Southwire 100ft, 14/3 SJEOW Supreme Extension Cord, 1439SW0061

I wasn't going to write a review as I don't like being a whiner but I received SEVERAL emails asking me to review so here goes. This cord Is supposed to be a SJEOW cord. The E in this cord is short for Thermoplastic Elastomer that is supposed to be better in cold weather than regular thermoplastic. In my experience, cord of this designation remains very flexible easily below -10 Celsius and typically shows little or no memory until very cold weather.

When I removed the cord in the house the cord showed quite a bit of memory from being coiled up for packaging. I thought this would go away somewhat when I straightened it out in my house (20 degrees Celsius). Much to my dismay, after sitting at room temperature for more than an hour the cord still refused to lie straight. I have previously purchased Southwire bulk SJOOW cord at the Depot and made my own extension cords but at $8/Metre at this time purchasing a "pre-made" cord seemed like a better value. Unfortunately, the quality of the cord "material" itself is disappointing for a SJEOW extension cord. Maybe it is just me, but for a $100+ cord to not lay flat in 20 Celsius is not acceptable.

The other minor issue with the cord is that this new cord had obviously fallen out of the original cardboard packaging which was then stapled back together. It also looked like it had been dragged around a warehouse floor for a couple of days to give it that rustic lived in hard partying extension cord look. Do I care that much if an extension cord I am going to use outside and in the garage looks roughed up? Not really but again this cord was $100+ and is supposed to be new. I would expect it to look this way if I bought a "refurbished" cord (if there is such a thing?).

Unfortunately this is a cord I am only really going to use to sit outside hooked up to my block heater or to power Christmas decorations. It would be frustrating to use with power tools as the cord refuses to lie flat even at indoor room temperature and if I tried to use it in a work environment I would spend my hours tripping over the semi tangled mess.

Don't know why Southwire would produce such a low quality extension cord when most of their cords are excellent. Unfortunately this cord is not one of their good products.