This is a non-technical but very handy tip that I stumbled upon by chance. You all must have trashed some appliance like a toaster, microwave, fridge, washer etc at some point. We disposed of a few appliances earlier this year that have been sitting on the garage shelf since the onset of the pandemic. While displosing I just had a brainwave and clipped the power cables (using a cutter) of all the appliances. For one it made trashing easier since there was no trailing cord left on any of the appliances.
Few weeks later, I was flashing a Sonoff relay for home automation and the power cable from one of the appliances came in very handy as it had the right plug (with high quality insulation) and all I had to do was strip the free end of the cable and screw it to the terminals of the Sonoff relay.
Lots of good, salvageable parts on those appliances, too. I’ll bet this HA crowd does a lot of repurposing components. But, yeah, I have a drawer full of things like power cords of various kinds. I used one today to test a Sonoff Zigbee Mini before I installed it in the switch box.
@PanMat, if those appliances had any life left in them, cutting the cords was an asshole move. In this part of the world, households are entitled to two unusual garbage collections for free (for when one needs to throw away appliances, furniture, etc). After requesting such a pick-up one receives a date (usually the trucks run a street a few times a year) and they put the stuff on the sidewalk 1-7 days before the pickup date. During this time people can scavenge whatever they want.
The rule regarding appliances: cut the cable if it doesn’t work! Otherwise someone else might give it a second life!
Personally, if I have something I don’t use anymore, but consider it is still usable, I first try to give it away on local marketplaces. Usually people pick them up within hours at latest.
That’s a little harsh. Donating what you can to someone who can use it is a good move. But it’s also good to salvage whatever components you can use before disposing of an appliance.
If there’s a local tradition of cutting cords only on non-working appliances, then by all means follow it. But that’s not universal.
The appliances were heading to a landfill (or whatever the trash company does for final disposal) so no harm was done in cutting power cords. It is common sense to not cut cords if the intent is to pass on the ownership of appliance to another user, no need to get so worked up!!