Well, it just had to happen … I had to leave the house in a hurry, and put the dogs in the laundry room for a few hours. When I came back I let them out and then I noticed the freezer cord “chewed up” and the freezer not “humming” as usual. So, in short, my dogs used the feezer power cord as a chew toy, and survived..
Now, how do I repair the cord ? It’s broken right in the middle, halfway from the “point of entry” in the freezer to the plug. What are my options here ?
(besides getting new dogs perhaps…)
You could just replace the line cord.
It should say what gauge of wire it is.
You could buy an extension cord of the proper length and gauge and cut off the receptacle end.
The old cord is probably wired in using crimp connectors. You will have to cut these out and use the proper sized wire nuts.
Make sure to use a strain relief just in case your dogs decide to pull the freezer around by the cord. Wire nuts will not stand up to this.
The strain relief on the unit may force you to buy the correct line cord as some of them are not compatible with all wire types.
You could also do a splice where the cord is chewed through but is is best to do it with splice offsets and solder the splices together and tape them up properly.
Easiest is to wire a plug where it is chewed and then use an extension to plug the unit in.
Make sure the extension is the same gauge or better (bigger wire) that the cord on the unit.
With wire gauge the lower the number the larger the wire, so AWG12 is larger wire than AWG14.
I would then give the cord a coating of Tabasco, this should keep them away from it in the future.
Thank you, DenMan for your suggestions. I will try yo cut the power cord at the point where it has been damaged, put a plug in , and use a heavvy-duty extension cord to the closest out let. As for the Tabsco sauce, that is a good suggestions, I didn’t think about it. I am in Texas, and I could also use some other hot pepper, and around here I only have to choose one…