Used electric leaf blower with wrong extension cord!

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Messages
5,703
Sorry for posting this here but I can't find specific info online and you guys know everything. :thumbup:

Like the title said, I messed up. Blower not working anymore. Did I kill the motor or is it possible to fix it?

Thanks
 
There also might be a thermal reset on the blower. Could reset itself when it cools, or there might be a button to reset.
 
the kind of cord shouldn't make a difference, other than the effort to lug it around. electricity it pulled by devices, not pushed by the outlet/cord. as long as you were using the right voltage, the motor should be fine(unless it's just old and it burned out).
 
Loose connection, or bad "service cord" wear as it enters the plug or housing. I am not convinced 14ga. vs. 12ga. is that big of a deal, but our leaf blowers down here are fairly small and run on different power no?
 
you should be good the higher ampacity caused from resistance of the 14g wouldn't be a big issue. check the breakers in your breakers box or a thermal overload on the device itself. check your brushes. do you have a multimeter? you check the armature to see if anything burmt open or grounded to the core.
 
A.McPherson said:
the kind of cord shouldn't make a difference, other than the effort to lug it around. electricity it pulled by devices, not pushed by the outlet/cord. as long as you were using the right voltage, the motor should be fine(unless it's just old and it burned out).
Click to expand...

the kind of chord makes a big diffeence. It determines voltage drop and allowable ampacity. Assuming a regular outlet is used the breaker will trip at 15 amps. 12 gauge having a higher allowable ampacity and a lower resistance is better if you're going to be using the blower at a further distance or on a longer chord.

but if i was a betting man i'd say the breaker tripped
 
Ok, checked and breaker is ok. Next step is some some kind of overload switch like you say. Off to the shop to take it apart and check with a multi meter. I'll post results.
Thanks for your help guys.
 
A.McPherson said:
the kind of cord shouldn't make a difference, other than the effort to lug it around. electricity it pulled by devices, not pushed by the outlet/cord. as long as you were using the right voltage, the motor should be fine(unless it's just old and it burned out).
Click to expand...

Well, yes and no. The voltage drop across a long cord that is too small a wire can be pretty significant, 10% or more voltage drop. When the voltage drops on an induction motor the amp draw goes up because the RPM is locked to the mains frequency. This is because when the motor output is fixed and the voltage in low the motor draws more amperage. The excessive amperage can burn up a motor.

That said, a leaf blower isn't an induction motor and it should just run slower at lower voltage. So I doubt the problem is the cord.
 
OK, first, it really was the cord causing the overheating. Says so on the instructions that I found and just read. :o (In my defense, the instructions are not the greatest) Probably some overheating protection as you guys said that take a little to reset when it cools down. Happened to me with another blower a few years ago. Thing is, this one was not reseting.

Wellllll, taking it apart I found the problem. They did not put one but TWO cutoff switch in there. So the out and in nozzles have to be in place for it to work. The thing is, the one for the intake is a pin barely 1/8th in size so I never saw in until I took it thing apart.:o

So obviously an overheating protection that did it's job and reset after a while but by then I had the intake nozzles off when I tried to start again. In short, operator error. :o

Sorry for wasting your time guys. :o Appreciate the help.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top