How come all of the new TVs,VCRS DVD,etc have a what I call a "Smooth Cord"? it is not like the old "Zip cords? where you can just "zip" and pull apart?

Welcome to ECN!!
I guess that it is purely economics of manufacture, ever tried to strip back one of these cords to fit a new plug on one of these devices?, they are a nuisance and I take it, that you are talking about an appliance that is sourced from China or some other Asian country.
This is what makes them competitively priced, until it comes time to fix it, we have a term over here, NWR (Not Worth Repairing), people think that you are just looking to sell them a new appliance.
Such is our throw-away society!.

yeah I have my DVD player plug got bent and trying to bend back it snaped went to HD to get a new one I would have to say its sort of like striping romex Outer sheath then the 3 wires inside (Two in my case)

Here in Austria that stuff has replaced zip cord in the 1970ies. Guess that's because it's double-sheathed.

The old single insulated cords are not accepted on the international market anymore. This has probably reflected on the US market, too. They were legal in Europe up until a year or so ago, but I don't think any agency (UL counterparts) were prepared to mark them and unmarked products are viewed with some suspicion.

Double-insulated cords have been required in the U.K. since the 1970s (exceptions for a few cases, e.g. fairy light strings).

The double jacketed cord you are referring to is Non-Integral Single Parallel Thermoplastic #2 (NISPT-2) cord.

It seems like UL is requiring it because of the added protection of the tough outer sheath.

It's not so hard to strip though...once you get the hang of it. Replacing the cracked plug on the cord has never been a problem for me.

I have an old 1970s-era Portugese-made Grundig table radio that has the old-type metric-gauge .75mm "zip-cord" going into a two-pin Europlug. I haven't seen any new European-market appliances with zip cord in ages. I also have an Australian-manufactured Kingsley radio with about 10 feet of .75mmx2 zip cord terminating into a three-pin moulded plug (the earth pin is not connected to anything. Weird).

Also has anyone noticed that most new table lamps are wired with SPT-2 18AWG cord instead of the thinner insulated SPT-1 18AWG cord?

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 10-29-2002).]

The use of Tru-rip wire(single insulated) has been outlawed here for years, but every now and then a DIYer gets prosecuted for using it for fixed wiring, this cable by virtue of its size(0.5-0.75mm2) will only handle 5A at the most, but it is never fused properly, is it. This has burnt a large number of houses down.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 10-30-2002).]

Zip cord is still sold here, with a tag reading it's good for electric clocks, table lamps, radios, ect. However, it never comes with new appliances.
Personally I use it for low voltage (bell wiring @4.5VAC, sometimes speaker wire for really cheap speakers,...) and sometimes as a replacement for aold appliances that originally came with zip cord.
The last appliance I've seen that came with zip cord and a Europlug was a 1970ies Hitachi color TV.

All problems here can be cured by using proper "Reference Power Cables."
http://www.jpslabs.com/kaptovator.htm http://www.magnan.com/signaturepower.shtml http://www.diycable.com/catalog/products/power_straight_jacket.htm