Urgent - problem with lawnmower and extension lead

dharm999

Thanks in advance for looking.

I have an electric mower, and I use an extension lead when I am mowing the back garden as the mower lead isn't long enough. I have been doing it this way for years

The extension lead is relatively new. The mower has stopped working when plugged in to the extension lead. I have tried:

Plugging it in to a different socket on the extension lead - mower doesn't work
Plugging the mower directly in to a wall socket - mower works
Plugging the mower in to a different extension lead - mower doesn't work
Plugging a different tool in to the extension lead - tool works

So I guess there is some issue when the mower is plugged in to an extension lead. However I was happily mowing away with the mower plugged in to the extension lead for over an hour, with no problems.

I need to get the grass cut, as it's due to rain later today. Any ideas as to what is wrong and what I need to do to fix this?

Robin9

Look at the manual - is there a overload button on the mower itself?

dharm999

Robin9 wrote: »

Look at the manual - is there a overload button on the mower itself?

Don't think so, it's not a particularly expensive mower, around a hundred quid if I remember rightly. It's a Ryobi one, with 45l grass box.

Robin9

Fuse blown in the mower plug ?

TamsinC

make sure your grass basket it down properly - MIL went through all this and was convinced the mower was shot - hubby took out the grass basket and popped it back in properly and hey presto it worked.

Lorian

how long is the extension lead?
Are you using it fully unwound?
What size cores are the cable on the extension?
How many Amps is the extension rated at?

dharm999

Robin9 wrote: »

Fuse blown in the mower plug ?

Don't think it can be that, as it works when plugged directly in to a wall socket. A blown fuse would mean it stopped working altogether wouldn't it?

dharm999

Lorian wrote: »

how long is the extension lead?25m
Are you using it fully unwound? Yes
What size cores are the cable on the extension? Don't know, how would I find out?
How many Amps is the extension rated at?

13amps

The extension lead says max load of 3120w when fully unwound. The mower is 1600w

dharm999

TamsinC wrote: »

make sure your grass basket it down properly - MIL went through all this and was convinced the mower was shot - hubby took out the grass basket and popped it back in properly and hey presto it worked.

Will try that, not sure if it would make a difference as the grass box is in no way connected to starting the mower

Lorian

RCD in use - either a separate unit or in the consumer unit?

Are you sure there is not even a tiny nick in the insulation on the extension cable somewhere?

dharm999

Lorian wrote: »

RCD in use - either a separate unit or in the consumer unit?

Are you sure there is not even a tiny nick in the insulation on the extension cable somewhere?

The extension lead I was using has an overload function, and I thought it might be that, so I tried an extension lead that doesn't have that, and again the mower didn't work.

What did happen that might explain things, but I don't know the solution, is when I plugged the extension lead in to the usual outside socket I use, it tripped the consumer unit in the house, so I then plugged the extension lead in to a wall socket inside the house, and everything worked ok.

Would the extension lead still work if something on it had tripped, as when I plugged an electric sander in to it, the sander worked ok