Why do we Have Different Colour Flexes
In this video we look at the common colours for flexible cables and why they are that colour. We often see white and black flexes in the home but on site we can also see yellow, blue and red in this video we explain why.
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== 🕐 Time Stamps - Cut to the action 🕕 ==
00:00 - Different colour flexes
00:13 - TV flex
00:25 - Outdoor flexes
00:39 - Games consoles
01:02 - Yellow flexes 110 volts AC
01:08 - Blue flexes 230 volts AC
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And orange is lawnmower!😉😁
🤣🤣🤣🤣
And normally a twin cored flex.
Good to know. Thanks.
My lawnmower(s) is (and previous was) Red 2 core 6 amp!
It's orange so it's a contrasting colour to green grass, less likely to run over it.
for the construction site one, it is the connector and the colour of the connector that is the significant part, if you had a yellow lead with the same type but blue plug, that would be a 240v lead, not a 120v lead. 99% of the time the colour of the outer cable means nothing.
Oh hang on, my van mains hook up lead is orange with blue connectors, the house hook up is yellow with blue connector and 13A at the other end. Damn my van has a secret site transformer hidden somewhere🤣 Forgot to mention brown, it's used on my old valve radios😁
The colour of flex cables in the home strikes me as a ridiculous subject for a question about electrical standards. To me, it looks essentially random as my house is full of leads of both colours. Colour coding for identification reasons is another matter entirely.
1 in 12 men have some form of colour-blindness, red/green being the most common. Flymo (and maybe others) use orange cables for their mains powered mowers and strimmers. I can tell you from experience, orange cables blend in very well on green grass to someone who is red/green colour-blind!!! So many other colours would have been better, even just black!
Thanks for that information
ORANGE is a good colour for garden tools , because it stands out best on a green lawn ( so you do not chop it with your mower ! ) ... but , should you need a wire to blend in ( low voltage garden lights ? ) then a twisted pair of BLACK and BROWN will almost disappear in the pine needles ! ( the UK defence forces use this trick ! ) ...... DAVE™ 🛑
In Australia, most commercially available flexible leads are 240v and are available in almost any colour that you could think of.
Thanks for your input 👍🏻
Here in the Netherlands the standard is 230/400V all black rubber flex. There are exeptions but standard is to use just black.
Thanks for the insight 👍🏻
Gold is a tacky table lamp!
🤣🤣🤣 great point
I've found that black tends to be the least noticeable color in most situations. For that reason, I wonder if another color will gain popularity for the cord used between an EV and charger - to be less of a tripping hazard. Personally, I'd prefer a cord where the jacket is either fluorescent or has a form of built-in illumination to it to make it highly visible. And to have extra illumination come on when motion is detected would be a nice touch. With the current black cords, I fully expect to go face first into the pavement one of these nights.
I have seen some EV cables in lime green which seems quite sensible. EV's highlight the number of people who don't seem to realise that a twisted flex can be easily un-twisted by rotating one end of the cable... these are people who have allegedly been deemed suitable to drive motor vehicles
Fluro orange translucent with RGB LEDs chasing the direction of power transfer (remember that National Grid is wanting to use your EV as their distributed energy storage...) 😁
I've had similar leads, and I like to wrap them with spirals of two contrasting colors of electrical tape at the point where they are most likely to be in the field of view. (say you are plugging in a blue car, I'd wrap with red and yellow)
“Domestic Flex”. North America we hear those words, think of a flexible gas pipe going to an appliance. Learning new meanings.
Thanks for your input 🦾
As an electrician since 1997 from Birmingham UK, I've almost always heard this cable referred to as flex cable or just flex. Domestic flex seems strange as its used just about everywhere in domestic, commercial and industrial - particularly for light fittings.
I'm not an Electrician, always had interests in electrics, a lot of my tools and garden tools have orange 2 core flex, just wondering why orange ,my thoughts on a lawn mower is it to stand out on the lawn when cutting grass, thanks
Exactly why orange!
@@intercity125 Thank's ,just needed a second opinion, all the best
Exactly that, so it's easily visible and you don't chop it with the mower!
@@intercity125 High visibility to prevent accidents is my guess.
Orange gives you something to aim for.wait do ‘just stop oil’ wear orange?? Just saying
Can you recommend any KZhead content/channels specifically for electrical inspectors?
The amount of times I’ve seen blue flex on 110v plugs, nothing physically wrong with it but it just doesn’t look great and can causes confusion. Red flex on 400v? I’ve only ever seen black rubber or SY cable on 400v plugs.
Thanks for your comment 👍🏻
I have a factory made 3 phase extension lead that is red outer pvc cable. Though I would agree black rubber or made up using SY are very common.
Red 400v applies only to the plug , 110 runs more amps than 240 so the blue cable falls short on rating if it’s in 1.5mm . You can get yellow 400v extensions I think maybe the guy shouldn’t be making videos someone’s gonna get a shock 😂
Oof, I have a red extension lead - it certainly ain’t 400V 😅
Black ⚫️ for outdoor use. Would an external influence like solar radiation not affect the cable temperature more 🤔 then say using a white cable
the black is probably more resistant to UV damage from sunlight. though I know it's a meme that you lot don't know what that is.
It used to be orange for outside so you could see the flex and not cut it with your strimmer. Never seen a red 400v lead.
on US construction sites, the color of the lead tells you who owns it.
Thanks for your input
Doesn't the blue leads indicate its able to matain current at below zero degrees so is good for outside use.
Yep. But for the purpose of this video ie for an electrician exam; on UK "construction sites" all 230v cable must be coloured blue, so the cable doesn't need to be rated for cold weather. Otherwise blue is typically arctic rated cable.
Avoid using 'obvious', it isn't to everyone!
Thanks for the feedback
black is used outdoors because it has uv blocking abilities. UV class is itseld on it's own , but it comes kinda with territory that if it's UV resistant it's usually black..because of physics. All that said everything black is NOT UV resistant. And I hope you meant 380V , not 300V on the red.
He did say 400, not 300. On UK construction sites red cable is 400v nominal, though in practice actual voltage is almost always 415-420v. During the early 1990's (I think) the UK changed its nominal-rated voltage from 240 to 230 and 415 to 400, this was for harmonisation with other European countries.
my site reel is green !?
...argh, you people know your stuff! Same with buried utilities...colour coding water, gas, electric & fibre optics
@@barnabybotThose that can, do. Those that can not teach.
Unless you got your extension reel from Tesco: Red cable and Red plug, on a red reel. 😲 Tesco corporate colours! 🙄😖🤣
Several in the comments thinking blue = arctic cable…clearly having never seen yellow arctic cable, nor orange arctic cable.
China enter the chat. So Mr Dave, we sent you pink cables. We hope you like