Broke my mower, dang!

[Homer31]

A-58,
Listen to the guys who want to help here. Everything is fixable. It may not make fiscal sense to do so, but I still fix stuff instead of putting it out on the curb.
Listen to guys like Savage3 and try to understand the failure mode & then try to repair it. ICE powered mowers would have a step key that would shear when hitting a solid object.
I suspect the Motor powered have something similar.
You came to this forum to fix, not to throw it away.
-Bob

 

[sailingharry]

Unfortunately most shops won't work on electric mowers because there are no parts lists or parts available.

Well, they may not work on them for whatever reason, but not for lack of parts. My first, around 1998, was a Black and Decker 12V unit. Beyond awesome -- mow the entire lawn in one session, never needed an oil change, never had bad gas, never... nothing, but my wife got it in the divorce. Around 2002, I found one in a pawn shop that needed a new motor armature and a new battery. Parts available (battery is standard at the local battery store, armature was mail order from Black and Decker). If you can get a new armature, well, there ain't much you can't get. Took a solid hour or two to get it running, left it (still working) with my house when I sold it 20 years later.

 

[OldtimeJarhead]

I don't know what a multimeter is, nor do I have any electrical experience. I was mainly looking for some help on where the reset or restart switch is located. I want to try to see if that would work and if anyone here knew something about it.

I'm still at work and my mower is at home in the garage so I don't have any access to model numbers and such right now. All I remember is that it's a Kobalt electric mower, with two batteries. Yeah I know that's not much help but it's all I have to go on now. Appreciate the concern.

Do you have owners manual once you get home look at that it may give you an idea on where to look or look on line for that make and model maybe able to find some answers good luck this is the first I have heard good or bad about electric mower

 

[Have_Blue]

Excellent advice from Homer31! Some of the advice here is tainted by bias and inexperience. Electric mowers are very simple, just batteries, motor, switches and controller. I have a large yard and have always had a 54-60" ICE mower, and my electric is priceless for mowing in places the big one won't reach. That saves me a lot of weed whacking. Getting parts is very simple, there are various replacement parts specialists online that DO have parts explosions and much better prices than local shops.

The only problems with electric mowers are the owner trying to mow a larger area than the batteries can handle. They're as reliable as your cordless drill until you hit an iron rod or something.

 

[eagle86801]

Dear dudes,

I'm having trouble with my Kobalt electric lawnmower. I was cutting grass yesterday and hit a metal stake in the ground as I was turning it. The blade stopped abruptly. Couldn't get it to start again. I called a few shops and nobody seems to work on electric mowers. At one shop the guy said that I should hit the restart button to see if that helps. He said that I might have to remove a lid or cover to get to it. If that didn't work I could drop it by his shop and he'd have a look at it. Does anyone know if this works? Many thanks in advance.

The first thing that comes to mind is a sheared keyway but I don't know if an electric mower even has a keyway . Just a thought

 

[Slider99]

Should be pretty easy to identify the problem. I'd start by taking it apart looking for any obvious signs of trouble. They aren't overly complicated machines. Follow the voltage, you should find the problem. From what I found the company doesn't sell any parts outside of new batteries and blades, but there's plenty of parts on ebay.

 

[jwax]

Can you rotate the blade manually, or is it seized? Electric motors for blades are not forgiving of striking hard objects like a gas motor with forgiving belts/pulleys/idlers. A mechanical or electrical interrupter has caused your motor to not run. With a history of gas JD's, Cub Cadet, etc., I love my electric rider- a Craftsman E150. Tell us what model you have and perhaps we can help.

 

[Freddie21]

IF it is less than three years old call your local Lowes store. They replaced mine with a newer model one after I decided to clean the deck underside with a power washer. Blew the motor even though I let it dry for a week. I just rolled it in and carted a new one out in the box. My son gave it to me so I didn't have a receipt.

 

[mechanizm]

Dear dudes,

I'm having trouble with my Kobalt electric lawnmower.

I'll betcha that it has an auto-shut-off for just such situations. I doubt that it's "broken". You need to reset it somehow. do a search for "reset electric lawn tractor" . It's going to be simple.... try disconnecting and reconnecting the battery and see if it resets.

 

[ttimtucker]

I've worked on a few electric mowers. Here is a speculation/theory on what may have happened. When you power-on an e-mower, the control board initiates a slow start of the motor until it spins up and begins to generate some back-EMF which reduces the amount of current that the motor requires (EMF is electromotive force: think of it as voltage). If the motor suddenly was halted (hitting a metal stake), there would suddenly be no back-EMF and excessive current would flow. I had a mower where the control board was fried, and I tried to power the motor directly from the 24v battery. A fuse internal to the battery blew very quickly because I wasn't "soft-starting" the mower. I replaced the fuse (it is a soldered part) and eventually constructed a frankenstein of a replacement control board, just to understand how it all worked. So the first question I would ask you is whether the battery is still working. You'd either need a multimeter to measure the battery voltage, or power some other device that uses the same battery. If the battery is good, then the control board may be fried.