Extension lead for mower

I think TMH meant overheating of the motor.

I loaned a builder an extension reel for use with his steamer. It never occurred to me to say that he needed to unroll it all for a heavy usage appliance like that. I thought it was obvious, besides it being written on the reel.

A few minutes later, the ring main went off, and I found that the extension reel had melted completely, just a pile of melted vinyl and conductors on the floor.

Reply to
GB
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Thanks very much - just the one.

I'm just going to go out and measure it, but I'm hoping I'll be okay with 40m of extension or a complete cable length of 55m.

Reply to
GB

B&Q have a similar looking plug and socket:

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However, their version of the classic 2 pin plug and socket:

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isn't quite compatible with a non-B&Q version so that might also apply to the flymo-style pair.

If you can find a supplier, buying a pre-packaged 50m drum is likely to be cheaper than buying 40m by the metre.

I see Rod ('polygonum') has already covered why you mustn't fit a 3-pin socket to a 2-core flex.

Graham Nye news(a)thenyes.org.uk

Reply to
Graham Nye

Do the roadie wrap!

Reply to
Andy Burns

Best answer is to put the electric one on fleabay, local paper etc and get a Petrol driven one. Apart from a bit of annual faffing around with the spark plug they just work and work well and no risk of cables getting cut bound up possible electric schnocks etc.

My lawn servant operative wouldn't have anything other than lead less bless her;)....

Reply to
tony sayer

Assuming it has a 13 amp plug and socket, that makes sense. As you simply can't be sure it won't be used elsewhere where an earth is needed.

I'm pretty certain if you change the plug on the mower to one of those special garden tool types you can then use a two core lead to that.

Voltage drop to anything can be a problem.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Thanks, this looks to be a solution to the problem. I will try it out.

Reply to
Nick

Yup, for all its various other faults, my Hayter is over 20 years old now, and has never done anything other than start first time...

Reply to
John Rumm

Unlikely. You're most likely to cut the bit nearest the mower - which is the original 2-core cable.

Reply to
Roger Mills

don't bother with an extension lead, just get a generator and position it halfway down the garden, then the origional lead on the mower should reach everywhere :)

Reply to
Gazz

The mower has two layers of insulation & needs no earth. The cable needs and earth in case you run over it with the mower. Also the extension cable reel may have metal parts that need to be earthed.

Reply to
harryagain

That's what I did and, at the time Wilko was cheaper than SF and TS. I made my own because pretty well all of the 25m leads were 1.25mm^2 and I wanted 1.5; also 27m is just the right length. 30m would have been OK of course but most are 1.25.

Reply to
PeterC

In that case, how do you explain the fact that the cable supplied with the mower has only two cores?

Reply to
Roger Mills

That just Network rails extension leads:-) - everyone else uses yellow ones.

Reply to
ARW

No, it doesn't. An RCD at the house end will provide protection to the user in this event.

Then don't use a metal cable reel with a 2-core flex. Better still, don't use a metal cable reel at all. If you're standing on damp ground there's no sense in introducing unnecessary lumps of metal connected to any part of the mains electric supply.

Reply to
Graham Nye

I just looked at Screwfix. They seem to have yellow for 110V only, blue or -- you'll never guess this -- ORANGE for 240V.

Andy

Reply to
Vir Campestris

On 25 May 2014, GB grunted:

+1. I'd owned it for years...

+1 :(
Reply to
Lobster

On 25 May 2014, tony sayer grunted:

But do they really 'just work'? Certainly my electric mower does... When I was a youngster living at home I have many 'happy' memories of sweating blood trying to get my Dad's Mountfield going, and have never been in any hurry to own a petrol-engined machine of my own.

Reply to
Lobster

On 24 May 2014, Roger Mills grunted:

replacement-

My own garden is small enough that the originally supplied orange 2-core is just long enough to cut the whole lawn, plugged in to the strategically-positioned outdoor socket. However for the hedge trimmer and strimmer I need an extension cable, and I just use my standard 'DIY' cable reel. It's quite highly rated (I forget what), but I have no problem with the fact that it's ordinary black cable (on the basis that it's always going to be miles away from the actual cutting) and that although RCD-protected it's not outdoors rated, given that I will never be using a strimmer or hedge-trimmer in anything but dry weather.

But that's just for me and my personal use, and making my own informed decision about my safety.

Reply to
Lobster

I own 2 4-stroke mowers and 3 2-stroke garden machines. The mowers are almost completely trouble free WRT starting; they both have American engines.

The 2-stroke stuff not so good. The (Japanese) brush cutter is trouble free and easy to start. The American chain-saw and the Chinese hedge cutters are pigs to get going. Or at least, they used to be until someone on here suggested starting them on gas - literally so - run an unlit gas blowtorch near the air inlet when trying to start them. Works a treat.

Reply to
Huge

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