Electric lawnmower

[atgcpaul]

I think I want an electric lawnmower and trimmer for the new house. I need to
share the new garage shop with lawn tools and I don't want to smell gas fumes
all day long. I'd like to hear your experience with corded/cordless models. The
lawn is flat and about 1/3 acre.

Thanks, Paul

[charliex]

Hi Paul. I had a B&D cordless and a corded when I lived in hopkins and they worked great. They are quite and easy to move around. You might have a problem finishing a lawn that big in one session with the cordless and the cord is a real PITA to drag around. I have a small lawn here and a gas mower but I usually mow the front one day and the back the next. I treat myself to a beer when I'm done for the day and that way I get to have more treats. You save money on gas and oil but batteries are about $70 and the bigger mowers take 2. They should last about 3 years. MY cordless was a bit gutless so that's why I went back to gas. I like to use it to bag leaves in the fall, hate raking.
Chas.
PS. With that much space maybe you need a garden shed. OR a new 36 x 40 shop then you can keep the mower in the garage

[WayneJ]

Every one that I know with an electric mower has a extention cord with at least 5 patches in them. I guess thats S.O.P.
Wayne

[Russianwolf]

I have a B&D corded mower as well as a Ryobi corded trimmer. Bothe work very well IMO. You get used to the cord after a few times and learn a few tricks. I never did hit the cord.

I've retired the mower for the most part now (got a 42 inch cut Huskee to shorten the mowing time), but for smaller lawns the electrics work great. My lawn is nearly half and acre.

One trick that I learned. Use the longest cord recommended. Go to the furthest point and work your way back to the plug. If you are lucky you can lay the cord outside the perimeter of the cut area and it will never get in your way. Always turning the mower around away from the cord.

[atgcpaul]

Thanks for the suggestions. It must be pretty interesting when that cord
gets cut, huh? The lawn is not too complicated to cut so I'll figure something
out.

I don't think I'll be putting a shed up. The house is in a historical district and
they seem pretty regulated on what's OK to do. Maybe an extension off the
back of the current garage but not another stand alone structure.


Paul

[430752]

no, cord cut is no joke.

I grew up with an elec mower and it was fine, nice and quite compared to a gas one. Of course, we had a postage stamp sized lawn. The advantage of an elec mower is they're much smaller, easier to handle, and lighter so can lift them and hang them when done. No maintenance, etc. I switched to a manual, non-powered, reel mower when I moved out east and bought a house. that is nice too, but a bit much on the hot days. plus, I still have a postage stamp sized lawn.


in all, I wouldn't hesitate on the elec. mower, but not cordless. I just don't think they're ready yet. I do have a cordless trimmer, and recommend agaiinst it if you're gonna get an elec. mower. the reason is that you're already gonna be using an extension cord (thus removign one of the reasons in getting a cordless anyway), and the cordless trimmer is heavy with the battery (altho' they have lighter ones now), and it would sometimes run out of juice if I hadn't trimmed in a while. While I do have a small lawn, I have more than average trimming where I have four "different" lawns (front l and r, side, back) wach with lots of bushes and rock walls and etc., thus requiring lots of trimming around edges. So YMMV.

now, as far as the cord thing goes, when I was real young and kicked out of grade school (as opposed to just young and suspended from middle and high school or as opposed to being not too young and gettign kicked out of college!) I went to a private school. during my first year there an assitant died when he was mowing the school's lawn barefoot and the mower ran over the cord. I guess the morning dew and electricity and bare feet aren't a good combo. This stuck with me for a long while as you might imagine. So be careful with the cord.

curt j.

[vaking]

I had a cordless mower. It did not have enough muscle or battery for my 1/5 of an acre. I am on gas now. I also have a cordless edger. It is OK except that once in awhile battery goes bad and they are expensive. I don't quite understand the issue with smelling gas fumes. Gas evaporates quickly, you smell it for few minutes after you pour it and then the smell stops. If you smell it longer - the tank is leaking.

[lkazista]

In my garage I have 2 gas powered cars, a gas powered riding mower, gas powered edger, gas powered snow blower, gas powered leaf blower, gas powered chainsaw, and probaly 15 gallons of gas in 3 different containers.

I never smell gas out there.

Go with gas.

Lee

[crokett]

My shed has a gas riding mower, a gas push mower, gas trimmer, gas blower and a chainsaw and the gas cans. I never smell gas either.

A buddy of mine got a cordless electric when he bought his house He had a postage lawn and could not finish without having to recharge. I told him to get a small gas mower. He sold the cordless after 1 yr and got a corded electric. After cutting the cord the 3rd time in 2 yrs he sold that and got a gas mower.

[jp_spins]

I have the Black and Decker cordless electric and can mow my lawn 2-3 times on a charge, I have about 1/4 acre.

[moc]

I had a B&D cordless and loved it. Quiet. Quick. No maintenance. No running to the gas station. No fumes. No pollution (I know, the pollution is at the electric plant).

My city yard is small so I never had a problem with the charge. Just the opposite, because I didn't run the battery down enough, it got a "memory" and after 4 summers it would barely make it to end of the yard. Or maybe that's just the lifespan of the battery.

A replacement battery was around $70. I was just going to convert it to corded but didn't want to take the time to find the parts so I just bought the equivalent corded. Love it.

I very quickly got used to controlling the cord. I find that if I just start at the outlet and cut in rows away from the cord, it's no problem. No close calls yet.

And the extension cord is right there for the trimmer.

And when the storm came and took out the power to St. Louis, I didn't have to cut the grass in the 100F heat

*moc

[Jon Toebbe]

I've got a B&D corded mower and weed-whacker and I love 'em. Avoiding the cord just takes a little planning. After the second or third timing mowing my lawn it became second nature.

No pollution (I know, the pollution is at the electric plant).

True, but the emissions made by your local power utility to supply your little B&D were a tiny fraction of the emissions a gas-powered mower would have released. I remember reading somewhere that lawnmower engines are just about the dirtiest, most polluting engines in existence. I'll dig up a link if anyone's interested.

[dwolsten]

True, but the emissions made by your local power utility to supply your little B&D were a tiny fraction of the emissions a gas-powered mower would have released. I remember reading somewhere that lawnmower engines are just about the dirtiest, most polluting engines in existence. I'll dig up a link if anyone's interested.

Not quite, but close. 2-stroke gas engines are the dirtiest, most polluting engines in existence. This is because they actually exhaust unburned fuel, by design. These engines are commonly used in chainsaws, weedwackers, and outboard boat motors. Personally, I think they should be banned, as I believe they are in much of Europe.

To my knowledge, most lawnmower engines these days are 4-stroke single-cylinder (or 2-cylinder for large riding mowers) engines. They're not nearly as nasty as 2-stroke engines, but compared to, say, the engine in your car, they're still pretty bad. This is because they don't have to meet the strict emissions standards that cars do, and so don't have all the additional equipment like EGR, catalytic converters, advanced valvetrain design, etc.

But compared to any commercial electric power plant, ALL these engines are highly polluting. This is why electric cars actually make sense from a pollution standpoint. Like many things, the generation of electric power benefits from "economies of scale": simply put, it's far more efficient to generate power with a single, huge power plant, than to generate it with lots of tiny engines. Even more, commercial power plants are regularly inspected and maintained to keep their performance optimal, whereas the typical Joe or Jane Homeowner doesn't always maintain his or her lawnmower or car engine very well. Even though electric power distribution reduces efficiency significantly, overall the system is still orders of magnitude more efficient and less polluting than any small gas engine.

Note: this doesn't really apply to comparisons in other applications, such as using natural gas for heating instead of electricity.

[KBCraig]

A third of an acre is pretty big for an electric. Not that you'll run out of charge, or out of cord, but electrics are much narrower, so you'll have to make a lot more passes.

That said, my mother has rheumatoid arthritis and can't pull-start a gas mower. She has over half an acre, but she can use her riding mower for the bulk of it. For around the house and flower beds, she loves her Neuton mower that she's had for a couple of years now. She bought the big package, to get two batteries and the quick charger, but I don't think she's ever used the line trimmer.

http://www.drpower.com/CSTM_Neuton_Home.aspx

Apparently DR has taken them over since she bought hers. I don't know if that is a good thing, or not.

Kevin