Do you know what a drop cord is?

[Perry Holbrook]

I'm working in Richmond VA this week, setting up a booth at the logging/forestry trade show (an interesting show to attend) and needed to buy an electrical cord. Went to the local Home Depot and asked where the drop cords were and just got blank looks. So I asked for extension cords and they said aisle 13.

We have had similar experiences as we travel to different shows in various parts of the country, and even in our office with trans-planted co-workers.

I grew up in NC and called them drop cords. If you google drop cord you get sites for extension cords, I'm sure that's the correct name.

I'm just wondering if drop cord is a term we tar heels use or if some of ya'll do too?

Perry

[Michael Weber]

To me a drop cord is one of those self re-winding things that roll up into an enclosure. Mount them on the ceiling and pull them down (thus "drop cord"). Give them a pull and they re-wind.
But I live in Arkansas and we know little of the real world.;)

[Joe Chritz]

To me here a drop cord has always been an extension cord with a light on the end and plug. Sometimes they roll up in an enclosure and others are loose.

Joe

[Von Bickley]

Perry,

Maybe it's a Southern thing...... I call them drop cords also. :D

[Charlie Reals]

To me here a drop cord has always been an extension cord with a light on the end and plug. Sometimes they roll up in an enclosure and others are loose.

Joe

+1 on that, drop cords have a light and plug.

[Bob Vavricka]

+1 on that, drop cords have a light and plug.

+ another on a drop cord having a light attached.

[Michael Weber]

+1 on that, drop cords have a light and plug.

Always heard those things call "Drop Lights" Not sure why, mine always just had an regular extension cord on them. I do know you can get them that pull out of a re-winding enclosure but WTH. Fascinating subject:rolleyes:

[Tim Morton]

we call them drop cords with no lights...and drop lights with lights....its the practicality of being a Vermonter.

[Pat Germain]

I've never heard the term "drop cord". I have heard "drop light". I lived in Southern Virginia for 17 years. "Drop cord" might be a small, regional thing.

[Jim Rimmer]

+ another on a drop cord having a light attached.
+1 on the light

[Bob Kassmeyer]

I have called drop lights both drop cords and drop lights. I always wonder why they call them drop lights though because if you drop them they don't light anymore.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have always heard an extension cord called a drop cord with no light. I had never heard of a drop light.

[David G Baker]

Drop cord had lights. Haven't heard the term in years. Never heard of drop lights. Michigan-California-Michigan.

[Mike Langford]

I've always called a cord with a light and a plug a "Trouble Light" ('cause most of the time all they gave you was trouble :rolleyes:)

Drop cord aka Extension cord....

[Bryan Morgan]

We call them extension cords or power cords. Drop cords sounds like something you'd use for sky diving... :)

[Van Huskey]

Used drop cord (for extension cord) all my life, also from the South. My wife from Louisiana didn't know what that was until I edjumacated her.

[Belinda Barfield]

I still use a drop cord on occasion. It's an extension cord. No lights, nothing fancy.

[Curt Harms]

Perry,

Maybe it's a Southern thing...... I call them drop cords also. :D
Not just a southern thing. I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Never heard the term extension cord, just drop cord. And the difference between 220 volt outlets and 110 volt outlets was that the 220 volt outlets were painted red :eek:. Of course that way you could plug a drop cord into 220 if you needed it.

[Jason Roehl]

Extension cord/trouble light. MI-Taiwan-IN-Brazil-IN. I guess two of those locales wouldn't share that nomenclature. ;)

[Dennis Peacock]

I had never heard of a drop light.

One of my boys "created" one of those just last night Ken....changing the bulb on the back porch. We fixed the "drop light" with a broom and dust pan. :rolleyes::p

[Gene Howe]

"An extension cord is that skinny flat brown one used in the house. A drop cord is that longer, thick, round black thingie used in the shop, or on the roof."

My wife's distinction. Of course, it was a "radio alarm saw" for a long time, too.:D

[Chuck Saunders]

Drop cord = extension cord = can't find one when you need it except for the 100' 10ga when you need a 6 footer. But then I went to school in NC so I am tainted.

Q. Would you rather jump out of an airplane with a parachute or a drop cord?

A. Drop cord. Parachute may not open, drop cord is sure to hang up on something.

[Rod Sheridan]

Interesting, I learn something here every day.

Where I'm from a drop cord is a length of flexible cord rated for heavy use, that's permanently wired and has a suspension grip at the ceiling to support it.

The cord with a connector body hangs down near the bench or piece of machinery, and you plug the machine or portable tool into it.

The other item that's referred to as a drop cord in previous posts, we call extension cords, the one with a lamp on the end is a "trouble lamp" or "inspection lamp".

Regards, Rod.

P.S. I did enjoy the post about the drop lamp needing a broom, that's what happens to me half of the time.:D

[Rick Prosser]

Our family used drop cord or extension cord interchangeably. Never heard of a drop light - but we used trouble lights when working on the car.

We also try to remember to "cut off" the lights when we leave a room. My wife thinks the phrase is hilarious (she being from the midwest where apparently they only "turn off" lights.)

"drop cord is sure to hang up on something." - so true :D

[mike holden]

Maybe its my manufacturing background, but a drop cord is attached permanently at one end and drops down from the ceiling. An extension cord has a male plug at one end and a female at the other.
Current capacity (as in wire gauge) is immaterial to the nomenclature.

Mike in Michigan

[Scott Shepherd]

Well to Richmond, I hope you enjoy your time here. Born and raised here, it's been both, a drop cord and an extension cord all my life.

Drop cords seemed to be what term we used in the shop or garage. When it went into the house, it became an extension cord :) So it would depend on where you are using it ;)

[Jim Rimmer]

Our family used drop cord or extension cord interchangeably. Never heard of a drop light - but we used trouble lights when working on the car.

We also try to remember to "cut off" the lights when we leave a room. My wife thinks the phrase is hilarious (she being from the midwest where apparently they only "turn off" lights.)

"drop cord is sure to hang up on something." - so true :D
Interesting that turning off or cutting off lights makes them go out. :D

[Trevor Howard]

"Drop cord" to me comes down from the ceiling, either hanging at 7ft from the ground permanently or on a retractable reel. An extension cord to me is an extension cord, along the floor or down a wall.

[Bill LaPointe]

I was raised i Illinois and never heard of either a drop cord or drop light. Back then I used both an extension cord or a trouble light. When I move to the south the extension cord became those little skinny brown or white cords with multiple sockets that you plugged your lamp or Xmas tree light into. All other colors of extension cords became drop cords. Not so much a southern thing but, I think, a rural thing. My 2 c.

[Myk Rian]

In industry and commercial applications, a drop cord is power to a machine connected by a strain relief in the ceiling.
An extension cord is what you would use to provide power from a wall receptacle.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Maybe its my manufacturing background, but a drop cord is attached permanently at one end and drops down from the ceiling. An extension cord has a male plug at one end and a female at the other.
Current capacity (as in wire gauge) is immaterial to the nomenclature.

Mike in Michigan

Exactly the same where I was born and raised here in east Texas. Course my mother was born deep in the country here, and my father in MN so I can use you-uns, y'all, or you guys interchangeably.

[Tom Veatch]

I have always heard an extension cord called a drop cord with no light. I had never heard of a drop light.

+1 (from a Louisiana background)

[Belinda Barfield]

I can use you-uns, y'all, or you guys interchangeably.

That's something to be proud of, Ernie. I had not actually heard anyone say "you-uns" until I met my SIL, Brender (spelled Brenda). Of course, she also has beer and 'mater juice for breakfast. :rolleyes:

[David Gregory]

Yep, where I grew up in SC we called 'em drop cords too, and drop lights. Though I tend to agree that once a light is dropped, it no longer "lights" so why is it called a "drop light"? Now that I'm older and wiser however, things are making more sense. There's new information regarding so-called "light" bulbs. For your own education, try this link: http://www.btinternet.com/~homepage/dark.htm

[Joe Shinall]

My dad called it a drop cord so much when I was younger, that when I went to work with him as a teenager and a guy at his shop asked for an extension cord, I didn't know what he meant.

A drop light is an extension cord with the light bulb on it.


Southern talk at it's best. Just like pecan and pecon.

[Caspar Hauser]

That's all silly talk.

Extension cable and inspection lamp.

:p

[Jim Rimmer]

That's something to be proud of, Ernie. I had not actually heard anyone say "you-uns" until I met my SIL, Brender (spelled Brenda). Of course, she also has beer and 'mater juice for breakfast. :rolleyes:
That proves the theory that dropped letters never go away; they just show up in another part of the country. When Norm says he pahked his truck, the R ends up on the end of your SIL's name, thus Brender. ;)