My friend's parents got a new well pump and they gave me the wire. It's about 200' of finely stranded 14/3 with a super flexible rubber insulation similar to heater cord or SJO cable. What strikes me as odd, however, is there is no ground wire, just a red, yellow (probably was once white) and black. Is there any way I can legally make this an extension cord? I was thinking either using 5-15 plugs and using the yellow as ground, red as hot, and black as neutral. Or another thing I have is L10-20 connectors which I could run 2 15A circuits through and put on some 2-prong female connectors. Any suggestions? It seems real nice for Christmas lights....

 

Nope, it has always been yellow.

I know almost nothing about submersible well pumps or their installation but I do know that 3-conductor cable is the norm. No, no equipment grounding conductor either. That cable runs from the pump motor to a control box that has a starting capacitor and a starting relay. The yellow conductor is for the starting winding on the motor through the capacitor and relay.

Technically, no you cannot use it for a 120 volt extension cord because the insulation colors are wrong. But, if you don't tell anyone...neither will I.

 

There is a 4-conductor variation that also includes the green. But it still has the red/yellow/black, no white. The flat jacketing is odd though.. Normally the conductors are just twisted around each other with no outer jacket.

 

If it were #10 wire or maybe even #12 I'd consider making a 200' extension cord but #14 is not all that special and rather small for a really long extension cord... unless you happen to need a really long extension cord.

 

I think the yellow is going to be white.


I have several hundred feet of the 4-conductor #10 at my land. The yellow became white and is used to connect the generators to the sub panels. The cable I have pictured is from a house built about 40 years ago.

If I use this for incandescent lights, voltage drop will only make them last longer.

 

Stranded.... huh. Most of the wiring for wells is solid.

 

This is pretty interesting stuff, that's why I don't want to waste it. What amazes me is how there can be splices on the pump 600 feet down and they don't get filled with water.

 

I imagine they use splices similar to what you use for UF or USE.. The ones with the glue-filled heat shrink that makes the splice waterproof.