this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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I love my electric mower, but the batteries are awful: too small for a motor that sized. The high current draw + summer heat absolutely destroyed the batteries after a season. The 5 Ah replacement batteries are like $150 (they also fit my weedeater, leaf blower, and hedge trimmer).
Ended up hacking a 10 Ah e-bike battery onto it (plenty of room inside the housing) and wiring just the board from the old factory battery to trick the DRM or whatever on the motor controller into letting the mower work. Drilled a small hole for the charge port, and it's been a dream.
We just replaced our 10 year old electric mower (old battery Kobalt) with a new one. We had three batteries and only recently did we feel their life wasn’t long enough for our nearly half acre lot. Out of curiosity…How old is your mower? Our new mower has self propelled and can do the whole yard with juice to go again. I do feel that you get what you pay for with electric mowers. We went with a mid grade and a reputable brand since we know we will hold into it for ages. I recommend to folks to always buy one that is marketed for larger than what you have if you are gonna hold onto it because batteries degrade normally so it is good to plan for that.
Non-self propelled Kobalt (40v model with the interchangeable batteries). Batteries were also used in a pole saw/hedge trimmer (interchangeable heads), weedeater, and leaf blower. They were definitely used heavily, but not outside the scope of what they were sold to do.
I've had that set since 2020. Batteries did fine that first season (juice to spare like you said) did okay the next spring, but by the end of summer 2021, it'd take 3 charges just do the front yard. By the time I'd get everything mowed, I'd have to start all over again.
Yeah. I have a newer Kobalt blower that takes the new batteries compared to the mower we got in like 2014 and it does not perform as well. We intentionally avoided Kobalt for that reason. Plus the blower seems to eat away at charge if you store the batteries in the blower. I now store all batteries loose to prevent draining. Wonder if my experience is related. Do you store the batteries loose or in the mower/blower/weed eater?
I charge them up and then keep them on a shelf in the basement. During the winter, I don't top them off.
Pretty sure the only thing the manual said was to not store them in the charger.
Hm. No idea then. Well at least you found a workaround.
Not a recommendation exactly, but I use the Ryobi 18V range. The good part is that the mower, whipper snipper, etc are cheap, but the real win is that the batteries can be shared. This means I feel like the investment in the batteries is worth it, even as they age out. Ryobi batteries are also pretty good. Really wish a larger company like, say, Makita, had a shared battery system as large as Ryobi.
EDIT: Yep Makita do now. Nice.
That's how my Kobalt set is, too. I've got the mower, weedeater, blower, hedge trimmer, and pole saw - they all share the same batteries.
I got a Greenworks 40V mower in 2016 that came with 4Ah and 2Ah batteries. The 2Ah gave out after about 6 years, but the 4Ah is still going strong and holds a great charge. I live in Texas and store them in my uninsulated garage. Were you storing them drained? It's important to recharge them before you store them. Also you might have just had shitty batteries. I got another 4Ah battery along the way as I added the trimmer, blower, and chainsaw and have never had an issue with running out of juice unless I let the grass get too long and try to cut it too short
Stored them about 3/4 charged over the winter.
I've always stored mine at full charge, though granted I still use them over the winter, just less often. I wonder if storing them so long unused harms battery life
The small-battery problem is really a pity. I don't have enough lawn to end up using anything other than a reel mower, which doesn't have the battery problem.
My yard is too big for a reel mower but too small to justify maintaining a gas mower.
After the battery hack, the electric one has been great. I just wish it'd have been designed like that from the start.
I had a corded one before this, and it was more trouble than it was worth wrangling the extension cord around, not running over it, and just dealing with it in general.
I'm supposed to be maintaining this?