How bad of an idea is it to plug multiple extension chords into each other?

[DeadlyPilot]

Haven't heard much about this so wondering whether or not it's a good idea. Could it damage any equipment plugged into it? Would it be a fire hazard? 

[spartaman64]

most of the time the worst that can happen is that it wont work

[Bananasplit_00]

its not a great idea but it should work fine

[Kryptyx]

Yes this is a fire hazard.

[Sors]

Depends on the load that you'll connect to them, the extensions by themselves are not a fire hazard.

 

If the total load is not larger than the capacity of the first extension, is fine.

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, DeadlyPilot said:

Haven't heard much about this so wondering whether or not it's a good idea. Could it damage any equipment plugged into it? Would it be a fire hazard? 

Depends on the gauge of the extension cord and the run or length, but in general it's best to use one and not multiple small ones as it adds more potential points of failure. 

[porina]

The risk is that with lots of things taking power together, you could take more than the wall socket or an individual adapter is rated for. If you're running lots of low power kit, it'll be ok. BTW I do this a lot for chargers and things which are very low power, but I have so many of them...

[Trevor87]

As long as you don't over lode the wall plug socket or the extension cord you should be good. 

[Arc_Jester]

It depends on what you are going to be plugging into said extension cords 

[vanished]

Many extension cords will tell you not to chain them but honestly I don't know why.  As long as you don't exceed the maximum load of the cable (which shouldn't be possible if it's a cable that's worth using to begin with) the number of things plugged in and the length shouldn't matter at all.  Remember that in an extreme over current case, the circuit breaker on your panel will automatically flip, regardless of how or why the socket was over drawn, thus protecting you.

 

But, just for completeness I will say I am in no way an electrician or electrical engineer.

[DigitalHermit]

It's a fire hazard, unless you know what you're doing.

 

Keep everything under the rated amperage, especially the main power strip that you connect to, because once you get close to that rated amperage, the higher the chance that a fire will start.

 

Source: I had to work with a bench with 8PCs (~600W each, thanks to their shitty PSUs and CRT monitors) connected to a single power strip rated for 240V 10A. It was not fun trying to prevent said bench from catching fire.

[y_unit265]

Chaining together multiple cables will increase the resistance on the cable. They tell you not to chain cables due to the fact that it will add more resistance than a single cable, due to there being air in the connectors. Having any type of connection between a power source is a potential fire hazard, with it overheating if there is to much power flowing through. However, if you keep it within "reasonable" margins, you should be fine. Usually a cable will start melting its plastic before it can do any real damage. Keep in mind that the only flammable thing in a cable would be the covering, as metals don't burn.

[Zodiark1593]

As long as you're not running a render farm off a single outlet (Within Reason comes to mind), you're likely going to be fine. Pushing the load close, but not quite, tripping the circuit breaker may yield varying results however.

[The Flying Sloth]

I had a single socket in my old bedroom, ran a music studio from it incl, electric drums, guitar/bass amps, studio monitors, 200W car sub, PC, EQ's, Keyboards and screens  had no problems