There is a reason for USB-C extensions not to be part of the standard. They can be bothersome in the best case and dangerous in the worst.
The issue of chaining extension cords is that you can physically plug a 10 amp extension cord into a 30 amp cord. If you don’t know what amps the device will pull, the 10 amp cord can overheat.
It’s an almost identical problem to USB c.
Why in the everloving would your electrical code allow sales of extension cords that can’t withstand the whole of the plug/socket rating. If it’s an adapter from a higher amperage plug to lower amperage socket you need a fuse.
The short answer is rating changed. We got more and more devices that required higher amperage ratings. So we went from 110 (which was what most homes were rated for in the 50’s) to 120. But if you happened to have an old extension cord lying around in your basement from before the change etc you absolutely could overload it.
The real problem though is that some devices you might use an extension cord for (lets say a welder because I know from experience those require more power than a standard 20’ extension cord puts out), require a certain gauge of wire to carry that power. If that wire is too small or the power source is insufficient, it’s likely no electricity will flow (without flaws in the circuit).
There are various kinds of extension cords made for various uses. Longer = more money, fused = more money, larger wire = more money. More insulation/weather proof plugs = more money.
You probably don’t need a big beefy extension cord for the lamp in the hallway. But you might need it for your weedwacker.
But if, say you hooked up an outlet dedicated for something like a washer/dryer. And you used the correct extension cord to connect to that outlet. Now let’s say you attach an older extension cord or power strip to that extension cord. One that doesn’t have an internal breaker to trip (there’s definitely a fair number that didn’t, back in the day). It would be an astronomically bad idea to attach your welder (or any high draw device) to that circuit. You absolutely can and will let the smoke out of your wires and where there is smoke there is fire.
110/120 is the voltage. That’s irrelevant to the amperage, which is somewhat standardized as 15a on normal outlets and 20a on kitchen or garage outlets.
Extension cords do not have fuses/circuit breakers. That’s found in some power strips but it’s neither required nor necessary with proper use.
And I can literally only reach my car with a welder if I use an extension cord…
The risk of daisy-chaining power strips is it become very easy to overload it, so yes, a circuit breaker would be nice as fire protection. 17 phone chargers would be fine but heating appliances will overload it fast. With no internal breaker, it’s easy to cause a fire with really cheap strips but, if life was ideal, they’d all be made to handle 20a loads like the receptacle in the wall.
The risk of daisy-chaining extension cords is the extra resistance incurred at each connection. There’s a varying amount form the imperfect contacts and a varying amount from pulling the cords apart over the time of device use. If you keep burning plugs with your yard care equipment, it’s probably not normal. It’s usually from partially unplugged cords trying to carry 10-20a across half the planned plug contact. You can readily buy 10-16 awg cords in 110v markets. It’s up to you to determine the appropriate gauge. In an ideal world, they’d all be 10awg. But we don’t have that, we have a world where you can actively choose to save money and increase risk.
That’s just rephrasing what I said. You can plug in too much for a single extension cord even if there’s no chaining. A chain “just” increase the risk.
Yes but I was emphasizing the parallels to the USB c problem.
In USBC if you use a 200 watt cable that has 200 watts going through it and then extend it with a 15 watt USB c cable, the 15 watt cable will over heat.
If you plug a 30 amp load into a 30 amp cable and then extend it with a 15 amp extension cord, you will get overheating on the 15 amp extension.
