Almost all stranded electrical wire and cables have a twist manufactured
into them. This can be seen when the jacket is stripped from a cord (or
insulation from a single stranded wire), and the twist is nearly always
clockwise.
When one tries to roll up cables (like air hose), the natural twist should
be considered, and repeated.
The longest life of a cable will result from the cable being coiled
following it's natural twist.

When one uses any number of different methods that go against the natural
twist of the cord, they stress the individual wire strands.

My usual method is to start with an end in my left hand, with the end toward
my body.. then twist as needed to form coils in a clockwise direction.. same
as a RH thread.
This method doesn't work in a confined space, the cable needs to be layed
out, with space to shake the abnormal twist out of a cable, and not a
tangled up rat's nest.
A right-handed version of this method would be to hold an end in the right
hand, with the end pointing away, and twisting the cable as needed to form
coils in a counter-clockwise direction.. same as a RH thread.
This method works easily and perfectly for any length of power cord,
extension cords or even multi-cabled video cables. The coils lay flat
against each other and the coil doesn't try to unwind itself from the
tension created by backward-wound twists.
When commercial video cables cost more than $10-20 per foot, it is practical
to treat them well.

When one uses the hand-and-back-of-upper-arm (palm to tricept area) to wind
up a typical extension cord, the cord will generally form a figure-8 when
it's removed from the arm.. this is because the natural (manufactured) twist
was ignored.

The chain-of-loops that's popular with contractors is copied mainly because
that's the way contractors do it (IMO).. they saw it on a TV show, so it
must be for a good reason.
Bull****.. the method is neither time-saving or practical. The individual
strands are stressed.. the huge "systematically tangled wad" of cable isn't
compact, and will be a chain of snags for anything placed near it.. tools,
ground stakes, limbs, etc.

I had a difficult time coiling garden hose when I was a kid.. I just
couldn't get the hang of it (those old multi-layer real rubber and woven
reinforcement cord types).. I suppose people that have trouble coiling
extension cords probably couldn't coil a garden hose without a reel or a
wall hanger to hang it on as they gather it up.

A few cables don't have a manufactured twist.. coaxial cable, for example.
The stranded center conductor will be twisted, but the braided shield
generally won't be.

When fishing reels are loaded with fresh line, an experienced angler will
repeat the manufactured twist of the line as it was put on the spool at the
factory, to eliminate line twist (tension) which will foul new line
quickly.. as soon as the tension of the backward-wound line is relaxed, it
starts deforming resulting in the formation of long helix tails in lengths
of line.

--
WB
..........


"Denis G." wrote in message
...
I recently met someone who is a big fan of these and showed me his
collection of them. It's a nice and simple way to store and use
electrical extension cords:
http://www.cordpro.com/video.html