looking to buy a retractable cord reel

[julie Graf]

any suggestions? they seem to range in price from $40 to hundreds of dollars.

need to be ceiling mounted, I'd like to get a 4 for my 2000 square foot shop, so I don't want to spend a huge amount on each, but want some thing that is not junk.

also, the cord doesn't need to be that long - are there other options for ceiling mounted cords?

thanks!

[Bruce Benjamin]

I've had great luck for about 3 years with this one from Rockler. http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10673&filter=cord%20reel

It's always worked perfectly. I got it on sale but even the non-sale price isn't bad.

Bruce

[JIM HERNANDEZ]

Bought two from lowe's for about $30. They are working just fine.

[Bob Roberts]

I have four of these. They are great. And at a great price now.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200237924_200237924

[Matt Meiser]

I have two of the Craftsman Professional ones. Watch the wire gauge on whatever you buy. Most of them are pretty thin. The ones I have are 14ga. 12ga would be better but I couldn't find any without spending big $$$. The first one worked great, so I bought a second. On one, I did cut the factory recptacle off and put on a good quality replacement because plugs were falling out.

[Jim Becker]

After seeing pictures of Robert Tarr's near miss of a shop fire due to overheating of a cord reel, I'll never buy one...

[Darren Ford]

The one from Rockler is "oversold until October 8th"

Just FYI

[Darren Ford]

Jim,

Can you elaborate? I did a quick search and didn't see any threads on this. Do you have a link? I am very interested since I have been wanting one of these reels as well. Was it an overheating issue due to a small wire gauge, or something to do with the cord being wound? It sounds scary.

[Rick Christopherson]

Jim,

Can you elaborate? I did a quick search and didn't see any threads on this. Do you have a link? I am very interested since I have been wanting one of these reels as well. Was it an overheating issue due to a small wire gauge, or something to do with the cord being wound? It sounds scary.Both.

Even though an outstretched extension cord can safely handle its full rated amperage (and then some) this is because it is completely exposed and will dissipate the heat. When you coil a cord tightly in a cord reel, the heat cannot be dissipated and will continue to increase temperature. Eventually it can melt the insulation.

If you have a 14 gauge cord reel, then I would not use it for anything more than very light loads unless it is fully extended. If it is a 12 gauge reel, then I would limit it to less than 15 amps when not extended. Under no circumstances should you use a cord reel for a continuous load of any size.

Oh, to add to this, the longer the cord, the more that is typically left in the reel, and this is where the problems are the most common. I don't think this would be that significant of a problem with shorter cord reels because there are not than many wraps around the spool. Also, some people have taken this to the wrong extreme and warn people that a loose coil on the ground will have the same problem. This is not correct.

[Darren Ford]

Thanks Rick. I can't ever see me using this for the stationary (big) power tools. Thinking just a minute, I think the handheld power tools I would use that would have the longest continuous use would be a ROS and a small angle grinder... Well, maybe a wire welder. I will have to be sure and never hook the welder up to the reel, even if I go overkill on the wire gauge.

I'm glad this subject was brought up -- even though the tightly coiled wire/heat issue sounds obvious now, I don't think I would have ever thought about the possible ramifications.

[glenn bradley]

I have two 40' X 12 gauge with a triple head I got from Harbour Freight. The first one was on sale for $35 and I used it for a year. When I saw how reliable and useful it was I bought a second one on sale for about $40. Love 'em. One is over the bench in the middle of the shop solving that problem and another is along a wall saving me from having to run electrical over there. No overheating problems BUT, I don't leave anything hooked up that draws power for days either. I use them and then unplug when I'm done for the day.

[Rick Potter]

I had a $10 retractable trouble light which had a receptacle on the side of it. I was smart enough to only use the light with its 18 guage wire, but my teenage kid wasn't . While I was at work he plugged my table saw into it for some reason, and melted the whole reel into a mass of plastic.

He didn't tell me about it either, I found out when I tried to pull the light down a few days later. We were lucky, as it could have been a lot worse than a ruined trouble light. Did I mention I was a fireman?

I now have 14 guage, 30 foot cords in the shop. Cost about $30 from Lowes or HD. I still only use them for drills, or my trim router.

Rick Potter

[John Ricci]

After seeing pictures of Robert Tarr's near miss of a shop fire due to overheating of a cord reel, I'll never buy one...

Those cord reels are fine as long as the load is within the rating of the wire and when in use the entire cable must be played out. Under load and in the coiled state the wire becomes a big inductor capable as some have seen, of melting the insulation/casing or worse. In my own shop I use a mix of 12ga. and 10ga. ext. cables which are stored coiled but in use, the same rule applies...unroll the whole cable and leave the excess in a random pile on the floor near the outlet being used and there will be no induction heating. My .02Cdn.

J.R.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

After seeing pictures of Robert Tarr's near miss of a shop fire due to overheating of a cord reel, I'll never buy one...

I too was considering one or two. But now the air has been let out of my balloon! :)

-Jeff:)

[David G Baker]

I have a couple of the #14 wire reels and 90% of the time I use them for lighting when working in areas of my shop that are not well lit and on occasion use them with my small power tools.
I just spent over $80 for a 40 foot extension cord that is #10-4 and didn't include plugs. I had not priced wire in a while, talk about sticker shock.

[Bernhard Lampert]

I have two 40' X 12 gauge with a triple head I got from Harbour Freight. The first one was on sale for $35 and I used it for a year. When I saw how reliable and useful it was I bought a second one on sale for about $40. Love 'em. One is over the bench in the middle of the shop solving that problem and another is along a wall saving me from having to run electrical over there. No overheating problems BUT, I don't leave anything hooked up that draws power for days either. I use them and then unplug when I'm done for the day.

I'll second that: I just bought one just to see if they work. To my surprise, the reel worked great! I actually abused it a bit to make sure they will last. So I bought 4 more (39.99 on sale). So far no complaints. Just be careful and get the reels with the 12ga cable... the other ones (with 14ga) are junk.
BTW the HF reels seem to be identical to the higher priced, private label from other sources.

Bernhard

[Jim Becker]

Can you elaborate? I did a quick search and didn't see any threads on this. Do you have a link?

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=49282&highlight=cord

[Greg Narozniak]

I have two 40' X 12 gauge with a triple head I got from Harbour Freight. The first one was on sale for $35 and I used it for a year. When I saw how reliable and useful it was I bought a second one on sale for about $40. Love 'em. One is over the bench in the middle of the shop solving that problem and another is along a wall saving me from having to run electrical over there. No overheating problems BUT, I don't leave anything hooked up that draws power for days either. I use them and then unplug when I'm done for the day.

I have one of these as well and have never had an issue in the year I have been using it.

[Matt Meiser]

Mine are typically used with handheld power tools--sanders, routers, grinders, and drills. I've enen plugged my jointer, which has a 1/2HP motor into it on occasion lately. I remember seeing the post about Robert's near miss and have on occasion pulled mine out to check them after use and haven't noticed any heating. All of these uses have a very low duty cycle--things are off much more than on which I would suspect prevents overheating. Plugging in a heater or a 1500W halogen light for an extended period of time might be a different story.

Robert's reel was a cord storage reel with a standard extension cord. One has to wonder if there are some design differences in the purpose-made cord reels that would reduce the chances of something like that happening.

[John Gornall]

I found in my local hardware store some 12 gauge extensions labeled "Office Air Conditioner Extensions" which are 3 feet and 6 feet long. I bought both and they are very handy in the shop for when the tool cord is just a little short.

[Julian Wong]

I got 14G x 25' for $16 I think. Don't know if they still carry them. Cheap if you're not planning to run high wattage stuff!

I use it all the time for my 5" ROS and trim router and stuff. I have plugged in my 3-1/4HP router before but I only use it for short burst of like a min or less. Works fine also when I connect my 6 gal shopvac to it.(8Amps).

[Neal Flatley]

This reminds me of a story.

When I was writing the specifications for my Fire Departments new Heavy Rescue Truck, I insisted the cord reels have 10 gauge wire, since they were 200 feet long, and needed to supply a 15A load.

The answer I got back from the manufacturer was, " wow, 10 gauge!, I mean how often are you guys going to use 200 feet? "

Ah, every time. ( duh ):D

Neal

[Greg Funk]

Those cord reels are fine as long as the load is within the rating of the wire and when in use the entire cable must be played out. Under load and in the coiled state the wire becomes a big inductor capable as some have seen, of melting the insulation/casing or worse. In my own shop I use a mix of 12ga. and 10ga. ext. cables which are stored coiled but in use, the same rule applies...unroll the whole cable and leave the excess in a random pile on the floor near the outlet being used and there will be no induction heating. My .02Cdn.

J.R.
The heating has nothing to do with induction. Any time you run current through a wire it will generate heat. If the wire is in a tight coil or small random pile there is less surface area to dissipate the heat.

If my calculations are correct a 40' spool of 14 Gauge wire will need to dissipate approx 50W of power for a 15A load and 6W for a 5A load. So if you are plugging in a drill you could run it 24 hours a day without any problems coiled or not.

Greg

[Stan Welborn]

I have 5 cord reels hanging from the ceiling in my shop. 2 in the paint bay are craftsman, the other three in the larger part of the shop I got from Girot's(sp). I also have 3 "trouble" light reels and air hose reels hanging right beside them. Handiest things ever. I installed them about 6-7 years ago and have had zero problems.

[Rick Christopherson]

T...Under load and in the coiled state the wire becomes a big inductor capable as some have seen, of melting the insulation/casing or worse. ................ cables which are stored coiled but in use, the same rule applies...No, this is not the correct assessment of what is happening. The induction from a few coils of wire is negligible, furthermore, induction does not cause heating. You are confusing this with what is called an induction heater, and it is used as a rapid, non-contact heating system and is no where near related to a coiled length of cord.

Consider this, if an inductive coil caused excessive heating, then every one of those little appliance powersupply transformers you have scattered around your house would be melting as we speak. They have a heck of a lot more inductance than a loosely coiled extension cord. As a matter of fact, they even use a laminated iron core to increase, and focus the inductance. Oh, and every electronic piece of equipment you own has an inductive coil in it as a filter. This is purely a coil of wire.

As I already said in a previous posting above, the tight coil around the center spool does not permit the excess heat to dissipate from the coiled cord. Also as I already forewarned, a coiled cord on the floor does not suffer the same problem because there is enough airflow around the center of the loose coil to permit heat dissipation.

Telling people to heap their cords in a pile is a silly myth, and does nothing more than make a mess, but it does get repeated enough to endure.

By the way, to the other respondents here, it is not necessary to be so overly scared about cord reels that you decide not to buy one that you would otherwise liked to have. When used properly and with forethought, they are fine. Re-read my original posting on this.

Oops, my apologies to Greg Funk, I didn't realize there was another page of postings when I wrote this posting, and I see that I said about the same thing that he did.

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Julie. By now, you must be sorry your asked.:D

I bought my cord reel from Grizzly several years ago. I is mounted on the ceiling, over my table saw, in the middle of the shop. It works just fine.

Give it a look-see at Grizzly (http://www.grizzly.com/products/H5695).

[Jason Hanna]

This reminds me of a story.

When I was writing the specifications for my Fire Departments new Heavy Rescue Truck, I insisted the cord reels have 10 gauge wire, since they were 200 feet long, and needed to supply a 15A load.

The answer I got back from the manufacturer was, " wow, 10 gauge!, I mean how often are you guys going to use 200 feet? "

Ah, every time. ( duh ):D

Neal


Now that is funny right there. "if you are going to be using a high amp device, only pull out minimal cord to shorten the length of the wire run"

[julie Graf]

HAHA!

I think I'm going to end up just running some new outlets to the center of the room. I can locate them near the support beams. I don't need the cord length, but thought it would be nice to have them hanging from the ceiling.

I'm with everyone with the "not wanting to burn the shop down" philosophy.

[Bruce Benjamin]

HAHA!

I think I'm going to end up just running some new outlets to the center of the room. I can locate them near the support beams. I don't need the cord length, but thought it would be nice to have them hanging from the ceiling.

I'm with everyone with the "not wanting to burn the shop down" philosophy.

People can quote any scientific or pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo they want. You will NOT be in any danger by using a cord reel in your shop. Do you really think that all of these big companies would be selling these items for all of these years if there was even the slightest amount of danger? And how about all of the industrial applications? Plenty of those and I've seen them in use in a number of places. The only danger comes from using it on a higher amperage machine than the cord was designed for or if the cord reel is defective in some way.

This would be way down my list of dangerous things to do in my shop. Asking for electrical advice on these woodworking forums usually yields you plenty of people who think they are experts. That's why I don't pretend to know all the answers, (because I don't) The best part about having way to many lawyers in the USA is that if there's any danger at all it won't be long before somebody gets sued and they put a stop to it. The cord reels have been in use for a long time. I remember my grandfather used to have air, water, grease, oil, and electrical reels in his repair shop decades ago. I was fascinated by it as a kid because it was like a jungle with them all hanging down from the ceiling. Buy the cord reel. Don't believe the people who say it's dangerous. You'll be fine.

Bruce

[julie Graf]

well, i'm not really willing to throw down the money for a cord reel that has the correct amperage rating for my machinery - I'd be using them for my table saw, 24 inch planer, 14 inch bandsaw, 12 inch jointer and 3 hp dust collection. and perhaps my drum sander. ;)

also - most of those big companies hire people to do the math for them on if a product recall would be profitable or not. They've done it with breast implants, tires, seatbelts, and many other things. if it would cost them more to recall something than settle a lawsuit, then they take the risk. scary, but true.

so, i'd rather install a few outlets. no biggie, and cheaper too!

[Bruce Benjamin]

well, i'm not really willing to throw down the money for a cord reel that has the correct amperage rating for my machinery - I'd be using them for my table saw, 24 inch planer, 14 inch bandsaw, 12 inch jointer and 3 hp dust collection. and perhaps my drum sander. ;)

also - most of those big companies hire people to do the math for them on if a product recall would be profitable or not. They've done it with breast implants, tires, seatbelts, and many other things. if it would cost them more to recall something than settle a lawsuit, then they take the risk. scary, but true.

so, i'd rather install a few outlets. no biggie, and cheaper too!

Yeah, if you don't want one then I guess you won't buy one. But unless you're drawing more than 15 amps it's easy to find a reel that will hold up for $40 to $65. If you really think that it's dangerous and that the many thousands of professional shops around the country that use them are just waiting for a fire then that's your right. But I'll bet the percentage of self-wired outlets that have failed and caused a fire is far higher than the percentage of cord reels. :rolleyes: :D

Bruce

[julie Graf]

Thanks Bruce.

I'll keep that in mind when I have my electrician install them. thank goodness he's related to me.

[Tom Leasure]

Here's a suggestion I saw in some WW magazine a while ago - A guy took a small cable with a turn buckle & installed it from end to end of his shop. He used plastic shower curtain hooks over the cable & wired tied an extension cord on something like 6' to 8' centers. When not in nuse he pulled the whole affair back against the wall like an open shower curtain. Looked kinda slick. If you want, I think I still the magazine & will look it up for you if you want. Let me know.

Tom

[Greg Pavlov]

....Do you really think that all of these big companies would be selling these items for all of these years if there was even the slightest amount of danger? And how about all of the industrial applications? Plenty of those and I've seen them in use in a number of places. ....Bruce

I'm not sure I trust the motives of big companies ;) but I do wonder whether there would be millions of vacuum cleaners out there with retractable cords if there was anything more than a very remote chance of a meltdown or fire.

[Bruce Benjamin]

I'm not sure I trust the motives of big companies ;) but I do wonder whether there would be millions of vacuum cleaners out there with retractable cords if there was anything more than a very remote chance of a meltdown or fire.


Exactly. I really don't buy the product examples given before of companies willing to kill people to save a few bucks. I'm not saying it hasn't happened but the product examples given are very debatable and I don't think this sort of thing is standard practice. In the case of coiled cords, you gave a very good example. Has a coiled vacuum cleaner cord EVER caused a fire? I doubt it. How many businesses would use these hose reels if they caused fires? On the other hand, every electrical outlet is a potential source of fire and the more you have the greater the risk. Not a great risk I suppose but more than using one hose reel I'd bet. I'll keep my hose reel and worry about the greater risk I have of being struck by lightening, thank you. ;) :D