Never use male-to-male "suicide cable" mains extension cables

[Retro]

You've probably never seen a male-to-male mains extension cable as they're always male-to-female, or female-to-female, but why? Take a look at the picture below and the answer should be obvious:


Picture from article, below.

They're a major shock hazard and can easily kill someone who touches the live end or set fire to your house. Now, the cable shown would be used in America where the voltage is 120V which is bad enough, but the principle applies equally well in the UK where the voltage is 230V, making it twice as bad and of course, any other country that has a mains supply. There's other serious issues with them such as backfeeding to the external power grid, too.

This article and the video explain in detail the serious issues with them and why you'll never find any legitimate ones for sale. Don't ever be tempted to make them yourself.

Male-to-male extension cords, sometimes called suicide or widowmaker cords, are dangerous extension cords that can kill or injure you. People sometimes use them during a power outage to feed electricity from a generator directly into their home’s circuits to avoid the use of multiple extension cords. But their design makes male-to-male extension cords very unsafe, and you should never use one.

Unlike regular extension cords with one male (protruding plug) end and one female (receptacle) end, male-to-male extension cords have the male plug on both ends. When you plug one end of a male-to-male extension cord into a live electrical outlet, the other end is also live; it has electric current flowing from it.

Why 'Suicide' Extension Cords Are So Dangerous - Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports explains why male-to-male extension cords are so dangerous and tells you what to use instead of a so-called suicide cord to connect a generator safely to your home.

www.consumerreports.org

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Now, having handed out the heavy duty warnings against their use, can you think of any exceptional edge cases where they can or need to be used? I can't think of any.

Finally, I tried to find them on sale, and unlike a few months ago when I first came across this issue, I couldn't find any on Amazon, eBay, or elsewhere. Even a Google picture search comes up mostly blank, so it looks like they've been removed from most places so that people don't get funny ideas about getting them. I'm sure if one looks hard enough they can be found, but it's clear that steps have been taken to crack down on them.

 

[Retro]

This reminds me that as a kid of about eight, I'd once had a full 240V electric shock on my elbow that sent me flying across the room. Not an experience anyone should ever go through.

As a hardcore techie from the day I was born, some years later, it occurred to me that such a dangerous cable could be made and I also had a recurring nightmare for a while, perhaps due to that horrible experience: some other kid had such a thing on a long cable, plugged in and switched on. He would keep reaching out to shock me with the free end and I couldn't properly get away. I was never actually shocked in the dream, but he kept trying to get me and I kept trying to get away, with him always on the verge of succeeding, a real anxiety inducing dream if ever there was one. Thankfully, I only had this awful nightmare a few times, but you can see the effect that it had on me as I still remember it today, some 40+ years later. Never, ever, take the risk of an electric shock, it's one of the worst things to suffer, ever.