battery powered lawn mower

[RFGuy]

I want a cordless chainsaw, something with a 16"-18" bar, but I'm hesitant to spend $300 on batteries that may not work with anything else, and might go bad on me.

Thanks Ed. Yeah, I have the Milwaukee 16" chainsaw, but I think there is a replacement 18" bar for it as an upgrade. The battery is on the M18 platform and is an HD12.0 (12A-h battery). The battery is a beast, but it is well balanced in the chainsaw and overall it weighs less than a comparable gas chainsaw. The battery retails for like $250 though you can often find it for $200. I don't have a lot of yard work to do, but on my property this chainsaw is more than enough. In reviews I watched at the time, the Milwaukee chainsaw did nearly as good as a similar sized gas equivalent, but of course depending on the type of test in the review sometimes the gas won the test. I haven't looked in a year or two, but I think the DeWalt chainsaw gets better reviews than the Milwaukee. Bottomline is cordless chainsaws have come along way due to the new battery technology available with brushless motors. Nicest thing with a cordless chainsaw is they fire up everytime, no choke to worry about, no gas to mix, much quieter, nearly no maintenance, etc., etc. There is a new Milwaukee push mower that uses two of those HD12.0 batteries. It is $1000 for the 2 required batteries, charger and mower!!! I bought that battery for dual use, but honestly I don't have any tools that really need a 12A-h battery. It is a lot of weight to carry around on an impact driver, drill, etc. I do share batteries on my leaf blower and 6" pruning saw with my shop equipment though so it has been well worth it IMHO.

I agree, the world would be a much better place if the tools were battery agnostic. I would have less heartburn going with a cordless tool platform if I knew that battery replacements in the future were readily accessible and/or newer batteries could be retrofitted easily into my older platform.

[thunderbirdbat]

I have the 20v 12" DeWalt chainsaw and pole chainsaw. I like them both. I may only have .29 acres in town but almost all of my trees are about 100 ft from the nearest electrical outlet. I had a plug in chainsaw and pole saw before but much prefer the cordless as I do not have to drag a power cord around.

Several years ago my husband bought me a set of 18v Porter Cable tools. Shortly after he bought them, the company changed battery platforms to the 20v ones. I also had an 18v DeWalt drill. Both Porter Cable and DeWalt (same parent company) came out with an adapter for the 20v platforms. I have since found adapters to use one brand battery on a different brand tool. I now have adapters to power both the 18v DeWalt and 18v Porter Cable tools with my 20v DeWalt batteries. I doubt I will replace the Porter Cable tools as I rarely use each type of tool to justify replacing them. I do know that a friend of my husband's found a tool from a different manufacturer then his tools on the side of a road. He was allowed to keep the tool and he has two adapters so that he can use the tool and battery on all of his cordless tools.

[reible]

I have the 60V Black and Decker mower and of course the batteries in question are for it. It is the only yard tool I have that is battery operated. The battery is large and heavy. That is OK for something that is wheeled around but I sure wouldn't want it on a handheld woodworking tool.

The mower has two battery slots but uses only one at a time. For the most part our small lawn can be done with just one battery. And like I said it has been nice to have up until this point. No spring oil change, no air filter cleaning or replacing, no over winter gas additives, no having to run out for a can of gas, light weight mower, quiet, ticks most of the boxes. Just wish the battery life was longer and replacements cheaper.

The weed-wacker, pole saw, and chain saw are corded. Small lot and one long heavy duty cord is fine for me. Yes the cord can be a pain but for the most part I'm not in a hurry so a few moments of planning is well worth it.

I will need to be looking into a snowblower for this coming winter. No longer willing or allowed to shovel so if I do decide to go battery for that it might mean having a new platform for a new mower. Another commitment to a single source battery, yea just what we all need. Good thing about getting older, you know this will not be an issue for too much longer.

Ed

[reible]

Here is a picture of the battery along side a mouse, a computer mouse....

batt.jpg (115.31 KiB) Viewed 2078 times

Ed

[edma194]

No spring oil change, no air filter cleaning or replacing, no over winter gas additives, no having to run out for a can of gas, light weight mower, quiet, ticks most of the boxes.

Those are very appealing advantages. That's what is driving me in this direction. I can afford the batteries but it's hard to change a lifetime of cheapness. Except for the trimmer I could keep the gas powered tools running if I had to and not spend the money, but I'm too old to be pinching pennies all the time, not to mention Ed's closing thought below. I have to bit the bullet soon, there's logs sitting in my yard that need to be cut up. The Husky is going on Craig's List, and I'll spend what I have to for a decent saw.

Good thing about getting older, you know this will not be an issue for too much longer.

[roy_okc]

I bought an eGo push mower a few summers ago when my gas mower refused to start and I didn't want to deal with trying to figure out where I could get it repaired (and I'm long past having the patience to try the repair myself). It is far better than any gas push mower that I've owned or used. It has more power than at least a typical push mower and will sense heavy load and will send more power to the blade where a gas mower would potentially stall due to the load. It is quiet, no fumes or smoke, has plenty of run time for my yard, probably more run time than I do. Someone threw the gas comparison out above, but didn't factor in tune ups/repairs, oil changes, etc. for a gas mower; I should only need to sharpen/replace my blade for a very long time, assuming my battery doesn't die. Oh, and it has a light if I'm ever inclined to mow in the dark.

I've since bought an eGo 16-inch chain saw and blower, each with a battery. I helped a neighbor cut up a half-dead tree, possibly honey locust, and ran rings around his 16-inch gas saw. I'll grant that his chain was obviously dull, but from my memory of using gas saws it was still performing fantastic. The only real downside to the saw that I got is that there is no variable speed, it's either full on or off; not sure current models are variable or not.

More recently, I've purchased a small single-battery inverter, good for 150 watts of 120V that has come in handy during a couple extended power outages, and an up-to 4-battery inverter that can supply higher wattage that I've yet to use other than a quick test.

I also have some Ryobi 18V outdoor tools such as weed eater, hedge trimmer, a pole saw, probably a couple other things. The weed eater in particular is much better and easier to use and lighter than the gas one(s) that I previously had. So far, all of my shop battery tools are Ryobi, so I have plenty of batteries to go around.

[RFGuy]

I bought an eGo push mower a few summers ago when my gas mower refused to start and I didn't want to deal with trying to figure out where I could get it repaired (and I'm long past having the patience to try the repair myself). It is far better than any gas push mower that I've owned or used.

Thanks Roy. Good to know. I have seen some good reviews for EGO mowers and outdoor power equipment. It seems like they are the top company when it comes to outdoor power tools. I am not in the market right now, but I would certainly check them out first before purchasing again. Thanks again for your feedback.

[bainin]

I have a Greenworks set which is push mower, leaf blower and trimmer.
The trimmer body is cumbersome but works if you are 6' tall or more-its pure comedy to watch the wife or younger teen trying to maneuver it.
The blower is great for clearing dust out of the shop.
Mower is OK, its an older 40V system iir. It tends to be underpowered and batteries run down quick so you really gotta be moving to finish a 1/3 acre yard within the limit of the 2 batteries we own.

It also is not good when the grass is too high. Keeps us on schedule for atleast once/week trim during the summer.

I would guess that the newer , higher voltage systems are better than what I have.

b

[jsburger]

I have totally solved all the down sides of gas, corded and battery lawn equipment. I pay a person to do my yard.

[SteveMaryland]

I have used a corded electric mower for many years. Always Black & Decker, because they seem to offer the widest cutting widths. Their twin-blade 22" was one of the best electric mowers made.

One trouble with the electric mowers in general and battery electrics especially, is their narrow cutting width choices. Narrowing the width allows mfgrs to claim longer per-charge life, but you wind up spending more time mowing. No thanks.

Battery cars and tools are of dubious wisdom. Batteries are expensive and because of the precious and strategic metals inside, the cost will not decrease. They will be an ecological nightmare to manufacture and re-cycle, if indeed they ever will be recycled. And batteries lose capacity every time they are recharged.

My understanding is that a battery recharge cycle is at best 50 percent efficient, meaning that during the charge process as much energy is lost as heat as goes into the battery itself. That is like filling up your gas tank but spilling a tankful of gas on the ground. HOW is that eco-friendly?

The current electric vehicle model is all wrong. Vehicle batteries should be readily demountable, so that instead of plugging in overnight, the battery can be changed out (with a fresh battery), and you are on your way. In fact, with demountable battery, you would not even need to own the battery - just pull into a battery station and get the battery changed out - the battery network would own the batteries, and the headaches of battery recharge, maintenance, and disposal. And the cost of an electric vehicle could decrease significantly if the battery was not part of the vehicle first cost. And no vehicle range limitations and no plug-in recharging networks needed.

Wait until large numbers of electric vehicle owners have to replace their batteries. The cost will be staggering, and a used electric vehicle will be un-saleable unless it has a new battery in it.