Reel type drop cord

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I have been looking for a replacement reel for several years now and I have been using a short extension cord in its place but it seems to be always in the way or falling out of the socket. I have looked a several box stores for them but they always seemed be more expensive than the product looked like.

While down at Costco the last Monday I took a trip down the tool area (which I normally do not do) and I saw that they had a bunch of drops cords on a reel on the shelf. I don’t know how many there were but there had to be more than 10 (by memory). They had one opened and it looked and felt pretty substantial and the cost was $34 US (rounding up the one penny) about what the box stores wanted… the box stores, Lowes for example were in the high $20’s to high $30’s as I remember.

We had to go to Costco again yesterday for something and I stopped by to look at them again and there were only a couple left so I bought one.

As you can see by the pictures, it is chromed diamond plate; the cord is 14/3 rated at 13 amps, 1625 watts and is 25” (7.62m) long. It has an adjustable ball stop so you don’t have to get a ladder to chase it and does ratchet stop at extended positions. The socket end lights up and has three outlet positions. One of the nice features is that it has a 13 amp circuit breaker built in with a push reset; you can see it in the picture, the black circle with the white center.

It comes with three mounts: a heavy duty bench mount w/quick disconnect, a wall mount that uses a quick disconnect also and a ceiling mount which is an over extended eye (kind of like a key chain but not closed to where you have to open it to install the reel) that also could be called a split loop instead of a hook which allows you to pull in all direction without the fear of the reel coming off the hook.

My first impression after I installed it and got looking it over is that it is a well thought out piece; it is made in China but brought in by TASCO in Chino CA if that makes a difference to you.

Lee

[Chris V]

On a similar note I finally just replaced our old drop-light reel. Found a Bayco LED model - outfit out of Texas.

http://www.baycoproducts.com/

They offer a similar receptacle reel:

[fusername]

I have one, for the logest time it was my ONLY source of power in my shop, had 1 outlet, one for the cord feeing it, the other for a light. nice and convenient. I really wanted one w/ a droplight built into the end, but I couldn't find one this time around.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I have a drop light (not here) and it is OK but you can get your meat grabbers burnt with them assuming that you use an incandescent bulb; especially if you use more than a 40 watt bulb; the newer ones use a better cooler lighting system. I don’t think I have ever used the light and the outlets in the handle at the same time; the receptacles’/outlets on it were... let’s say... a POS as the power cords could and would drop off/out and add to that, I don’t remember that it had ground plug provisions. You can still attach a short cord drop light into this style. I just think this style gives you more capabilities unless you only have one outlet in your garage.

One thing about power outlets in a garage… you never have enough of them and if you plan things out beforehand you will probably have guessed wrong. I could use some 220 in areas that, again, I did not think I would need them. I have more 120 in some areas than I will ever use and not nearly enough in other areas that I did not think I would need more than one fixture; the same with 15 amp outlets vs. 20 amp outlets.

The same logic goes for lighting, not enough or too much; not low enough or not high enough. The one thing good I did do is put some vertical fluorescent lights on the walls close to the floor. They reduce the need for drop lights quite a bit.

Lee

[Chris V]

I just went and picked-up my 1/2" conduit bender to re-do the lighting/outlets in the garage...ditching most the romex and plastic boxes. I've been saving a few 12' aluminum 9-lamp (32W T8) fixtures with acrylic shields - here's one I used to replace two conventional 4-lamp 8' wrap-lights, and they came with 20' cords and galvanized cable...The wraps fit great between the garage door opener and the roof joists too . The drop light is of course the new one...Dad got it all greasy and didn't wipe it off

[Marc]

...Dad got it all greasy and didn't wipe it off ...

Yes, I'm guilty of getting it greasy - but I did wipe it off. I thought it better to leave it a bit stained than to possibly damage it by trying to use dirty solvent-tank mineral spirits to remove my fingerprints. You can be the one to find out what cleaning solution is safe, I wasn't about to be the first one to damage your nice new lamp.
Love, Dad


One feature of the new lamp that came as a pleasant surprise was the magnetically-attached suspension hook - very clever, it suspends the lamp firmly but if you happen to yank too hard on it it simply separates at the magnet pad, rather than damaging the hook (or whatever it's hooked to).

[fusername]

lee, I put double gang boxes every 15 feet along the walls Icould reach, every one got its OWN 20 amp breaker. However I wish I had stuck with my original plan, which was to run 2 breakers per wall, and have each box be fed from BOTH breakers. Then you have two outlets per box, each w/ 20 amps, so 40 per box. Cause usually you end out with everything plugged into the one box nearest you, so if the comp is on one line and everything else on the second, you either wont blow it, or your lights will stay on when you pop the comp circuit.

however the electritian ignored my idea, and when he gave me his price for doing a breaker per box, it was much less than expected (I did the work with him, and let his son learn on the job w/ us for a BIG discount) and just went that way. Once the money is saved up I think I will upgrade the 6ga feeds to 4 or less so I can get 100 amps instead of 60 out there, but thats a few years away I bet.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

lee, I put double gang boxes every 15 feet along the walls Icould reach, every one got its OWN 20 amp breaker. However I wish I had stuck with my original plan, which was to run 2 breakers per wall, and have each box be fed from BOTH breakers. Then you have two outlets per box, each w/ 20 amps, so 40 per box. Cause usually you end out with everything plugged into the one box nearest you, so if the comp is on one line and everything else on the second, you either wont blow it, or your lights will stay on when you pop the comp circuit.

however the electritian ignored my idea, and when he gave me his price for doing a breaker per box, it was much less than expected (I did the work with him, and let his son learn on the job w/ us for a BIG discount) and just went that way. Once the money is saved up I think I will upgrade the 6ga feeds to 4 or less so I can get 100 amps instead of 60 out there, but thats a few years away I bet.

When we built this house I had similar problems with the electrician: he didn't understand and couldn't conceive (and got PO's on something else I wanted and where I wanted it and gave me less than he promised but that is another story) so I got less than I wanted. Along the one side (I have a triple garage of which my wife allowed me two of the bays) wall I did not get the allotment of outlets I wanted and even if I had I would have been short (no puns intended). I did get the ceiling outlets in each bay which worked out quite well... I could have used more though.

We also had problems with the city inspector. He couldn’t understand all the outlets and oddly installed lights so he was thinking something nefarious or devious was going on like an out of house business (not allowed) or worse.

It sounds like you did better than I did with your wants and learning. Don’t underestimate ceiling outlets, they do come in handy. Also, don’t forget the wall mounted vertically sitting florescent lights… they work good! I also have an electrical outlet under the two center florescent light between the three garage doors.

Lee

[fusername]

sadly the floor in my space can't currently hold up a car, and I have the wleder up against the wall w/ my fingers crossed. Time and money are needed first, however lights lights lights. Just upgraded to "daylight" color bulbs, man does that make it a anice place. I am not convinced they are much brighter, but they feel brighter.

now that this is sufficiantly hi-jacked, how do folks feel about those 8ft flourescents? I just learend they don't even make those big bulb fixtures anymore (T8s) so keepign the whole shop using the same bulb is out the window anyways. I have two floors (kinda, but that's a whole nother story) so I am thinking steal the light fixture I have upstairs and put it below, then I should be fine on floor 1, and put one or two 8 footers upstairs and be done. second floor is in the roof, so everything slopes, 16 feet of light in the middle should take care of the whole thing, tis a storage space at best. Cheaper than equiv light in shorter bulbs, but dang does a 8 foot piece of glass sound easy to break.

[Chris V]

sadly the floor in my space can't currently hold up a car, and I have the wleder up against the wall w/ my fingers crossed. Time and money are needed first, however lights lights lights. Just upgraded to "daylight" color bulbs, man does that make it a anice place. I am not convinced they are much brighter, but they feel brighter....now that this is sufficiantly hi-jacked, how do folks feel about those 8ft flourescents? I just learend they don't even make those big bulb fixtures anymore (T8s) so keepign the whole shop using the same bulb is out the window anyways...

Lights are rated in their color in Kelvin...and the light that is perceived can be measured in lumens.

T8's are in ~80% of applications, and you can retrofit to LED lamps that fit the T8 lamp holders (aka tombstones)...the older, larger T12's are even still out there in great numbers and they often utilize very similar tombstones or can be wired accordingly - it's common to replace the ballast(s) for a T8 suitable model. The smaller stuff on the market is T5 - about 5/8" diameter - they're gaining popularity in big warehouses as 'highbay' fixtures - LED is out there in lower numbers still.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent-lamp_formats

I've installed hundreds of 8' fixtures - there's so many different styles out there...if you've got ground to cover there are also 16' "master/satellite" fixtures.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Not hijacked, it just took a natural progression that is fine as far as I am concerned.

Over the years I have become very suspect of windows in a garage unless they are high enough that someone peering in needs to stand on top of his buddies to scope out the place (I hope he is wearing crampons [http://www.bing.com/shopping/kahtoola-k ... &FORM=HURE] too). This selfishness and disrespecting of others sure has gotten worse in the last several years.

Lee