Cordless lawn mowers - recommendations and feedback (especially on Ryobi models)?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Cordless lawn mowers - recommendations and feedback (especially on Ryobi models)?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ... | 13

6104 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2023359 27-May-2018 12:45

How good are these battery mowers?

1200 watts seems a bit on the light side for power and the cutting time seems to be quite short. It takes me an hour in good going to mow our lawns on a city section and frontage. I couldn't imagine doing it with anything less than the 4 HP Honda powered Masport I have. How long does the Victa go for on one charge? By my calculations it'll run for about 8 minutes on the 2 AH battery it's supplied with.

One of our neighbours has a corded electric Flymo style mower. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner and seems to take as long to mow the lawns as you would take if you actually used a vacuum cleaner. I must admit it sure doesn't look to be in the same league as the Victa mentioned above.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

Lenovo

Lenovo computer and accessories deals (affiliate link).

Jase2985

12348 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2023367 27-May-2018 13:15

my ryobi will do about 300sqm on a 5ah battery, when the lawn is a reasonable length.

With my 3 batteries (2x 5ah 1x 2.5ah) i can do the edges, mow the lawns and use the blower afterwards and each will still have a little charge (1/3) left in them.

its most certainly powerful enough

dy3r

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2023377 27-May-2018 13:36

So the new victa i just bought, did about 300sqm mulching and used 2 bars on 1 battery...... I dont think you will have any issue as you get 2 batteries in the kit i just bought, it takes me about 30min to get around, also my lawn was wet.

The idea with the victa, the batteries are a 30min fast charge, so even if you had 2 hours of mowing to do, one will be on the charge so would be 0 down time.

Another thought, probably also takes you 10 - 15min to get the mower out/petrol/pull start, the best advantage with battery is it's a 30second job :D

Technofreak

6104 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2023385 27-May-2018 14:06

dy3r:

So the new victa i just bought, did about 300sqm mulching and used 2 bars on 1 battery...... I dont think you will have any issue as you get 2 batteries in the kit i just bought, it takes me about 30min to get around, also my lawn was wet.

The idea with the victa, the batteries are a 30min fast charge, so even if you had 2 hours of mowing to do, one will be on the charge so would be 0 down time.

Another thought, probably also takes you 10 - 15min to get the mower out/petrol/pull start, the best advantage with battery is it's a 30second job :D

Nope, I get two to three mows on a tank full. From the time I unlock the garden shed and get the mower out it's about 1 minute until I'm mowing. certainly no longer than if I was using a battery mower. No advantage having a battery mower in that regardss

It takes all of 2 minutes at the very most to fill the tank when needed. It usually starts first pull and I'm not stopping several times part way through to go back inside and swap batteries. It's got more grunt and will power through areas where a lower powered mower would slow you down. I see no advantage with a lawn like mine in using a present generation battery mower.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

Jase2985

12348 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2023401 27-May-2018 15:28

if you get 3 mows from a full tank how does it take you an hour to mow the lawn? its an awfully efficient mower then.

Technofreak

6104 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2023408 27-May-2018 15:52

Jase2985:

if you get 3 mows from a full tank how does it take you an hour to mow the lawn? its an awfully efficient mower then.

Perhaps it is or perhaps has a decent size tank.

The point I was making, it doesn't take any longer than a battery powered mower to start mowing whether or not refuelling is required. I rather suspect I use less time farting around refuelling my petrol mower than I would charging batteries on an electric mower for an equivalent amount of mowing.

There is no doubt there's a place for battery mowers but there's a limit to their usefulness IMO.

Sony Xperia XA2 running Sailfish OS. https://sailfishos.org The true independent open source mobile OS
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
Dell Inspiron 14z i5

cristiancr

12 posts

Geek

#2114146 25-Oct-2018 23:34

There is a new EGO lawn mower (model number: LM2142SP) that comes with two 5.0Ah batteries and brushless motor. It's not available in NZ yet but this new model provides more power in addition to more run time. Hopefully Mitre10 will get it in stock it soon.

MikeAqua

7616 posts

Uber Geek

#2114295 26-Oct-2018 10:41

Technofreak:

Nope, I get two to three mows on a tank full. From the time I unlock the garden shed and get the mower out it's about 1 minute until I'm mowing. certainly no longer than if I was using a battery mower. No advantage having a battery mower in that regardss

It takes all of 2 minutes at the very most to fill the tank when needed. It usually starts first pull and I'm not stopping several times part way through to go back inside and swap batteries. It's got more grunt and will power through areas where a lower powered mower would slow you down. I see no advantage with a lawn like mine in using a present generation battery mower.

Ditto, the slowest part of the process for me is getting the mower our of the shed. It starts on the first pull every time.

That said, I still plan to go electric when our ICE-mower dies.

That may be an if rather than a when. It's at least 18 years old and has a serious smoking problem, but just keeps on going.

Mike

jonathan18

6991 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2114301 26-Oct-2018 10:50

As much as I love my electric mower (I ended up with the $799 Ryobi model), I'd recommend those with anything other than a small mowing area buy two batteries, even if the second one isn't as large in capacity.

There's a significant difference in battery life if the lawn is longer - spring growth is such that I have no chance of getting all lawns mowed on a single charge at the moment, so have to pause in the middle to charge the battery (plus there's a wait for it to cool down before charging begins).

And only this week I finally got around to putting my old belching petrol mower on TM and it sold pretty quickly - good to finally get rid of that. I'm sure the buyer will get it working properly, but the hassle/cost of maintaining it just wasn't for me.

irongarment

280 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#2114362 26-Oct-2018 11:53

I bought a Makita cordless mower with two 3Ah batteries and dual charger from Bunnings. $599 I think it was.

The supplied batteries will mow half my lawn area (so that's all the back, or all the front) in about 40 minutes. Charge time is 22 minutes, which is enough time to tidy up each half before starting the other one. However I would agree that it's probably worth having another pair of batteries so that you can mow for longer. I'll probably do that in the summer.

Another thing to think about is the battery eco-system you are buying into. I am happy that Makita has the range of tools I want, but so do the others (DeWalt, AEG, etc.) however it's worth double checking that the batteries can be used with other tools in the range. Obviously that means that Ego mowers, for example, are their own eco-system for mowing only.

I'm happy with a battery mower. No fuel to store. No oil. No spark plugs. No fumes. No leaks. And no long cables to catch on things.

reven

3646 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#2114365 26-Oct-2018 12:05

I went with makita with 2 5ah batteries, when toolshed had a sale, got it for $599.

I went with makita because, their batteries are the ones used in their tools, and I went with makita tools because I could get two 5ah batteries pretty cheap and they have a lot of tools.

I ruled out ryobi because their 36v batteries are different and useless for anything else.

The makita mower is ok, its not great, its ok, it takes about 2.5 charges (i have 4 batteries, so only down time is swapping batteries over). my section is 840m2, probably 1/2 is grass.

I got it for convenience. i wish it was a mulcher, clippings are annoying, but pertrol is more annoying....

If makita come out with a mulcher I would upgrade and just sell this one off. Its easier to use. I got a makita line trimmer aswell, thats also 36v, easier to use.

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#2341191 21-Oct-2019 09:32

I got this thread resurrected as a year on I'd be interested to hear from people as to how their electric mowers are going, especially regarding battery life.

I'm a lawnmower enthusiast lol, I have 4 petrol mowers, and was planning to sell them and replace with a new one that I can get many years use from. My lawns (2) would only be 200-300m². Only real requirement is must be side discharge or mulch capable.

Was looking at various petrol models between $500-$1000, but then the Masport 42V ST 18 crossed my radar. They are RRP $700, but I have seen several different good deals on them. Not interested in any other electric model. I like how it looks, smart chute, and based on traditional petrol mower chassis.

I can see an advantage in that I won't need annual ($80-100) services to keep warranty live, plus an estimated $120 petrol in that time, so over a 4 year warranty I'd save around $360-420. But the biggest disadvantage is built in obsolescence, in that there is 3 year battery warranty, but in 5 years will a genuine replacement battery be available and affordable? At least with that model being based on petrol, in worst case scenario I can replace electric setup with a $220 B&S 450E OHV.

jonathan18

6991 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#2341224 21-Oct-2019 10:06

As it happens I've recently hit issues with my Ryobi 36v mower. Well, it simply stopped operating while I was mowing the lawn last weekend!

I took it back to Bunnings, where they informed me it was a replacement warranty so no repairs offered (apparently sent back to China where they're refurbished).

They tried to get in a new skin (ie, I'd have kept my existing battery and charger), but were unable to source one - so on Saturday I dropped off my old battery and charger and picked up a brand-new mower. It's also a revised version, which is now $100 cheaper - so they gave me a $100 refund. Plus, as it's a completely new mower, my six year warranty has started again.

So, it's crud that it stopped working, but excellent service getting a replacement.

I thought about putting my $100 refund towards a new battery but am totally put off by the price - $300! I think I'd rather have breaks than pay that much.

Senecio

2163 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2341243 21-Oct-2019 10:31

I've had my EGO set-up now for just over 2 years (Mower, Trimmer and Blower). I only have two batteries (5Ah and 2.5Ah) as the Trimmer was a skin only deal that came with the Mower.

Very happy with mine, I haven't noticed any loss in power, nor degradation in battery life. I don't have a large section but I can still easily mow and trim my entire section on just the 5Ah battery. The 2.5Ah battery is more than enough to sweep out my garage and blow the clippings off the driveway. The Mower is capable of mulching but I prefer to use the catcher for the cleaner finish and it stops the dog dragging in so much crap from outside.

dy3r

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2341247 21-Oct-2019 10:40

So after buying the Victa 82V option and using the bunnings price match <$600 Im still very happy with it, no noticeable loss of battery power or charge time.

Biggest downfall for this mower is that its Heavy.... its a large steel mower, not plastic... so do think about that before purchase if you have hills.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ... | 13