Which Electric Mower?

[ironpony]

The charger has a wifi notification system, it took a while to engage so I called customer service and they told me it did not have that ability! I said it is in the directions! She said No It Does Not! and hung up on me ... it works and is pretty nice LOL. They have a terrible BBB rating for their customer service.

 

[Norton]

The charger has a wifi notification system, it took a while to engage so I called customer service and they told me it did not have that ability! I said it is in the directions! She said No It Does Not! and hung up on me ... it works and is pretty nice LOL. They have a terrible BBB rating for their customer service.

That's too bad. I'm no fanboi for all things rechargeable, but got the trimmer because I just got so tired of dealing with the gas ones for as little as I actually use it.

 

[ironpony]

I just posted an EGO LM2156SP In the classifieds. I have interest at $600 but rather you guys have it for $500 ($800 version).
thanks for helping me find the correct one … or two as it turned out

 

[gamer_jim]

Bought the Toro Recycler 22in for $600 from Home Depot. Overall I'm happy with it. It's entirely made of steel. Some of the similarly priced mowers at HD were made of plastic up to and including the blades. The self-propel is variable linked to a spring loaded handle that you push from. As you push the spring goes in more and the SP activates more, so it walks at your pace. The blades also turn with variable speed depending on the load. If you go over tall grass or weeds it revs up the motor. This is good for me as grass isn't consistent throughout my yard.

My only complaint is the battery life. I'm assuming due to SP and the fact it's all metal reduce the battery life. I was not able to complete my entire front yard, about 1/3 an acre, which also has a gentle slope. It left an area of about 10x10 before running out of juice. Maybe next time I'll skip the SP and get a workout while I mow. The annoying thing is the safety handle is also on the SP handle, so in order to keep the mower on you also have to push it with the SP handle, so it's difficult to not use SP. If we end up keeping this then I might try to modify it so I don't have to have that safety handle down.

It took another full charged battery to do the back yard, about 6400 feet. It conked out with just a small 2x5 area left.

Charging time is about 3 hours from zero. There is a button on the battery to show current charge. I don't think it's accurate. 1/4 battery indicated seems to have more juice than the other 3/4. I was able to charge the battery enough in about an hour to finish the 100 or so sq in the front yard.

I like not having gas powered, worry about cleaning the carb every year or finding non-ethanol gas. It also easier to control and doesn't vibrate as much so it was easier to mow for me.

We live on a border of a forested area where the weeds are encroaching on our property. The mower had no problems chewing up the young sticker bushes.

Overall I would recommend it if your lawn is relevantly flat and less than 1/3 of grass to mow. If we keep this I'll buy a second battery for about $130. That should get me through both front and back yards.

Since we have a bunch of other Black & Decker battery tools I wanted to buy their mower but every site I looked at had horrible reviews for it. Toro sells other battery compatible tools.

 

[smkranz]

I just did my first cut with this Ryobi mower purchased this morning from Home Depot.

RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 21 in. Cordless Battery Walk Behind Multi-Blade Self-Propelled Mower - (2) 6.0 Ah Batteries & Charger RY401150 - The Home Depot

The RYOBI 40-Volt HP 21 in. Multi-Blade Self-Propelled Cordless Lawn Mower delivers the power of gas with the convenience of cordless. The premium HP brushless motor provides more power, longer runtime,

www.homedepot.com

Thing is great so far. It took exactly one hour to charge the first battery right out of the box, and I was off and mowing. It comes with two batteries, and a "key" which you use to switch batteries if one craps out on you while mowing. It is relatively quiet tho it does sound kind of like a mower, just a lot quieter. Plenty of power for my front and side yard. I did today's cut with just one battery, though did not do the entire side yard.

Self-propelled function is sweet. Infinitely adjustable speed control, and if going down a slope just let go of the lever and it rolls freely. It is rear-wheel drive which is different than my last (dead) gas powered mower. Not better or worse, just different.

Another sweet feature is the wheel height adjustment. Just a single lever which goes up and down very easily to adjust all 4 wheels at once.

Last cool feature was something I didn't expect (maybe because I didn't read the manual first). When I ran through a patch of thicker or taller grass, the motor revs up and increases power to get through the heavier stuff. When it senses the resistance is low again, the motor ramps back down to normal.

(Bonus points: it is "made" in the US with globally sourced parts. In particular, I noticed that the batteries are made in Malaysia but finished in
China.)

 

[28Shooter]

I bought a barely used Lowes corded electric from a Brother on here in the early Spring and it's currently giving yeoman service over at my son's place. Thanks again Arbud!

 

[Fushigi Ojisan]

Picked up a cordless Greenworks string trimmer from Costco. That thing is HEAVY! I think the battery alone weighs more than corded Black and Decker GrassHog trimmer it replaced



Sent from my SM-T733 using Tapatalk

 

[lazarus]

I just bought a new mower - with how long a mower tends to last me, I couldn't get past the idea that the electric is still relatively new technology for this kind of machine, so I went with another gas Toro. My last Toro mower lasted 18 or 19 years and was still "working" even though it was no longer running well.

I bought essentially the same mower that I already had - 22" Recycler with the Personal Pace feature.

I'm going to keep my eyes on the electric mowers, but I don't know what real advantages they'd have over gas other than noise, and no exhaust.

Less cost. There is almost nothing to maintain other than sharpening or replacing the blade periodically. Sure something could break, but it’s unlikely. I’ve run mowers for 20+ years and I’ve yet to have one that didn’t need SOMETHING done on it. Riding mowers it’s belts and miscellaneous stuff that breaks (I’ve had to replace a carb. Clean carbs. Replace a Governor spring, replace a spindle that broke. Finally had an engine block crack from a thrown rod on a 20yr old riding mower). Push mowers have less stuff to break but still stuff to maintain.

If it’s 2 stroke you are in for gas and oil. Not sure how much you mow with one, but a gallon of gas in a push mower would probably mow around 2 acres I’d guess (it’s been a few years since I’ve had a gas push mower). For my electric mower that’s about 8 full battery charges of the 40v, 4ah battery. If you have half an acre to mow two batteries will get it done. Figure mow once a week for 25 weeks for the mowing season (give or take some) and you are in for about $30 of gas at the current prices that’s less than $1.50 in electricity. Figure an oil change a season, the occasional spark plug or other but you need to clean, fix or replace and you might be in $50 to keep a push mower going and mow your half acre lawn a year. Electric is about a buck fifty. Both would need the same blade sharpening or replacement.

My brother-in-laws electric zero turn burns about 30 cents of electricity to mow his 3 acres each week. My gas riding mower burns about $5 of gas at current prices each week to mow the 2 acres of my 4.4 that’s grass. Plus I spend $10 to change the oil and filter each season. And new belts about every two seasons at around $70 for the two. That’ll take awhile to match the $4000 he spent on his mower when mine was $1800. Though the equivalent to his zero turn in gas would have been more like $3000 and some change. It isn’t that many years saving $100-150 a season before you break even. And no fumes. No needing to remember to bring a gas can with me when I need to fill up my car. Or taking an extra trip every once in awhile to fill 2 or 3 gas cans a couple times a season which is more likely. A lot quieter so less chance it’s hurting my hearing or needing to wear ear pro.

I am not going to just toss, or likely even sell off, my gas riding mower to get an electric riding mower. Over the next few years the prices are likely to come down faster than the savings I’d get by running it vs my gas mower. But if my gas riding mower died tomorrow I’d get an electric riding mower. And I’ll probably get one anyway in 3-5 years.

I love my electric push mower (I went 19” greenworks).

Oh another perk, at least for push mowers is they tend to be somewhat lighter overall in weight. So easier to maneuver or pickup and carry if you need to do that.

 

[lazarus]

Picked up a cordless Greenworks string trimmer from Costco. That thing is HEAVY! I think the battery alone weighs more than corded Black and Decker GrassHog trimmer it replaced



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Compared to a corded trimmer sure. My green works string trimmer weighs about 2lbs less than the homeworks gas string trimmer it replaced. Plus it’s about 40dB quieter so I don’t need ear pro. And my arms don’t vibrate for hours after using it. And I don’t have to F with it to get it to start. I’ve used commercial string trimmers (I used to work grounds crew on a golf course). So I know my string trimmer was crappy compared to a nice one. But those commercial string trimmers were louder and heavier. Even if they were 100% reliable beasts (with good vibration dampening).

I can’t really use a corded string trimmer on my property. Some of the stuff I have to trim is 200yds from my house.

 

[lazarus]

I like my Ryobi 40V a lot, but it takes two 5ah batteries fully-charged to finish the 1/3 acre yard, especially if it's hot out and/or the grass is a little tall. I think the EGO is probably better-built but you pay for it too. I'll never go back to gas, and I was a total "only gas" lawn tool guy forever. Got an extra blade and battery and I'm good to go.

I am still at “torn” on electric chainsaws. I’ve used a couple of the 80v ones and they work okay for lighter or medium work. But if you’ve got a heavy job I find they still come up short with current residential designs.

Usually you get in to motor overheating issues in hot weather after about a battery and a half unless you take fairly frequent breaks. I’ve yet to see one burn it’s motor, but still not fun when it’s shutting off every 10-20 seconds of cutting because it’s too hot until you let it cool for 15 minutes in hot weather once you get through that first battery.

And heavier than gas to get close to the equivalent cutting power. The best 80v tools I’ve used have maybe 1/2 the cutting power of my Stihl 271 farm boss and weigh a it more with battery. Which also means my backs killing me after an hour or two when cutting logs to length for splitting.

That said, I’ve got a 40v, 16” greenworks for lighter stuff. It’s damned fantastic for light work. Get much over 8” in diameter though and I just get out my Stihl.

One other downside is electrics aren’t remotely as safe. Despite the safeties built in to an electric, Kevlar chainsaw chaps aren’t necessarily going to protect you. On a gas mower it’ll pop the clutch and stop the chain right away cutting in to Kevlar chaps. An electric has no clutch and if it does cut in the safety to switch off the motor from binding the chain it has the extra momentum of the motor on top of the chain. So you are a lot more likely to get cut (bad).

It’s great when I need to cut smaller branches, limb trees and cut to length thicker branches (but not tree trunks). I’ll use it when small trees come down. But when I have to cut down or cut up one of my big cypress, ash, poplar, cherry or oaks the stihl comes out. It just does the work way faster without any stopping needed other than gas and bar oil maybe every hour or so of heavy work. The electric eats a battery about every 20 minutes in heavy work and after half an hour or so and it it’s more like I can work 3-5 minutes on, 5 off to let it cool. Considering the batteries need to cool off for about an hour before they can start charging and then take about 90 minutes to charge…

And yes I know some other 36-80v battery tools doesn’t suffer that as much and can charge faster (the battery health probably isn’t as good for how many cycles the cells will last).

But at any rate, with 3x4ah 40v batteries I can manage around an hour and a quarter of heavy work with the cooling the motor needs. About the time the last one dies I can start charging the first one (give or take a bit). Needing to take an hour and a half break isn’t the worst. But still plenty of times I work hard with my stihl for 2-3 hours with little in the way of breaks to get a big job done. That’s about the amount of work my electric would do in 8hrs of non-stop cutting with it. But again, I do like it. But I know it’s place. That kind of work where you are walking all around and just making occasional cuts limbing a fallen tree or trimming up a tree it works fantastically.

 

[lazarus]

Bought the Toro Recycler 22in for $600 from Home Depot. Overall I'm happy with it. It's entirely made of steel. Some of the similarly priced mowers at HD were made of plastic up to and including the blades. The self-propel is variable linked to a spring loaded handle that you push from. As you push the spring goes in more and the SP activates more, so it walks at your pace. The blades also turn with variable speed depending on the load. If you go over tall grass or weeds it revs up the motor. This is good for me as grass isn't consistent throughout my yard.

My only complaint is the battery life. I'm assuming due to SP and the fact it's all metal reduce the battery life. I was not able to complete my entire front yard, about 1/3 an acre, which also has a gentle slope. It left an area of about 10x10 before running out of juice. Maybe next time I'll skip the SP and get a workout while I mow. The annoying thing is the safety handle is also on the SP handle, so in order to keep the mower on you also have to push it with the SP handle, so it's difficult to not use SP. If we end up keeping this then I might try to modify it so I don't have to have that safety handle down.

It took another full charged battery to do the back yard, about 6400 feet. It conked out with just a small 2x5 area left.

Charging time is about 3 hours from zero. There is a button on the battery to show current charge. I don't think it's accurate. 1/4 battery indicated seems to have more juice than the other 3/4. I was able to charge the battery enough in about an hour to finish the 100 or so sq in the front yard.

I like not having gas powered, worry about cleaning the carb every year or finding non-ethanol gas. It also easier to control and doesn't vibrate as much so it was easier to mow for me.

We live on a border of a forested area where the weeds are encroaching on our property. The mower had no problems chewing up the young sticker bushes.

Overall I would recommend it if your lawn is relevantly flat and less than 1/3 of grass to mow. If we keep this I'll buy a second battery for about $130. That should get me through both front and back yards.

Since we have a bunch of other Black & Decker battery tools I wanted to buy their mower but every site I looked at had horrible reviews for it. Toro sells other battery compatible tools.

SP are going to end up getting about 20-40% less mowing coverage than non-SP.

All metal isn’t necessarily a perk unless you beat on it hard enough to crack the plastic. That metal might rust some day. The plastic won’t. The plastic is more than strong enough to turn any realistic rock or branch you can throw it at from the blade. Lighter means you don’t need the self propelled feature and way easier to move and maneuver. I can easily pick my mower up one armed with the handle folded, and carry it out of my garage rather than trying to maneuver it around my car and the other stuff in my garage or need to pull my car out. It’s not light, but it’s probably 1/2 the weight of a regular 19” gas mower.

 

[RoadDawg]

Just works… been using one for six years with no problems.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-10-Amp-16-in-Corded-Electric-Lawn-Mower/1002939184

 

[Clump]

The move to slower lower included a large garage size increase. I want to avoid a shed. The ability to store the mower upright really makes it much more convenient.

I bought the same Ryobi as smkranz, mainly because it's made in the USA. If not for that fact, I probably would have bought the EGO. I bought the package that included the mower and string trimmer. It was expensive at $829. I would not have done a gas powered trimmer in any case - It doesn't get enough use and becomes problematic pretty quickly.

The trimmer works great. I can do everything I need to and use less than 1/2 the battery capacity. I was concerned at first that the heavy battery would unbalance it, but it's perfectly balanced. On the 4th use I had to restring it, which was very different than the B&D grass hog I had before. I had to go to Youtube to figure it out. Next time will be much easier.

I'm impressed with the mower. The lot is 1/4 acre, but I also mow a 12' x 75' easement across the front. We're new construction, so the grass is spotty in some places and really thick in others. It speeds up in the thick parts. I'm mulching and it chops the clippings quite fine and gives a good cut. I exhaust the 1st battery at about 70% done. The second battery is around 3/4 capacity when finished. I use the self propelled feature, which must impact battery life. The fully discharged battery takes about 1 hour to charge. I doubt it would be able to complete a 1/2 acre lot without at least some charging. Later this spring we will have a patio installed and I think that will be enough to get me to a single battery.

4 uses so far and I'm sold. I'm not too worried about the plastic deck. Long term I'm concerned about the batteries. They're very expensive to replace.

 

[lazarus]

The move to slower lower included a large garage size increase. I want to avoid a shed. The ability to store the mower upright really makes it much more convenient.

I bought the same Ryobi as smkranz, mainly because it's made in the USA. If not for that fact, I probably would have bought the EGO. I bought the package that included the mower and string trimmer. It was expensive at $829. I would not have done a gas powered trimmer in any case - It doesn't get enough use and becomes problematic pretty quickly.

The trimmer works great. I can do everything I need to and use less than 1/2 the battery capacity. I was concerned at first that the heavy battery would unbalance it, but it's perfectly balanced. On the 4th use I had to restring it, which was very different than the B&D grass hog I had before. I had to go to Youtube to figure it out. Next time will be much easier.

I'm impressed with the mower. The lot is 1/4 acre, but I also mow a 12' x 75' easement across the front. We're new construction, so the grass is spotty in some places and really thick in others. It speeds up in the thick parts. I'm mulching and it chops the clippings quite fine and gives a good cut. I exhaust the 1st battery at about 70% done. The second battery is around 3/4 capacity when finished. I use the self propelled feature, which must impact battery life. The fully discharged battery takes about 1 hour to charge. I doubt it would be able to complete a 1/2 acre lot without at least some charging. Later this spring we will have a patio installed and I think that will be enough to get me to a single battery.

4 uses so far and I'm sold. I'm not too worried about the plastic deck. Long term I'm concerned about the batteries. They're very expensive to replace.

I haven't looked at the Ryobi batteries (though I do have a bunch of their 18v tools), but you might be able to find generics MUCH cheaper. I picked up a 40v/5ah Greenworks battery off eBay for around $36. Working well so far. I did do a LOT of poking to try to figure what generic design seemed to have the best air flow as some completely encapsulate the battery. Keep the heat down, prolong the battery life. That was versus like $120 per battery for the Greenworks branded 4ah battery. I wouldn't be surprised if that generic 5ah is really a 4ah, but I knew that was likely.

Without some real abuse (I'd wait awhile before charging the batteries to let them cool more after use, but mowing they probably don't get too hot. Chainsaw use really abuses the batteries), you'll likely get a few hundred charge-discharge cycles out of them. If you mow 25 times a year, that might be 10 years of use on the lower end, 30-50 on the higher end. That's a few hundred bucks of gas saved if they only last 10 years, probably >$1000 if the mower and batteries lasted you 30-50 years versus feeding a gas mower.

For the $36 this generic battery cost me, that's probably 3 years of mowing for what I use my push mower for to equal the gas burned (I use it for some edging where my riding mower can't get as well as mow in my fenced orchard which is 2500sq-ft). I am pretty confident the battery will last at least that long.

 

[Parry]

I need a new electric mower, does anyone have opinions on the currently available options. I may prefer corded vs battery.


Full disclosure: on any given day you can find me cutting grass/stuff down with one of two Kubota zero turns, three different bush hogs, a John Deere 420, Cub Cadet (today) ... etc, and just rented a track driven mulcher being delivered to the farm today but prefer something light for the lawn at the house/around the pool. I've had two B&D < $200 mowers get me through the last 11 years! Thanks!

I use a full lawn service, but I also need to have something light for the lawn in areas where the workers miss. Thus, I bought myself a Greenworks corded and it is pretty reliable, durable, and maintenance free. My last corded one was a Black and Decker and it wasn't very powerful. The Greenworks cuts through some heavy vegetation without bogging down.

 

[SandmanActual]

I assume you are looking for a push mower. I bought the EGO from Home Depot, it was a whopping $500, but was worth every penny. Charges fast, 56V lithium battery, and the mower has a ton of power in that brushless motor. I have abused it for about a year and it works as good as the day I bought it.

I second this, I have the EGO and it’s worth every penny. It’s great not having to spend hours to fix it myself or drop it off at a small engine repair shop every year.

 

[Atomevolution]

Bought the Toro Recycler 22in for $600 from Home Depot. Overall I'm happy with it. It's entirely made of steel. Some of the similarly priced mowers at HD were made of plastic up to and including the blades. The self-propel is variable linked to a spring loaded handle that you push from. As you push the spring goes in more and the SP activates more, so it walks at your pace. The blades also turn with variable speed depending on the load. If you go over tall grass or weeds it revs up the motor. This is good for me as grass isn't consistent throughout my yard.

My only complaint is the battery life. I'm assuming due to SP and the fact it's all metal reduce the battery life. I was not able to complete my entire front yard, about 1/3 an acre, which also has a gentle slope. It left an area of about 10x10 before running out of juice. Maybe next time I'll skip the SP and get a workout while I mow. The annoying thing is the safety handle is also on the SP handle, so in order to keep the mower on you also have to push it with the SP handle, so it's difficult to not use SP. If we end up keeping this then I might try to modify it so I don't have to have that safety handle down.

It took another full charged battery to do the back yard, about 6400 feet. It conked out with just a small 2x5 area left.

Charging time is about 3 hours from zero. There is a button on the battery to show current charge. I don't think it's accurate. 1/4 battery indicated seems to have more juice than the other 3/4. I was able to charge the battery enough in about an hour to finish the 100 or so sq in the front yard.

I like not having gas powered, worry about cleaning the carb every year or finding non-ethanol gas. It also easier to control and doesn't vibrate as much so it was easier to mow for me.

We live on a border of a forested area where the weeds are encroaching on our property. The mower had no problems chewing up the young sticker bushes.

Overall I would recommend it if your lawn is relevantly flat and less than 1/3 of grass to mow. If we keep this I'll buy a second battery for about $130. That should get me through both front and back yards.

Since we have a bunch of other Black & Decker battery tools I wanted to buy their mower but every site I looked at had horrible reviews for it. Toro sells other battery compatible tools.

I bought the 21” version for mom that came with a 6.0AH battery. It seems like a nice mower. I love that it comes with a steel deck. Construction feels good. Cutting seems good and it doesn’t mind thick grass.

To anyone else interested, the EGOs seem to be highly regarded. No firsthand experience.

 

[Atomevolution]

A good tip for anyone is to coat your mower with surface shield. It works well to keep the moisture from rotting a steel deck mower. It also would work fine on composite decks as a way to keep the grass from getting glued to the surface. It does attract a bit of dust, but wipes off easily. The trade off is well worth it.

 

[Anotherpyr]

I am more worried about time and effort to cut the grass, I am not as young as I was 20 years ago, I am 60 and my body is already broken down. I am looking at the Toro 30" walk behind mower. If I can get it past the wife then I will be able to cut the grass with less effort which is my goal. Up and down with the new mower would be like up and down and up again.

Don’t waste your time. While I’ve had good luck with Toro, I found the 30” to be a heavy piece of crap that took more work to mow with than a regular self-propelled mower. The self propelled system gave out after year or two as well.

 

[Terps]

I use a 21” greenworks mower off Amazon. Works great. I’ve got 4.4 acres, half wooded. I use it for some edge trimming, under my kid’s swing set and in my fenced orchard (about 2500sq-ft). Fairly light, cuts even pretty tall grass if I let it go too long. Battery can probably handle about a quarter acre on the charge of a 40v, 4ah battery based on the couple times I’ve used it to mow my entire immediate backyard (it is steep and it sucks to run my riding mower on).

They have self propelled 80v models as well. I haven’t tried them.

Also like their 15” chainsaw and 17” string trimmer.

Trimmer way better than a gas unless you need to trim woody brush.

Chainsaw great for light work. Limbing, small trees and smaller log cutting. I get out my stihl farm boss for any medium or heavy work though.

I too have a 21 in Greenworks, in the 48v model. I have the trimmer/edger as well. Works fine for my small suburban lawn with plenty of battery left after the mow to throw one into the trimmer to finish up the edging. I got it on Woot for a clearance deal under $300, so far, it has been outstanding.