Time to check out the generator.

masscity · Nov 2, 2021

grsthegreat said:
IF Its the same as on the generator, than its a female recepticle. therefore the cord has male ends on both side. ergo Suicide plug.

Nope, there is a 240V female plug on the generator. I bought the same plug and hard wired it to my barn electrical wiring. Now I have a male plug that fits either one, so for my pump controller I either plug into the hard wired power when it is on or when the power is out I plug into the generator. No way to back feed the line.

I've had one guy do it and two other people look at it and they said it's fine.

LouNY · Nov 2, 2021

what is commonly called a suicide cord has male ends on both ends so it can be hot and exposed,
that is simply a wired pig tail that can be pluged into any proper electrical outlet.

masscity · Nov 3, 2021

LouNY said:
what is commonly called a suicide cord has male ends on both ends so it can be hot and exposed,
that is simply a wired pig tail that can be pluged into any proper electrical outlet.

Thank You I didn't know what a suicide cord was, but I know there wasn't anything wrong with my hookup.

grsthegreat · Nov 3, 2021

It not that there’s anything wrong per say, calling it a suicide cord is because with generator running and cord plugged into generator, the other end of the cord is live, 240 vac death trap if it is not plugged in or becomes unplugged.

LouNY · Nov 3, 2021

grsthegreat said:
It not that there’s anything wrong per say, calling it a suicide cord is because with generator running and cord plugged into generator, the other end of the cord is live, 240 vac death trap if it is not plugged in or becomes unplugged.

masscity does NOT have a suicide cord as you said male ends on both ends are.
But he does not have two male ends, he has a cord that plugs into an outlet,
either on his generator or on his utility powered receptacle the other end is hardwired to his appliance.

grsthegreat · Nov 3, 2021

N

LouNY said:
masscity does NOT have a suicide cord as you said male ends on both ends are.
But he does not have two male ends, he has a cord that plugs into an outlet,
either on his generator or on his utility powered receptacle the other end is hardwired to his appliance.

o, I understand what he did, I was just explaining why they called it a suicide cord.

his is just basically a long pigtail.

TractorTYMe · Nov 3, 2021

Did my 1st scheduled test run last weekend under 1st generator ownership on my Duromax XP12000EH. Have made this a monthly thing now.

bdhsfz6 · Nov 3, 2021

When I was in college, they used these so called "suicide cords" in one of my electrical engineering lab classes. They had an exposed metal pin on either end. There was a bank of wall mounted receptacles wired to various high voltage generators in the basement. The cords were used to connect up pieces of bench mounted test equipment. There were strict rules about how connections were to be made. The cord was supposed to be connected to the bench equipment FIRST, then plugged into the power panel.

On one occasion, an absent minded student plugged a cord into the power bank first and was idly swinging around the other end which was live with 4,000 VAC! Luckily, the instructor saw what was happening and started yelling! The startled student dropped the live end which drew a 3 foot arc to one of the bench legs before blowing a fuse!

This was back in 1970 and I'm sure more stringent safety measures have been put in place since!

ultrarunner · Oct 15, 2024

PGE notified the Hospital that a PSPS may be in the future as early as noon Thursday.

This is when the utility shuts down the grid which may cover most of Northern California as a measure to prevent a repeat of some of the massive wildfires in weather events...