I'm frankly astonished that nobody at Amazon realized what a HUGE error it was to sell double-male power cords.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-...re-and-Carbon-Monoxide-Poisoning-Hazards

I recall someone in a post here saying that if they ever saw one of these, anywhere, they would chop it up into 2-inch pieces.

In the past decade I’ve crossed paths with many enthusiastic “inventors” of these cords.

We’re not talking about simple lack of knowledge here. The users have all shared a combination of arrogance and desperation. The arrogance comes from a belief that they are above the rules, that they’re smart enough to figure things out for themselves, that they need not bother learning. The desperation comes from a belief that everything costs too much, that there’s some shortcut to economy.

One element behind this attitude is a constant exposure to “perfect” solutions. All they’ve ever heard of were massively oversized systems with all the bells and whistles: 200A natural gas fed generators with automatic transfer switches, load shedding, automatic exerciser circuits— and inspections!

Never have these folks heard of other safe and legal work-arounds. Here are three:
1) Just run an extension cord!;
2) Construct a power “inlet” with a dedicated outlet inside the house, Plug your furnace into this “special “ receptacle when using the generator; and,
3) Install a MANUAL transfer switch.

Indeed, the way the NECis written one would think there was no sauce thing as a manual transfer switch. Likewise, breaker ties and coupled breakers are not readily available (especially for older panels).

Get used to finding these cords. Combine $200 generators with increasingly unreliable PoCo grids and folks will quickly tire of freezing every time there’s a storm. Add to that “guerrilla” solar and there’s your demand. A final push comes from the simple fact that so many rent.

Speaking of solar: It’s been fifteen years since “micro-inverters” were first UL listed. Where are they? All I find are massive, brand-specific engineered systems. Deny folks access to safe equipment and the unsafe solutions will thrive!

The most popular suicide cord I see is a dryer plug connected to a 10ga cord with a twist lock on the other end. I bet there are 10 of them in my neighborhood alone. I try to explain how easy it is to do it right but they just want the lights on. Everyone says they will get together with me and do it right as soon as the power comes back on but nobody is interested in doing it then. The only person who was willing to do anything was the one who screwed up and ended up with a floating neutral.. They blew up a bunch of stuff and when the lights came on they ordered a Generac 15kva system.

I agree that micro inverter thing made a big splash when it came out and then just went away.