? fixed sockets?

Just for DIY/gardening...

Not sure I need 40m (choice seems to be mainly 25 or 50m) -never used it at full stretch- but moving to a new house soon - bigger garden is about 28m long.

I will need to use it with hedge trimmer but all the hedges are closer to the house. At bottom of garden there are trees I might need to take a power saw to at some point ...and I will need to mow down to about 23m from socket but lawnmower has long lead.

Thinking maybe I should get a 25m one (so not so heavy/bulky) and then plug in to a small extension lead if I really need to get right to the bottom of the garden. (unless this will be too annoying in anyone's experience?)

Think highest power consumption will be using power tools (eg drill/angle grinder/ pmf), maybe work light, and a hoover when it is preferably not fully uncoiled....amp rating for that? does having open/handbag style or enclosed reels make a difference to that? (I'm inclined to enclosed/handbang cos old open reel cable tangling used to annoy me.)
Is IP44 rated worth it? (thinking you shouldn't be using electric tools in the rain anyway? -but have managed to angle grind through a pipe in past filled with standing water which sprayed everywhere )
Fixed sockets? (can see why- an annoyance in the past - but unless I'm missing something they all seem to be a lot of extra £££££ )
(What I do think would be handy too are switched sockets -less faff changing blades/bits etc but I often use a switched double adapter)
House has RCD protection -so don't need to worry about that

Help - just too much choice!

All reels have their current rating, coiled and uncoiled, writen on the side of them. Almost all items will have there current draw on them, or atleast there power (watts / 230volt = amps).

For very short periods you will get away with pulling more power through them coiled than they state, but a long way from ideal and the thermal cutouts are a bit hit and miss.

If 20/25m is enough, its less to spool out each time. You may even want to buy a 10 and a 25.

Some are made from 1mm cable and have a rating of 10amps or so, others are 1.5 or even 2mm^2 often this isnt on the lable, but is on the side of the cable itself. More copper is better....


Daniel

 

[Jackrae]

The biggest mistake people make with extension reels is loading them when without uncoiling them completely. As previous writer stated, they can be used in the coiled state but i would suggest pulling no more than 10% of their rating if left coiled. Learning by example is one way to learn - I managed a beautiful "melt-down" of a complete reel by loading it to its capacity whilst still coiled.

 

[dhutch]

Which is exactly what the OP has done , or had done, to theres.

Seen the same myself at the uni motor club, some one doing a lot of angle grinding without it uncoiled. Pealing the coil apart they where all trangular shaped, and after cutting it into 10m lenghts, there where several shorts thoughout it between phase, neutal and earth. Messy!

Again, for slitting the head of a bolt, you would get away with it, mauling a wire brush into a rottern supra for an hour, not so much.


Daniel

 

[Burnerman]

Screwfix 54615, 47295 have thermal cut outs, 88859 has power and earth indicators, 92372 series has RCD protection too.
John

 

[Lusi83]

Thanks -so looking at lots of reels online they don't say coiled/uncoiled - they say they have a maximum load of 3120 watts - so if I understand that means a 1600 watt hoover, 550w drill and 11 w bulb would be fine on one of these if fully uncoiled...
but not coiled if can only take 10% load (312W) ....couldn't even do the drill!
partially uncoiled does that increase proportionately? - so half uncoiled 50% or something (never realised how complicated this would be!)
My thoughts now are to get something like this
A 8m 13A 240v Enclosed Cable Reel - 1.25mm HO5VVF cable
And a 25m 13A but 1mm cable (semi enclosed) - as more likely to only use one thing at a time in garden and garden vacs (which I don't have but might end up with) seem to have the highest load of 2600 watts and it would be more likely to be uncoiled...

And assuming plugging one into the other for the extra length would be fine?

(Jackrae I know about the cable melt down - thought at first that I might be able to salvage some cable from my old reel -but can't even get it off - parts of it are fused together in a solid mass, centre of reel is melted - even bits where the outside of the cable look ok inside the copper looks burnished! - actually a bit cross - the plasterer did the same thing - I could smell burning plastic and realised his reel had got very hot ....so I had warned the electricians (I kid you not!) before they used mine!)

 

[Lusi83]

Looking at screwfix ones and some of them have on/off switches on the reels - fantastic! Will have to have a closer look (was looking at toolstation)...
Don't want one with a RCD plug - they are too big ...that's how I wrecked my outside socket in this house...I was trying to plug a circuit breaker in and it snapped the hinge (pushed cover too far back) - then was told in fact I didn't need one - my consumer unit (and one in new house) have built in RCDs...

 

[Jackrae]

Even partially coiled at a reasonable load gives you a problem. The rating of the cable is based on "free ventilation" of the casing. If you have more than one layer on the reel there is no way the inner layer can ventilate.

 

[Burnerman]

Here's another way of looking at it......your mains supply of 250v will allow you to draw a current of 13 amps maximum (thats the plug fuse size) which equates to a maximum wattage load of 3000w.
Thats definitely uncoiled!
With the reels you mention, you can join them together.
Go for the heaviest duty cable there is - you never know, at some time you might have the need to use a heavy duty appliance connected up.
An overheated coiled cable reel would be unlikely to pop the thermal cut out in time to prevent a wee blaze.
John