My wife’s iron, at the tender age of only about 45 years, needs a new mains flex. It’s the traditional nice and flexible, rubber-insulated, braided cotton-covered stuff sported by every iron I remember seeing. The iron is rated at 1200W at 240V, so 5A conductors plus earth. Such flex is conspicuous by its absence on the shelves here in New Zealand, and even electrical wholesalers and appliance repairers look puzzled when asked for the stuff. Heat-resisting silicone-covered flex also seems unknown here.

It seems that braided flex is available through some home decor-related channels, intended for ‘retro’ lighting applications, but you can’t find out anything useful about the rating or insulation or braiding material, even at the enormous price the aesthetically conscious are expected to pay, and I suspect it’s produced, in many colours, to look pretty rather than to be robust and heat-resisting.

Does anyone know a source of this flex? One UK electrical supplier lists it on its web site, but it’s out of stock. My daughter will be passing through UK in a few weeks, and could bring a few metres of this apparently vanishing species back with her.