On 7/29/2012 2:26 PM, Novel8 wrote:
....

Yes, my lawn mower is a 12 amp job according to the manual, but I was
using it with an outdoor cord that says on it "13 Anp,125v, 1625W...
... the other day after using it a couple of minutes, the motor went
"dead'...i thought i blew a fuse.

More than likely just broke a conductor. NEC ratings are 15A for 14 ga
conductors so one can assume that's what that one is...

....

... So i tried the mower on solid ground and it worked just
fine...but I am still nervous in using it not knowing about its
limitations. This is NYC and there is no small town hardware that I
know of to bring it too. I did see a 16 gauge extension cord by
accident in one of those .99 cents stores of all places...albeit it
was like 9' long ( too short ) and fragile looking..more for indoors,
I think. Why would they rate them the same 16 gauge? I wouldn't even
attempt to buy that one.

That it ran on the other cord is even more indication that all that
happened is a conductor broke on the other--likely could be near the
plug or receptacle end and could be repaired w/ $2 replacement.

The inexpensive cord is undoubtedly 16 ga at best and is an appliance
cord for stuff like a lamp or similar loads indoors, indeed.

Nothing really drastic is going to happen using a 15-ft cord unless it's
so warm after use you can really tell it easily--the length is simply
too short for the voltage drop owing to the conductor size alone to be
an issue--so, if it's warm it's clearly because the conductors are small
for the load and you need a heavier cord. If it carries the load w/o
being noticeably warm, its heavy enough it's not going to cause a fire
or do damage to the mower motor because of low supply voltage.

How long a cord do you need and what could it possibly cost to go to a
WalMart or whatever is similar nearby where you buy stuff in general and
buy a new outdoor cord of 14 ga that will be rated adequate and quite
worrying, though? $15 at the extreme outside, maybe?????

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