Electric Lawn Mowers

[melbourne_yankee]

Well my 15 year old plus gasoline lawn mower died on me this past week and I needed to buy a new one.

The choice was between a gasoline powered mower or one of those new fangled battery powered electric ones.

There aren't any cheap, good quality lawn mowers here in Oz anymore.  The brand I owned is no longer in production.  It was a good machine and I abused it over its life.  I used it to cleanup after pruning branches to chop them into little pieces, etc.

After reading reviews of the various machines I narrowed it down to one gasoline powered mower and a couple of electric ones. 

The advantages of the gasoline powered one are more power and a cheaper price.

The disadvantages of the gasoline powered one are:

1. Heavier

2. Pull to start is sometimes difficult. (I am not getting any younger!!!)

3.  Having to buy gasoline and also oil for the engine.

4. Noisy

5. Smelly

The advantages of the electric one are:

1. Lighter

2. Push a button to start.  Even the better half can do it.

3.  Charge a battery and no trips for gasoline. No gasoline storage containers for it.

4. Not as noisy.

5. No smells.

6. Cheaper to run off of electricity compared to gasoline.

The disadvantages are:

1. More expensive

2. Maybe duration of the machine

3. Lighter so it may not cut as well in heavier grass by being pushed up.

 

So I ended up buying the electric mower based on it being lighter in weight and easier to start.  The price difference will be made up over time if we charge the battery at off peak times.

I charged it up and used it to cut the grass. My impressions were:

1.  Yes, it is much lighter in weight than a gasoline mower which makes it easier to carry up and down the stairs to the lower part of our yard and maneuver the machine around the yard and trees.

2. So much easier to start.  This is especially important when having to stop the mower to empty the clippings bag and then start it up again.

3.  More than enough power for the lawn.  I hadn't cut it for a long time because of all the rain and bad weather which resulted in some really long and thick patches of grass.  The electric mower had no problem cutting the grass and the built in sensor increased the power to compensate for this.

4. It didn't have any problems being lighter than the gasoline mower as far as being pushed up.

5.  It CAN NOT be used for chopping up branches and sticks.  Small ones in the yard seemed to be no problem, but I'll have to pick up anything thicker than a lead pencil.

6.  The lawn took extra time to  cut and more power than usual as I  hadn't cut it for a while.  The battery was more than adequate to do the entire job with a charge still remaining. Doing a normal cut should leave even more charge in the battery.

7.  Using it seemed like using a toy as it was so light compared to the gasoline mower.  It kind of reminded me of the times I was driving an electric car, a Chevy Bolt, years ago at work.  It was like driving a big golf cart.......

So far so good.  I hope that the machine lasts, but it does have a six year warranty which  is nice.

The brand I bought was a Ryobi (Japanese), unfortunately it was made in China.

 

 

[ConnecticutMarc]

Good choice. My experience with small gasoline engines & electrics is that electrics are much more reliable than gasoline, and don't need any maintenance other than charging.