We’ve been experimenting with electric propulsion for a while here at Curbside (see Jim Klein’s Tesla Model Y for instance). While I’m not ready to replace any of my vehicles with an EV just yet, when my old 21” mower broke an axle, I decided it was time to take the plunge into the world of battery-powered lawnmowers. Gasoline-powered lawn mowers spew out copious amounts of both noise and air pollution when going about their business – surely there must be a better way.
I had a surprising number of options to choose from: Battery-powered mowers have exploded in popularity in the past several years. Roughly a third of the mowers available at Home Depot are now battery-powered, at price points that largely match their gasoline-powered counterparts.
I chose a Ryobi based on my previous experience with their excellent power tools and on positive reviews on Home Depot’s website. I chose my specific model because it offered a 21” cut, variable-speed rear-wheel drive, dual blades (for a neater cut and better mulching), and a second battery, all for about $549 (on sale), which is about what you would expect to pay for a similarly specced Honda or Toro ICE mower.
The Ryobi is lighter than my old ICE mower, but not as much as I was expecting. Still, the lighter weight was appreciated, however, making the mower easier to handle and leaving fewer ruts in the damp sections of my yard. It is also significantly quieter, sounding very much like a large electric fan (which it essentially is).
The deck is made of plastic, and several reviewers observed the blade gouging into the deck as a result of the deck flexing. I haven’t observed that yet, and in any case, the deck is covered by a lifetime warranty, so I figured if the deck wasn’t up to the task, Ryobi would replace it.
Each of the massive 40V Lithium-Ion batteries stores 6 Amp-Hours of charge, good for a run time of about 30 minutes. While my back of the envelope math said I should be well in the clear (I can usually mow my entire yard in less than 45 minutes), I still experienced some “range anxiety” on my first mow.
While the marketing copy said that my mower was suitable for lots up to 3/4 acre, I’ve dealt with marketing types many times in my career and had my doubts. The copy was even caveated with disclaimers that indicated using the propulsion and dual-blade (both of which I planned on using) could shorten the run time of the batteries.
My lot is only a quarter acre (probably ~7000 square feet by the time you remove the footprint of the house and driveway) and is somewhat hilly, but still it should easily be within the stated capabilities of the mower. To make things easier, the grass was fairly short (having just been cut several days earlier) and dry. To save on battery life, I did not use the self-propulsion when going downhill, letting gravity do the work instead. As a last resort, I made contingency plans just in case I exhausted both batteries.
As it turns out, I needn’t have worried. After completing the job, both batteries were showing two bars (out of four) of charge, roughly a 50% charge.
The second cut would be more challenging. The grass was taller after going almost a week since the last mow. This was an early morning mow, so the grass was also a little damp from the morning dew. I was also going to mow a portion of the yard that I didn’t before, and that I cut maybe once a month, where the grass (and weeds) had grown particularly tall. And no glad-handling this time – I was going to treat it just like an ICE mower, using the self-propulsion 100% of the time. I was going to “drive it like I stole it!”
I ran the first battery in until it was exhausted – just over thirty minutes of run-time, with probably about 3/4 of the yard cut. I flipped over to the second battery, and after finishing up and mowing No Man’s Land, I was left with two bars on the second battery, which translated into maybe another 10 or 15 minutes of runtime remaining.
LED headlights, rear-wheel drive, and adjustable ride height – just like a luxury car!
Being able to cut a 1/2 acre lot on a single charge of both batteries seems dubious (maybe by “hypermiling” using a single blade and a generous amount of pushing). The claim of being able to mow a yard up to 3/4 acre seems outright fantastical. Or is it? The included rapid charger will fully charge a dead battery in about 30 minutes, which just so happens to be the run time of a single battery. One could theoretically mow indefinitely by continuously swapping batteries between the charger and mower every thirty minutes or so.
While this may not be the beginning of the end of small engine-powered equipment (which I suspect will still be around for decades to come), it is definitely the end of the beginning as far as battery-powered equipment goes. Much like modern BEV’s, battery-electric mowers are essentially no-compromise devices, giving up nothing on their gasoline counterparts in terms of cost and capability.
The linchpin for widespread battery-powered lawn equipment adoption has been battery life and cost (much like EV’s). We’re pretty much on parity now. Further cost reductions will inevitably make battery-powered mowers cheaper than their gasoline counterparts as the economic benefits of fewer parts (coupled with an associated reduction in assembly, warranty, and replacement part costs) are too compelling to ignore. The environmental benefits are simply icing on the cake.
The savings in my particular case are small but definite. Over a typical eight-month mowing season I’ll go through about a gallon of gas a month, which at $3.00 a gallon is $24 a year. Every spring, I dutifully spent $30 for a tune-up kit (air filter, spark plug, and oil change), none of which I need anymore. I also have no exposure to any repairs that I’ve had to make on previous mowers, such as replacing broken pull starters and drive belts. Assuming that I don’t have to replace a battery (a big if), I could potentially recoup my purchase cost in less than a decade.
But ultimately, the Ryobi isn’t about relatively minuscule cost savings so much as it is reducing my environmental impact and carbon footprint, and not coming into the house smelling like gasoline after mowing.
Thanks for the great review Tom, about a product my wife and I are seriously thinking about getting.
We have a similar sized yard, .27 acres minus the footprint of the house, driveway, etc…
Our neighbor has one, and has less grass than us, and she sometimes has to recharge hers in the middle of her process.
It sounds like this one would take away that “range anxiety”.
For now, we have our landscaper do our yard, but there are times that we miss doing it ourselves. And my wife likes lighter mowers, so your really review speaks to us.
With not having to pay our guy all the time, or buy gas and sparkplugs, etc., I see this paying for itself in under two years!
The motor has a lot to do with how it uses the power and thus the battery charge. More modern mowers use sort of a variable rate speed as needed which works well, apparently older mowers and batteries (from just a couple to a few years ago) were much less efficient in this regard. That could be what your neighbor is experiencing, not every electric is the same, see my other comment below in regard to our lot and what we found with a more basic one.
I also have an electric Ryobi push mower and have been thrilled with it. so much quieter, no engine vibration, great range compared with the green works model it replaced. The trimmer I am less thrilled with but that has nothing to do with the battery aspect, just the way the line feeds is not to my liking.
We also purchased a Ryobi mower ( last year, so we are well into our second season with it.)
We went for the lower frills model, 20″, no power assist, one battery with the same specs as yours (except you have two of them).
It is WAY lighter than our old mower (Toro with Honda engine, same size, no power either) and the biggest bonus is that any of our kids can run the Ryobi without concern about starting, the weight, gasoline, fumes, or just handling the thing.
It cuts fine although the lightness of it has me finding that it tends to bounce a bit more over surface irregularities than the old, heavier one did. I also think the old mower had more “suction” somehow to get the blades to stand up while being cut that resulted in a slightly smoother and leveler cut – findings that others with other electric mowers in the neighborhood (from other brands I was considering also mentioned.
That though is much less of an issue if you are on top of your game and don’t let the grass get so long that it folds over on itself.
As far as the battery goes our lot is a little over a quarter acre and mostly flat and the battery lasts fine for all three lawns (we are on a corner lot). I was concerned about it at first and again, if the lawn is too long before cutting you can hear the engine increasing the torque used which obviously uses more battery power. If we however cut it every week, which is the norm around here anyway, the motor usually stays at the normal speed and we still have two bars (out of four) left when done. (I think that’s really closer to 1.5 bars but either way it has no issues with the size of the lawn with only one battery.). As a failsafe I usually ask the boys to cut the front and side first, so if there is a problem and it runs out it’ll be in the backyard and they can finish half an hour later after recharging..
The battery then gets removed after the mow and connected to the charger and is ready to go the next time it’s needed.
I haven’t touched the gas mower in over a year, and will likely get rid of it soon. Like Tom, I do not miss dealing with gasoline etc and doubt I will purchase another gasoline powered yard tool.
We actually had an electric mower in the late 80s-early 90s. Of course, though, it wasn’t battery powered- you just had a really long extension cord. Which was fine for our yard, which was probably around 1500sqft total or so?
Which brings me to a “feature” these newer cordless ones don’t have… when it was too hot, or I otherwise didn’t feel like mowing the lawn for my parents, I’d “accidentally” run over the cord while mowing. End of work for the day!
This extreme hatred of mowing is probably why I’ve never had a lawn as an adult…
I don’t get these at all – are they for people who have small yards with no trees in them? And isn’t it way too easy to run over the cord, and can’t you get electrocuted far too easily if you do?
Back in the day they were the only environmentally conscious option (besides non-powered reels of course). We had one when I was a teen (early ’80’s) and in charge of mowing the lawn. I think I chopped the cord maybe twice in five years purely due to inattention. We had a decent sized lot in the LA suburbs but only a front lawn, the back had a pool. A 100 foot cord handled it all. You just needed to keep it behind you or to the side and mow away from it and occasionally “whip” it away. Not too tough (well, I guess it was twice) and the same advantages as battery powered mowers except no way of running out of juice so no anxiety. Lighter mower too, which matters when it’s 100F+ out in the summer. I wouldn’t use it to cut around the trees in an apple orchard but for they typical 1/4 suburban lot with a couple of trees around the edges they were (and still are) fine.
I guess you could maybe get shocked by the cut cord if you were stupid enough to grap the end of the cut cord and push it into your body to complete the circuit and then hold it there, not something that occurred to me to try. It just plugged into a normal 3prong 15amp circuit, nothing like a dryer plug.
Yes, you really had to try to cut the cord. Which I did, and I’m still alive to the best of my knowledge.
We did have one tree, though.
I just know the cords on vacuum cleaners and clothes irons always seem wrap themselves around whatever objects they can find, and I would have thought a cord could get yanked by the blade in a way that bare wire is whipped backward at you.
la: I hear you on vacuum cleaner cords. Probably why I don’t like vacuuming either. 🙂
As for the cable whipping, the motor would shut down as soon as the electricity was cut and there was no spin down for the blade, so that’s why I’m guessing it didn’t whip out.
Cords sure do get in the way!
Before the advent of battery-operated tools, I had a plug-in type electric hedge trimmer. About thirty years ago we lived in an Edwardian weatherboard house, lovingly restored, set back on the block, with a four foot high privet hedge and picket fence, all nicely period. Heaven! I used to have to run an extension cord from inside the house out to the hedge – and make sure the kids weren’t around to play with the cord while I was doing the hedge. Once – I can’t quite remember how it happened, the kids distracted me and I nearly cut the cord.
Exterior outlets have been required to have GFCI protection by code for quite a few years now. That’s the device that instantly trips if any juice that came down the hot wire doesn’t return through the neutral, thus preventing zaps and electrocutions. There were loopholes in electrical code that did allow some non-protected outdoor circuits through 1996, so there is a chance you could plug in to one in a home older than that.
Having used a corded electric mower a few times, I quickly got used to the cord and mentally mapped out the area to be cut so that I didn’t get wrapped around stuff (some places are harder than others) or have to keep moving the cord away from the area I was cutting.
re: Intentionally chopping up the cord to avoid mowing on a hot day… If I’d have done something like that, I would have either been screamed at and berated for my stupidity (Dad) or have it taken out on my hide (Mom).
My neighbors have a corded mower, and they have their teenage kids mow the lawn. That mower is those boys’ nemesis, and I’m pretty sure they sabotage it often. Some things never change.
I’ve also been thinking about replacing my existing Troy-Built gasoline-powered mower when it dies, and every data point and user review is leading me more strongly towards the electric option. The big plus for me is not having to haul an empty gas can down to the gas station to fill it, spilling gas on the can as I fill it, then risking spilling the entire contents of the full can in the trunk, or worse, the interior, if the can tips over in a turn. Even if can’s contents arrive more or less intact, the smell lingers for about a day after the can is safely stored in the garage. I’m just waiting for my present grass munching machine to die before I take the plunge.
I was recently in the market for a new mower, retiring my 24 year old Snapper. Leaning heavily towards electric for the new walk-behind, I got sidetracked as lawn season was still a ways off and my set of battery-powered drills stopped taking a charge. While shopping for replacements, I suddenly realized this was the 6th series (at least, back to the ’80s) of BP drills/tools that I was throwing away only because replacement batteries were no longer available. All of those tools still worked perfectly, but had no power source. What a bunch of crap. I still have and use a lot of corded tools, many are 30+ years old. I took home my new Troy-Bilt gas mower a couple months ago and will likely never own a battery-powered mower.
You could make slightly more effort and find batteries can be rebuilt, often to better-than-original specs.
I have purchased rebuilt batteries from several different sellers over the years, and only 1 brand lasted more than a year (compared to 5+ with factory batteries), and that 1 brand disappeared years ago. But thanks for the “tip”, DS.
I’ve sent many batteries in for rebuild. With one exception (a rebuilder no longer in business) they’ve come back better than before. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Over the years I accumulated 5 Craftsman tools that all used the same format of battery. I was concerned when Sears closed down, but I have found that there are lots of unbranded suppliers. The batteries are cheaper and larger capacities are available. I expect that the situation will be the same for any major battery powered brand.
Back in the ’80s, I rented a house on a corner lot from a family friend. I was responsible for the yard upkeep, and in the shed there was an electric mower. In 7 years there, I never had the slightest problem with it, only having to sharpen the blade a couple of times. Yes, you had to pay attention to the very long extension cord, but that was it.
This looks to be a fine piece of equipment, with many positive attributes, but I can’t help but think once the original batteries wear out in 7-10 years, replacements may be impossible to source and the mower becomes nothing more than an ornament. I’m remembering all the cordless drills and vacuums I’ve discarded over the years simply because replacement batteries were no longer available.
Nevertheless, thanks for sharing this, Tom, and I hope you receive many happy years with it – and can prove me wrong.
I don’t think you’re going to have that much of a battery problem anymore. Ryobi has settled in on an 18 volt and 40 volt standardized batteries for all their power equipment (and the range is extensive and growing every week, it seems), so they’re committed to these battery types for at least a couple of decades.
Battery availability is exactly why I stay away from Harbor Freight, despite a lot of their tools being perfectly good for my uses (bicycle repair and general light duty around the house work).
And to think that when I was 9 years old, it was a real treat to get the job of pushing a reel mower to cut the grass.
Same! And the bonus pocket money for doing it.
Damn, you were lucky. I was assigned the lawn mowing job, every Friday, with a mower small enough to ensure that when I got home from Friday afternoon dismissal, I’d be working until dinner time. My parents were determined that I wasn’t going to be hanging out with schoolmates – too much potential for trouble there.
Pay? Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
I purchased the same mower last month, as our Metro area was offering a $150 voucher (discount) if you recycled a gas powered mower.
We have 1/3 of an acre and it works remarkably well. It’s a bit of a lifestyle change as it just works – no checking fuel, oil, filter, etc., just grab it and go. I did way too much research and came to the same purchase decision you did, and it’s definitely worth it. I don’t know that it will ever be a Lawnside Classic, but like Jim Klein’s Tesla posts it points the way to the future. And, like Tesla, it’s not really bleeding edge anymore, it’s mainstream and almost forgettable as it works so well.
A solid advancement!
I bought a Ryobi this year. Push only, with one 6AH battery which is plenty big for my small yard.. I went with Ryobi because the battery is compatible with the trimmer I’ve had for a year. The thing just plain works. I don’t expect it to last anywhere near as long as my old gas mower did, I can’t remember when I bought it but I don’t believe they’ve made Tecumseh engines in this century.
It mows well, no more puling and pulling to start, and a gas mower didn’t fit in well with my electric cars.
It wasn’t environmental concern that made me want an electric mower but rather the quietness. Gas mowers are so obnoxiously LOUD, but the benefits of a quiet mower go far beyond not having to wear earplugs whilst using it. The summers get stiflingly hot and humid here, and quiet electric mowers opened up the tantalizing thought of being able to mow at nighttime or at the crack of dawn without the neighbors complaining. This is made easier by the bright LED headlights fitted to many electric mowers (though for safety it’s good to have some yard/landscape lighting on as well). Are gasoline lawn mowers going 5mph across the yard really that much of an environmental menace? Turns out yes – lawn mowers don’t have any of the pollution controls like catalytic converters or EGR valves fitted to cars in the last half century.
I’ve had two cordless electric lawn mowers. My first, which I bought used, was a Black & Decker unit from ten years ago. It was just barely adequate – 19″ width, had to recharge between front and back yards. (One thing I do miss from it is the option of charging it by plugging in the mower rather than removing the battery an placing it into a charger). A few years ago I replaced it with a new one from EGo, at the time their top of the line model (21″ self propelled). Looking at their website (https://egopowerplus.com/products) i see they’ve introduced several new models since then, including some with metal decks although I have no issues with my plastic one. What a difference from the old B&D; it’s like going from a GM EV1 to a Tesla. It’s as powerful as a decent gas mower and lasts about an hour on a charge. The rare times that’s not enough, I just swap it for another battery (my snow/leaf blower is from the same brand and uses an interchangeable battery). The second battery is a smaller/lighter one but still gives a half hour of mowing time; even the larger battery isn’t all that heavy though. The batteries recharge as fast as the mower depletes them, so yes you can swap two of them back and forth and get infinite range.
The infrastructure for EVs may not be built out to everyone’s needs yet, but electric mowers are already more convenient to use than ICE-powered stuff. Popping in a freshly-charged battery is much faster than going out to fill a gasoline can. Forget the pull cord; it’s always on when the key is in it. To save space in the shed it can be folded and stored on its side; it’s not like anything’s going to drip out. No real maintenance beyond occasionally sharpening the blade; forget about oil changes and spark plugs. There’s no price disadvantage anymore either. I can’t think of any downsides to electric mowers or tools and there are so many upsides.
Lots of really good additional points about electrics here.
For me, no pull cord might be enough anyway!
Gasoline mowers are available with electric starters too, though it’s a feature typically found on spendy higher-end models. I see some gas mowers now can be stored on their side too, and are advertising “never needs oil changes”, though the small print says “just top it off when needed”. So basically it’s like my first car that burned/leaked oil so fast I just added a quart every two months? How does that work?
My other neighbour has one with an electric start. We looked into it so my wife could mow, but it added too much to the cost. A self-propelled gas mower is heavy enough without adding more weight, and pull-starts are much easier than they were 35 years ago.
I’d be dubious about that oil claim too. I wouldn’t have thought a small engine running near redline every time it’s used would be an easy environment for oil. I bet that motor won’t still be going in 35 years!
Reading up on it, “life of the engine” means about 12 years
http://archive.jsonline.com/business/new-briggs–stratton-lawn-mower-engine-never-needs-an-oil-change-b99433283z1-290423731.html/
12 years ?!?
I have a “sick” mower that is getting an oil change and sparkplug EVERY use, so that’s way less than 12 hours even. LOL
The sick mower is being nursed along until an unobtanium part can be found for its eventual replacement mower.
A timely review. Like others here, I am considering a battery powered mower but in my case it was for the lightness of the mower. The lot I have slopes, albeit gently…but noticeably, from the street to the back of the lot. When I make the turn and head ” up hill ” it can feel like I am pushing 100 pounds uphill after about the first 5-10 minutes. I hadn’t thought too much about how the lightness of the mower might affect the cut quality tho, as my lawn is basically smooth but has some ant mounds.
Range might not be that much of a concern as I find that I am getting tired, quicker, in my old age and want to stop for a break at 35-45 minutes into the job.
Ironically, in the past I unknowingly killed my previous mowers with little or no thought to maintenance, and I find it not as much of a bother to stay on top of things when the mower needs work.
Oddly, the part I would love to forget is the fueling. The mower I have seems to run low too often.
I had a real thing for gasoline-powered lawn mowers when I was a kid. No more—in fact, I was a bit startled not long ago when I heard a petrol-powered mower; one generally doesn’t see or hear them much any more around here, as the quiet electrics have largely taken over. Good!
Me, I don’t have any mower now, for I don’t have a grass lawn—and that suits me well and fine.
TTALM?
I switched to a battery operated mower three summers ago. It’s a 21″ EGO built in the USA and along with a battery operated EGO trimmer, an investment of almost $600 CDN.
We live on a large corner lot and the mower does as I expected without spewing any exhaust fumes into my face. When I finish there is still about 25% battery power left. Recharging the mower battery takes about 45 minutes. The trimmer battery will hold a charge for a long time. It gets recharged perhaps three or four times from spring to fall.
No need to buy gasoline, no fumes as I said, starts right-now and can bag, mulch or side discharge.
I am not there yet – maybe 15k squ feet (1/3+ acre) flat in front, hilly in back. A riding mower with a 36 inch (I think) cut takes care of things for me. I have not paid attention to whether a battery-powered version of what I have is available.
FWIW, I did go cordless electric with both a weed whacker and a small chain saw (both Black & Decker). The gas engines were an incredible PITA on these, and the trimmer takes me all the way around my house on a single charge. I could not be happier with it.
Besides electric power, another curious alternative to gas mowers has been catching on in my area – doing away with a natural lawn and instead using artificial turf. It’s not just for football fields anymore; residential-grade artificial grass is getting more and more convincing in appearance and underfoot feel. You’ll never need to mow it of course, but it doesn’t keep itself as clean looking as natural grass so it does need to be washed down occasionally.
That wouldn’t fly in Eugene. But what’s catching on here is simply not mowing.It’s now increasingly common to see thigh high grass stalks with seed heads. I’ve had tenants ask me to mow the common yards less frequently, because the dandelion flowers attract butterflies. Ok…works for me, up to a point.
Seriously, I’ve cut back on the mowing. The common yard over at my rental cluster looked more like a wild meadow than a yard. Less work is good.
Wow, every year up at the 100yr old Laramie house that I’m avoiding working on I get a notice from the city telling me to cut everything (yes specifically including the internal lawn that they can’t see from the property line) to 6” or less or they’ll do it and charge me. Wyoming! The last place I expected The Man to get involved in my business. So I mow it and cut it once and then the sun and dryness generally prevents it from growing back again that season.
I get dinged where I live if I don’t keep it below 12″ tall (not a problem for the slow-growing grass – I love zoysia – but is for some weeds in it I can’t seem to get rid of). No HOA here (I wouldn’t live anywhere that had one) but town hall will still complain though I don’t know what the penalty is.
A month or two ago a bunch of rolls of artificial turf showed up piled in front of an old farmhouse on a local main road. The pile slowly dwindled down so I assume they were selling it on Craigslist or somewhere as they didn’t have any signs out when I was driving by.
Then about two weeks ago the neighbor of one of my rental houses started to move his fence and tear up the front yard again. Turns out he put down some used turf as it still has the yard line markings.I don’t know if he bought it from the pile I had seen or what. Apparently they did the back yard too. We’ll see how it works out.
Good review Tom; I’ve had a couple of electric mowers, the first one was a Black & Decker, I’ve forgotten the model but it came with two batteries and I could mow my yard with about a half-charge left in the second battery. It worked great until I hit a railroad tie with the blade; it would have cost $185 to repair it so after some shopping around I purchased a Ryobi 20″ with a 40Vlithium battery which works much better than the B & D. I love electric mowers-no gas, oil, spark plug or tune up needed, and it’s much quieter.
About 6 years ago my wife and I bought a house, and the previous owners left their Neuton battery-powered mower. Since we were moving from a townhouse, I didn’t have a mower at all, so I figured I’d give the battery mower a try. Turns out it suits me fine… not perfect, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
My mower (probably about 9 years old now) uses a 36V battery, and I have two of them (switch them out halfway through mowing). In my 6 years of ownership I’ve bought two new batteries to replacing the old ones that had degraded a bit. The first time, I just ordered a complete new battery from the manufacturer, but that was expensive, and when I bought another new battery this year the cost had doubled. So I did a more cost-effective thing… since the 36V batter is really three 12V batteries connected together inside the plastic case, I bought replacement 12V batteries and just installed them in the existing box. About 1/3 the price… much better way to go.
Eventually my existing mower will expire, and since I know a few folks who have been happy with their Ryobis, I’ll most likely buy one of those next time.
My wife and I use a Ryobi weed trimmer, and we’ve been pretty impressed with the battery life. It is, however, a heavy piece of machinery; we bought it because my wife likes to do the trimming sometimes and doesn’t like to start a gas powered trimmer. We have a small lot, so it does the job fine.
Regarding mowers, I bought a no-name (built by an outfit called AYP) mower from Meijer when I was 16 (so I could mow a couple lawns for $20 a piece). It has a B&S 3.75 engine, no self propeller, and I paid $170 (in 1993). I’m still using it today, and I take strange pride in keeping it going. Aside from changing the oil and spark plug every seven years or so, I’ll have to replace the fuel diaphragm and clean out the fuel pickup occasionally. I’ll change or sharpen the blade when it seems dull. Other than that, so far, so good. I don’t know what I’ll do when/if it breaks. I’ll probably rebuild the engine and pay more than buying a new lawn mower.
I like the sounds and smells of ICEs too much to go electric, but I may not have a choice. I’ll worry about it when the time comes.
I know I already commented, but it appears that many above also have Ryobi trimmers.
I LOVE mine. In fact, it’s dual powered. It runs off of a rechargeable battery, as well as AC.
What I’ve noticed is that it runs better off of AC (more torque), but runs pretty well on the battery too.
I use the Ryobi to trim out front, edging the driveway and sidewalks under AC power, and then pop the battery in to do around the sides and back of the house as well as obstacles in the back yard around which I have to trim. Most of the time, the battery has enough ‘range’ to complete the task if I start with it under AC power out front.
If I try to do the whole thing with just battery power, it just runs out of juice when I am about 95% complete. SO CLOSE! Fortunately, it recharges quickly, and there’s always the 100′ cord as a fallback.
It took some getting used to regarding the string feed, wherein you have to control it with the throttle and not bump it like most others, so when under battery power only, I’ve learned to keep it rotating as long as I can to save battery. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but if you constantly stop and start it, it drains the battery quite quick (start up amperage drawl I suppose). It’s actually better to keep it running when walking between trimming areas while running on battery vs. stopping and then restarting it.
Wait- Is that bright green handle behind the right rear wheel a height adjustment for all 4 wheels at once? I think I’d be sold on that feature alone. Maybe I just haven’t shopped for mowers in a while, but that’s brilliant if so. My current mower is in dire need of a tune-up, but it still starts and runs badly enough to get the (very small) job done. I’d love one of these, but as a renter it’s not my call.
That feature’s been around a while. My old Masport had it 35 years ago. It wasn’t top of the range or anything. Maybe it’s that Enzed engineering spirit.
The mowers (mostly Masport and Victa) in our family have had single-lever 4-wheel height adjustment since the 1970s. The only one without was my grandfather’s early 1950s Masport, and having to adjust all those old metal levers that was so annoying to me as a kid…!
Many years ago when I was a kid buzzing around lawnmower shops in the Denver area, I saw a very high-endy mower with a single-handle adjustment that set the cutting height at all four corners. Can’t remember who made the mower, but it had a bright green deck and a dark/pine green Tecumseh TVS-120 engine.
Most of the current electrics do this now I believe, partly as a function of the whole thing being lighter. My Ryobi does, and it’s a less fancy model than Tom’s, in my case the handle is on the deck itself right next to the battery compartment.
I got my first single handle mower back in the 90’s I think it was a MTD. The draw back is that you can’t adjust the front higher than the back which can be useful for grass that has been let go longer than it should have.
Thanks for the report, Tom Halter.
I would love to have instant push-button-to-start outdoor power equipment, instead of the present rotating fleet of aged IC clunkers that need frequent tinkering.
The reality is that for my applications it’s not going to be practical for a long time. Too many different machines that are easily acquired at low cost and then conveniently left stored at their work sites.
The convenient leave-’em-where-they’re-used method won’t work with “current” batteries because of course the big issue is the inherent “life countdown timer” of batteries.
Anxiously waiting for the battery breakthrough. …so that “leading edger’s” old-technology electrics can be acquired on the cheap. LoL
Had my e mower for 2 years, EV for 2 years, all power tools elec.
Still have ICE boat. Solar panels do it all for minimal cost compared to dinosaur fuel..
Very interesting, Tom. When we needed a new mower last year, after the 35-year old Masport was no longer up to the job (B&S Quantum 35 was still running okay, but getting a bit smoky), I never even thought about electric.
We’re on a 2100 square metre block, so just over half an acre. It’s flat but has a lot of garden beds to mow around and trees to duck under. We would up getting a self-propelled Honda, as my son recommended – but it’s a heavy machine. The 21 inch cut is great, and really speeds up mowing, but there are still some tight areas we have to use the old Masport for. Good Enzed engineering on those, eh Bryce?
One neighbour, on a similar sized block, has an electric, and has to mow his yard over several days because it lacks the range to do it all at once. I’d have just assumed the technology hadn’t advanced enough to make it viable for my block size.
Not really new technology – my grandmother in the UK had a battery-powered reel mower in the 1970s, similar to the one in the photo. It had a lead-acid car battery which was on a charger in the garage whenever it wasn’t used. I cut her lawn a few times when I was visiting, but I’ve no idea how long it would have lasted.
The UK (and many other countries) benefit from widespread 230V/16A electrical outlets that allow for about 3600 watts to flow through the wires and charge quickly. The US is saddled with 115V/15A outlets for most uses, which means slower charging for gardening tools as well as slower toasters, dishwashers, and clothes washers (the latter two cannot usually be connected to unheated water lines in North America, as the internal water heaters would take too long. If they even have internal water heaters; many older ones and cheap newer ones don’t). We do have 208V or 240V electric outlets in the U.S. but usually only where HVAC equipment or cooking appliances are placed.
Both our mowers died last December – our 2008 Lawnmaster hand-mower’s B&S conrod broke, and our 2012 Gutbrod ride-on’s engine and chassis were worn out. We’re fairly serious about sustainability etc, so seriously considered replacing both mowers with e-mowers.
Battery hand-mowers are reasonably priced, but range isn’t yet enough so I had a new Honda engine put on the Lawnmaster. Battery ride-ons seem to be almost double the price of their petrol versions, and range is again too low, so I bought a petrol Husqvarna ride-on.
Having said that, we’re in the countryside with around 3.5 acres of garden and lawns, not to mention our elderly neighbour’s quarter-acre I mow fortnightly. It takes around 8 hours if I need to mow everything in one go – which I almost never do. 1-2 hours is hand-mowing edges and parts the ride-on can’t access, and the rest of the time is mowing with the ride-on.
I think that battery hand-mowers have reached a point where they’re quite viable for regular users, and they’re almost viable for more intensive users like us, but battery ride-ons have a long way to go.
Your use case is the closest to mine I’ve seen described so far. We’ve got right at 0.9 acres I keep mowed (less footprint of house and driveways) with the riding mower – which was covered some time ago in these pages. It has around 95 hours on the meter, so lots of life left.
Thus my push mower is only used on occasion as I am able to get most with the rider. My push mower is a Honda powered Troy-Bilt that is now pushing 20 years old. It gets used little.
So while I am highly intrigued with these electrics and can envision myself with one, it won’t be for a while yet.
Plus I’m the guy who fires up the gas generator to use his corded weed eater when he’s too far from the house.
My petrol Shindaiwa weed eater died at Christmas – after 3 years of occasional light use it burnt out and melted pretty much everything inside. I looked at battery weed eaters and found most reviews were glowing so bought a battery Black & Decker weed eater…which is terrible! On the positive side, it takes the same battery as half my workshop tools and the range is okay, but it has so little power that it’s completely useless at lawn edges – and what makes it worse is that it’s the lawn-edger model with wheel and guide etc… So it’ll be back to a petrol one for summer…
I started with the 16 inch Ryobi mower. It used a pair of the 18 volt tool batteries. I liked it, but it was a little small for the yard. BTW, it was a “hybrid.” You could also plug it in. I keep it around in case I forget to charge the batteries on the new mower. Which is a 20 inch Ryobi 40 volt. I finally got tired of fighting with my recalcitrant 60’s vintage LawnBoys. The Lawnlads are a better mower than the Ryobis, when they run. I even used a socket on my 18 volt Ryobi drill to start them. Now, it’s electric all the way. Put a couple of 6 Amp batteries in the thing, push the button and go. I’m getting too old to fight with the mower.
Hard starting and other similar woes on 1970’s and earlier Lawn Boys are commonly due to a worn out lower main bearing on the engine. Lawn Boy C and D Series engines used babbitt material for the lower main, and it would eventually wear enough to cause a crankcase air leak, which is usually death for a 2 stroke. On the low rpm L.B., it just makes them surly and difficult to start.
The part was expensive back then, and unobtainium now; a more practical solution would be to machine out the babbitt and replace it with a needle bearing like the 1978-on F Series engine used. Those later engines are indestructible.
I’m 100% for electrics but my goal in a couple years is to go 100% native or as close as possible. My neighbor has a fescue lawn and mows once a year. Its one of the reasons I moved from the monotone crewcut lawns of the burbs and back into the city. No need to water either as the roots grown several feet down and it shades itself.
That is exactly what we did at what had been my grandparents house in the suburbs: took up the enormous amount of lawn and put in native trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, berries, etc and bark on the ground. It was an oasis of peaceful green life. The birds (numerous varieties including hummingbirds) and the bees (yay pollination) loved it. So did we. That’s all been bulldozed now by the developer who bought the property, subdivided it, and put up two vulgar McMansions for vulgar McPeople…with grass lawn. X-(
If you haven’t seen it, I feel you’d enjoy “McMansion Hell.”
Who comes into the house smelling like gas after mowing? You taking a shower in it or something?
Lawnmower exhaust is filthy—very high in unburnt and partially-burnt gasoline. Whoever operates the mower spends the whole time in a plume of that exhaust.
we must use different mowers, or my nose must be shot! All I ever smell after cuttin the grass is…. fresh cut grass! I generally use whatever free lawnmower is sitting on the curb cobbled together with the spare parts from the last one I found curbside… so there not exactly the cleanest burning mowers…
Hell even after using my dirty ass 2 stroke weed wacker i dont smell the gas on me…
Well I actually did smell like gas after cuttin the grass with one of my old rider mowers, but…. if you wach the link youll know why lol
The toxicity of lawnmower exhaust is kind of like gravity—it doesn’t depend on anyone’s belief.
My two-year-old Kobalt E-mower is a bit lower spec than the Ryobi, and cheaper and remarkably lightweight. It carries only one battery, but it’s sold with two. One sits on the charger until the first runs out. After two run flat, I’m ready to restfdor the hour it takes to recharge one. My yard is about twice the size of the OP’s. I keep the grass high and somewhat wild, “Links-style.” When I get around to mowing, the Kobalt has to work hard. It never gives the perfectly level, even cut of my old Honda, but I don’t mind. Never again do I want to deal with a gas mower that won’t start. Never will I run a small engine with no emission controls in a city (Denver) with the second-worse ozone pollution in the country. I’m far from ready to drive a pure EV, but my own yard isn’t big enough to inspire any range anxiety.
I’ve been thinking about buying an electric mower and I think you guys have pushed me over the edge. I have a Toro, probably more than 30 years old and still works great. But being self propelled it has rutted up the yard pretty good and two dogs doesn’t help.
The only thing that bugs me a bit is the complaints about these ICE engines spewing all this crud in the air. I know these things are obviously not as clean burning as a car is but I burn 2-3 gallons at the most in a year. How can burning a pint of gas in an hour be so much worse than burning that same pint of fuel in my truck/car? You may produce more of one emission but less of another? Its like this game with E10, E15, E85. How can you be polluting less by burning more fuel to cover the same distance? I could be wrong but my thinking is that there is a balance that has to add up when it comes to emissions. Cut CO emissions but CO2 emissions go up.?????????????
You’re comparing apples to oranges, when comparing air-cooled engines for power equipment versus automobiles. For a start, air-cooled engines have looser assembly tolerances than water-cooled auto engines, to allow for the additional expansion of the metal parts as the engine warms up to a higher operating temperature than its water-cooled cousins. This is why Porche finally had to ditch the air-cooled flat six cylinder engine for a water-cooled version, they couldn’t comply with the ever tightening EPA emissions rules due to the increased blow-by gases stealing past the looser tolerances of the piston rings. Also, the higher operating temperatures increased oxides of Nitrogen emissions above acceptable limits. One (1) lawnmower running for one (1) hour emits more pollution than one-hundred cars operating over the same one hour time period, due to the complete lack of any emission controls whatsoever on the lawnmower engine.
We’re talking carburation versus fuel-injection, splash-lubrication versus pressurized fluidic bearings, no catalytic converters on the power equipment. To make your lawnmower engine run as cleanly as your car, you’d probably have double the cost of the engine. The EPA threatened to impose emissions rules on small engines a few years ago, and in response, Briggs & Stratton threatened to close their Milwaukee, WI plant and outsource all manufacturing to China, as the only way to make engines under the new proposed new rules at a profit. Congress intervened after lobbying from B&S to kill the proposed rules to keep those jobs at home.
Yes, xr7, you are quite completely wrong. But you don’t have to stay that way; a quick bit of Googling will easily bring you the facts, if you want them.
I’m guess the piece that confuses me is looking at all of the emissions that mower puts out. The numbers on the internet are all over the place comparing the mower to a certain number of cars. The best I found was a new mower mowing for an hour is equivalent to 11 cars driving one hour. How is it possible for the mower to produce more emissions from burning that pint or quart of fuel I burn in the hour it takes to mow my lawn than the 20 some gallons those 11 cars would burn in that same hour. I’m not a cat delete, remove all emissions controls guy, quite opposite. I understand how you can produce more CO or NOX emissions because of the engine design and minimal if any emission controls but wouldn’t these cars burning 20 gallons of fuel produce a lot more CO2? The reason this bugs me was when your using a 5 gas analyzer on an engine for diagnostics your looking at a “balance” if you CO numbers are high your CO2 numbers will be low. This is just a curiosity that has always bugged me and I should have talked to the U of M professors about it when I had the opportunity.
Thanks
At the moment we’re talking about local air pollution—CO, HC, NOx, and VOCs—so CO2, while it’s very bad for the habitability of our planet, isn’t really relevant to this discussion.
Here is the data from CARB https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/fact-sheets/small-engines-california
My neighbor has a lawn service company mowing his lawn. Sounds like a King Air prepping for take off when that thing starts cutting the grass.
I would love to have a battery lawnmower but my Masport is not very old and the Briggs & Stratton 550 series EX engine is a warranty replacement so its newer again, it still blows some oil smoke on start up though.
I only have a small yard so it may outlast me anyway.
To be honest, I don’t mind the sound of an IC mower on a lazy summer day in the suburbs, sort of a comforting sound to me.
I plan on moving to the country when I retire, so not sure what I will need in the future.
I’m surprised that GE Electrak hasn’t been mentioned yet.
In the JimDandy low budget mower que, patiently waiting for its day in the sun is a mower that’s the worst of both worlds – hybrid, ICE and electric! Built by Deere.
Actually maybe the worst of three worlds. Lol
I’ll have to look again, but I believe there are also some hydraulics mixed into the Rube Goldberg design.
We have had a Ryobi electric mower for the last couple of years. Works great, would not
ever want to go back to gas. Bonus is that since my leaf blower and weed eater are also
Ryobi, they have interchangeable batteries.
This sounds awfully sensible to me, for a huge range of suburban duties. Less poisonous pongs, less racket, no maintenance. Literally the future, as they’re likely to end up mandated so we’ve got air in our air.
And besides, it could save your life, as I shall now explain.
You see, you weekly – weekly! – mowers, if you became my neighbor, I for one would buy a revengfully gigantic speaker, put it as directionally close to you as possible and play something unlistenable like Wagner (whose stuff is ok, apart from the music) at the loudest volume known to amplification for at least three hours at 3am every single night after you had mowed whilst I slept, earplugged, in my bed. And if you did the inevitable extra of the control freak who believes at all times that humans can fully control nature and followed up your obsessive need for order with that joy of all creation, the screaming leaf blower – which ofcourse can NEVER be released from your demented grasp until the very last twig has been banished into your idea of its rightful place after a minimum two hour-long pursuit, sometimes into the next suburb – I would then buy an even larger mower called a bulldozer and assist the neighborhood gene pool by passing it several times over your house as you slept. Without a catcher, too.
Folks, please, it’s just grass. It don’t mean no harm. Either plant a far more interesting arrangement of garden that doesn’t have it, or cut it, if you must, only when I can’t see your house any more. In my experience of lawn-obsessives, you’re generally going to own the sort of house that’s best concealed by nature anyway.
So you see, by this unarguable logic, not only will electric versions of lawn-murderers might save lives, if you moved next to me, it might just be YOUR life that it saves.
Our land of unfettered freedom and personal liberty has, in many places, including ones ruled by the party supposedly advocating small government and minimal intrusion, statutes mandating the degree of allowed lawn growth; in Laramie, Wyoming for example it is 6 measly inches. And the whole point of leaf blowers is to blow the stuff out of immediate sight, i.e. onto the property next door, yours.
Both these responses are just golden.
Who knew a post on a lawn mower would be one of the most popular in a while?
Battery as primary power source is still a challenge. To save you from headaches, get a Honda engine lawn mower when it is still available. And to cut your carbon emission is to drive a Honda Fit. My approach to resolve the climate change, if it is really only caused by carbon emissions, is to drive a Honda fit and plant more trees in your property. BTW, my beloved Honda lawn mower is now 17 years old, it takes care my 0.75 acres easy every week at the warm seasons.
I’m guess the piece that confuses me is looking at all of the emissions that mower puts out. The numbers on the internet are all over the place comparing the mower to a certain number of cars. The best I found was a new mower mowing for an hour is equivalent to 11 cars driving one hour. How is it possible for the mower to produce more emissions from burning that pint or quart of fuel I burn in the hour it takes to mow my lawn than the 20 some gallons those 11 cars would burn in that same hour. I’m not a cat delete, remove all emissions controls guy, quite opposite. I understand how you can produce more CO or NOX emissions because of the engine design and minimal if any emission controls but wouldn’t these cars burning 20 gallons of fuel produce a lot more CO2? The reason this bugs me was when your using a 5 gas analyzer on an engine for diagnostics your looking at a “balance” if you CO numbers are high your CO2 numbers will be low. This is just a curiosity that has always bugged me and I should have talked to the U of M professors about it when I had the opportunity.
Thanks
I went to battery powered mowing in 2015. It was rather accidental as I was searching for a replacement for my old Tecumseh powered MTD mower that I’d bought in 1997. The original motor expired in 2012 and I tried repowering it with a B&S, but the newer emissions controlled engines don’t seem to run well. I bought a 20″ 56v Worx mower for about $300. It has all of the toys; mow, mulch, bag, high wheel with one hand adjustment, and a port to attach your garden hose to rinse out the steel mower deck. About the only things I do to it is to keep the blade sharpened, the wheels lubricated and the batteries charged.
Like others here, I had a bit of range anxiety on the first mow, but with my standard suburban lawn, it did the job with no issues. Their mowers have two settings, an Eco and Turbo modes, and I would just run out of power on my lawn if I ran it on Turbo mode. Even then, the mower’s batteries have a load balancing feature that would allow the mower to run when showing low or no range. This mower has two batteries on board in normal use, but it can run on one battery if needed. Obviously, the range will be reduced. If I had a small area to finish, I could throw the batteries on the quick charger for about 10-15 minutes and usually have enough power to finish the lawn.
I’ve since moved to a smaller house and lawn and I have zero issues with range anxiety now. I have noticed some degradation regarding the battery life, but I don’t think I will have many problems as my lawn is very small. I’m glad to find out there are battery rebuilders, as I believe Worx is moving away from the 56v format; all of their other newer products now run on either 20- or 40-volt systems, and I’d hate to have to junk the mower. Replacement batteries are not inexpensive.
I’ve also replaced all of my other yard care machines with Worx tools; I have a string trimmer, two types of leaf blowers and a 10″ chainsaw (polesaw). All of them work very well and I have had no issues with them. I even cut down a 7″ diameter tree with the 20v battery powered chainsaw, but that did cause me to go through several of my batteries (different amp hours) to get the job done.
The final item I have to replace is my snowblower (snowthrower). While I have been pretty happy with my Worx yard tools, they released a plastic-paddled snowblower last winter that I consider to be substandard for my situation. Ego makes a very nice and well reviewed snowblower, but it is pricey, in the neighborhood of $650. Ryobi makes a nice rubber paddled snowblower for about $450 as does Toro. But, if future winters are like the last two winters, my ICE snowblower will get little exercise. Plus, if the snow isn’t very deep, I can shovel it myself and almost as quickly as getting the snowblower out and running.
For my situation, battery powered yard care tools have been a good deal. I love the fact that I can get the job done quickly with minimum noise and not smelling like partially burned hydrocarbons when I’m done. No tune ups, no pulling my shoulder out of my socket getting the things started and no gasoline (or pre-mix for two strokes). It’s been great!
Hard to believe how tools have changed in 30+ years. I bought my house in ’93 and gasoline mowers & edgers were the only option.
Living in the Deep South, the grass can grow 3″ to 4″ a week. However, I’m seeing more and more of the brightly colored battery mowers on front lawns each Saturday morning with the property owner (or son) in tow. My landscaper is making noises about retiring, so looks like I may join the battery mower movement in the near future.
I went totally cordless/gasoline deprived for my yard work toys 3 years ago…..never looked back.
Well I joined the club yesterday. Bought the Ryobi, mowed the backyard today. Cut decent, quite, lighter to move around, even easy to push around without using the self-propel. Ran it in mulch mode, grass was long but pretty sparse due to the drought. Blades have a very tight clearance to the mower deck. Noticed a bit of scraping if the deck was twisted a bit in maneuvers around the trees and bushes. Really like the small footprint when stored. Anybody need a used Toro for the lake place?