Yellow Jacket

A Yellow Jacket extension cord is the heavy yellow cord you run 50 or 100 feet from an outlet or generator to a saw or compressor. Homeowners use it in the yard and shop, and contractors use it on job sites. Southwire makes it and sorts its cords by the job, so you buy the one built for your conditions.

Roy Richards Sr. founded Southwire as a wire and cable business to help bring electricity to rural Carroll County, Georgia. Southwire Company, LLC started producing wire on March 23, 1950, with 12 employees and second-hand machinery, and it has been family-owned since 1950. Its corporate building is in Carrollton, Georgia, and it is known for wire and cable used to transmit and distribute electricity. In August 2020 it acquired Construction Electrical Products, a maker of temporary power distribution and portable lighting.

Pick the gauge first, then the length

Gauge decides whether the tool runs right, and the smaller number is the thicker wire. Every foot of cord drops voltage, and a thin cord at 100 feet starves a saw motor: it runs hot, bogs in the cut and eventually burns out. The most common mistake is running a circular saw off the same 14-gauge cord that ran the leaf blower fine. A 14/3 cord at 50 feet handles lights, trimmers and light tools. For saws and compressors, 12/3 is the minimum at 50 or 100 feet, and 10/3 is the cord for long runs and hard-starting motors. The Yellow Jacket cords follow that ladder: 25-foot 12/3 cords for the shop, a 50-foot 10/3 contractor cord, and 100-foot 12/3 heavy-duty and 10/3 lighted cords for the long pulls.

For a 100-foot run to a saw from a garage wall outlet, choose a 10/3 cord with a regular three-prong plug. The Lock Jaw ends on the heavy-duty cords grip the tool plug so it can’t pull apart when the cord gets yanked across the site.

Read the jacket letters

S is service cord, J is junior service rated 300 volts, T is a vinyl thermoplastic jacket, E is an elastomer jacket, O is oil-resistant (OO means jacket and insulation both), and W is rated wet and outdoor. SJTW is a lighter vinyl outdoor cord for yard work. SOOW and SEOW are full-duty cords for job sites. A lit end, like the ones on the 50- and 100-foot Yellow Jacket lighted cords, shows at a glance from 100 feet away whether the cord has power or the breaker tripped.

Match the plug ends to the outlet

A garage or house outlet takes a NEMA 5-15P, the regular three-prong plug, and most of the catalog uses it. Twist-lock plugs have curved blades you push in and turn, so the cord stays connected when someone trips over it. Those ends, L5-20P, L5-30, L14-30, 6-50 and the 50-amp California style, fit only matching receptacles on generators, temporary panels and dedicated shop circuits.

For a portable generator, match its panel first; many carry an L14-30 four-prong twist-lock. Yellow Jacket makes a 25-foot 10/4 heavy-duty generator cord for the run from the generator, four conductors so it carries both legs of a 240-volt panel. Never feed a house through a dryer outlet with a double-male cord; have an electrician install an inlet and a transfer switch.

Cold-weather cords

A vinyl jacket stiffens in hard cold and cracks when it’s forced off a coil, and on a Montana job site that cold lasts from November into March. Keep the cord in the shop or the truck cab overnight, uncoil it while it’s warm, and lay it out in long loops instead of yanking it straight off a frozen coil. Crews that run cord outdoors all winter can also look at Southwire’s Cold Weather Cords, rated to -40C, which is the same as -40F.

Care and storage

Uncoil a cord all the way before running a saw or heater on it, because a coiled cord under load holds its heat. Pull the plug instead of the cord, keep tires off the ends, and wrap it over-under so it lays flat. Retire any cord whose jacket is cut to the copper. For a cord wound and unwound every day, a cord reel keeps it off the floor. Short Yellow Jacket three-outlet and multi-outlet cords and the five-outlet outdoor tap spread one outlet across a bench of chargers and tools. Where the outlet has no GFCI, like an old garage or a basement with a wet floor, plug in the 2-foot Yellow Jacket GFCI cord first, in-line or three-outlet, so a nicked cord or a wet tool trips it instead of shocking someone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a 100-foot 12/3 Yellow Jacket cord heavy enough to run a saw?

For one 15-amp saw, yes. A 100-foot 12-gauge cord drops about 5 volts at full load, around 4 percent on a 120-volt circuit, and a saw motor handles that fine. Step up to 10/3 if the same cord also feeds a work light or charger, or if the saw is a big worm-drive or table saw that pulls hard on startup.

Will a 10/3 extension cord plug into a regular wall outlet?

It will only if it has a regular three-prong plug. Plenty of 10-gauge cords are built for generators with twist-lock plugs that won’t go into a 15-amp house receptacle, so look at the plug blades before you buy, and hang a long 10/3 cord on a reel or a wide hook, because it’s much heavier and stiffer to coil than 12/3.

What’s a good 50-foot cord for running several things at once?

Run a 50-foot 12/3 Yellow Jacket cord and plug the Yellow Jacket 5-outlet outdoor tap into the far end, so a trimmer, a work light and a battery charger can all run off one cord. Every outlet shares what the cord can carry, so add up the amps on the tool nameplates and keep the total at 15 or under. A saw and a shop vac running together will trip the breaker.

What does the light on a lighted-end extension cord tell you?

The lit end shows that power made it all the way to the far end of the cord. If it’s glowing and the tool won’t run, the problem is in the tool, its switch or its brushes. If it’s dark, go back and check the breaker, the GFCI on the outlet and the plug at the wall.