With proper care and maintenance the best equipment and tools, deliver peak performance, year after year. In this regard, top quality, heavy duty extension cords are no different from your other expensive tools and should be treated accordingly.
Inexpensive or "cheap" extension cords tend to be stiffer, an undesirable quality that increases as they age. Bad Ass premium extension cords, like , and Polar Bear are extremely flexible from day one and remain so over their lifetime. This means years of easy deployment and use. And at the end of the day they can be easily coiled for proper storage.
Is there a proper or correct way to store an extension cord? There's certainly a range of opinions on the subject, with some advocating the “carpenter’s wrap” while others maintain that “chaining” is the only way to go. One thing the pros all agree on: Use the popular "hand over elbow" method and you'll have a badly kinked cord the next time it is used.
It's actually very simple to take heavy duty extension cords and make tangle free coils. Most pros agree that the best way to coiling and store extension cords is with a straight coil (over - over - over) in a clockwise direction. But once you coil it, how do you properly store it?
For short, light duty cords, a simple cord wrap or cord reel is often the answer. Wraps offer portability while extension cord reels are typically stationary, secured to the wall or ceiling.
For longer, heavy duty cords, everyone seems to have a preferred storage method. Here are some of the different – and creative – ways folks store their coiled cords:
- Hang the coil from a hose butler, attached to wall.
- Hang the coil from bicycle hook, screwed into the wall.
- Secure the coil with Velcro straps and store in a milk crate.
- Secure the coil with coat hanger wire. Leave a few inches of extra wire extended from the coil. Form a loop at the end of the wire and hang the coil on a nail or small hook.
- Wrap the coil around a chrome rim from a '68 Chevy, bolted to the wall.
Whether you use a coat hanger or a chrome rim, just remember to start by properly coiling the cord. The next time it's needed, it will be kink-free and ready to go.