I have seen several posts where the lenth of an extension cord was in question. I am going to be participating in a BBQ cookoff and will have my RV at a campground. Can anyone tell me why I should worry about extension cord lenth.

This is what I have found online:

Not all extension cords are created equal. Within the outer insulation of an extension cord you will find wires that contain different amounts of copper. Wires that contain more copper can supply your tools with more power. Wire size is measured by the gauge or thickness of the wire. You will often see numbers like 16, 14 or 12 gauge on extension cord wrappers. Believe it or not, as the number gets smaller, the thickness of the copper wire gets bigger! Thus a 12 gauge wire can carry significantly more power than a 16 gauge wire. My guess is that your extension cord is a 16 gauge or possibly an inferior 18 gauge cord.

Long extension cords can cause excessive resistance and voltage drop. Voltage drop will damage tools. You can minimize this damage by selecting the proper length cord for the job. The best advice is to always use the shortest extension cord possible when powering a tool or device. You may have to purchase cords of varying lengths to power tools. I happen to own cords that range in length from 25 feet up to 100 feet.

So I plan on using 12 guage!!!!!

I think the concept is use a gauge equal to or heavier than the cooker and the wiring of the power supply.

Easy approach is try it out at home.

Well the truth is I am an electronics tech by trade and I can't see it causing a problem, thats why I asked. I also worked in the electrical contractor business for 5 years and never had any complaints. Many houses today use 14 guage wire on 10amp breakers too with very long runs. I just don't wanna have problems at this cook-off since it will be the first one with my new smoker. I just wondered if I missed some concept with these smokers and their supply voltage. I would never have thought twice about it except for the numerous posts I have seen involving this subject. Thanks for the feedback Tom.

Tony,

We have found it easier and more practical to use an inverter and a marine battery to run our FEC at contests. By doing so, the quality of the electric source is more reliable than what you might find if you hook into the contest site's electric grid. Plus, you should not lose power on Sat. morning when all the other teams turn on their coffee pots and pop a breaker.

Just some thoughts.

Best of luck to you on your competition.

Thanks again. I have a 3kw generator and a 2.5 kw generator. I may use them instead.

I use an extension cord approximately 7 feet long with a two-gang box. The wire gauge is 10/3, so I shouldn't have any voltage loss.

dan

Great idea, I think I will get some SO cord and make one myself.

Since you are in the business,here is one other thought.

Since,cookoff electric can be erratic,especially in the morning -when all the coffee pots,and other small appliances,are turned on we carry an electric source.

Those with RV's use their deep cell batteries to power their cookers.

We carry the smallest Sam's Club marine deep cell battery and a small invertor to run our FECs at comps.

That way we don't worry about surges,outages ,etc.

Just a thought.

Well I am not in the business, but I do enjoy cookoffs. So how long will that battery power the smoker with 500watt element?

I have an inverter....how big does it have to be?

BTW Tom, I took many trips to Melbourne Fla. I used to do work with Harris Corp. Very tranquil place the Melbourne Beach is.

Never powered the electric CS's by inverted, so an electronic tech will have to give you an answer.

The FE's they're talking about only pull a few watts so an inverter is good enough.

The issue with the electric CS's is power loss via the cord. MANY new users will use a home extension cord and that just isn't good enough.

If you use a high enough gauge cord, you'll be fine.

Smokin

Tony,
Cord length and wire size contribute to voltage drop. Example; An 100 ft cord of #12 wire on 120 volts with a 10 amp load would loose approx. 4 volts. not enough to hurt, if you had 120 volts to start with. When you get in the 10% range of voltage drop(10-12 volts) you can experience problems with effiency relative to heating elements, motors, etc.

RT

Tony,

Another thought - most home wiring is solid wire and the electrical dynamics are different. Most extension cords are mutli-strand wires so they can be coiled. If I am not mistaken, the potential power loss in multi-strand wires is greater than a solid wire of the same gauge size. Ambient tempurature will also have an affect. And the number of terminals and junctions will also have an affect.

Actually home wiring (ROMEX) is solid because it is cheaper and much easier to wrangle into residential grade recepticles. Also multi-stranded (Stranded) wire is far more efficient because electrons move along the outer surface of conductors and many conductors = better conduction. And as to the guage of the wire, we are limited to 12 and 14 guage due to size of the breaker by electrical code. And the funny thing is a 10, 15 and 20 amp breaker all costs the same. But 14/3 or 14/2 romex is cheaper than 12/2 or 12/3 romex. But all that said you can place more recepticles and or switches on the 20 amp circuit.

And it is correct that there can be poor connections along the path from panel to recepticle but if that were the case there would be arcing taking place

My initial question became an issue for me because it appeared to be an issue here every time the topic of a smoker not reaching proper operating temp arose.

The best conductors are in this order: silver, gold and copper. Gold is much softer and makes for a better connection so it has gotten a reputation as being the best conductor. So we all use copper because it is cost effective and since OSHA is now out there, aluminum isn't because it oxidizes and causes arcing which = fires.

I am an electronic technician and I really do not see where there will be a problem unless there is already insufficient power being applied to the recepticle and or if the cord is several 100 foot long. And for what it is worth, I believe that proper insulation is probably more a factor that anything as far as extension cords go considering the amount of current being drawn by an electric smoker.