SOOW / portable cord · Harris County / Greater Houston
We buy SOOW / portable cord.
Flexible 600 V cord off a yard rack, a dock lead or a plant temporary power run. We buy it as coils, cut lengths and opened reels, in the sizes crews actually use.
Portable cord is the cable that moves. It feeds a pump on a skid, a welding machine at the edge of a yard, a shore power connection at a dock, a temporary panel during a turnaround. Because it is dragged, coiled and dragged again, it wears out on the jacket long before the copper inside is finished.
We buy the leftovers of that life: a 250 ft coil with 180 ft on it, half a 500 ft reel of 8/4, a dock lead cut back after a fault, a pallet of assorted SOOW and SJOOW that came out of a maintenance crib when the crib was cleared. Small material is normal here, and it is reviewed on construction, size and condition rather than length alone.
What separates portable cord from building wire
SOOW, SJOOW, STOW and the rest of the family are flexible 600 V cables. The letters describe the jacket and the rating rather than the copper: the S is for service cord, the two O's for oil-resistant insulation and jacket, the W for moisture and weather resistance. A J in the string means junior, a thinner jacket built for lighter duty.
The difference from THHN or tray cable shows up in the stranding and the jacket. Portable cord is built to bend thousands of times, so the conductors are finely stranded and the jacket is a tough thermoset or elastomer rather than a thin thermoplastic skin. That construction is why a dock lead survives being dragged over a steel edge, and why a 60 ft cut of 6/4 is still worth collecting.
- SOOW and SJOOW in 18 to 10 AWG, two to five conductors
- STOW and SJTOW for outdoor and oil-exposed runs
- Welding cable in 1/0 and 2/0 when it comes with the cord
- 250 ft coils, 500 ft reels and loose cut lengths
- Black, yellow and the occasional high-visibility orange jacket
Print on the jacket gives the type, the gauge and the conductor count. If it has worn off, the outside diameter and a tape measure will place the size closely enough for a first review.
Where portable cord piles up around Houston
Cord gathers wherever temporary power is ordinary. Contractor yards keep a rack of it beside the gang box, because the next job needs a lead for a saw, a compressor or a light plant. Fabrication contractors keep SOOW for welding machines and plasma cutters, and the welding lead usually sits on the same rack. Boatyards and docks keep shore power leads that have been plugged and unplugged for years.
Plants are the larger source. Turnaround contractors bring their own cord through the gate, then leave the damaged lengths behind rather than pay to ship them home. Maintenance cribs hold coils bought for one temporary install, still banded, that nobody has touched since the job closed. A crib cleanout can put a pallet of mixed cord on the floor in an afternoon.
Terminal and marine work adds a category of its own. Cord that has lived on a dock is exposed to salt air, diesel, hydraulic oil and standing water, and the jacket shows all four. That is not a reason to leave it in the shed. It is a reason to describe it accurately when you send it.
Cord that has been in salt water or fuel is still bought. Say which, and the review starts from the right place.
Judging a used cord at the jacket and the ends
A used cord is graded on the jacket first. Cuts, gouges, flat spots from being run over, and the hard chalky surface that sun leaves on rubber all reduce a coil. The copper inside is usually sound. The jacket is what fails, and a jacket that has failed means the cable cannot go back into service as it stands.
Then the ends. A clean cut shows the stranding, the insulation colour and whether water has tracked in. Cord cut off a live run and left outdoors will wick moisture along the strands, and that shows as dark copper and swollen insulation a few inches back from the cut. A sealed end on a coil that never left the shelf looks different, and reads as new surplus.
Length comes last because it is the easiest thing to establish loosely. Wrap count, coil diameter, or a weight against a known figure for that size will all get close. Nobody needs the footage to the foot on a coil of 12/3. They need to know whether it is 40 ft or 400.
- Jacket: cuts, flat spots, UV chalking, oil or fuel damage
- Ends: bright copper, dry insulation, no wicking
- Conductor count and gauge, from the print or measured
- One continuous length or several tied together
- Whether the coil is on a rack, a pallet or loose on the floor
Sending a cord lot for review
Send the type, the gauge, the conductor count, roughly how much is on each coil and where the material sits. A photograph of the jacket print and one of a cut end covers most of what a first pass needs. If several coils of the same size are stacked together, one clear photograph of the stack and a count by size is enough.
Loading is simple compared with reels. A coil of 8/4 is a two-person lift, and a pallet of mixed cord goes onto a liftgate truck without equipment. Say whether the material is loose, palletised, or still on a rack that has to be cleared first, and whether a truck can back up to the door or has to park at the street.
Mixed lots are the ordinary case. SOOW with welding cable, SJOOW with a few cut leads, a box of cords that came off a decommissioned skid. Nothing has to be sorted before it is offered, but grouping by type on the pallet shortens the review and gets an answer back sooner.
Questions sellers ask
Do you buy short cut lengths of SOOW cord?
Yes. Portable cord is one of the few materials where a 20 ft length is a normal lot rather than an afterthought. Short lengths are grouped by size and type, and a mix of lengths on one pallet is reviewed as a single lot.
What cord types do you take besides SOOW?
SJOOW, STOW, SJTOW and the junior variants all come through regularly, along with welding cable when it travels with the same lot. Type W and heavier duty constructions are reviewed too. If the print is unreadable, a photograph of the cut end settles most of it.
Can cord that sat in water still be offered?
Yes, and it is graded accordingly. Water wicks along finely stranded copper, so a coil that has been submerged shows it a few inches back from the cut. Expect a lower grade or a metal-only outcome rather than a flat refusal.
How is a coil of portable cord measured?
By counting wraps and measuring the coil diameter, or by weighing it against a known figure for that construction. State what the tag says and what you estimate remains, and the two together are close enough to plan a collection.
Buying desk · Greater Houston
Got this cable in stock?
Tell us what is on the reel, where it sits and what condition it is in. A buyer reviews the lot, asks for photographs of the tag and the cut end, and comes back with a real answer — not a request to call a call centre.
- Cable type, size and voltage class
- Footage, reel count or weight, and condition
- City, and whether the site has loading equipment