Shore power line "sticky"

[jklingenstein]

Our shore power line feels "sticky"....

It's not a problem we are losing sleep over but it's on the list of boat chores.

I assume it's the rubberized jacket degrading from being in the sun and we'll have to hand clean it.

Anyone else notice this condition ?

[sea_hunter]

Once the outer insulation has become sticky, the cable is degrading and there's no "cleaning" it off. Live with it, or buy a new one. Some say the new grey ones don't degrade as fast, but I'm not so sure.

[arf145]

I tried most everything on our sticky power cable with little effect. One winter though I started just scraping the sticky part off using a straight edge and then cleaned it up with a 3M pad. It's not as yellow as it was, but it isn't sticky. We don't leave our cable out anymore--solar takes care of the batteries generally--but when I do haul it out it doesn't leave marks all over the boat like it used to.

[Siamese]

I got a spare power cord for free, but it was pretty ugly. I had success cleaning it with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Not like new when I was done, but much better.

I'd say the 50' cord took about 15 or 20 minutes. Good job for the shade. Probably used two eraser pads to complete.

[RichH]

The rubber on most shore power electric cables is PVC.
When molded, they add compounds to 'help' with the 'flow' of the molten PVC in the molding/extrusion process .... mostly di-octylphtalate, etc. These sticky compounds that come to the surface of flexible PVC are soluble in light weight mineral oil (WD40, PB Blaster, kerosene, diesel oil, etc.)
Rx.: take a cloth rag, soak with PB, etc., coat/wipe the 'sticky' with the 'oil', let soak for a time, wipe the cable with a dry rag; .... may need to repeat but the longer you soak the better the removal. One to two years later, do it all over again, etc.

;-)