You have one of those HD 100' extension cords. One end is plugged into a live outlet. The other end is left out in the rain.

I'm careful about not doing this, but what would happen if I did?

Sue

Your next door neighbor would trip over because it's hard to see in the rain and then sue you for every penny you have. Just kidding.

Off the top my head, probably nothing would happen. Fresh water, particularly rain water, doesn't conduct electricity that well, so unless something physically got stuck into the little slots of your extension cord, I think it's unlikely that the electrical circuit could be closed just by sitting out in the rain. I don't know if it's the building code, but my garage outlets also have GFI protection, like you see in bathroom outlets, so any short circuit would quickly be shut down.

Actually, if it was a hot, sticky night, I'd sneak over to your house and hook up my window AC to it so I could sleep at night, then unplug it again in the morning.

Most likely nothing bad will happen. Although if you left it in the rain, and the live end happens to be in a puddle....well, if anything did happen you'll probably just trip the circuit breaker that the cord is plugged into. But if someone happened to be walking into the puddle...while barefoot...and decides to pick it up...

So while the probability is that nothing bad will happen, it's almost a complete certainty that nothing good could possibly result from it either. I have left many regular extension cords out in the rain with no accidents. I try and be careful, but sometimes an unexpected shower happens and I'm not at home to put everything away. So while I don't recommend it, it's not something i would worry a whole lot about.

Most modern extension cord socket ends are deep enough and narrow enough that the surface tension of water won't break past the opening or aperture. Contaminants in the water can mitigate the surface tension a bit (surfactant runoff from stuff like anitfreeze, pesticides and herbicides etc). The chance that dirty water can get to the actual electrical contact is minimal, but it is possible. If the cord is plugged into a gfdc, then it will likely trip out and open the circuit before anyone gets hurt. If no gfdc, then the contacts could short out through the water and trip the breaker. There's also a very remote chance that the water is not conductive enough for a true short, for whatever reason, and the current stays live. Usually, though, once the current has found a flow path in the liquid, it will usually compel a circuit flow to a true short or open the circuit again.

It takes a serious case of dumb butt to leave a cord thus.

The breaker will trip, at worst.... well, worst would be getting zapped when plugging something in, but even then you're looking at a wake-up call at worst (depending on circumstances).

I tell all my contractors (correct that - DEMAND from all my contractors) that they use GFI protected extension cords where exposed to the elements. Ordinary breakers may not trip fast enough to protect you from the shock. I've seen plenty of cords with hacked off ground plugs, non-water tight ends and frayed sheathing. There is no point to getting zapped over a few extra dollars of cost. If I had an electric lawnmower, you can bet your life that I would have it connected to a GFI extension cord.

BTW, you can die from as little as 47 volts.

Okay, thanks a lot! I was just kind of curious.

But not curious enough to stick the outer end in the dog's swimming pool....

Sue

Undoubetdly, GFI's are the way to go wherever water is possible. They keep the dogs safe too (if someone accidently put one end in their pool)

I got zapped (twice) by 110v tonight at "work," doing a hot wiring job. It ain't that big a deal...

GFI's are great, but be aware that they don't make you absolutely safe. In the right conditions, you could be killed by a leakage current that is too low to trip the GFI.

Yep, something I also alluded to.

While I revel in the wonders of today's electrical profusion, there is no sensation that I dislike more than being zapped. I would rather have a broken bone than to take juice like some I've been hit with before.

One of my biggest frustrations at home is that while I am probably the least user of extension cords, I seem to be the only one that will put them away or otherwise care for them properly. I've come close to pitching the whole tangled mess in the can a couple times.

Amprage kills NOT voltage. Your lucky

cheers

Guess I have been lucky, amperage wise, my entire life, 'cuz I have been zapped by 110v more times than I can remember. Once my ex heard it, and I wasn't even feeling it. I used to max out those little electric gizmos at penny arcades, the ones where you grab a handle and twist it, increasing the juice you are feeling...

Not much luck to it. A lot of us have been bit by household. It isn't a tenth the deal most people make it out to be; you have to have torqued off multiple gods for it to kill you unless you are standing in water.

It only takes a few milliamps of electricity traveling though your heart to kill you. If you are playing with electricity and you know the lines are hot or you have not bothered to check, make sure that the electric path though your body is not though your heart.

And 110v shocks are not that uncommon, like OBG i have been hit more than i will admit to. It's enough to wake you up, it might be bad enough to make you say a dirty word. The shock that makes me really jump is once in a while i get zapped by the high frequency on the tig welder, that ranks up there with makes you squeal like a little girl. But even the high frequency is not bad unless i am well grounded. One of the showoff things that tig welders do is make sure that you are NOT grounded and turn the torch around in your hand and aim it at one of your fingers. Then touch the pedal, you can see the electricity dance between the torch and your finger. It feels like little pin pricks, and it makes for wide eyed engineers.

Hardest I ever got zapped was by a lawnmower. Old fashioned one, it had a little metal gizmo that you flipped up against the end of the sparkplug to shut the mower off. Once, and I was standing on a wet sidewalk to make things worse, I took my usual swipe at the thing and missed, hitting the end of the sparkplug instead. Now THAT hurt!!!

Setting the points on the 68 ford fairlane, with my bro working the key to turn the motor so I could set the gap. I forgot to get outta the way one time when I said to hit it, and all I saw was stars for a while.

I did that to dad once helping him work on his mustang and he darned near beat all the tar and stuffing outta me after he got up off the ground.

The nasty ones are when I've been installing the whip on a cop radio and my "assistant" keys the radio while I am holding the metal rod. That rf goes right to the bone quick. That burn took two months to heal up right.

Sometimes I think me and my old radio buddies probably resembled some of those Earnest P. Worrell commercials. Know what I mean, Vern? or maybe a Tim Taylor tooltime event.

OBG, You didn't have to bring that up. Have done the same thing, sweaty hand slipping off of the little metal grounding clip. But getting zapped by a lawn mower plug many years ago made me very careful when i moved up to working on car ignition systems.

Have a friend of mine that was popped by one of the modern automotive hei systems told me that he wasn't sure which was worse, that or getting hit with a taser. (Getting hit with a taser was part of his LEO training) He said that both put him on the ground.

You want to talk hurt, my dad used to work on monster engines in a gasline compressor station. By monster I mean pistons that are three feet in diameter. They had a magnito that would put you on the floor instantly...

I'm not saying kissing a light socket. I'm saying if you get bit you get bit, it's not the instant kill you dead right there thing that a lot of people seem to make it out to be.

There is reason why I use my right hand when playing with wiring, even though I'm left handed, unless I threw the breaker myself and then locked the box with the one (1) key in my pocket. :P

The funeral of my brother's friend was Friday a week ago. He had a major broken pipe in his condo, and when he opened the front door, a foot of water rushed out. He worked for hours to get it cleaned up. Then it started to get dark and he reached out to turn on a light.

Sue

NEVER grab a hoist line, basket,or Stokes Litter being lowered by a helicopter, UNTIL it has touched the ground (or water), and discharged it's STATIC ELECTRICAL charge or else your knees will hit the ground, HARD!!!!

If the cord is not plugged in on the Female side, it will most likely not do anything. Worst case scenerio would be a tripped breaker. Now if there is something pluged in like a light that is running beware of the connection point. Amps flow the most when something is running.