As much as I truly love replaceable cords, I'd be more than happy enough if I could just unscrew the shell of the device, unscrew the power wires from where they attach, and put in any cord. Where I care about waterproofing, some silicone caulk is an extremely cheap (and removable) fix.<p>Unfortunately practically everything you can buy now is welded plastic halves, or easily-broken clips. So even when you <i>might</i> be able to do this internally, you have a high chance of breaking the shell even if you know what you're doing.
The one integrated cord that bugs me is the one in my 1987 vintage ADA MP-1 rackmount guitar pre-amp. Every time you take thing out of the rack to do something with it, like diddle around the circuit board, there is always that cord dangling out of it and getting in the way. The connections have become flaky somewhere as well.<p>I keep telling myself one of these days I will convert it to a C13 connector. Or C5, it that would fit better.
One very practical reason that comes to mind is waterproofing. Kitchen counters get wet, and office desks do not. Anything with a plug is at greater risk of shorting.
<a href="https://www.sunbeam.ca/en_CA/kitchen-appliances/sunbeam-1.7l-detachable-cord-electric-kettle-white/BVSBKT31CD-033.html#" rel="nofollow">https://www.sunbeam.ca/en_CA/kitchen-appliances/sunbeam-1.7l...</a>
Sure but that's what gfci is for no?<p>Anyway IMO lamps are usually the worst offenders.
Not every house has GFCI, and old ones are not always retrofitted.<p>From top of my head, there are two main reasons:<p>1. C13/C14 is a bulky set of connectors, and fitting them to compact(er) things are not always easy. This also means cable needs additional care to keep somewhere else and label. Why label? See 2.<p>2. Not all appliances use the same amount of power. C13/C14 is an overkill for a small, non-grounded appliance. Use a figure 8 then, alright, but what happens when you mix your coffee grinder cable with your powerful hand blender's cable and use it at max power? Hot things. Not the soup, but burning cables.<p>In this age where we use aluminum cables because it's cheap, mixing low and high power appliances' cables will become a liability fast. Using unique connectors will make the reason to have detachable cables moot, and drive up the price.<p>Standardization? The awesome thing about standardization is, three are too many standards to choose from.
Headphones are a big one for me. By their nature, the cords are often going to get snagged and tugged on and are pretty much guaranteed to fail before the headset itself does. I'm pretty happy my current Sennheiser headphones have detachable headphone cables, though the shaky ground the company itself is on makes me wonder if I should stock up on a few...
This is my pet peeve about USB-C laptop docks. The vast majority of them have a captive cable, usually about 10cm long. It's a failure point, often an inconvenient length, and makes them much harder to pack.
That's one of the reasons I love Festool's tools, nearly all of them have detachable power cords. It's a proprietary connector, but it makes it very convenient if you own a few of their tools. Both the power and dust hose have twist lock connectors that stay firmly attached in use.
I’m a big fan of this notion. My hot water dispenser has a magnetic power dongle kinda like macbooks MagSafe, but bulkier [0]. Ideally something like that would be more standardized across appliances the way some of the other three prong power cords are.<p>[0]: <a href="https://youtu.be/E2WrHHRYrV4?t=108" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/E2WrHHRYrV4?t=108</a>
I loved having one of these until the non-stick coating inside started flaking off badly after a couple years.<p>Nowadays I'm only touching steel and/or glass on these things. An all-steel-interior Zwilling kettle has lasted me twice as long already, and looks brand new (on the inside) if I give it a brief acid cleanse to remove deposits. It's not quite as convenient or as stable temperature, but I'm more than happy to have something that lasts many times longer.
Elecom makes USB cables with "MagSafe" style connectors.<p><a href="https://www.elecom.co.jp/products/MPA-CCMA10BK.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.elecom.co.jp/products/MPA-CCMA10BK.html</a>
Ah, Zojirushi, great rice cookers .
Regulations make detachable cords of electric kitchen appliances hard.<p>Most need double isolation and water-proofing, hence not detachable.<p>It could probably be done, but it likely needs a different type of connector, akin to M12/M8
Also product liability. If you give a domestic hair dryer a 12 ft cord, someone will use it in the shower.<p>If you give an insta-pot a 6 ft cord, someone will drape it off the counter and a child will pull it.<p>UL standards actually limit cable length for many appliances.<p><a href="https://www.intertek.com/standards-updates/ul-1026-electrical-household-cooking/#:~:text=Description%20of%20New%2FRevised%20Technical,Deleted%3A" rel="nofollow">https://www.intertek.com/standards-updates/ul-1026-electrica...</a>
My Ankarsrum Assistent mixer has a detachable power cord with a standard C13 connector.<p>It seems to be possible, but it’s likely cheaper to have fixed connectors.
Because the cord is rated for the appliance. It is a fire thing. Let customers swap out cords and one of them will use an underrated cord and cause a fire. Or they will use a cord without a ground.<p>Ironically, Christmas lights make great (ie <i>safe</i>) extension cords because code mandates they have biult-in fuses, unlike any other cord which is just wires without any overcurrent protection.
The plug between the cord and the device must be sturdy and meet regulatory standards<p>So it is expensive<p>It is cheaper to just attach the cord<p>That is the reason
Erm, let's not.<p>Take one look at the mess of incompatible detachable cords that come with LED lighting fixtures from China to see what results.<p>They could have used bog standard IEC 320-C5 cables, but they didn't. Why? Because they wanted to cheap out on the conductor AWG and IEC 320-C5 is <i>quite specific</i> about the conductor gauges and current capacities.<p>So, the LED lighting manufacturers produced a bunch of cables that are in almost exactly the same shape and size factor as IEC 320-C5 while being <i>just enough</i> incompatible to not invoke the certifying authorities--all to save a couple pennies in copper.