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Found in a thrift store recently:

An AC cord, 3-pin (earthed) plugs on both ends, with 2-conductor wiring in between. Spotted 'cause cable was damaged. Even the cable itself carried markings like "3x 0.75mm^2" despite having 2 conductors in it.

This was a one-piece cable (with 'non-replaceable' plugs), so came like that out of the factory. Covered in all the usual certification / safety markings.

Yes... Chinese made. And certainly not a mistake but intentional deception + cost cutting.

I know, many Chinese manufacturers just don't care, and will produce whatever [someone] tells them to produce.

But BOY, how much I would have loved to have a word with manufacturer person in charge of that production run, and question their ethics. And maybe beat 'em up or something.

"You don't care about (potentially) life-or-death safety of random person using YOUR cord? If found by someone with authority, ENTIRE batch of such cords will be recalled, with you or your customer footing the bill, and you don't care about that either?"

I really have a hard time grasping the level of negligence displayed there. And "sorry I had no idea" doesn't apply - you're an AC cable manufacturer, for f%#! sake.

Sadly it's 100% certain such deadly-accident-waiting-to-happen products are commonplace out there. I've got more examples from personal experience alone.



> An AC cord, 3-pin (earthed) plugs on both ends

You mean it had PLUGS on both end? That's not a cable, that's a murder attempt!


No just regular male + female plugs. If not damaged, would look okay in all respects.

That was in the NL. Probably grey import, sold at flea markets, eBay / AliExpress purchase or similar. Doubtful such cords would pass under the radar of say, HP or the like. Then again, you never know. ;-)


Plugs? Sure, with one end female and one end male. I assume you’re thinking of male on both ends (which, yes, should not be sold), but that’s not necessarily the case.


A female plug is referred to as a socket; any other case is just using the wrong terms.


What country/continent was this?


less than a year ago I was able to find male to male power cables on amazon lol


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