electric lawn mower not starting, makes a noise though

JoeB-

Hi

My electric lawnmower doesn't start properly... it makes a strange clicking noise....

The lawn was mowed a while ago with no problems... then today there is this problem.

I took the cover off the motor and there is no physical damage... but there is a large capicator, could this capacitor be gone? There are also capicators in many large woodworking machines and apparently they help the motor to start up. They often break as well. The capicator is like a tube and is about the same diameter as a banana... and two inches tall.

I reckon I could change the capicator myself if I thought it was definitely the problem. Where would I get a new capicator? The size and stuff is printed on the existing one.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Joe

TheGrabbingHand

What kind of mower is it - rotary or cylinder. check there is nothing jammed in the blade.
Capacitors can be bought here

JoeB-

Thanks for that, Grabbing

It a rotary mower in that the blade goes round in a circle. The first thing I did was check things like you suggest, jammed blades etc. No problems and the blade turns by hand. I unscrewed a large nut holding the blade on but there was nothing below it so I put it back on.

The weird noise is hard to describe but it's a fast click click noise sort of....

When I turn the blade by hand it is 'heavy', not too heavy, just what you'd expect if you were turning a medium weight motor by hand.

The problem definitely seems to be that the electric motor isn't starting up correctly.

Cheers
Joe

Stoner

as TheGrabbingHand said radionics are good for capacitors, as are www.cpc.co.uk, although someone complained about delivery, I ordered some stuff last Friday and its here today so that took a week, but it's here anyway, but as directed correctly you can pick up at the counter in Radionics, maybe even Maplins depending on the size, but you can call them first if they are nearer to you.

the balde on there motors does not always turn freely some mechanical resistance is expected

The capacitor is there to create a difference in the supply and motors field, the cap creates a lag and allows one field to "chase" the other so as to get the motor going, once going it is not needed, kind of like the WW2 planes that needed help starting up. Something similar could be done to an electric motor and it will keep going once started, but that is too dangerous to try when a blade is involved, if I was you I'd replace the capacitor cost-wise it's worth the risk IMO.

JoeB-

Good news, I bought a proper capacitor from a spare parts center, it wasn't cheap at €23 but it was the exact capacitor for the machine, it only took ten minutes to solder on the crimp things and plug it in, machine working beautifully now so that's nice.

I know that surface mounted capacitors may only be a few cents but these large 400V, 15 microF ones seem more expensive... but €23 is dear I thought. Ah well...

Thanks for all the help.

Cheers
Joe

Stoner

well done Joe, so the cap cost you 23 euro, how much did you pay for the soldering iron and the solder?
hehe any excuse to get more tools

JoeB-

Hi Stoner...

Luckily I already had the iron and the solder, even a bit of flux so I was laughing there...

The new cap was very slightly different to the old, exact same values but the old one had two wires coming directly out of the cap, they were moulded in if you know what I mean, the new one just had four connectors, the guy in the shop wasn't sure which two were the right ones... it was either A and B.. or A and C...

So I had to try two, the motor started but was totally weak and very slow, it couldn't even cut a blade of grass... then I tried a different two, this time it was perfect...

Cheers
Joe