Severed Lawn Mower cable

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

I cut through my cable yesterday, accidentally. The flex was badly twsited and it somehow got under the business end of the machine tripping a fuse in the house (luckily i was ok).
Ive cut away the faulty piece and put a new 13A plug on. But it wont work.
Is there something wrong inside the mower that needs replacing? Or is it new lawn mower time? Its only a year old as well

Obviously i will be buying one of those power surge adapter thingys from Argos when i get up and runnin again.

Any help welcome

thanks.

333rocky333 · 14 Apr 2008

Did you reuse the old fuse in the new plug, that may have blown also
3 or 5 amp one possibly, do not use 13 amp as it is too big.

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

333rocky333 said:
Did you reuse the old fuse in the new plug, that may have blown also
3 or 5 amp one possibly, do not use 13 amp as it is too big.

hi

I used another plug and fuse from a household lamp (that i know works). The fuse is 3amp inside the plug. I wonder if there is anything inside the actual lawn mower needing reset or something?

ta

RF Lighting · 14 Apr 2008

I wouldn't have thought so.

Do you know that the socket you were using still works?

Have you rechecked the fuse? It is possible that it was too small for the mower.

There will be a plate somewhere on the mower which tells you how much power it uses. This can be used to determine the apropriate fuse rating.

333rocky333 · 14 Apr 2008

As you cut the lead anything past the cut, should not be affected.

I take it the socket still works.
Was it a clean cut or could it have pulled the inner wire and broke it further along where you cannot see it.
If you have enough cable cut another foot off it and retry.
Look carefully there may be another slice in the cable that you missed.

Failing that dismantle the handle and continuity check the wires from there to the plug, with it unplugged obviously

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

the socket i'm using is an entirely different one from the one i used in the "incident" and does work.

Ive pulled the "hood" off the mower and i can see a large wire coil and other wires, they all look fine.

I'll try cutting another bit of cable off and see how i get on and report back. One thing i did note was when i put the new cable into the new socket i have exposed a tiny bit wire on the red cable, would this have an impact on it not starting? (Obviously i will mend this now).

PS there are only 2 wires running inside the orange mower flex (red and blue) i take it this is correct?

Thanks guys

333rocky333 · 14 Apr 2008

It is double insulated , no earth required
brown is live , connect to the terminal by the fuse
blue is neutral , to the left of the plug.

What do you mean "cable into the new socket"

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

333rocky333 said:
It is double insulated , no earth required
brown is live , connect to the terminal by the fuse
blue is neutral , to the left of the plug.

What do you mean "cable into the new socket"

sorry, cable into new PLUG

cheers

333rocky333 · 14 Apr 2008

What type of mower is this.

Large coil and wires does not sound like a normal mower.

It may be possible that rather than the wire faulty .you may have overloaded the motor, when the flex wrapped round.
There may be something , like you first thought, that you need to manually reset near them wires, do you have the manual.
If not you may need some pics at the mower end of the wire

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

333rocky333 said:
Did you reuse the old fuse in the new plug, that may have blown also
3 or 5 amp one possibly, do not use 13 amp as it is too big.

worryingly, my Black & Decker electric strimmer has a 13amp fuse fitted to its plug, shall i change it? It works fine.

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

333rocky333 said:
What type of mower is this.

Large coil and wires does not sound like a normal mower.

It may be possible that rather than the wire faulty .you may have overloaded the motor, when the flex wrapped round.
There may be something , like you first thought, that you need to manually reset near them wires, do you have the manual.
If not you may need some pics at the mower end of the wire

its a Black & Decker electric mower, around a year old (the type with 4 plastic wheels, not the flymo)

333rocky333 · 14 Apr 2008

Regarding the strimmer
Technically IMO they do not need a 13 amp fuse, however due to the start load of motor they may have fitted 13 amp.

You would need to check the user manual. the info will be in there.

If the plug is moulded on , and you have not ever replaced the fuse, one would assume that the correct fuse was fitted.

Regarding the mower
Did you note the size of fuse in the original plug.

What was the actual model number of the mower rather than B+D.
If the mower is still not working, you will need to test the wires etc.

MikeDee · 14 Apr 2008

fixed it !

cut back the cable a bit more put a brand new fuse in the plug, and it works.

Thanks for all your help lads

sm1thson · 15 Apr 2008

MikeDee said:
Obviously i will be buying one of those power surge adapter thingys from Argos when i get up and runnin again.

the 'power surge thingys' dont add safety just stop your computer from dying, you need an 'RCD' somewhere, if there isnt one in your consumer unit (/fuse box) then yet you need to go buy one ASAP, electric shocks are a lot more fatal outside as well as been more likely to occur in the first place.

mrgtv01 · 15 Apr 2008

sm1thson said:
MikeDee said:

Obviously i will be buying one of those power surge adapter thingys from Argos when i get up and runnin again.

Click to expand...

the 'power surge thingys' dont add safety just stop your computer from dying, you need an 'RCD' somewhere, if there isnt one in your consumer unit (/fuse box) then yet you need to go buy one ASAP, electric shocks are a lot more fatal outside as well as been more likely to occur in the first place.

Highly unlikely you will electrocute yourself by cutting through a lawnmover cable. The mower handles are all isolated and the fuse will trip as soon as the cable is cut. Wouldn't wase your cash.

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Severed Lawn Mower cable

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