On 26/09/2019 21:31, jkn wrote:
On Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 6:25:11 PM UTC+1, John Kenyon wrote:
I have a steam iron that works perfectly, save for the flex.

The difficult bit was supposed to be getting the rear panel off the iron
(doddle - one security screw and gentle pressure to release plastic
tangs), not sourcing the bleedin' cable.

All I need is 2.5 or 3 metres of 1mm^2 3 core rubber insulated cable
with an overall cloth braid, and the thing will work again. The only
problem is that this cable (aka 2043Y) seems to be be made of unobtainium.

B&Q reckon they have 2.5metres for £7 in their range - pity it's out of
stock at every store. Nowhere with any kind of local bricks and mortar
presence seems to sell it.

Yes it's only £10 more to buy an identical replacement, but it's a lot
easier to recycle 3 metres of worn flex than 1.5kg+ of mixed materials.

rant over.

Yeah, I had to go online to buy some braided Steam iron flex a couple of years
ago.

It did mean that I could get 3metres or so - much more useful than the original
length you normally get fitted.

Also - FWIW I think I had to crimp some connectors of some sort onto the cable
in order to fit into the iron. I can't recall the exact details, they were
possibly spade connectors. I remember thinking that I could probably bodge it,
but decided not to. Your Iron May Vary, of course...


Three way choc block under the cover. There's nothing special about the
iron, apart from the fact that it still works despite the imminent
danger of blown fuse/electric shock from a one inch section of cable
that formed a kink with the inner cores hanging out (bad), and local
cracking of the rubber insulation (worse).

The only "special" item required is a bit of tape at both ends of the
flex to keep the braid from unraveling.

For the record, the iron has the marker 12W47 which means it's less than
7 years old.

Also the thing has a sensible strain relief where the cable emerges -
the cable is easily threaded through. The thing is the antithesis of
Apple design - cheap and completely repairable (if you can get the
sodding cable...)