Battery Powered Lawn mower

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#1462159 6-Jan-2016 09:53

TimA: Get a petrol mower..
The electric ones dont have any torque and when anything gets slightly tough they just dont have the guts.
If your mowing a boutique fine blade grass lawn sure it will be good but any standard kwii lawn i doubt it.

I agree to some degree, but in the years I've been mowing my lawn, usually regularly, I've never had an issue. Occasional my grass will get up to almost 10cm high, my electric copes with that. If you had ugly old tough grass that was more than maybe 7-8cm high maybe a petrol would be required, but for most kiwi lawns I think the electric I have would cope easily.

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Jase2985

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#1462168 6-Jan-2016 10:12

timmmay: I do value reviews, but sometimes practical experience can trump them. Is the Victa Lawnkeeper in there? It was way back when I bought it, that's why I got it.

yes it was, rated at 67% compared to 83% for the lowest of the 3 battery ones i mentioned

the review was practical :)

timmmay

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#1462197 6-Jan-2016 11:01

Sure the battery ones are probably better, but this one actually works really well in practical use, and is 1/3 the cost of the battery ones :)

testha

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#1462252 6-Jan-2016 12:29

I got the Ryobi Brushless Lawn Mower 36V with 5.0Ah.

What I like about it:
Very powerful battery / motor combo, it is more powerful than my old 2 stroke.
The battery lasts long. I can confirm the one hour advertised, even with wet and high grass after not mowing for 2 months it lasted 40 minutes. Under normal conditions I am finished between 30 and 40 minutes and I still have roughly half battery left.
Mulcher built in, it saves so much time if you just want to quickly re-cut the grass.
Lightweight, can be carried with a single hand, it even got a grip!
Smart charging, charger stops charging after battery is full. So if you forget the battery in the charger you don't ruin it.
Overall ease of use and small storage (quickly fold-able).
Good quality plastic means no rust if you live close to the salty coast.
Its so quiet that I can listing to music with my normal headphones while mowing the lawn.

I was originally considering the +one battery model, so I could use the same batteries for other power tools, but for a lawnmower these batteries dont seem to be powerful enough. There are reports of them only lasting 15-20 minutes, depending on the model.

I used cabled electrical lawnmowers for years and they are also a good budget choice, if you can be asked to deal with the cable.

I cannot recommend the Worx ones, the cheap plastic they are made of cracks easily and the overall quality is not very good.

My experience with one of the latest generation battery powered lawn mowers means (in my opinion) that they are now as good as two strokes, but much more convenient.

regius

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#1462614 6-Jan-2016 20:04

My Experience with a WORX WG785E mower - 24v lead-acid battery. Cost $499 @ M10 - 40cm cut.
It is well built with heavy-grade plastic material that is still as good as new. Use with either mulch device or catcher, both work as well as any mower I've had in the past. I bought it to replace a Victa 2-stroke when we moved to a smaller section (800m2) and have been delighted with it. It's light, quiet, cuts beautifully and quickly - my lawn takes about 40 minutes to cut and there is still "juice in the tank". It's easy to sharpen the blades with a good quality file.
I needed to replace the battery ($187) after 18 months use. I leave the battery to charge overnight. Other than the high price of replacement batteries I think it's a great machine if you have a good quality smallish lawn.

blakamin

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#1462623 6-Jan-2016 20:13

The ryobi 36v is awesome!
I used to buy bosch things but now my shed is full of ryobi.

richms

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#1462626 6-Jan-2016 20:15

Now they have a model that takes 2 of the 18v packs I am seriously considering an electric. The 36v would have been a whole new system, but the double 18v.... I have heaps of 18v stuff and batteries for it. Yay.

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timmmay

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#1463639 6-Jan-2016 20:33

Wow, with mowers around $600 and a battery replacement of around $200 every two years, that's one expensive way to cut grass. Say a ten year cost of $1600. The electric one I have works great, so long as you're not mowing a field, and at $250 odd and requiring no maintenance for (so far) 7 or 8 years it's great value. Cords aren't that much trouble, you get used to it.

blakamin

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#1463645 6-Jan-2016 20:36

I live in South Aussie, so I only have to mow the lawn about 6 months of the year. Battery is the go as there's no power out the front.

richms

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#1464643 6-Jan-2016 20:48

I have the ryobi batteries anyway, it means no trips to the servo to get fuel, no need to cycle the fuel that has been sitting for ages thru the car, no worries about blocked carbs, messing about with oil and filters and stuff.

Seems a no brainer if I can get an hours runtime from a pair of 5.0 packs, thats about all I have the energy to do myself on a single day, and if I was to want to do more, its just a battery swap rather than having to wait for the mower to cool down and then pouring flamible liquids from one vessel into another while trying not to spill it.

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timmmay

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#1464664 6-Jan-2016 21:13

blakamin: I live in South Aussie, so I only have to mow the lawn about 6 months of the year. Battery is the go as there's no power out the front.

And what a shame there's no extension cords in Australia, or windows... unless you mean like waaay out front up a long driveway or something.

timmmay

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#1464666 6-Jan-2016 21:14

richms: I have the ryobi batteries anyway, it means no trips to the servo to get fuel, no need to cycle the fuel that has been sitting for ages thru the car, no worries about blocked carbs, messing about with oil and filters and stuff.

Seems a no brainer if I can get an hours runtime from a pair of 5.0 packs, thats about all I have the energy to do myself on a single day, and if I was to want to do more, its just a battery swap rather than having to wait for the mower to cool down and then pouring flamible liquids from one vessel into another while trying not to spill it.

Or just plugging it in...

richms

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#1464675 6-Jan-2016 21:19

timmmay:

Or just plugging it in...

May as well not own a cordless drill in that case...

Richard rich.ms

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#1464685 6-Jan-2016 21:31

timmmay:
richms: I have the ryobi batteries anyway, it means no trips to the servo to get fuel, no need to cycle the fuel that has been sitting for ages thru the car, no worries about blocked carbs, messing about with oil and filters and stuff.

Seems a no brainer if I can get an hours runtime from a pair of 5.0 packs, thats about all I have the energy to do myself on a single day, and if I was to want to do more, its just a battery swap rather than having to wait for the mower to cool down and then pouring flamible liquids from one vessel into another while trying not to spill it.

Or just plugging it in...

or its just more hassle pulling out the extention cord, putting it in and out of the window walking round the house etc etc.

we get it you like your corded mower. but its not for most people.

oxnsox

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#1464688 6-Jan-2016 21:41

regius: My Experience with a WORX WG785E mower - 24v lead-acid battery. Cost $499 @ M10 - 40cm cut.
It is well built with heavy-grade plastic material that is still as good as new. Use with either mulch device or catcher, both work as well as any mower I've had in the past. I bought it to replace a Victa 2-stroke when we moved to a smaller section (800m2) and have been delighted with it. It's light, quiet, cuts beautifully and quickly - my lawn takes about 40 minutes to cut and there is still "juice in the tank". It's easy to sharpen the blades with a good quality file.
I needed to replace the battery ($187) after 18 months use. I leave the battery to charge overnight. Other than the high price of replacement batteries I think it's a great machine if you have a good quality smallish lawn.

This is probably similar to the EnviroMower I use. Which is ¬7yrs old. The Lead-acid pack actually contains two 10ah 12V SLA batteries that you can get for about $40 each (or less). Battery life is limited to about 2yrs by the poor quality charger (I charge each battery seperately with a m/bike 3 stage charger to get better battery life).

And soo back on topic. First few years of life used this on a fairly typical 1/4 acre section, before moving to a slightly smaller lot. I brought a cheap ($100) 4-stroke thru the local community FB page about a year ago for those few times a year when growth gets away from me (couple of rainy weekends in a row) when the best way to use the electric is to do 2 cuts, which simply takes too long.
When grass is lush I use a catcher, when dry I don't.

If the unit failed tomorrow I'd replace it with something from the the current crop of e-mowers, with Lithium power and brushless motors they'll have much better performance , and better battery management sytems.

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