Its slim appearance will let it hide away under any table or beside any sofa, while the total length is short enough that you won’t have spare cable length to worry about. Again, the solution is to avoid the cheapest extension sockets, and read up on the product to see if there are any design features that will lower the risk of the cable being damaged if stepped on or twisted.

Obviously, this is not ideal if you’re moving around a lot as you’d be sticking and unsticking tape all the time, but I would still say it’s better than leaving the cable trailing on the floor. It also has two always-on USB ports should you need them, plus all these sockets have surge protection should you accidentally overload your lead.The lead is hot to touch: This suggests that you are overloading your extension cord beyond its capacity and marks a real safety hazard, as noted above. From there, you can name individual plugs so you know what you are turning on and off, wherever you are in the world. So, you have to fully unwind 50 metres of cable to use it safely with multiple appliances at the same time. However, once you unwind the cable, that maximum current jumps to 10 amps (2400 watts) which is much more practical and should allow you to run two electric garden tools at the same time without issue. For a start, they are usually quite big and can be heavier than you expect when fully wound with cable.

If you’re planning on using high powered electric garden tools, then the cable must be unwound to prevent excessive heat build up in the cable reel. Electrical Safety First has devised a calculator so you can estimate the power consumption of the appliances, devices or tools that you’re planning to connect to your extension lead. With that being rated at 3000Watt and believe me, it uses all of that, they needed to build a decent lead to accompany it! By all means, fill up the available spaces in your new extension lead – but ensure that the peak power consumption of the connected devices remains within a lead’s rated capacity.

So as you go through my site you'll watch me document some of the professional garden installs I make as well as the major projects I take on at home. Apart from that, and a couple of other minor grips, I have nothing but good words for the Status 4 socket cable reel. It has four sockets, all with their own individual on/off switches, as well as two USB ports that also have an on/off switch.

You can even use Alexa or Google Assistant to turn them on/off for you or set timers and schedules that suit your lifestyle. Of course, this is another thing that goes wrong, leaving you to wind the cable by hand; a very monotonous job indeed.It has a IP54 weather rating which means by law it can withstand splashing of water, and dust ingress but that’s probably not quite so important to you. There are two AC outlets on the side of the Centurion EXT, and they are 3 pin sockets to be used with UK standard plugs. Long before that happened the fuse should have blown so I am not quite sure what happened there but most cars charge on 30 Amps or more, and since this cable is only rated for your standard 13 Amp household, I highly advise not to misuse the product.