75-100 foot extension cord

[Jon Nuckles]

A while back I asked about corded electric lawn mowers. Over Memorial Day weekend, I bought a Kobalt mower at Lowe's that had better reviews than other corded mowers I could find. The mower is rated at 13 amps. I figure that I need a 75 foot extension cord to reach the edges of my small lawn. Lowe's only had 50 and 100 foot cords, and the guy working in the mower section recommended a 12 gauge cord for 100 feet. I considered buying a 50 foot and a 25 foot, but that was much more expensive than a 100 foot so I bought the 100. When I unpacked the mower and looked at the owner's manual, it recommended 12 gauge wire for a 50 foot cord and has no recommendation for 100 feet (a dash in the chart where the recommended gauge should appear). It is a little odd that the owner's manual is for this mower only, but contains a chart with recommendations for cords for products as low as 2 amps. For a 7.1 amp to 12 amp tool, it recommends 10 gauge wire for a 100 foot cord. I plan to return the cord I bought and get a 10 gauge extension cord. Do those of you with electrical knowledge think that would be adequate at 100 feet? If not, how about getting a 50 foot and 25 foot at 10 gauge and using the extra 25 only when needed? I see that extension cords are much cheaper on Amazon than at Lowe's. Are there variables other than wire gauge that I should look at before buying?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!

[John Terefenko]

#12 will do just fine at 100 feet. Electric mowers and most motors are rated so differently that there is no way to know what the amp draw on that mower is. Put a huge load on it like very tall grass and you will peak the motor whatever it is. Your outlet is what will determine if it can handle it. Is the outlet you are plugging into a 15 amp or a 20 amp outlet?? If the circuit is on a 20 amp breaker or a 15 amp breaker?? Are there other devices being used on that circuit at the same time?? What is the distance of the entire circuit?? Just because you step up to #10 wire does not guarentee the circuit will hold. I used a #12 chord for many years with an electric mower.

[Jim Koepke]

Are there variables other than wire gauge that I should look at before buying?

Quality of manufacture is important. Sometimes it is cheaper to buy a good 100' cord and extra ends to make multiple cords. I have done this a few times.

jtk

[Wayne Lomman]

Stick with one long cord rather than two. The extra connector will drive you nuts at some stage when it gets caught on something. Electric turf mowers over here have a handy hook to loosely loop excess cord onto or pay it out depending which way you work. Cheers

[Curt Harms]

I have a B&D corded mower and 100' 12 ga. cord works fine.

[Lee Schierer]

Your voltage drop in 100 feet of extension cord with #12 awg will be 4.13 volts or about 3.5%. With #10 awg the voltage drop will be 2.6 volts or just over 2% of the incoming voltage. Your final voltage at the mower will depend on the voltage at the outlet and the length of run from the panel to that outlet being used.

[Jon Nuckles]

Thanks for the replies. I'll keep the 100 foot 12 gauge that I bought. Time to mow!