Shorten surge protector cable?

[shawnoen]

Anyone know if its possible to shorten the power cable on a surge protector?

I'm thinking you could take it apart and there will be 3-4 wires on there hopefully connected via screw terminals?

Seems everyone you can buy has 8-10ft cable length for the power cord. I need something with 2 feet or so max.

Thanks, Shawn

 

[jojo69]

sometimes they are soldered inside, just buy a good quality 3 prong replacement plug, observe polarity; black wire=brass screw=narrow blade, white wire=silver screw=wide blade, green wire...well duh

 

[nalc]

They might be soldered or crimped. You can pick up a couple of 14-16ga crimp butt connectors for a few dollars at the hardware store. Cut and shorten, then crimp them together.

I'd love to know where you're buying surge protectors, though. It seems like more and more, they are starting to come with 2-4 foot cables instead of the 6-8 foot cables they used to come with. I've paid a premium for Furman or APC surge protectors with 15 foot cables, and I've done the opposite of you - installed a 12 foot cable on a surge protector that originally had a 5 foot cable.

 

[Druneau]

You could go the other route and buy a plug end at lowe's/home depot.

Just saw this had been suggested. so I'll go with "+1 for a plug"

 

[shawnoen]

ya, took it apart and theres 3 solder joints. One on a switch blade, one on a distribution block, and the last in on a circuit board. Pretty heavy duty wires obviously. I have a nice soldering iron (Weller WES51) but for some reason messing with a surge protector scares me a bit. Don't wait to burn my house down

Went to Hope Depot to look for a plug to shorten the cable and only thing they had was huge construction spec looking ones. Wish I could find something a bit smaller.

 

[systemviper]

GOOGLE IT, YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU NEED,

 

[shawnoen]

Googled for about 30 minutes. Finally found correct search term of "straight plug".

 

[Stupid_Newbie]

You can shorten it just fine. Chop it and throw a cord end on.

 

[jeffmoss26]

Done it many times in my previous life doing sound and lighting. Also made some nice long surge protectors with 12/3 SJO cable and Hubbell edison plugs.

 

[valve1138]

You can shorten it just fine. Chop it and throw a cord end on.

Yes, this. Easiest way to do this.

 

[plunger]

You could have bought a "power tool replacement cord" from Home Depot. Under $10 and you could chop off the amount you need.

 

[John D]

How about some zip-ties?

 

[PurduEE]

Googled for about 30 minutes. Finally found correct search term of "straight plug".

When you're done, if you want to be sure that you've connected everything correctly, use an ohmmeter/continuity tester to verify that the ground on the plug matches the ground in the sockets, etc...

 

[athlon1.2]

Went to Hope Depot to look for a plug to shorten the cable and only thing they had was huge construction spec looking ones. Wish I could find something a bit smaller.

It's just that with the screw terminals they have to be that big. The molded plugs are much smaller.