Electric mowers

Anyone using an electric mower? Someone stole my 15 year old mower from my patio at some point in the past week or two so I'm in the market for a new mower. Kind of narrowed it down to Ego, Greenworks or Toro, but just not sure. The Ego is the priciest not sure I want to spend that much but it appears to have a lot going for it. Needs to be self propelled, have 50+ minute run time.

I love my Volt that I bought last year, ready to go the same route with my lawn mower. Spent the day researching, but just not sure.

I bought an EGO 13 months ago. So far, so good. It outperforms all of the gas ones I've owned in the past (including my Hondas). We'll have to wait to see about durability.

Are you meaning a battery mower or a plug in electric?

I have been using Greenwork and Kobalt cordless mowers-60V,80V and yes--BETTER than gas motored mowers.So far no problems with batteries.lasted now for a few years-no problem.The Kobalt mowers are sort of like Greenwork-use the same blade.But the batteries are not interchangeable.

We have had an Ego cordless power for 4 or 5 years now.

My partner is the main one who uses it, he is brutal to it, and it just keeps on working. No oil changes, no spark plug replacements, no buying fuel, no yanking on the rope yelling Start You Ba$tard... You just drop in the battery and mow. By the time the battery is exhausted, I'm exhausted. We get about 45 minutes mowing to a charge, and this is coarse grass, not fine lawn.

We were so impressed with it, we bought other Ego stuff - pole pruner, chainsaw, brushcutter, nylon line trimmer.

I have to boast about one bargain - the pole saw kit (power unit, pole saw head, extension pole, charger, battery) sells for about AUD$690 here.

A hardware store in a town in our region was going downhill, and got bought out by Bunnings, the big hardware chain here. The store stocked some items that were brands Bunnings didn't sell, so while the store was closed for refit to become a Bunnings, all its odd stock was shipped out to other Bunnings stores in the region and priced for quick sale - generally half original price but often less. The items were stuck on aisle ends and clearance racks at the front of the store to get them moving out quickly.

One store I went to had a few Ego tools at great prices, including two pole saws. One was under half price at $290. The other had a damaged box and labelled that the battery was missing - it had been stolen out of the box. The price had been reduced to $20. I asked staff if that was right or a mistake, they said a new battery would cost over $250 so they had dropped the price to allow for buying a new battery at full price. (Ego isn't stocked by Bunnings, so the buyer would have to source one elsewhere.) As I already had a battery for the mower, I snapped it up. I got the motor unit, pole saw attachment, strap, charger and extension pole for just $20, still with 5 year warranty. I then went to another Bunnings store across town (this town has 3 Bunnings stores) and they had Ego batteries marked down from AUD$250+ to $58. They were the smaller battery, 2.5 amp hour, but fine for the lighter tools. So I got one of those.

 

we recently bought a cheaper cordless mower from Aldi - not sure if they are unique to Australia or sold world wide? It's a Ferrex brand, 118 volts, takes two 56 volt packs, comes with only one charger so you have to charge one after the other, but it was only $395 and as they didn't sell well, have been reduced to $359 in stores that till have stock. The box is labelled "electric mower" instead of "cordless mower" which was silly and would have cost them sales. The batteries are fiddly to insert and release, but otherwise it is amazing - more powerful than our Ego mower, and self propelled too.  (our Ego is not self propelled.) We bought it as a gift for a relative who has health issues and was having difficulty starting her petrol mower. She loves it, though she does have some trouble inserting the batteries - you have to push them in against a strong spring. A bargain.

I have an EGO and love it! I got the trimmer too, so I can use its battery if the mower runs out of juice. I think wanting a 50+ minute run time is going to be an issue, so I'd research all brands to see if any last that long. Or buy two items so you have two batteries. EGO has a string trimmer, leaf blower, and a saw. It's not worth it just to buy an extra battery - they are super expensive so might as well get another tool.

 

If my grass isn't too long, I can get 40 - 45 minutes. If the grass is long I have to go slower plus I think mowing tall grass puts a little more stress on the battery so I have to change the battery at about 30 minutes. Then I finish while the first battery is charging and can use it in the trimmer.

 

The other nice thing about the EGO is that it folds up and takes very little space to store.

I actually junked mine I bought more than 10 years ago because although it still ran it was beat up looking and the rubber grip on the handle needed replacing…

The only maintenance it ever needed was the blade needing to be sharpened otherwise it was a nice mower but I can’t mow my grass anymore so I hire someone with a gas push mower and gas riding mower to do my lawns…

My daughter says if I buy her a mower she’d cut the grass but I don’t know for how long and how serious she is about it…

It also helps I have outdoor electrical outlets in the front and back yard which I had to buy a few new extension cords for…

I would never buy a gas mower, they are too dirty and to me need a lot of maintenance….

I have an electric snowblower I use when we get a lot of snow and I would never go gas there either… It’s also a decade old and still runs great!

— Dave

I’ve always used an electric mower, long before battery powered models became a realistic option. It’s way less noisy - just find petrol (gas) mowers a bit obnoxiously loud. I’ve a fairly big lawn but we’ve a number of strategically placed outdoor sockets and a VERY long set of extension reels - all RCD (GFCI) protected of course.

I've only ever had gas mowers. I suppose if I had a bigger lawn (the one here is all of about 600 sq ft) I'd be more concerned. Maintenance is easy: just change the oil once a year, add fuel stabilizer to the 5 gallon gas container used for fueling.

I do have a battery powered string trimmer, which can also power an edger and cutter. The problem with that thing is it's a bit underpowered, and can stall out when used with the edger attachment. Something the gas motor never did.

Been using a battery electric for 2 years now...

a Greenworks 60 and we love it, we will never use a gas mower again, the brand new Honda engined mower we bought at the same time was used a couple of times and now just sits unused in the shed.

Electric lawnmowers

I bought my first electric lawnmower in 1969 it worked great for over 20 years it was a Sears craftsman.

I bought a Black & Decker battery electric mower in 1997 I’m still using that one, It uses a conventional lead acid battery it’s on its third battery.

An electric mower makes a lot of sense it only cost about 1/4 to 1/5 as much to run as a gasoline mower, it’s much safer makes less noise and far less air pollution, just the amount of fuel alone that evaporates from lawnmowers is a big pollution hazard.

One other thing that I always urge people to consider getting rid of a lot of your lawn let it grow in with groundcover plant trees etc. is much better for the environment better for your home etc. it makes no sense the amount of lawn that we mow week after week year after year in this country.

John L

EGO...

I made the leap to cordless about 6 weeks ago.

EGO LM2135SP.

Self propelled/bagger/side discharge/mulcher.

I looked at several different brands before I chose EGO. The main reason I went with
EGO was the battery standard, 56V, for all of their tools. Am now looking at the blower and string trimmer combo currently on sale here at Ace Hardware.

My yard is fairly flat so I don't use the self-propel much, which gives a little more run time. I usually mow the front yard first, put the battery on charge, string trim and blow the drive and sidewalk. After a short break, the battery is fully charged and I can mow the entire back yard on that charge.

When I'm all done I can stand the mower up, no gas or oil dripping, and clean the underside of the deck. It wipes out easily. Keep the hose away. The manual warns about this, you don't want to damage any electronics.

I am very satisfied so far. This is replacing my aging Honda and Lawnboy, both 40+
years old and needing some work. I will miss them, but I still have an older Snapper and 60's Lawnboy.

My 2 cents, Bill

This is the brand I grew up with:

 



 

they were VERY funky in the 70 .. bit of an ABBA meets Blake’s 7 vibe with a touch of space disco … The 70s were before my time, but such an odd decade!! I don’t think a lawnmower has ever been marketed like this before or since …

(don’t worry this was just a normal 1970s uk tv ad)

 



 

Nowadays part of Husqvarna Group.

I forgot to add on yesterdays post that I get 75 to 90 minutes on my EGO mower. That is with using the self propelled drive about two thirds of the time.

I'm leaning toward the Ego mower but struggling to justify the $800 price point. I really like the dual blade design,  a number of brands are doing that now. I could go with  the Ego and a 7 amp hour battery and save some $$.  With my now missing mower it took me 50 minutes or so to do the lawn so the 7AH battery might just do it.

 

Decisions, decisions.

With the prices of new electric mowers creeping up-have you seen the electric EGO rider ZTR mower at over 5K.This is going to tempt folks into just hiring a lawn service contractor.Advantages to this do not need to own equipment.I have a contractor do the main parts of my yard.He can't do the back yard so I do that with the electric cordless mowers.Both Milwaukee and Ryobi have electric mowers at $900 for the Ryobi and $1000 for the Milwaukee.Just won't pay these prices for a walk mower.If the contractor could do all of my lawn-would not own any equipment at all.Mower companies and stores should think carefully about pricing.

I bought a corded mower 4-5 years ago to replace a Snapper which after a winter wouldn't start. I can get to the entire yard with 3 outlets (garage, back door, front door), so it's not a burden. I did inherit a 4-cycle MTD mower from Brian's uncle, though, in which I use the specialty naphtha (I think) fuel. That fuel is stable over the winter so I don't have to fuss with winterizing the unit. The moment it won't start into the garbage it goes and I go back to the electric; however it started like a champ first time last Sunday (so another year of gasoline for me, it would appear)

Anyone finding robotic lawn mowers any good?

I’ve been thinking about installing. My lawn is on a slope so there’s a lot of hills and stuff to deal with. There are a couple of models that seem to be able to deal with steeper gardens.

Hi  Matt. I have been a long-time skeptic of electric mowers due to the poor examples offered in the past.  My mom had a 3.5HP Briggs & Stratton mower for years. It is about as small of an engine as you can get.  In spite of that, her shoulder was getting to a point where she could not pull the rope to start the engine. 

 

My initial search was for an electric-start gas powered mower; however I wasn't able to find anything which wasn't a huge commercial machine. 

I was at Lowe's and noticed a lithium ion powered electric mower which was just about the right size; but it was gimmicky and had a lot of "fluff" which I was sure would make it not last. Things like two small motors and blades, as opposed to a single blade and motor. But it got me thinking. 

Finally went to Home Depot and saw a Ryobi electric push mower. It is really simple with one motor and blade. It has two 40V batteries. One is in use, and the other has a storage point on the front of the mower.  It is literally as simple as a plastic deck, four wheels, a handle; motor and battery. 

Talked to the people at the store and explained that I was skeptical but liked the idea and wanted to confirm that I could return it, even after using it, if I was not satisfied with the performance.  They confirmed that I could indeed return it if I was unsatisfied with it in any way. 

Before giving it to my mom, I charged it up and tested it in my yard. It was able to cut basically anything you would reasonably expect a push mower to cut; and had no problems mulching small twigs, pine cones, and other debris common in the yard here. All in all I was very impressed with it! 

Mom really loves it because she doesn't have to pull a rope to start it. It has a pushbutton to turn it on. This mower is a few years old now. Batteries are in the 80 to 100V range now if I am not mistaken. They probably go longer than hers do. The 40V mower goes about 20 minutes per charge. So with two fully charged batteries, you have about 40 minutes of run time. That is with "average" toughness grass to cut. It won't go that long if you are pushing it hard in tall or wet grass, of course.

I would recommend an electric mower, but caution you to look for the simplest design you can find which fits your needs. There is a lot of hype and marketing puffery out there so be sure to look past that at the actual product. 

Sincerely,
David 

The biggest issue I have to deal with is the very long grass growing season and the relatively high growth rate.

My last mow was in late November and first one was in early March and if I don’t mow the grass almost weekly it’s pretty out of hand in mid summer.

What I’ve been doing is letting an area of the garden go to wild meadow - it’s happening naturally but I helped it along with local wild flower seeds. Seems to be attracting loads of polinators and it’s reduced my mowing.

I did the “No Mow May” this year to give the insects a bit of extra access to growth and I’ve also left a dead tree on place and generally tired to let some natural habitat just “be” there. So far it’s working great. Lots of bumble bees, honey bees, various butterflies late in the summer last year too.

I’m trying to plant up as many nectar producing flowering plants as I can too and trying to stick to native species that the local bees and other insects can use.[this post was last edited: 5/8/2022-15:55]

Stihl

I got a Stihl RMA 370 back in 2011 and it is still going strong as ever It's a small euro size mower, made in Austria, running on 36v Li-ion batt pack.Motor is a Domel brand BLDC driving the blade by a belt.This little mower is a tough,eager, hard worker! My mom loves this thing,so I leave it at her house-can mow all day with 4 batts and 2 chargers going

On year 3 with a 60v Flexforce Toro recycler.
It’s been really great!
I like it because it’s not a plastic toy.
It’s a real steel Recycler with Personal Pace and standard heavy gauge blade.

Funny story. When I was shopping a few years back, there was a Ryobi rep in the aisle. He talked about the pros and cons. He said Ryobi was built from the ground up to be an electric mower.
Lightweight deck. Headlights.
All Toro did was throw a battery on their standard mower.
Perfect! That’s what I wanted.

If I keep up with mowing and don’t let the grass get too tall, I can mow my thick lush slightly-over 1/4 acre lawn, in mulch mode, on one battery.
But I got a 2nd battery for the snowblower, and extra reserve for the mower.

Robotic mowers

Know a lot of people that have them and most are very happy - but the one thing people agree on is not to cheap out there.

Only thing - like with robotic vacuums - is that they just don't mow perfect everywhere.
So they don't keep you from mowing manually completely, they just extend the time between mowing dramatically.
Especially along edges, corners, etc. they often don't work.
A former work colleague said that instead of doing his lawn weekly, he can go 4 to 8 weeks depending on season and weather without mowing.

On the topic of how battery mowers work so good with so "little" power:

Traditional mowers rely heavily on their power to cut grass.
The mass of the blade dosen't play a role, the shear torque rams the blade through whatever.
Same principle as a trimmer: The trimmer line has basically no inertia, but is spun so fast that doesn't really matter.

However, you can go the other route.
You can have a low power motor with a heavy blade.
The small motor does take a bit more time to spin the heavy blade up to speed. But once there, it just has to maintain the speed and add very little power to compensate losses.
The heavy blade has so much inertia that it forces itself through the grass and dosen't loose much speed.

Gas and normal electric mowers however can't produce the torque needed at low speeds.
A BLDC motor (or similar electronically driven brushless motor) however can supply a lot of torque from standstill.
The high speed method is less efficient - on one hand air resistance goes up by the square of the speed, and just looking at a gas mower, all the noise and heat and so on show energy losses. But it is simple and cheap.
The low speed, high inertia high torque method is way more complicated, but can do a lot with little power.

At least that is what I have been told, so don't quote me on that...

Sometime back in the mid to late 60's we got a Sunbeam electric mower. It was lightweight and did a decent job, but cut a rather narrow path, so took a while to get done. The extension cord required was heavy and long, since the backyard was large. On more than one occasion I ran over the cord, and cut it in two. We used it for several years, and then it overheated snd stopped working. My dad then bought a new gas mower.

Around 1996 I bought a Black & Decker battery powered mower. It did a good job, and was relatively quiet, but it would run down and require recharging before I could finish mowing. That usually meant me mowing on two days, which I didn't like. Eventually the battery would no longer take a charge, and instead of replacing it, I bought a John Deere push mower in 2006. It had plenty of power, and I could complete the mowing in a timely manner. In 2020 it required some repairs which were going to be expensive, so I spent a little more, and got a nice Honda mower, which so far I like real well. I also got a new gas can that is easy to use, and spill resistant.

I don't like storing gasoline in the house, so keep the can in the shed. I've been keeping the new mower in the garage, which I don't like doing, so only put in as much gas as I think I'll need when I start. I plan to clean out the shed, and repair it this Summer, so will put the mower in it then.

I would not want to keep a mower or other item with large lithium ion batteries inside the house either. I've seen numerous videos of fire departments responding to fires caused by electric scooters. Those batteries are difficult to extinguish, and require haz-mat response to dispose of after they burn. If I ever have a mower with such batteries, it will stay in the shed.

TIP if you're buying any EGO mower/tool

Only buy from authorized retailers, which pretty much limits you to Lowe's and Ace Hardware in the US. I read somewhere that if you don't use an authorized dealer for the purchase, EGO will not warranty it. I am not 100% sure if this is true but worth looking into if you find one elsewhere. I got my mower and string trimmer from Ace, and just ordered a blower from Lowe's today.

The cordless battery mowers-their motors wether brushed or brushless deliver GREATER breakdown torque than a gas motor.And to cut a rotary blade must spin at a minimum speed-too slow-it won't cut.For walk mowers blade must spin between 3000-3600 RPM.On the other end of the scale a tractor mount 5ft wide brush hog blade must spin at 700 rpm.Ie blades operate in the 8000-12000 Feet per Minute.I have stored my lithium batteries-either for mowers or tools inside with no problems.Same with batteries in phones or laptop-pad computers.Lithium batteries are MUCH SAFER now than what used to be.Don't need to worry.Put it this way the battery is safer to keep than the can of gas.There is an advantage to gas motored mowers-"recharge" time is fast-only takes less than minutes to refill the tank.Charging the battery can take hours!

As far as cordless mowers go, do yourself a huge favor and splurge for the best one for longest battery life etc. Box store crap like Troy Bilts that are $400.00 get tossed in the trash when even one $150.00 battery fails outside warranty because they advise changing them both out. At that point its better to just buy a whole new mower and get another 2 year warranty. Doesnt sound so eco friendly to me over tuning your old gas mower to keep it going. Luckily at least the Troy Bilt uses the same thin krappe beer can steel deck as the gas models and can be converted to gas. Ive given 3 of them to a friend thats installed gas engines off rotted deck machines so at least they get repurposed rather than tossed at the transfer station. I also take the batteries to an auto parts store rather than toss in the garbage.

The Ego I've decided on has a 5 year warranty on both the mower and battery. Historically the Egos have held up well, they are a poly carbonate body, not rust prone steel and from all reports very durable. With the 7.5 amp hour battery run time is about an hour, with my ICE mower it took me 50ish minutes to do the lawn. There is a Toro super recycler that just came out that is $100 more with an aluminum deck. Have not found any reviews, I'm tempted but the cost is putting me off.

 

Now I just have to commit to spending the $$$.

I bought the Worx cordless mower last summer. Other than the fact that you don't throw your shoulder out pulling the cord and that it's much quieter, I'm not impressed with it. A gas mower blade will pull the grass up and cut it off, the cordless doesn't have enough power to do that so it will cut OK on the outer parts of the blade but will leave the center part higher, making a second pass necessary at times. The old mower does a neater job.

My Kobalt or Greenworks can cut and mulch BETTER than gas mowers I used to have.