My next lawnmower is definitely going to be electric, the rest of my tools already are, I like to think that I'll get an electric car some day too, but they are still pretty pricey.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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My electric utility gave me a $75 dollar rebate when I bought an electric mower. Worth checking if you end up buying one.
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.
but too small to justify maintaining a gas mower
I'm supposed to be maintaining this?
would guess this would also be a good demographic for related environmental pushes: “No Mow May”, “Food, Not Lawns”, native lawns and landscaping (even better, native species protected from HOAs), front-yard food gardens, …
Exactly. Getting rid of the lawn altogether is the first step. Plant more trees, grow a garden, plant native plants for pollinators.
Having a big yard full of grass that you need an ICE powered by fossil fuels to maintain is soulless insanity.
I've carved up my lawn to plant trees and native plants beds, but still have sections that are grass. It's a great play space for the kids, and with the trees there's enough shade to really limit the amount of irrigation necessary during the worst of the summer. Point is, lawns aren't inherently bad, their extent and how you manage them are what matter most.
We have solar but found another option, push reel mowers was perfect for our small yard. It's a bit more of effort if the grass is tall (we have UC Verde drought tolerant grass so I let it grow out to cut down on watering) but I don't ever have to worry about batteries or gas/fumes/noise. Plus I get a workout and it was basically the only type of mower that's still made domestically.
Can attest the Amish-made ones are built like tanks and run smooth (provided the grass is on the shorter side)
Don't cut so close to that dog!
It makes sense that the things you have more physical relationships with like stoves or lawn equipment would make people think about other items. You get a central heatpump to replace your central air heat/ac and you can quickly forget anything is different outside of a slight noise reduction
Wouldn’t adding a cable and avoiding the environmental impact of batteries be better? In some countries lawn equipment has been electric but connected to an outlet for decades.
Mains power in the us is lacking. It works but t power is clearly missing. who cares that the battery takes a long time to charge, you only need it for an hour a day (not even every day) so a battery works well and is always charged without worry about gas or cords.
The cable has environmental impact from copper mining and smelting, and can be impractical for larger lawns.