Breaking in power cords

Fatparrot's suggestion to use one of those little "ceramic" space heaters should work great. On low power, they pull about 750 watts and on high power, most are up around 1250 - 1500 watts of draw. This is steady state draw too, so there is a lot of thermal stress on the dielectric of the cord. On the other hand, the in-rush current of a refrigerator is VERY high, especially on older models. The steady state current draw might not be as high, but the constant cycling of the refrigerator may work to one's benefit too. Both are good candidates and much better than light bulbs, computers and other devices that aren't real high in current draw. Then again, i suppose that something is better than nothing, but at that rate, i'd just use it on my amp and be done with it. Sean
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I'm with Sean. A space heater is what I always use. Good high amperage current. Will get you where you want to be real fast. A computer doesn't draw the type of amperage you want and a fridge will be off more than half the time because of the thermostat. I'ts been my experience (using the heater) that 100 hours is more than enough to do the job.
peace, warren

There is a guy here that sells the adaptors so you can burn in your power cord right from your refrigator. Look up btstrg Agon member Here is a link to his ad:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?accstwek&1103213153

I agree with Sean and Warrenh, however I prefer the refrigerator because I have to run it any way and it’s not an additional use of power. :-)!

Many good ideas. I checked the ad by btstrg and liked the idea of daisy chaining my PCs (I got four new ones)to an oscillating fan. I'd use the refrigerator idea, but it would be hard to fit four PCs behind it and they would get dirty as well. Also with the heater, I'd have to deal with the heat and possible problems if it got knocked around when I wasn't there. Also my wife would probably notice that one more quickly, and she already thinks I'm crazy with "extension" cords the size of garden hoses. Thanks for the help.