Perhaps the weakest link in the US electrical system technology connections

Hey there! Correction time (and more thoughts!): THHN wire is what’s inside the sheathing of Romex, which is actually classified as NM-B cable/wire. As in, the conducting wires are THHN, the whole thing together is an NM-B cable. Yep. So there’s that.

Also, I want to be clear that of the problems we have, this isn’t a huge one. Generally, when things get hot because of overloading, it’s at the connection point and not in the wire. For instance, a lot of electrical fires start at the plug/socket interface either because the connection is poor, there could be corrosion, etc. And sometimes they can happen when nothing is overloaded! This is one of the circumstances in which arc-fault circuit interrupters can save lives. It may well be the case that very few fires are started because of the problem we’re discussing in this video. Especially since outside of certain high-draw devices, the risk of overloading the actual conducting wire is low in the first place. That’s why I am comfortable using them!

That said, I remain perplexed that this is an issue we’ve let persist. Most electrical fires aren’t the result of a single thing; they’re a cascade of individually not-great circumstances combining to make a bad situation. In order to reduce the risk of fires, we’ve continually been making the not-great things less bad. That way an increasingly large number of bad circumstances have to align for a fire to happen. Simply put, I think allowing unfused 16 gauge extension cords into the market is a potentially bad link in the chain that we could probably do with cutting out.

In fairness, it used to be much worse. 18 gauge (maybe even 20 gauge) extension cords were available many years ago, but we at least had the sense to make 16 the minimum as time went on. However, as I hope I’ve demonstrated here, that can still be problematic. Pulling 20 amps through that cord made it get very hot quite quickly.

The extension cord that I bought for my corded electric lawn mower was more expensive than the lawnmower was. It was still the cheapest 100' one that slightly exceeded the minimum requirements.

And here I am, preferring a DIY extension cords and making sure the gauges of the wires is bigger than what's built in my home.

I just gave a very uncomfortable look over to my fridge hooked up via short extension cable with my dirty clothes piled on top of the wire…Maybe I'll get a basket…

While the fuse thing sounds great, i think you are discarding what people with less knowledge about electricity would do when the fuse does it's job.
They look at the fuse and if they realize that putting the same fuse in will burn the fuse again, they are prone to put a higher rated fuse in if it fits the socket. Negating the whole purpose of the fuse.
(It's what lot's of people for a long time have done with the old screw in fuses we had here in europe before resetable circuit brakers.)
The only solution would be to make the extension cords rated to the same current, the circuitbrakers are. (In your case: all extension cords to withstand 20A)

I use Folding at Home and have a fire extinguisher in the room where I draw 1000 watts continuously.

My kitchen is not very smartly designed. Waaay too many outlets are on the same circuit and the fridge wasn’t on its own circuit. Ugh. I would love to know who wired me house. The way that it’s wired makes no sense. All 3 bedrooms are on the same circuit as well. That makes it really hard to run a space heater (we use oil heaters in the bedroom).

I can't believe that the USA electrical system is so far behind the rest of the world. Like 50 years behind.

my walls have pink romex running through them. Festive!
Also, 6ft may be what some people at the NEC think is common, but just looking at a few appliances laying around, almost none of them have 6ft cords. Most are closer to 3ft. Honestly, I'd prefer longer cords than that. 10ft would be awesome and at that length, the need for an extension cord is almost nil in my home. Also, use 14ga wire for these 10ft cords and you'll be at 15A rating according to the ESFI.
Honestly though, it sounds like the British fused outlet makes sense and the NEC could make some strides by requiring fused plugs in any extension cord. Also, stop making 2-prong current taps entirely.

Wearing a blazer without shoes in the house is sacrilege.

I think if they can put a fuse in Christmas lights it should be easy to put in extension cords but in today’s environment where you can’t get people to where a mask in a store good luck getting this past

I dunno I think people should just be smart enough not to use tiny cords with large electrical loads. although I was on a job a few years ago when a floor sanding crew came in and burned the house down while we were at lunch because they were running a large drum floor sander on a 16 gauge lawn and leaf cord. it really sucked and my whole crew was out of work for a few weeks right before xmas.

ALMOST FORGOT- another aspect with long extension cords you forgot to mention is voltage drop. since the voltage drops considerably on a 50 or 100 foot cord, this causes whatever electrical device your using to pull more amps, further heating up your cord, increasing resistance etc
This is due to ohms law, since the wattage stays the same the amps have to increase. Then there are also startup loads on things like air compressors or pretty much anything with an electric motor, when the motor first starts they can pull double the amps or more

The only extension cords I ever encountered that were flimsier than those in the video were in my sister’s doll house and running at 4,5V. The difference in size between US splitters and European ones is most striking.

As a brit, this blew my mind. But not my electrical outlets thanks to integrated fuses in every plug.

There's just so much in here that isn't accurate.

First off, circuit breakers have two functions. One is to protect the fixed wiring from overload.

The second function is to act as a safety device.
Yes, that circuit breaker is designed to stop you from receiving an electric shock.

The way that works is that when a live component within a device comes loose and floats around inside whatever it is it will contact the metal enclosure. That meatal enclosure is connected to earth and causes a high current to flow, causing the breaker to trip.

Current capacity is also highly dependent on the installed situation. Wire burried within thermal insulation such as in a wall or ceiling space heats up more than wiring in something like an extension cord. It is principally the thermal properties of the cable insulation that determine its current carrying capacity.

Its called not to be to stupid, read the appliance book that comes with the appliance you buy………

Good show, your teaching A good class.

We put warning signs on bags, so you don't choke yourself. The real problem is the average person is stupid. In a Mike Judge Idiocracy type of way. They will hurt themselves on everything.

In the US there is a business practice that is dangerous but not a lot of people are considering or thinking about, is that everything in the US is made to break because that creates problems and it creates work, now yes everything will eventually bound to break, but the difference is a dresser that will last and a dresser with the intention of breaking if you look at it.
Infact even in the US (as a side note, yes everyone needs to pay their bills) there is excessive pricing.
A simple 1 room apartment could range from $1,000 to $5,000 and the apartment is about to catch on fire tomorrow.

The safer vs less dangerous nuance reminds me of an argument I posed years ago about darker vs less bright.

Languages are messy.

Funny trivia, the Swedish word for fuse is a spin of the word for safe.

The stupid thing here is not how much of a risk it is IMHO, but that this all could be avoided by regulating that every extension cord should have a fuse in it. No instilling massive amounts of fear in your citizens, no designing your entire houses to make extension cords less necessary, no house fires because someone did an oopsie one time (we all do that), just one simple regulation and we're done. Except of course for the fact that you'll have legacy extension cords floating around like ticking time bombs for decades, but it'll eventually solve the problem once those extension cords either get disposed off or fulfil their highest calling of burning a house down.

So one small regulation would solve all of this. Except Americans are so indoctrinated to start fuming at the mouth when you mention regulation that even casually hinting that regulations might sometimes be a good thing that that's probably never going to work. Ever.

You are absolutely correct that "safer" does not imply that something is safe. It is a comparison to another thing, and stating that on a scale of how safe something is, that thing is closer to "safe" than the other thing. Overdosing on sleeping pills is safer than taking cyanide. This is not an incorrect statement and does not imply either is "safe". This is similar to all the people that heard "change" several campaign cycles ago and assumed that automatically meant positive change. Losing your legs is a change, and people need to be more critical about how they understand words.