Extension lead for mower

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.

B&Q have a similar looking plug and socket:

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

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

Do the roadie wrap!

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;)....

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.

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

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...

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

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 :)

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Andy

On 25 May 2014, GB grunted:

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.

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.

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.