Badly coiled cables

[paulears]

I love the idea of failing an electrical safety test because it's not pretty. I have plenty of visually unattractive cabling. Never seen a house fail it's initial test because the flat cable has been re-straightened when it kinked on unwinding. However - as we were talking about audio cable at first and then mixer power supply cable, and only then mains cable, which rarely gets like the problem under discussion, I don't think we're getting very far.

[sunray]

Any one using a mains cable in that condition needs their head testing.  I'd happily call in the HSE if I saw a big mains cable in that condition being used in a public venue.

Oh, and HSE aren't the enforcement authority for theatres or other leisure premises.

I'm not sure enforcement is the correct word but they sure as hell came out after 6pm on a friday when a complaint was made about cable running across a fire exit route in a Warners hotel :)

 

Oh and they closed the room to the guests until it was corrected :)

 

Oh and they returned the following day :)

[ImagineerTom]

As long as it was between 8:30 am and 5pm Monday to Friday, but not until 10am on a Wednesday 'cos that morning is staff training. Oh, and HSE aren't the enforcement authority for theatres or other leisure premises.

They definitely are for circus, theatre tents, funfairs and amusement parks and they definitely do work outside office hours; plenty of visits evenings and weekends to see equipment being used in actual condition rather than the freshy painted but not yet running state when it's just been built up.

[gyro_gearloose]

So will someone actually say why a curly but otherwise undamaged mains cable is a PAT failure? Someone did once tell me that cables coil like that if they've had too much current down them, but I'm not sure I see how this would make the cable coil up like that.

[bruce]

Somewhere in the garage, I have a 20m extension cable made of blue “arctic” cable. 5m at one end has gone like a corkscrew. I’m pretty sure the end was suspended across a gap for a considerable time, without a catenary,, and has been “stretched”.

[sunray]

So will someone actually say why a curly but otherwise undamaged mains cable is a PAT failure? Someone did once tell me that cables coil like that if they've had too much current down them, but I'm not sure I see how this would make the cable coil up like that.

I've never known over current do this to a cable, they usually get hot to the point the insulation gets very soft and starts flowing. However if the cable had already started curling before it's overloaded it could conceivably be an accererant.

 

One of the first tests, if not THE first is a visual check for signs of damage/distortion etc. That cable is clearly in a significantly different shape from its new condition.

The main reason a cable goes curly in my experience [but others on here have different experience] is the wires move inside the sheath and there is no way of knowing what damage happened to the wires when they got twisted round.

 

I love the idea of failing an electrical safety test because it's not pretty. I have plenty  of visually unattractive cabling. Never seen a house fail it's initial test because the flat cable has been re-straightened when it kinked  on unwinding. However - as we were talking  about audio cable at first and then  mixer power supply  cable, and only then mains cable, which rarely gets like the problem under discussion, I don't think we're getting very far.

Mains and speaker cables have always been fair game for wrapping round the arm and going like the OP.

Yes I too have had many ugly looking cables over the years, paint and silicon sealant seem to be attracted to cable like a magnet and taped multi service harnesses...

We are not talking about a kinked cable here which is then unravelled, assuming is has not been pulled too tight and twisted the wires! In my work across a selection of 'trades' I probably handle more mains than audio cables and have seen many many mains extention leads which have gone curly. One of the actions That I makes me cringe is watching someone hold the socket of an extention lead and wrap the cable round their arm, working back toward the power source then unplugging it.

[skinda0]

One of the actions That I makes me cringe is watching someone hold the socket of an extention lead and wrap the cable round their arm, working back toward the power source then unplugging it.

 

What about wrapping it around the 4 gang itself!

[sunray]

One of the actions That I makes me cringe is watching someone hold the socket of an extention lead and wrap the cable round their arm, working back toward the power source then unplugging it.

What about wrapping it around the 4 gang itself!

 

If it's only a metre or two that'll generally be ok as the plug will be hanging free and the cable is unlikely to get twisted, the problem occurs when a 20m or more cable is wound snuggly round the arm where the free end is unable to turn to accomodate the twisting action. Even worse is winding cable onto the side of a reel then using a bar through the reel to unwind it.