View Full Version : Power Cords


vts1134
12-25-2011, 04:11 PM
Does any one here have a good source for power cords? Most of my sets have the same style power cord and a lot of them are shot.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6571256255_ecf605069e_m.jpg
I'm also in search of a cord for my new GE which has a different style connector.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7029/6571135575_4131622b26_m.jpg
I've not seen this style power connector on any other set, but they've got to be out there.

earlyfilm
12-25-2011, 11:13 PM
Does any one here have a good source for power cords?

While on the subject, does anyone know where heavy duty power cords big enough to handle a 540 watt TV can be purchased?

All the modern power cords that I've seen look like they are for flea powered transistor sets.

James

Celt
12-26-2011, 08:19 AM
Can't say for the GE, but AES http://www.tubesandmore.com have the more common "safety" replacement AC cord sets.

dieseljeep
12-26-2011, 10:39 AM
While on the subject, does anyone know where heavy duty power cords big enough to handle a 540 watt TV can be purchased?

All the modern power cords that I've seen look like they are for flea powered transistor sets.

James
You have to look around the various swap meets, thrift shops etc, to find decent quality cords. Some of the poor excuses they sell as power cords are cheap imports. The cords I use are marked "Hotray". They don't have mounting ears on them.

Dave S
12-26-2011, 11:52 AM
Despite their being entirely inappropriate from an OEM / vintage point of view, I like to replace the line cords on my old radios and TVs (particularly the AC/DC sets) with 3-wire grounded ones.

Computer power cords seem to multiply in storage like coat hangers in a dark closet, there's always an inexhaustible supply of them around here, but even if you have to buy them, they're relatively inexpensive. You just cut the end off, solder it in at an appropriate point, and 'voila' a new line cord not only one without the copper wiring showing through the cracked plastic, but also a little bit safer 'cause now things are grounded. (But don't forget to disconnect the wires from the cheater cord socket or the prongs will have 120 volts poking out the back of the set, which would kinda diminish the aforementioned safety improvement!)

Dave S
12-26-2011, 11:58 AM
While on the subject, does anyone know where heavy duty power cords big enough to handle a 540 watt TV can be purchased?

All the modern power cords that I've seen look like they are for flea powered transistor sets.

A 540 watt TV would draw around 5 amps. Anything over 24 ga. would be adequate to handle the load and I can't imagine that even the chintziest power cords would be that small.

--Dave

kx250rider
12-26-2011, 12:05 PM
The original cords should be fine for vintage TVs, and honestly most of the late 40s and 50s sets (other than projection sets), use under 300 watts. And with the vacuum tube circuitry, they "soft-start", and have very low surge current. There's no load on the B+ line until the rectifier warms up slowly, and by then, the filaments are all up to run current load, and last, the CRT doesn't draw much of anything until the high voltage comes up.

In a solid state color set however, there's a radical inrush load when the degaussing coil fires, and the whole power supply and high voltage pop on at the same millisecond. That's why the fatter cords on newer sets.

Charles

Jeffhs
12-26-2011, 12:32 PM
Power cords for old TVs can be difficult to find these days, because they aren't used much anymore. The AC cord is hard-wired to the chassis in almost all new TVs, and probably all flat panel sets as well. The instruction manual for my flat-screen TV, for instance, makes a particular point of this fact: "The (power) cord is permanently attached to the back of your TV. Do not try to pull it out."

As to a cord that can handle the current draw of a 540-watt (!) television, as was mentioned in another post, you may have to do a lot of looking at flea markets, hamfests, etc., as just about everything these days is solid-state and powered either by a wall-wart transformer or an internal power supply -- as I said, there is almost no need anymore for the type of power cord formerly known as a "cheater" cord. This type of cord got its name from the fact that it was used, in the days of tube-powered TVs, to power the set for servicing when the back cover is removed. All older TVs, until about the '80s or so, had what is known as an "interlock" cord. This cord had the socket end riveted to the fiberboard back of the TV; it mated with a 2-prong connector on the television chassis when the back cover was attached to the set. However, when the back was removed, the socket parted company with the chassis-mounted connector, cutting off all power to the TV. Many people, however, defeated the purpose of this interlock (when the set's cord became frayed or otherwise damaged) by removing the socket end of the cord from the back of the set and using a cheater cord; this dodge got the television to work, but it disabled the safety feature provided by the interlock.

This is most likely why today's flat-panel TVs, and many sets made from the 1980s until the end of the analog television era, have permanently attached cords and clearly worded warnings against removing the back of the set for any reason -- a throwback to television's early days, when such a warning was found on the backs of all TVs of the time: DANGER. HIGH VOLTAGE PRESENT. Do not remove this back for any reason. This cover is only to be removed by qualified service personnel.

Five hundred forty watts is over a half-kilowatt, so the set for which VK member earlyfilm needs a replacement cord must be a 3-way combo entertainment center with a very, very powerful amplifier; that's the only thing I can think of that would cause any television to draw that much power from the AC line, unless the set had a very serious short circuit. However, in the latter case, the line fuse (or in sets not equipped with such a fuse, and there were many 1940s-'50s TVs that were not so equipped, the house fuses) should blow immediately. There are cases on record, however, where foolish homeowners have replaced fuses in the basement fuse box with copper pennies; this may have restored the power, but the severe overload on the power line often caused fires when the wires behind the walls in the house overheated. There was one such case mentioned in a DIY TV repair book of the 1960s. In 1963, a house in Cincinnati, Ohio was severely damaged by a fire caused by overloaded wiring; the overload, in turn, was caused by a thoughtless homeowner who, having grown weary of replacing fuses when they blew, put a copper penny behind the fuse and reinserted the latter in the fuse box. Once again, this restored the power on that circuit, but the wires in the walls and elsewhere in the house overheated, the insulation burned off and a costly fire resulted. :yikes:

Today's electric service panels for homes, businesses and other public buildings are designed such that such a disaster as I just described cannot occur. These boxes use circuit breakers that are permanently bolted into the box with hidden fasteners, so the only thing the building owner can do when a breaker trips is to flip it back on -- after the overload or short circuit has been cleared, of course. If the overload is not cleared, the breaker will continue to trip until the problem is corrected. There is no way whatsoever to bypass or otherwise defeat the breaker, without destroying the box.

Whomever invented incorruptible breaker boxes is to be commended many times over, as these boxes cannot be "fixed" to defeat the breakers; this, in turn, has resulted in a drop in the number of electrical fires in homes, businesses and the like. In fact, I believe the National Electrical Code (NEC) now requires that breaker boxes, not fuse boxes, be installed in all newly constructed buildings.

ChrisW6ATV
12-26-2011, 05:09 PM
Most if not all "traditional" TV power cords that I have seen, and extension cords of the same era, have been 18-gauge. Even by the modern more-conservative standards, an 18-gauge cord is good for seven amps, which is 840 watts at 120 volts. They do seem thin by modern standards, but should be fine even for a big combo unit.

Electronic M
12-26-2011, 06:47 PM
I tend to buy my cheater cords at ACE hardware....They stock and "appliance" cord that with a pinch of finagiling fits the interlock chassis plug that most vintage sets use.

Not the most historically acurate thing to use, but it does work.

wa2ise
12-26-2011, 09:40 PM
...

Whomever invented incorruptible breaker boxes is to be commended many times over, as these boxes cannot be "fixed" to defeat the breakers; this, in turn, has resulted in a drop in the number of electrical fires in homes, businesses and the like. In fact, I believe the National Electrical Code (NEC) now requires that breaker boxes, not fuse boxes, be installed in all newly constructed buildings.

As long as the breaker panel isn't a Federal Pacific Electric Stab Lok panel. Those are known to fail to trip on overloads. Sometimes 60% failure rate. See http://www.inspectapedia.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm sometime to see the horror stories...

I had one of these in my mom's house, replaced it with a Square D QO panel.

dieseljeep
12-27-2011, 06:52 PM
As long as the breaker panel isn't a Federal Pacific Electric Stab Lok panel. Those are known to fail to trip on overloads. Sometimes 60% failure rate. See http://www.inspectapedia.com/fpe/fpepanel.htm sometime to see the horror stories...

I had one of these in my mom's house, replaced it with a Square D QO panel.

There's one or two other makes that failed to trip at the proper time, Zinnsco being one of them. Quality fuses are still the best overcurrent there is.

ChrisW6ATV
12-27-2011, 07:54 PM
As long as the breaker panel isn't a Federal Pacific Electric Stab Lok panel.
WA2ISE-

Are there FPE home breaker panels that are/were not the Stab-Lok type? I am curious, because I replaced my FPE panel with a different brand when I rewired this house in 1990. Mainly, I did it because FPE breakers then cost $20 each and the newer/more common brands (Challenger, Square D, etc.) were less than $4 each, so once I knew I wanted more than two new circuits the hardware paid for itself. It will be good to know if I also improved the safety of the house, though. Thanks and 73.

wa2ise
12-27-2011, 09:34 PM
WA2ISE-

Are there FPE home breaker panels that are/were not the Stab-Lok type? .... It will be good to know if I also improved the safety of the house, though. Thanks and 73.

I have a "Federal Noark" panel in the house as a subpanel, and it's not the stab-lok type. It appears to be a higher end quality unit, maybe industrial grade. And it did trip on the occasional overload and once I shorted the line and it tripped quickly. Haven't seen any horror stories about it.

Changing out the old FPE panel should increase the safety of your house.

I replaced an old FPE panel with a Square D panel, and I now have lots more spaces for extra circuits. I even ran a 240V 15A circuit to run a few Aussie radios I collected (they run fine on 60Hz, and as they use power transformers, they don't care that it's a pair of 120V's). And I used this old style outlet, which happens to match Aussie plugs
http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/americanaussieoutlet.jpg

A page of my foreign radio sets http://www.wa2ise.com/radios/forgnr.htm