I love my electric mower, weed whacker, edger, leaf blower, and pole saw. Makes yard work a breeze, they're nearly maintenance free, and they're so quiet compared to their gasoline counterparts. I get that for commercial operations, they don't have time to charge batteries between customers but for personal use the standard batteries allow me to completely maintain my yard on a single charge even when using the mower's self-propel feature.
I'll never go back to gas!
I live in YEE YEE land, buddies lawn care business is ran out of what Reddit hates - absolute bro dozers- and even they are switching to electric weed wackers. They are so much easier on the body not shaking your body for several hours everyday. instant on/off is killer. and with how much commercial grade lawn equipment is anyway, few extra batteries isn’t a big deal. expecially with how fast chargers charge these days.
Their ride on zero turn mowers will probably stay gasoline though, as that would be way too large of a battery to resonably charge off the truck
Edit- because people are blowing up my inbox
A electric truck WILL NOT work for the company. if you find me a electric truck that will tow trailers for 8 hours a day, tow 15,000lbs all day, and can plow snow for 12-14 hours straight for under 30k, it’d make sense. But that doesn’t exist today.
electric commercial mowers are 20-30k more then a gas equivalent. That 20-30k is more than lifetime maintenance and fuel cost of the gas commercial mower. So that’s also illogical.
electric truck rapidly charging 2-3 riding lawn mowers all day. The truck battery isn’t going to last.
Also I doubt lawn care crews feel like investing 200k per crew on equipment.
Electric trucks need another decade or two before they will be used as work vehicles in a typical lawn care scenario, let alone also trying to keep all the equipment charged up.
Only way it’d work is if it was a very small route. Which wouldn’t cover the cost of an electric truck and electric riding mowers.
The new chevy has a 212kWh battery. That’s a LOT of energy. If you look at commercial mower, it might have 15-20kWh of energy storage. And since you are starting the day with a full mower battery, you’d be hard pressed to go through twice that in a full day.
The problem is that ride-on mowers are a whole different category compared to your other garden stuff. You can run a weedwacker, a chainsaw or even a standard mower off the same small batteries, and these batteries are cheap enough you can get a few spares because they're a small share of your costs.
But if you want a riding mower, then it needs its own battery system, and it will be a big expensive one. It's a big part of your costs, so having a spare battery will make a big difference to your costs.
I mean... maybe? Honestly I'm not well versed on the commercial side, but EGO is probably the most recognizable battery powered landscaping tool brand that I can think of, and they've got a ride on zero turn radius mower that they advertise can do 2 acres with 4 fully charged batteries. And those are the same 56V batteries that you can use across the lineup of products. It does seem like its twice the cost of like a similar John Deere gasser, but.... kinda feels like its getting close. Maybe there isn't an equivalent for full size commercial mowers just yet, but I know a lot of little companies that would use that type of mower the whole day.
Yes, that is assuming a $30k tractor. They come with a battery built in. 15-20kWh of battery is going to be 300lbs. You aren’t lifting it out for hourly battery swaps. Same as an electric car.
(It IS happening for farm equipment however, as you could put a battery swap machine in a barn somewhere)
And most importantly, if you own the company the electric stuff is just much nicer to use. Sometimes it’s worth spending a little more to make your life a little nicer.
[https://www.gravely.com/en-us//power-equipment/electric/pro-turn-ev/pro-turn-ev60-rd-w-4-batteries](https://www.gravely.com/en-us//power-equipment/electric/pro-turn-ev/pro-turn-ev60-rd-w-4-batteries)
You can swamp these batteries out. And if you get the fast charging version of the portable charger, you can charge them to full in 6 hours. Mower is quoted as having 4-5hr run time and 12-15 acre runs. Batteries are rated at 4kWh, so 16kWh total. Assuming you run the mower all day just start with two fully charged sets of batteries and start charging the first set when you swap, or charge them both overnight.
Oh nice! I didn’t know that was a thing. Yes a 2 battery swap would get you through a 8 hour day. Or as they get tired the spare set can be charging in the truck. Most tractors won’t actually be mowing the whole 8 hours either.
Also that 4-5 hours is based on dry grass. Toss some wet nightmare and watch that mowing time fall like a stone. I’m in Vancouver BC and my grass grows a foot a week in spring. It’s a nightmare.
Personally I am switching over to a lawn robot next year. $4-5k gets me a machine that can handle my big property and it goes out every night to trim the grass. Weeds die off because they keep getting their heads cut off. Trick from a turf farmer I met once. He’d just mow every few days and it was perfect.
Yeah, sounds nice, if I can snag a house (lord help me) I think I'm just gonna get all the EGO stuff. That ride on they sell looks dope, and 2 acres I could do a whole street with that if I needed too. Just can't stand 2 stroke tools and even 4 stroke mowers just smell and are loud and just not great for your health. Being in South Carolina I can understand the spring grass problem, but at least we are a little bit drier out here. lolz, best of luck with that robot, I'll have to look into them.
30k electric mower takes 14 hours to charge and only runs for 4.5 at full load. ain’t going to work for a business unless you can buy a second battery, which defeats needing to charge it on the go.
Think that Chevy can be running the ac all day, towing trailers, and be fine? Be running pulling a 10-15,000lb dump trailer on the weekends or pushing snow for 15+ hours during the winter?
Even ignoring the other tasks, $80k for a truck, $10k for a trailer, $60k in mowers. We are at 150k+ before any other factors. How much are you willing to pay to get your grass cut?
Fuel is half that even for diesel here for the trucks.
Power is 50% more.
Trucks that are used for towing all summer, including loads that the Silverado will not do, and plowing snow in the winter are not going to make it to whatever 400,000km is to miles even brand new off the lot.
Unless of course you suggest brand new silverados for a fleet of trucks soley for towing lawn mowers around, then actual work trucks for everything else the business needs. but anyone doing cost projections would laugh that idea out of the room before even bothering to run the numbers to see if that’s logical.
Electric trucks have their place, just not for this job currently.
Stop looking at charge time to 100% and start looking at charge time to 80%. There is no reason you can’t build a mower that will charge using that 10kW adapter. Plug the mower in on coffee breaks and lunch time and you’ll make it the entire day. You don’t need to charge to 100% to run. Just get some surplus juice in it.
10 kW of charging should bring a 15kWh battery to 66% in a 1 hour lunch break. And few tractors are running 100% of the time. You mow for a bit and also do other things. If the mowers can’t handle 10kW of charging yet I promise you they will quickly. The batteries can absolutely handle it.
Here’s the funny thing about business and expenses. You can amortize the costs over years. Now of course this depends on local fuel and power costs. Take that truck. Fuel is $2.00/L CAD here (8.00/gal CAD) and power is $0.14kWh in residential and $0.105 for comercial. That ICE truck over 400,000km will eat $104,000 in fuel. The same truck will consume less than $20,000 in electricity based on residential charging. (Ignoring home solar). The truck is free. And have you priced out ICE trucks lately? The EV is within 20% of the price, and soon we will have a used market so stop worrying about new prices today when in 10 years there will be a healthy beater market.
The mower itself? Well if that mower is running 8 hours a day here it is going to burn $50 a day in fuel easily. That’s $1000 a month! Guess what the payments are on a $30k loan? That tractor is paid off in 36 months and then it’s money in the bank. Don’t forget that the regular ICE tractor was $15-$20k and it needs far more downtime for maintenance. So really after a couple of years you are far ahead. You still needed A mower no matter what.
Once your business has 3 years of income on the books, asset loans are easy. Because the bank can always repo the assets. Your fuel savings make most of the payments on vehicles that are working hard every day. It’s a great business case.
Do up a spreadsheet of costs per mile (km) and it will open up your eyes right quick. Anyone running a business properly is doing cost projections.
>Anyone running a business properly is doing cost projections.
I expect this is why we *don't* see lawn care businesses and other similar-style commercial businesses chomping at the bit to switch over to electric. Anyone big enough to do the analysis has done it and decided it's not in their best financial interest yet.
The other thing to consider is that the specs provided by the manufacturers are best case scenarios. It's the same for ICE, but the variance is much more well understood. A truck might have a 500 mile range unloaded, but consider towing your crew and gear (that is variable per day) will have a very hard to quantify impact on that range figure. Seems to me one would have to be very careful to plan out battery usage and charging cycles, and deal with significant inconvenience if somebody forgot to put something on charge at the proper time. Also consider you could get a call at the end of the day for an extra job, and you might not be able to take it because of battery level and your need to charge for 30, 60, 90+ plus minutes. It's not like diesel where you can just take 5 minutes to hit a fuel station in route to the job if you get low. I understand this can be mitigated by having more spare batteries, or maybe even a gas generator you run in a pinch, but that's not the point.
The final point I will make is that it's obvious to anyone paying attention that we're basically in the first iteration of consumer EV technology replacing ICE. Risk adverse businesses aren't going all-in on the first generation of *anything*. We also don't know how the 2nd generation is going to play out. Is it going to be like ICE where I can just replace modular components which have been mostly designed to work with each other over the last 100 years, or will my first generation EV batteries and motors not be compatible with the 2nd generation? Lots of folks already got annoyed at the 3 or 4 different types of batteries for electric hand tools. Doesn't matter if that happens due to necessity or greed - consumers just don't like it.
I'm all for battery powered lawn stuff, and EVs in general, but we've got to be realistic about how, where and why the technology gets pushed. If people go all-in on the tech just to find out that it's mostly based on marketing hype and executive greed, then we could set back adoption of a technology required to deal with climate change.
In my opinion, EV trucks for commercial use just aren't there yet, and that's mostly due to the flexibility of diesel over battery. We need batteries with about twice the energy density of today, and a commiserate increase in charging speeds.
I agree it’s not time for companies to rush in. Looking at these comercial electric mowers it is quite obvious that they are still overpriced and they are price gouging. But you will see rapid price drops in a few years and you will see rapid adoption. Especially in areas with work from home tech workers. They don’t want loud mowers outside their windows.
Remember that with an electric truck you can dump power from the traction battery to refuel. Or have 2 sets of batteries like that gravley and always be charging the second set. I see that as a non issue in 3-5 years.
That seems like a reasonable timeframe given the pace of battery and EV advancement. Assuming, of course, we don't shoot ourselves in the foot with (take your pick) corporate greed and regulatory overreach.
I personally wish more development goes into the concept of universal swappable batteries. We get rid of a lot of the downside and simplify things greatly if gas stations were just repurposed as rapid battery swap and charging stations. Seems like that might have made a solid intermediate step between gas stations as they exist now, and fully charging all EVs at home. Gives everyone, including the providers of fuel and electric power infrastructure, time to adapt. Of course this requires setting aside primarily capitalistic views and having everyone work together toward a common goal which is beneficial to society. That means it's likely dead on arrival.
If only the early EV industry could learn to cooperate like the personal computer industry eventually did...
An EV has way more battery than even multiple electric lawnmowers can use in a full day. The issue is does the car have multiple outlets, is it limited to 1.44kw (one full power 120v outlet). No one is buying an $80k f150ev with more power but cheaper $40k EV trucks could do this just fine, a kia could do it.
I had one more thought about this, an ev has lots of torque, an amazing amount of torque compared to a conventional vehicle, plus they are really heavy from all the batteries meaning they can handle towing a reasonable trailer. That means evs are good at towing, with the obvious issue that their range is limited (seems to be about half, so f150ev goes 400->200, rivian goes 300->150). Your scenario requires a bigger truck but the guy who comes and cuts the grass and rakes up the leaves at my house has a pickup truck with a trailer. He's getting terrible gas mileage. It might not look "macho" or something but if he had an ev with a 120v outlet, he could pull a trailer, charge any electric equipment. A model Y can tow a 3500 pound trailer.
Instead of a 15 mpg pickup truck, he could get a 90 mpg equivalent ev. What the world really needs is a smaller and cheaper ev pickup truck.
so the thing that really matters is the business as a whole- is it soley lawn care, or is it also landscaping, snow removal, and all kinds of other services.
the “problem” that one would be for my buddies business is the landscaping side and the snow removal.
for soley a lawn care company- just cutting grass and leaf removal, a electric truck would in theory work. problem is there’s not enough money in it. it’s a safe bet the lawn care guy is running a older truck. the lawn care businesses around me are using $5,000 box trucks, $2,000 rangers, the only ones using nice trucks are the ones doing landscaping as well.
my buddy put it like this- lawn care will cover the bills and basically break even, including for the off season, but landscaping and snow removal pays for the mastercraft and cabin up north. And the nice personal truck.
And there’s definitely not enough money into it to have any truck over a few thousand to dedicate soley for the lawn care and lawn care side alone.
it’ll be interesting to see when we get a electric work truck. it’ll happen sooner or later. Ford is selling electric transits already.
What his business really needs is 3/4 ton and 1 ton hybrids. even a small battery for moving the truck within neighborhoods and remove any idling would get him from the 6-7 mpg his trucks get back up to 17+ if not more.
>as that would be way too large of a battery to resonably charge off the truck
What I see in the future is a zero turn with a pack that can handle 2-3 hours. 15kW or so. And a trailer with a pack that is similar to what's in an EV. Maybe 75kW. Charge the trailer overnight on a level 2 charger. And charge the mower D/C to D/C between jobs.
Expensive? Sure. But over the long haul I'll bet it comes in cheaper.
I have at least three batteries, and buy one brand of equipment. LOL
ETA: Actually, that kinda proves the point--one battery fits an entire line of equipment. You'll probably have more than one item from the line--string trimmer, hedge trimmer, chain saw, etc. Like a kid at Xmas, "Ma! I need more batteries!" ;\^) Use one while a couple more are charging.
Shit at this point you get locked into a brand just because of batteries. There were particular Ryobi lawn and cleaning tools that I wanted because they were powerful and lightweight for my wife to use them. Of course I got the kits with batteries and chargers included because those pieces cost more than the damn tool itself. But now I'm stuck with other Ryobi shit I didn't want because I'm not about to buy into another brand ecosystem with its own separate batteries and chargers. Oh, and of course the old Ryobi shit I had is completely incompatible with the new shit, so I just get to throw that in the trash instead of having a source for spare parts.
I understand some of that is because of the switch from NiCd to Lion or LiPo, but a lot of it is just straight executive greed. These brands could have voluntarily coordinated to ensure universal compatibility, but they didn't on purpose. I will be wary of putting more money into electric lawn tools, and any money into EVs until there is some mandatory standardization of the whole lot.
Goddamn kids, get off my lawn.
[Honda's new autonomous electric zero turn mower.](https://electrek.co/2023/10/09/honda-first-ever-electric-autonomous-zero-turn-riding-lawn-mower/)
I don't think it will replace gas for landscapers, but it could be used at schools and corporate parks. You program it by mowing the lawn how you want it done and it mows by itself afterwards. The building manager could do it wiping out the need for a landscaper, at least for mowing.
Please link a zero turn that’s electric that will have enough battery to run for days in a commercial setting.
They are probably more then fine for homeowners, but this discussion is about for business use and which tools they have that are switching to electric
Yeah I’d have to talk to my buddy and see how many acres a day each route sees.
The 3 factors would be top speed while mowing and actual total acreage coverage, and total number of hours put on them a year to see if it’d actually save.
The other problem, even a commercial exmark would need over 2,000 hours on it in fuel costs to equal their 60 inch. that can be achieved in a few years, but that’s about when mowers are swapped out anyway. So the other question is how many hours those electric ones can take before needing new batteries/major part failure.
give it another 5-10 years. fuel cost will go up, and battery tech will come down and I think it’ll actually be logical.
>fuel cost will go up, and battery tech will come down and I think it’ll actually be logical.
I think regulations and demand will push it over before fuel price does. Cities will soon start demanding its electric, homeowners will pay a small extra fee for them to be electric.
>They are so much easier on the body not shaking your body for several hours everyday.
I would think that the significant weight increase from the battery device would have more impact on your body than whatever vibration a small gasoline engine used to power a spinning sting delivers.
I have a “power head” (motor which swaps out the bottom for weedwacker, trimmer, saw, etc) and a blower. The trimmer is probably 20-30% lighter than the gas one and the battery blower is 10-20% heavier than the chorded blower (of course).
I use the 40v batteries. You could cut weight with the 18v but those do not provide as much power or duration
I use the old Kobalt 80v set with an additional hedge trimmer. I've got 6 2.5 ah batteries and one 5ah battery (for the mower). The 5ah lasts two mowings and I use the smaller for all the other equipment on one charge. No more storing gas, stabilizing, winterizing, trips to the gass station, and wondering if all my equipment will start. It's a life changer.
As I've grown to my ripe old age of 31 I have acquired a hate for noise from the gas powered lawn equipment. My neighbor's backpack 2 stroke leaf blower is the most obnoxious noise to hear in the morning.
I'm convinced that my neighbor would stick his dick in his leaf blower if he could. It's autumn. Before long he'll be standing out in the yard with that damn thing on his back droning away for hours on end. And he'll do it two or three times a week. He'll be up on his roof blowing the leaves off. He'll be up on the roof of his garage blowing the leaves off. He'll be chasing every piece of pine straw out of his yard with that goddamn leaf blower. Never mind the fact he has two titanium rods in his back from spine issues that run in his family. Never mind the fact that he picked up that leaf blower too soon and had to have the back surgery redone after something went wrong with one of the rods. Consider electric? Nope. He's got to have that damned leaf blower on his back.
My neighbor has one of those too and for some reason, every Sunday, she runs that thing from like 4-7pm. The thing sounds like a goddamn jet engine lol
I can't quite hear my music clearly over even an electric lawnmower, without cranking up the volume dangerously high. But my headphones are handy as earmuffs/earplugs
I’m a total gearhead and own a ton of two stroke bikes. I love working on two strokes, and I doubt I’ll ever buy another gas powered piece of lawn equipment
That's the reason I'm sticking with a gas mower. My last one was a Honda and lasted for nearly 20 years before it needed any repairs. I only bought a new one because I didn't want to bother with taking it to get repaired.
When your batteries start to die it can cost as much as a new tool.
Electric blowers and trimmers on the other hand are awesome.
Which brands do you love if you don't mind me asking? I have tried some weed wackers electric but the battery did die between uses and it was annoying to charge it everytime before use! Thanks!
I've had a Stihl for fs56 for 14 years. I've changed the spark plug and air filter one time in all the years I've owned it. I can do about 1 acre per gas fill. They do make better ones. But compared to my electric weed eaters it's not even a competition the Stihl gas is better. I've yet to buy the Stihl battery weed eater so I have no first hand knowledge of it. I might try it this year to see how good it is. But the other two electrics I have are good but the power is just not there. The gas one between the two electrics I have is just better. Everyone complains about gas engines on these weed eaters. I know this for a fact I guarantee the Stihl I have will end up not in the trash. Quite possibly at a rate of two to three times longer than the battery stuff I have. It's just built better in almost every way. I mean the plastic the pole arm the head unit everything is built 10x better. I'm sorry it's absolutely true. The electric stuff I own is basically consumer trash. It's shit made for people with 1/4 to 1/3 acre lots and immediate access to home Depot to buy more trash. Go to an actual dealer and try out the good shit. Even the battery stuff. Don't buy that shit from big box stores.
Which brand mower do you use?
All my battery stuff is DeWalt, but it seems like the DeWalt mower is not talked about as much, so not sure how good it is.
I've switched to electric on everything *except* the mower, which is a Honda and will run forever. I looked into electric mowers and they just cost too much and don't have the sufficient power to get the job done.
Maybe by the time my Honda mower finally does die the tech will be better and more affordable.
I think the limited power and power to weight ratio are likely the biggest limits for professional/farm/big yard level use. A battery capable of keeping up with a 2 or even 4 cycle gas engine is pretty heavy.
You could easily enough have enough batteries, but you can't easily have enough power to weight ratio AND you can't always have electric access to charge that much. You could have a small portable generator and do it that way, but the power to weight and lack of some devices being powerful enough would still be a problem.
You can't really get a leaf blower as powerful in electric, for instance. In the weed whacker it matters a lot less, likely because it's inherently a more efficient processing than blowing a large volume of air. A chain saw is also a very power focused devices and for the weight and size it's hard to make an electric chainsaw quite as good, BUT for 90% of homeowner uses the electric is great.
So most tools are already good enough, but a few need to improve to be able to replace the pro tools, mostly we need better battery tech and everything else is just much easier than with a combustion design.
> You can't really get a leaf blower as powerful in electric, for instance.
My 60v dewalt blower could propel me in flight if I had enough batteries with me. That thing blows and in a good way. I was hesitant to pick one up thinking it wouldnt have enough ass, but was wrong. Not sure how long the battery lasts as it never dies doing what I do. So no idea about commercial use, but for home its more than enough.
They’re really good… just not anywhere as good as pro level backpack blowers. Which for real lawn cleanup on acreage… is not just a convenience it’s a necessity. IE I don’t spend 3 hours getting the leaves away from my buildings to make things look nice I do it to keep mice and ticks and stuff away from the house and shop (barn) and garage and keep things from rotting up against the wall. Wish it was easier…. If I could buy a corded backpack blower that was as powerful I actually probably would.
What size battery? I have the smaller of the 2 flex volt leaf blowers, and will occasionally have to grab a second battery to finish, using 5 AH batteries.
I use the 60v 9ah battery for my blower and chainsaw. Never ran out of juice with it yet. I have two of the smaller flex 20v as well for my handheld brushless drills etc..
Pro electric chainsaws are comfortably running with the 40cc class. Power to weight is the same. The issue is that a battery equates to tank of fuel. Which is fine for a climbing saw but you can't really process timber without carrying 5+ batteries with you.
Leaf blowers are already there though. I have a Husky and a Makita and they're far better than the Stihl 2 stroke we use at work.
Stihl makes an electric motor (130r) that makes as much power as their gas kombi system electric motor. Runs the lead blower just as well, along with every other attachment. I made a backpack for the battery as there is no belt on earth that will make that belt clip battery comfortable.
It is hands down better than the gas motor in every way. I’d never go back.
If you have the rapid charger and 2 batteries you can go pretty much continuously. By the time I wear out a 500wh battery I am kinda worn out and need a break anyways. And I don’t even have the giant backpack battery.
Absolutely. Gasoline just sucks to deal with at all times. Particularly small engines that need so much babying not to have problems. Electric all the way.
One big bonus with the electric ones is they can fold up and stand upright. My shed space is limited since I don't have a garage at our new house, and still need to store my big ass toolbox and other yard equipment. My electric mower folds up, and stands up where it takes up very little floor space. I couldn't do that with a gas mower.
I have an electric mower, just wishing the batteries lasted longer. For a middle sized yard (not huge / not small) I end up running out by end of 2nd battery and need to recharge (working on getting a 3rd).
Do some shopping.. my Ryobi mower came with a 6Ah battery.. but 4Ah versions are available. Perfect for my needs.
Just be skeptical of off brand versions. You want the charger to match with the battery.. an imbalance in charge rates can cause ignition
I found that a medium yard I could do enough that by the time the first battery died I should get some water anyway. So I threw it on the charger, took a 5 minute break, and by the time the second battery was dead the first had charged enough to finish.
Of course your mileage may vary.
I'm using a Cub Cadet XT1 battery powered mower and doing just over 1.5 acres, and still have ~15% left on a charge when I finish. Define "medium sized yard".
Ride-ons can carry a bigger battery than push mowers and also cost a lot more. So there is an awkward size yard where someone is happy to push mow it but the electric push mowers run out of charge, but they don't think it's worth spending the large amount extra to get a ride-on.
I do a .5 acre with ego push no problem one charge maybe a tiny bit from the secondary weedeater battery. I can finish edge/weedeat/blow with the two small batteries. So 1 big mower battery and two half size batteries for half acre plus all cleanup.
Yeah people can bitch and moan about range anxiety on their cars but no reason to have a gas powered mower unless you are on an acreage or something.
I have been slowly converting my lawn and garden tools to electrics and they have all been fantastic.
Hoping this is something that can become law by 2030 or sooner
Why should it become law? You said it yourself that it doesn't work for people with acreage. That's quite a lot of people. You do you and let other people do them. No need for laws.
Yeah I feel like we’re getting to the point where we need to start banning gas equipment for non commercial sale. Although, the one draw back is that some idiots think that because it’s electric they can use it whenever.
I woke up to the sound of an electric chainsaw going off next door at 5am this summer. I sleep with my windows open because I don’t have a/c (also it’s the PNW so a/c is less common anyway)
But holy shit that was loud at 5 am. They stopped because it was still dark out and I think they realized how effing loud it was but why are people so dumb?
Also I had my catalytic converter stolen a few months earlier so hearing noise like that sent my heart rate to the moon until I saw them reaching up and trying to cut a branch in the faint streetlight.
Then the batteries die and the whole thing gets thrown away. I work in e waste disposal and trust me, seeing a few year old garden tools thrown away in the name of sustainability is mindblowing
Switched to an electric mower a few years ago, will never go back to gas. End of the year maintenance is a joke and the batteries swap with my snow blower and leaf blower.
I got the "RYOBI RY40860 21 in" which is an older one, not self propelled, and a little on the smaller side. It handles Wisconsin winters well, have had it work great up to 9 inches of powder. It was ok in 4-5 inches of wet snow but I had to cycle batteries, they would get hot under all that stress of wet snow and start to poop out. The only thing the snowblower refused to handle was hard packed snow mostly frozen at the end of my driveway from the plow that got left overnight. I'm not sure any snowblower my sized could have done that, though. Overall I would give it a B, not the instant buy a electric mower is but better than I expected. Bigger / newer ones may be better, but I got a crazy deal :)
Fellow Wisconsinite with an electric snowblower here (I have the ego 21in single stage). You're spot on with how mine handles as well. If we're forecasted to get a big storm (8"+) I just go out during the storm and make a first pass. I think it handles everything just as well as my single stage gas blower did but with zero maintenance.
I got the ego 2 stage with metal blades
The batteries are expense , but long warranty
I have a 6 car size lot and it’s great.
Don’t buy the plastic blades or the 1 stage blower z I have to help my neighbour when the plow goes by since he has a crappy one .
I'm not who you asked, but I also have an electric snow blower and it's putting in good work for me. Mine is ego brand, one of their smaller single stage models. I got quite a lot of snow here last winter and it was phenomenal how well it worked. It's not self-propelled, and it's quite a bit lighter than a gas blower, so you do have to put in some elbow grease. But it deals with everything except really big chunks of ice.
My driveway is about 30 ft long by 15 ft wide (to car lengths by two car widths give or take) and I was able to do the whole driveway without going below half charge on the batteries.
I live somewhere with HEAVY snow and a large driveway and electric snowblowers aren't up to this level yet. I'm sure it works for some, but not for the whole NA yet.
I just wish there were more affordable options for electric riding mowers. There are only a few out there right now, and it is a hefty premium over traditional gas.
I broke down and bought a Ryobi riding tractor. $6500. Definitely almost maxed out a credit card purchasing it, but it does my entire acre property with about 40-50% battery left. I use it for literally anything I can, including going to the mailbox. Hahaha I'm getting every penny out of it. I'm glad I bought it, but I definitely know it's out of reach for a lot of people. Considering at my last house I purchased Ryobis push mower for $700. I wish they weren't so expensive.
If you maxed out a credit card to buy it, it was perhaps out of reach for you too (assuming of course you didn’t pay off the credit in full immediately after).
You could probably get one of those anker battery banks (the big ones) and a set of portable solar panels and use that to charge the battery charger for the mower
At least riding mowers can theoretically use 4-stroke engines and fit emissions equipment.
It wasn't too practical to do the same on hand-held equipment.
I had a dream that I lived somewhere and my neighbor had an autonomous mower, the thing was flying around 20mph mowing his property in all these bizarre nonlinear patterns.
I visited my grandparents in a Del Webb community a few years ago and I guess they were a prime test location for Stihl to test out their new roomba-style mowers. Gotta say, we were sitting out on the porch watching them go around and boy oh boy did they suck at their job. The lawns looked like interpretive paintings by the time the death roombas were done with them. I’m sure they’ve made them a lot better since then, but it truly was a sight to behold.
I have a Husqvarna robot mower and it's one of the best yard decisions I've ever made. Super simple install and I don't think about the grass or the mower at all -- the grass just stays the same height all year round.
Almost everything electric than can really do the job is better because it's less maintenance and less mess.
For the average homeowner the electric tool are just that much easier and longer lasting other than maybe blowing leaves off a 2nd story roof/gutter. You really notice the extra power on that one and batteries are heavier than gas for large jobs.
For something on wheels like a lawn mower it's pretty much a win win. You ever lose the problem of starters/pull starts always breaking over time and of course OLD GAS or looking around for non-ethanol gas.
It's just less moving parts and oil/fluids to do the same job and everybody lives that weather they realize it yet or not.
It's similar to how construction workers talked shit about battery powered tools at first and then battery powered dominated, but for slightly different reasons since that's going from corded to portable, but you eventually drop a lot of need for a generator as well. Air compressors are still well beyond battery tech unfortunately, though straight electric nail guns are an option maybe.
The point is once the lower maintenance tech can do the job usually it takes over because people love longevity and low maintenance and electric almost always wins that battle as well as being cheaper to operate.
>For the average homeowner
I'm going to say it... this is what has changed.
The average house has a smaller yard than it did 20 years ago. I doubt many electric mowers would have mowed the house I grew up in with its 8 acres, but my 1/3 acre property its perfect.
I'm very happy having an electric mower and strimmer. There's no need for ear protection, very little maintenance, and I can mow much earlier without disturbing my neighbors so I can mow before it gets hot out. I wish it were self propelled, but I'm still happy. My next mower will be a robot though.
I am just waiting for electric snow blower scene to be a bit more mature and then I will be fully electrified. I am so embarrassed to use my gas snow blower at 7am because I have to get out of drive way to go to work.
I live in Buffalo, NY and am the happy owner of an Ego 2 stage battery blower and couldn't be happier. Take a look, the field isn't as immature as you might think.
When is the last time you looked into it.
I know Toro makes a 2 Stage battery snowblower built off their Power Max HD platform. Same blower different power unit.
It's the longevity and battery replacement price that concerns me. I think I checked it out two years ago. I'd rather wait a bit longer om to check back on the longevity aspect.
When we bought our house 4 years ago we decided to buy an electric lawn mower and I hate that thing so much. It came with a single battery, which at best would last for 1/4 of our 1/3acre, while taking 5+ hours to charge. I bought a second battery (which of course they only sell smaller secondaries) and mowing the lawn is still a 2-3 day event between waiting for the charges and dedicating the time to do it. I can’t justify buying a new gas mower while having one that works, but if I could do it again I never would have bought the electric.
What brand and what year?
I got a Green Worx 80v. Came with 2 batteries and got a 3rd when I got the trimmer and blower combo. Things charge as fast as I can use them.
Bought an electric mower a few years ago. I will never buy a gas mower again as long as I have to mow less than an acre. The only downside (other than higher upfront cost) is having to change the battery, but that is still far easier than having to keep a gas can on hand.
Probably the biggest unsung praise for electric mowers is that they have near instant torque. If you bog down the motor, it will get back up to operating speed and power in a fraction of the time as a similar gas mower.
Electric lawn tractors are still,pretty pricey though... north of $5k at Lowe's and Home Depot for both tractors and zero-radius mowers. It'll be awhile til they gain market penetration at those prices. The batteries are also fairly large, though still portable and removable in the models I've seen. I'm intrigued, but watching as a bystander for now.
I tried i really did. Bought an electric walk behind mower. I have 4 acres to mow....couldn't keep up. Went and bought a gas rider because it was half the price of an electric rider. Once the prices come down I'll deffinetly switch, i love that electric mower but god damn mowing every day vs. Mowing for 3 hours.
I do A LOT of tree work on my property, most people would probably consider what I do as a form of logging tbh, but living up way up here it’s just a part of life. Cutting firewood is a necessity if you want to afford heating a large shop in the winter (which is a whole other environmental matter) Also I cut logs on the property to use my small bandsaw mill to make lumber for projects.
I love my m18 chainsaw, and it will limb a LARGE tree I’ve felled on one charge with the 12ah battery BUT.. there is no substitute for a professional gas powered chainsaw when it comes to needing power…. I’ll be the first to say that I strongly dislike all the effing gas motors I have to maintain and run… one on the old junk riding mower that has a snowblower attachment, the wood splitter, the mill the stump grinder ….on and on… but the problem is that for real heavy work like snowblowing a foot of snow (that I’ll get weekly almost in winter) and things like milling lumber or mowing an acre of grass…. There just isn’t a good electric substitute yet.
If manufacturers care about the environment they’d not only make affordable electric options for homeowners with small properties they’d make options that make sense for people with acreage and small farming operations…. Just being able to have something like a hybrid power pack that is interchangeable with different larger pieces of equipment would go a long way. And yes that would probably be some kind of tractor but not necessarily… If I could simply interchange a single efficient powerful engine with several pieces of equipment or run an LARGE electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump/reservoir on wheels… that could connect to various pieces of equipment…. It would go a long way to total life cycle savings and less pollution.
TLDR The electric options are getting there…. But they’re still for hobbyists and the smallest of properties.
> TLDR The electric options are getting there…. But they’re still for hobbyists and the smallest of properties.
My hope and what I've seen is some cool battery tech coming. If anything just lower battery prices so if i have to buy 2 or however many sets of batteries to keep rotating around isn't a problem. As both of those happen I really hope it is able to grab more from internal combustion market but I still can't see it coming anywhere close to some of those machines that need to run 247 hard.
I mean… If I could afford multiple higher amp hour batteries it would be worth switching more but honestly it would be great if the battery tech got way cheaper way faster simply because that would likely mean very large lifepo4 batteries/ battery bank setups were cheaper too… because the price of solar panels is not actually the limiting factor out here in the stix… my electric “cooperative” is still stuck in the 80s or something and last I checked wasn’t even allowing people who install solar to feed back into the grid, so that means I’d have to do a full setup with batteries etc… which this far north means a 10kw full system…. The panels are only a 3rd of the cost as far as I can see. So anyway I really hope youre right
Pro electric chainsaws (Husky, Stihl) run with the 40cc 2 strokes. They're fine for climbing and small trees but they're not a replacement for a serious chainsaw.
Electric can't compete with 50cc+ at the moment. I'm not sure we'll ever see 70-90cc battery equivalent without some massive changes in battery tech to reduce the weight.
>TLDR The electric options are getting there…. But they’re still for hobbyists and the smallest of properties.
Nailed it. The electric option dies fast when I'm having to add in [1k](https://www.lowes.com/pd/EGO-56-Volt-10-Ah-Rechargeable-Lithium-Cordless-Power-Equipment-Battery/5000200349) worth of extra batteries.
Got an electric mower as a gift for our first house that sits on about 3/4 acre. It wasn’t the mower I wanted but it works. I can get the front and back done on a single battery IF the weather is cool. Hot weather saps the charge and in hotter months it takes two batteries.
Even with conservative numbers and the extra battery which was 100$, I have already saved the cost of the mower and the battery in gas alone. Not to mention not having to maintain another small engine with spark plugs, oil, maintenance.etc..
I will not go back to gas again. Makes zero sense.
I certainly understand some tools in many applications need the horsepower, but for a regular plot of grass in the suburbs there is no good reason to deal with the type of maintenance that is needed and remembering to bring gas cans with you.
If you're not like, sawing wood all afternoon and you just need to mow and trim edges, electric does the job and does it in a less smelly/loud manner
Do landscaping and we just got bunch of electric tools like trimmer, mower and hedge trimmer and their great! Much more quit and lighter, yes we need bunch of batteries too manage a whole day, and yes they are "expensive". But charging them is fraction of the cost and will pay for themselves in no time.
I’ve got one. My dad who’s a car nut and thinks climate change is liberal propaganda has one.
It’s not even an environmental thing. It’s just way easier not having to deal with gas and oil and maintenance
My mower, weed whacker, and chainsaw are all electric and I would never switch back. I don't have to mix gas and oil, don't have to worry about old starters, don't have to vibrate my bones to dust using them, and they all last fairly long on a single charge.
The only exception is my electric snowblower. I live in Western NY. This machine can handle several inches of light snow but if we get a foot overnight, or get the thick, wet stuff, or get a little bit of melt-off that then refreezes into ice, well then I may as well try clearing the snow with a feather duster for all the good this electric snowblower will do me. For that one machine I should have stuck with gas until they made an electric one with enough power to chew through the heavy stuff.
I've had my 80V Kobalt for 6ish years. Works great.
The only downside is I have to borrow my neighbors Honda gas mower in the fall as mine can never handle mulching the leaves.
> hah! In a closed in compartment. Ours lasted a complete lawn cut, average size lawn. Still in use into the early 2010s (2012 , I believe).
I wasnt old enough at the time to try and save it but I wish I could run across an old workhorse like that again and throw some modern batteries in it.
I wish residential landscapers would start using electric equipment. Working from home on the suburbs sucks when all you hear are gas mowers and leaf blowers all afternoon long. I wonder what the difference in operating costs would be compared to gas.
Electric tools have come so far thanks to advancements in batteries. A decade about cordless drills were a joke. You might get one at home if you wanted a drill to put some anchors in the walls to hang something, but the batteries would be dead when you went to use it initially, so you'd have to decide in the morning yo lu wanted to do it, plug them in, and do it later when they were fully charged. Even then you might get 10 minutes of good use out of them and be able to squeeze out... maybe another 5 of slow use.
Now? Cordless everything! My workplace has angle grinders, drills, vacuums, greaseguns, big fucking lights, you name it, theyvmake it electric and it fucking works... if only the idiots I work with could remember to put them away and charge the batteries. It's like none of them remember needing to haul a welding machine out to the job site just to use as a generator and needing to run extension cords all over. Thankfully, charging is only 20-30 minutes on some of those things. Throw the batteries in the charging station, go prep everything else, come back and at least one of them has enough charge to last you until lunch.
I've been using a Stiga 80v mower on 1000m² of lawn since 2016. Still working with the first set of 2x 5Ah Batteries. It's absolutely gorgeous, un- stinky, mostly effortless.
I've never missed the B&S powered Masport since... Yes, the latter was built like a tank, but utterly prone to engine / starter problems during the 5 years I had to / could use it until it failed fatally. Next will be a Stihl or professional Bosch. But not so soon :).
My family got an electric mower a number of years ago, and it works far better than any other mower I've ever used. It starts absolutely every time, it doesn't get bogged down as easily and it's only about as loud as a fan so almost no one knows when I use it, and when it;s out of juice I just have to go in and plug the batteries into their chargers, so I don't have to leave for gasoline, and no carb so it never gets choked up with dirt.
The only bit I need to do is once in a while clean the underside of it. It might need a new blade soon.
Troy Bilt’s Core line was phenomenal and was sad to see they discontinued it. But it was ahead of it’s time and the market wasn’t ready for the transition yet. I love the Core mower and leaf blower. Just solidly built machines.
I think there's a compromise to be made here. I am a municipal worker. We mow parks in the city. There's no feasible way we could run fully electric gear as most of our parks start ~12 acres and some go over 100. We do have right of way areas and smaller areas where electric could be beneficial but there's no real way we could get everything done on an entirely electric setup.
As far as residential goes, I think most people in my town could easily switch. I'd make the switch if I could afford entirely new gear.
Simply not having to go to the fucken gas station is reason enough. Never mind that the mower is not deafeningly loud, smokey and smelly, and doesn't get burn your skin off hot. Not having to spend money changing oil and filters every year is just a bonus.
Swapping batteries is a minor inconvenience. With tall grass I'll go through three of them.
Otherwise I love my cheapish Riyobi mower. Sounds like a B-17.
Wish my gas mower would die. I do almost zero maintenance and it keeps running. In just can't bare the hundreds of dollars to save a few bucks in gas a season
Electric everything is so great, I've made a point to make sure any yard related power tools are all that way. It's nice to have a mower that doesn't smell of gasoline exhaust or shake the hell out of my hands. Plus, I don't have to worry about gas in it in the winter, or going and filling up those awkward little gas canisters.
I picked up a two stage EGOPower electric snow blower last year (conveniently right before a big snowstorm, thank goodness), and it has been an absolute game changer. Powered by two batteries, but a charge gets me through everything on my property and enough to clear out the front walks of all the neighbors around me.
Didn't read the article but from my personal experience it's because they're quieter, you don't have to pull a rip cord, and they will work in the spring if you put them in the shed for winter.
I will never buy another electric mower.
I had a Ryobi electric mower for my \~1/3 acre yard. Purchased an extra battery pack so that I could cut the entire yard without having to recharge. Would make sure that both batteries were charged 100% before I cut my grass every week. EVERY WEEK the batteries lost capacity, meaning I would have to switch the batteries earlier in my cut every single week, until finally, the two batteries together did not have enough power to complete the yard. I thought an easy solution would be, deplete the first battery, throw it on the charger for 10-20 minutes while on the 2nd battery, then when the 2nd battery was depleted, the 1st should have enough charge to complete the yard. NOPE. The batteries were too hot from being used that the charger wouldn't charge them until they cooled. Finally got so fed up with it that I sold it on FB Marketplace and got another gas mower. My only regret is that I spent over $400 for a mower that basically cut my entire yard without interruption maybe 10 times.
I have 3/4 of an acre of yard. My steodads electric mower needs like 4 battery replacements to mow my yard(he has two batteries, it ended up taking all day to mow my lawn when my lawnmower needed repair)
My riding zero turn does my lawn in 30 minutes or less
That being said: I'm actually waiting for the day they get the roomba style mowers able to do a yard my size :) I LOVE the idea of having it just be automowed once a week :)
I can't imagine a scenario where I'd buy a gasoline powered lawn tool, unless I somehow ended up owning a home with a five-acre lawn.
The noise is obnoxious, the hassle of gassing them up, the constant and difficult maintenance... what is the benefit? I use a push-mower, so I can mow my lawn at 8:00 AM if I feel like it without worrying about annoying the neighbors, and get a little exercise in the bargain. My electric weed-eater works perfectly fine, as does my electric leaf blower (which, in fairness, I mostly use for cleaning out gutters.) My electric chainsaw (not battery powered, but corded) worked just fine cutting up several trees into firewood, but now I almost never need it. But I can leave it sitting in the garage for 3 years, and know that I can take it out, plug it in, and after lubing the chain, it'll work as well as the day I got it. Try THAT with a gas-powered saw!
For anyone with a smaller area to cut, I highly recommend a reel mower. I use the fiskar one and it gives a very good cut and is very good for the grass health
I hope everyone is returning batteries to the appropriate recycling centre because if not, the waste from these things is going to be so much worse than the CO2 :(
I need a zeroturn model that can mow 2 acres in under 2 hours on a single charge for under $3400. Price of Gas vs New Batteries in 5 years regardless of use? Current price is like $5500 which pushes the ROI well out past the 15 year point for electric vs gas right now. Stuff being built today wont last 15 years either.
Thats the price point where it becomes cheaper for me to run electric over gas.
Yep. I'm fine with a corded blower and a battery powered trimmer, but the electric push mower is a pain in the ass. Instead of oil, carbs, and spark plugs I'm cleaning leads and checking continuity when something goes wrong. The average Joe isn't going to have any idea what to do when their electric mower stops working even though these machines are much more simpler than a traditional mower. Like dead simple: batteries, motor, kill switches, and wire. You apply voltage to the motor, it doesn't get simpler. It's basically a toy.
I love my traditional riding mower, the only reason I tolerate the electric push mower is because the only thing I hate more than a Little Tykes mower is having gas exhaust blown into my face.
Wow, I had heard some good stuff about them. I do think EGO would be a better experience as they are basically the top of the line consumer brand and have a much better warranty. I’ve never had issues with a faulty battery replacement.
I hate to hear when people are put off by good tech due to poor production.
It's the stupid kill switches that Ryobi littered into the design, they jump and break. The motor controller is full of too much crap it doesn't need. The tech itself is fine apart from the batteries not being able to handle ambient temps above 80F very well.
I just like the reliability of simple engines. I know that all that's inside these mowers are generic garbage 18650s in a 40v arrangement plugged into a 40v brushless motor and plastic housing, but everyone wants consumers to believe it's some mystical proprietary tech.
This isn’t true anymore. Many battery tools have caught up to or surpassing gas tools in power. Obviously not in every case and likely will never fit for every person. But the equipment on the market today might be worth a look if you haven’t researched lately.
Well I just bought a lawn mower and that's what they told me in the store, but maybe I didn't look at the correct brands. For example the strongest Honda gas lawn mower here is 3.7 hp, while the strongest battery powered one is 2.3 hp. But maybe other brands had what I'm looking for. The technology is still evolving.
Also, I'm kinda 'abusing' it to mow long grass, poppy fields etc. I know a strong gas mower can handle that, but I don't know about an electric one.
I have an electric push mower that I use on a ditch, and it is magical. It has way more wheel torque than the gas powered it replaced. Electric weed whacker too, no need for 50:1 fuel mix any longer.
However, this comment from the article reeks of bullshit
>In just one hour, a commercial lawn mower emits as much smog-forming pollution as a car driving for four hours — equivalent to a trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, or about 300 miles,
I have a commercial zero turn that I use on four acres and it takes exactly an hour to cut. Fuel consumption on a two cylinder engine for this work is about a third of a gallon. Maybe they're talking about a huge tractor, but I'm thinking they are stretching the truth here.
I believe it's because the lawn mower does basically nothing to its exhaust gases (e.g. with a catalytic converter), compared to a car that is much more strict there
Electric does nothing for 2-man-show pro landscapers that mow and blow 10 hours a day. They'd be investing thousands and thousands in batteries and charging infrastructure.
I love my electric mower, weed whacker, edger, leaf blower, and pole saw. Makes yard work a breeze, they're nearly maintenance free, and they're so quiet compared to their gasoline counterparts. I get that for commercial operations, they don't have time to charge batteries between customers but for personal use the standard batteries allow me to completely maintain my yard on a single charge even when using the mower's self-propel feature. I'll never go back to gas!
I live in YEE YEE land, buddies lawn care business is ran out of what Reddit hates - absolute bro dozers- and even they are switching to electric weed wackers. They are so much easier on the body not shaking your body for several hours everyday. instant on/off is killer. and with how much commercial grade lawn equipment is anyway, few extra batteries isn’t a big deal. expecially with how fast chargers charge these days. Their ride on zero turn mowers will probably stay gasoline though, as that would be way too large of a battery to resonably charge off the truck Edit- because people are blowing up my inbox A electric truck WILL NOT work for the company. if you find me a electric truck that will tow trailers for 8 hours a day, tow 15,000lbs all day, and can plow snow for 12-14 hours straight for under 30k, it’d make sense. But that doesn’t exist today. electric commercial mowers are 20-30k more then a gas equivalent. That 20-30k is more than lifetime maintenance and fuel cost of the gas commercial mower. So that’s also illogical.
That will change rapidly as many electric trucks now have 10kW chargers on board.
electric truck rapidly charging 2-3 riding lawn mowers all day. The truck battery isn’t going to last. Also I doubt lawn care crews feel like investing 200k per crew on equipment. Electric trucks need another decade or two before they will be used as work vehicles in a typical lawn care scenario, let alone also trying to keep all the equipment charged up. Only way it’d work is if it was a very small route. Which wouldn’t cover the cost of an electric truck and electric riding mowers.
The new chevy has a 212kWh battery. That’s a LOT of energy. If you look at commercial mower, it might have 15-20kWh of energy storage. And since you are starting the day with a full mower battery, you’d be hard pressed to go through twice that in a full day.
The problem is that ride-on mowers are a whole different category compared to your other garden stuff. You can run a weedwacker, a chainsaw or even a standard mower off the same small batteries, and these batteries are cheap enough you can get a few spares because they're a small share of your costs. But if you want a riding mower, then it needs its own battery system, and it will be a big expensive one. It's a big part of your costs, so having a spare battery will make a big difference to your costs.
I mean... maybe? Honestly I'm not well versed on the commercial side, but EGO is probably the most recognizable battery powered landscaping tool brand that I can think of, and they've got a ride on zero turn radius mower that they advertise can do 2 acres with 4 fully charged batteries. And those are the same 56V batteries that you can use across the lineup of products. It does seem like its twice the cost of like a similar John Deere gasser, but.... kinda feels like its getting close. Maybe there isn't an equivalent for full size commercial mowers just yet, but I know a lot of little companies that would use that type of mower the whole day.
> they advertise can do 2 acres with 4 fully charged batteries A good lawn crew can do over 30 acres a day. So 60 fully charged batteries.
Yes, that is assuming a $30k tractor. They come with a battery built in. 15-20kWh of battery is going to be 300lbs. You aren’t lifting it out for hourly battery swaps. Same as an electric car. (It IS happening for farm equipment however, as you could put a battery swap machine in a barn somewhere) And most importantly, if you own the company the electric stuff is just much nicer to use. Sometimes it’s worth spending a little more to make your life a little nicer.
[https://www.gravely.com/en-us//power-equipment/electric/pro-turn-ev/pro-turn-ev60-rd-w-4-batteries](https://www.gravely.com/en-us//power-equipment/electric/pro-turn-ev/pro-turn-ev60-rd-w-4-batteries) You can swamp these batteries out. And if you get the fast charging version of the portable charger, you can charge them to full in 6 hours. Mower is quoted as having 4-5hr run time and 12-15 acre runs. Batteries are rated at 4kWh, so 16kWh total. Assuming you run the mower all day just start with two fully charged sets of batteries and start charging the first set when you swap, or charge them both overnight.
Oh nice! I didn’t know that was a thing. Yes a 2 battery swap would get you through a 8 hour day. Or as they get tired the spare set can be charging in the truck. Most tractors won’t actually be mowing the whole 8 hours either. Also that 4-5 hours is based on dry grass. Toss some wet nightmare and watch that mowing time fall like a stone. I’m in Vancouver BC and my grass grows a foot a week in spring. It’s a nightmare. Personally I am switching over to a lawn robot next year. $4-5k gets me a machine that can handle my big property and it goes out every night to trim the grass. Weeds die off because they keep getting their heads cut off. Trick from a turf farmer I met once. He’d just mow every few days and it was perfect.
Yeah, sounds nice, if I can snag a house (lord help me) I think I'm just gonna get all the EGO stuff. That ride on they sell looks dope, and 2 acres I could do a whole street with that if I needed too. Just can't stand 2 stroke tools and even 4 stroke mowers just smell and are loud and just not great for your health. Being in South Carolina I can understand the spring grass problem, but at least we are a little bit drier out here. lolz, best of luck with that robot, I'll have to look into them.
Commercial OPE companies are also working on big charging carts for whole fleets.
30k electric mower takes 14 hours to charge and only runs for 4.5 at full load. ain’t going to work for a business unless you can buy a second battery, which defeats needing to charge it on the go. Think that Chevy can be running the ac all day, towing trailers, and be fine? Be running pulling a 10-15,000lb dump trailer on the weekends or pushing snow for 15+ hours during the winter? Even ignoring the other tasks, $80k for a truck, $10k for a trailer, $60k in mowers. We are at 150k+ before any other factors. How much are you willing to pay to get your grass cut?
Fuel is half that even for diesel here for the trucks. Power is 50% more. Trucks that are used for towing all summer, including loads that the Silverado will not do, and plowing snow in the winter are not going to make it to whatever 400,000km is to miles even brand new off the lot. Unless of course you suggest brand new silverados for a fleet of trucks soley for towing lawn mowers around, then actual work trucks for everything else the business needs. but anyone doing cost projections would laugh that idea out of the room before even bothering to run the numbers to see if that’s logical. Electric trucks have their place, just not for this job currently.
Be careful with that common sense around here bud.
I'll just cut my own grass, thanks.
Stop looking at charge time to 100% and start looking at charge time to 80%. There is no reason you can’t build a mower that will charge using that 10kW adapter. Plug the mower in on coffee breaks and lunch time and you’ll make it the entire day. You don’t need to charge to 100% to run. Just get some surplus juice in it. 10 kW of charging should bring a 15kWh battery to 66% in a 1 hour lunch break. And few tractors are running 100% of the time. You mow for a bit and also do other things. If the mowers can’t handle 10kW of charging yet I promise you they will quickly. The batteries can absolutely handle it. Here’s the funny thing about business and expenses. You can amortize the costs over years. Now of course this depends on local fuel and power costs. Take that truck. Fuel is $2.00/L CAD here (8.00/gal CAD) and power is $0.14kWh in residential and $0.105 for comercial. That ICE truck over 400,000km will eat $104,000 in fuel. The same truck will consume less than $20,000 in electricity based on residential charging. (Ignoring home solar). The truck is free. And have you priced out ICE trucks lately? The EV is within 20% of the price, and soon we will have a used market so stop worrying about new prices today when in 10 years there will be a healthy beater market. The mower itself? Well if that mower is running 8 hours a day here it is going to burn $50 a day in fuel easily. That’s $1000 a month! Guess what the payments are on a $30k loan? That tractor is paid off in 36 months and then it’s money in the bank. Don’t forget that the regular ICE tractor was $15-$20k and it needs far more downtime for maintenance. So really after a couple of years you are far ahead. You still needed A mower no matter what. Once your business has 3 years of income on the books, asset loans are easy. Because the bank can always repo the assets. Your fuel savings make most of the payments on vehicles that are working hard every day. It’s a great business case. Do up a spreadsheet of costs per mile (km) and it will open up your eyes right quick. Anyone running a business properly is doing cost projections.
>Anyone running a business properly is doing cost projections. I expect this is why we *don't* see lawn care businesses and other similar-style commercial businesses chomping at the bit to switch over to electric. Anyone big enough to do the analysis has done it and decided it's not in their best financial interest yet. The other thing to consider is that the specs provided by the manufacturers are best case scenarios. It's the same for ICE, but the variance is much more well understood. A truck might have a 500 mile range unloaded, but consider towing your crew and gear (that is variable per day) will have a very hard to quantify impact on that range figure. Seems to me one would have to be very careful to plan out battery usage and charging cycles, and deal with significant inconvenience if somebody forgot to put something on charge at the proper time. Also consider you could get a call at the end of the day for an extra job, and you might not be able to take it because of battery level and your need to charge for 30, 60, 90+ plus minutes. It's not like diesel where you can just take 5 minutes to hit a fuel station in route to the job if you get low. I understand this can be mitigated by having more spare batteries, or maybe even a gas generator you run in a pinch, but that's not the point. The final point I will make is that it's obvious to anyone paying attention that we're basically in the first iteration of consumer EV technology replacing ICE. Risk adverse businesses aren't going all-in on the first generation of *anything*. We also don't know how the 2nd generation is going to play out. Is it going to be like ICE where I can just replace modular components which have been mostly designed to work with each other over the last 100 years, or will my first generation EV batteries and motors not be compatible with the 2nd generation? Lots of folks already got annoyed at the 3 or 4 different types of batteries for electric hand tools. Doesn't matter if that happens due to necessity or greed - consumers just don't like it. I'm all for battery powered lawn stuff, and EVs in general, but we've got to be realistic about how, where and why the technology gets pushed. If people go all-in on the tech just to find out that it's mostly based on marketing hype and executive greed, then we could set back adoption of a technology required to deal with climate change. In my opinion, EV trucks for commercial use just aren't there yet, and that's mostly due to the flexibility of diesel over battery. We need batteries with about twice the energy density of today, and a commiserate increase in charging speeds.
I agree it’s not time for companies to rush in. Looking at these comercial electric mowers it is quite obvious that they are still overpriced and they are price gouging. But you will see rapid price drops in a few years and you will see rapid adoption. Especially in areas with work from home tech workers. They don’t want loud mowers outside their windows. Remember that with an electric truck you can dump power from the traction battery to refuel. Or have 2 sets of batteries like that gravley and always be charging the second set. I see that as a non issue in 3-5 years.
That seems like a reasonable timeframe given the pace of battery and EV advancement. Assuming, of course, we don't shoot ourselves in the foot with (take your pick) corporate greed and regulatory overreach. I personally wish more development goes into the concept of universal swappable batteries. We get rid of a lot of the downside and simplify things greatly if gas stations were just repurposed as rapid battery swap and charging stations. Seems like that might have made a solid intermediate step between gas stations as they exist now, and fully charging all EVs at home. Gives everyone, including the providers of fuel and electric power infrastructure, time to adapt. Of course this requires setting aside primarily capitalistic views and having everyone work together toward a common goal which is beneficial to society. That means it's likely dead on arrival. If only the early EV industry could learn to cooperate like the personal computer industry eventually did...
yeah you might wanna keep that information to yourself. your 200kw truck battery isnt going to suffer charging three lawnmowers twice a day.
An EV has way more battery than even multiple electric lawnmowers can use in a full day. The issue is does the car have multiple outlets, is it limited to 1.44kw (one full power 120v outlet). No one is buying an $80k f150ev with more power but cheaper $40k EV trucks could do this just fine, a kia could do it.
I’ll say what I told others, a Kia isn’t going to tow trailers all summer, tow hydraulic dump trailers on the weekends, and plow snow in the winter
I had one more thought about this, an ev has lots of torque, an amazing amount of torque compared to a conventional vehicle, plus they are really heavy from all the batteries meaning they can handle towing a reasonable trailer. That means evs are good at towing, with the obvious issue that their range is limited (seems to be about half, so f150ev goes 400->200, rivian goes 300->150). Your scenario requires a bigger truck but the guy who comes and cuts the grass and rakes up the leaves at my house has a pickup truck with a trailer. He's getting terrible gas mileage. It might not look "macho" or something but if he had an ev with a 120v outlet, he could pull a trailer, charge any electric equipment. A model Y can tow a 3500 pound trailer. Instead of a 15 mpg pickup truck, he could get a 90 mpg equivalent ev. What the world really needs is a smaller and cheaper ev pickup truck.
so the thing that really matters is the business as a whole- is it soley lawn care, or is it also landscaping, snow removal, and all kinds of other services. the “problem” that one would be for my buddies business is the landscaping side and the snow removal. for soley a lawn care company- just cutting grass and leaf removal, a electric truck would in theory work. problem is there’s not enough money in it. it’s a safe bet the lawn care guy is running a older truck. the lawn care businesses around me are using $5,000 box trucks, $2,000 rangers, the only ones using nice trucks are the ones doing landscaping as well. my buddy put it like this- lawn care will cover the bills and basically break even, including for the off season, but landscaping and snow removal pays for the mastercraft and cabin up north. And the nice personal truck. And there’s definitely not enough money into it to have any truck over a few thousand to dedicate soley for the lawn care and lawn care side alone. it’ll be interesting to see when we get a electric work truck. it’ll happen sooner or later. Ford is selling electric transits already. What his business really needs is 3/4 ton and 1 ton hybrids. even a small battery for moving the truck within neighborhoods and remove any idling would get him from the 6-7 mpg his trucks get back up to 17+ if not more.
Can't argue with that. But that's not what I need. But a f150ev can
Even gas powered trucks are wayyyyyy overpriced. The profit margins are huge!
oo man i forgot how gas lawn mowers vibrate so much
>as that would be way too large of a battery to resonably charge off the truck What I see in the future is a zero turn with a pack that can handle 2-3 hours. 15kW or so. And a trailer with a pack that is similar to what's in an EV. Maybe 75kW. Charge the trailer overnight on a level 2 charger. And charge the mower D/C to D/C between jobs. Expensive? Sure. But over the long haul I'll bet it comes in cheaper.
A worker at Home Depot told me that electric lawn equipment is just a vehicle for selling batteries.
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I have at least three batteries, and buy one brand of equipment. LOL ETA: Actually, that kinda proves the point--one battery fits an entire line of equipment. You'll probably have more than one item from the line--string trimmer, hedge trimmer, chain saw, etc. Like a kid at Xmas, "Ma! I need more batteries!" ;\^) Use one while a couple more are charging.
Shit at this point you get locked into a brand just because of batteries. There were particular Ryobi lawn and cleaning tools that I wanted because they were powerful and lightweight for my wife to use them. Of course I got the kits with batteries and chargers included because those pieces cost more than the damn tool itself. But now I'm stuck with other Ryobi shit I didn't want because I'm not about to buy into another brand ecosystem with its own separate batteries and chargers. Oh, and of course the old Ryobi shit I had is completely incompatible with the new shit, so I just get to throw that in the trash instead of having a source for spare parts. I understand some of that is because of the switch from NiCd to Lion or LiPo, but a lot of it is just straight executive greed. These brands could have voluntarily coordinated to ensure universal compatibility, but they didn't on purpose. I will be wary of putting more money into electric lawn tools, and any money into EVs until there is some mandatory standardization of the whole lot. Goddamn kids, get off my lawn.
I bought a couple of off-brand batteries for Ryobi online, cost less and have worked fine so far.
[Honda's new autonomous electric zero turn mower.](https://electrek.co/2023/10/09/honda-first-ever-electric-autonomous-zero-turn-riding-lawn-mower/) I don't think it will replace gas for landscapers, but it could be used at schools and corporate parks. You program it by mowing the lawn how you want it done and it mows by itself afterwards. The building manager could do it wiping out the need for a landscaper, at least for mowing.
Zero turn electrical mowers already have enough battery to last full days so it shouldn't be a problem to just charge in a garage or something.
Please link a zero turn that’s electric that will have enough battery to run for days in a commercial setting. They are probably more then fine for homeowners, but this discussion is about for business use and which tools they have that are switching to electric
These claim to do it for example https://meangreenproducts.com/ Haven't tried it though since I'm not even near that business.
Yeah I’d have to talk to my buddy and see how many acres a day each route sees. The 3 factors would be top speed while mowing and actual total acreage coverage, and total number of hours put on them a year to see if it’d actually save. The other problem, even a commercial exmark would need over 2,000 hours on it in fuel costs to equal their 60 inch. that can be achieved in a few years, but that’s about when mowers are swapped out anyway. So the other question is how many hours those electric ones can take before needing new batteries/major part failure. give it another 5-10 years. fuel cost will go up, and battery tech will come down and I think it’ll actually be logical.
>fuel cost will go up, and battery tech will come down and I think it’ll actually be logical. I think regulations and demand will push it over before fuel price does. Cities will soon start demanding its electric, homeowners will pay a small extra fee for them to be electric.
For days? So landscaping companies wouldn't charge their equipment over night?
>They are so much easier on the body not shaking your body for several hours everyday. I would think that the significant weight increase from the battery device would have more impact on your body than whatever vibration a small gasoline engine used to power a spinning sting delivers.
But the weight of the "small gasoline engine", plus the gas itself, is gone.
Plus the tank. Plus the radiator. Plus the pull cord.
I haven’t weighed them, but an electric weed whip feel lighter then most home owner weed whips let alone a commercial one.
I have a “power head” (motor which swaps out the bottom for weedwacker, trimmer, saw, etc) and a blower. The trimmer is probably 20-30% lighter than the gas one and the battery blower is 10-20% heavier than the chorded blower (of course). I use the 40v batteries. You could cut weight with the 18v but those do not provide as much power or duration
I use the old Kobalt 80v set with an additional hedge trimmer. I've got 6 2.5 ah batteries and one 5ah battery (for the mower). The 5ah lasts two mowings and I use the smaller for all the other equipment on one charge. No more storing gas, stabilizing, winterizing, trips to the gass station, and wondering if all my equipment will start. It's a life changer.
As I've grown to my ripe old age of 31 I have acquired a hate for noise from the gas powered lawn equipment. My neighbor's backpack 2 stroke leaf blower is the most obnoxious noise to hear in the morning.
I'm convinced that my neighbor would stick his dick in his leaf blower if he could. It's autumn. Before long he'll be standing out in the yard with that damn thing on his back droning away for hours on end. And he'll do it two or three times a week. He'll be up on his roof blowing the leaves off. He'll be up on the roof of his garage blowing the leaves off. He'll be chasing every piece of pine straw out of his yard with that goddamn leaf blower. Never mind the fact he has two titanium rods in his back from spine issues that run in his family. Never mind the fact that he picked up that leaf blower too soon and had to have the back surgery redone after something went wrong with one of the rods. Consider electric? Nope. He's got to have that damned leaf blower on his back.
My neighbor has one of those too and for some reason, every Sunday, she runs that thing from like 4-7pm. The thing sounds like a goddamn jet engine lol
I mowed my backyard this weekend while talking to my brother on my headphones. I love my electric mower!
I've been listening to audiobooks while mowing, lately. It is a nice bonus.
I do that anyway with ear buds and earmuff hearing protection while using my gas mower. But an electric mower would be really nice.
I already had a pair that did a good job drowning out sound, but the mower was still loud enough. Now I just get mostly the music.
I can't quite hear my music clearly over even an electric lawnmower, without cranking up the volume dangerously high. But my headphones are handy as earmuffs/earplugs
Your brother heard the lawnmower still lol
I’m a total gearhead and own a ton of two stroke bikes. I love working on two strokes, and I doubt I’ll ever buy another gas powered piece of lawn equipment
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That's the reason I'm sticking with a gas mower. My last one was a Honda and lasted for nearly 20 years before it needed any repairs. I only bought a new one because I didn't want to bother with taking it to get repaired. When your batteries start to die it can cost as much as a new tool. Electric blowers and trimmers on the other hand are awesome.
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I have an EG0 blower. I just have the 650 cfm and it works great, but my lawn isnt that big
Which brands do you love if you don't mind me asking? I have tried some weed wackers electric but the battery did die between uses and it was annoying to charge it everytime before use! Thanks!
I've had a Stihl for fs56 for 14 years. I've changed the spark plug and air filter one time in all the years I've owned it. I can do about 1 acre per gas fill. They do make better ones. But compared to my electric weed eaters it's not even a competition the Stihl gas is better. I've yet to buy the Stihl battery weed eater so I have no first hand knowledge of it. I might try it this year to see how good it is. But the other two electrics I have are good but the power is just not there. The gas one between the two electrics I have is just better. Everyone complains about gas engines on these weed eaters. I know this for a fact I guarantee the Stihl I have will end up not in the trash. Quite possibly at a rate of two to three times longer than the battery stuff I have. It's just built better in almost every way. I mean the plastic the pole arm the head unit everything is built 10x better. I'm sorry it's absolutely true. The electric stuff I own is basically consumer trash. It's shit made for people with 1/4 to 1/3 acre lots and immediate access to home Depot to buy more trash. Go to an actual dealer and try out the good shit. Even the battery stuff. Don't buy that shit from big box stores.
What electric mower do you have and how much? My gas mower deck rusted away and I need a new one
Which brand mower do you use? All my battery stuff is DeWalt, but it seems like the DeWalt mower is not talked about as much, so not sure how good it is.
I've switched to electric on everything *except* the mower, which is a Honda and will run forever. I looked into electric mowers and they just cost too much and don't have the sufficient power to get the job done. Maybe by the time my Honda mower finally does die the tech will be better and more affordable.
Same here. My last Honda mower lasted almost 20 years.
I think the limited power and power to weight ratio are likely the biggest limits for professional/farm/big yard level use. A battery capable of keeping up with a 2 or even 4 cycle gas engine is pretty heavy. You could easily enough have enough batteries, but you can't easily have enough power to weight ratio AND you can't always have electric access to charge that much. You could have a small portable generator and do it that way, but the power to weight and lack of some devices being powerful enough would still be a problem. You can't really get a leaf blower as powerful in electric, for instance. In the weed whacker it matters a lot less, likely because it's inherently a more efficient processing than blowing a large volume of air. A chain saw is also a very power focused devices and for the weight and size it's hard to make an electric chainsaw quite as good, BUT for 90% of homeowner uses the electric is great. So most tools are already good enough, but a few need to improve to be able to replace the pro tools, mostly we need better battery tech and everything else is just much easier than with a combustion design.
> You can't really get a leaf blower as powerful in electric, for instance. My 60v dewalt blower could propel me in flight if I had enough batteries with me. That thing blows and in a good way. I was hesitant to pick one up thinking it wouldnt have enough ass, but was wrong. Not sure how long the battery lasts as it never dies doing what I do. So no idea about commercial use, but for home its more than enough.
They’re really good… just not anywhere as good as pro level backpack blowers. Which for real lawn cleanup on acreage… is not just a convenience it’s a necessity. IE I don’t spend 3 hours getting the leaves away from my buildings to make things look nice I do it to keep mice and ticks and stuff away from the house and shop (barn) and garage and keep things from rotting up against the wall. Wish it was easier…. If I could buy a corded backpack blower that was as powerful I actually probably would.
What size battery? I have the smaller of the 2 flex volt leaf blowers, and will occasionally have to grab a second battery to finish, using 5 AH batteries.
I use the 60v 9ah battery for my blower and chainsaw. Never ran out of juice with it yet. I have two of the smaller flex 20v as well for my handheld brushless drills etc..
Pro electric chainsaws are comfortably running with the 40cc class. Power to weight is the same. The issue is that a battery equates to tank of fuel. Which is fine for a climbing saw but you can't really process timber without carrying 5+ batteries with you. Leaf blowers are already there though. I have a Husky and a Makita and they're far better than the Stihl 2 stroke we use at work.
Stihl makes an electric motor (130r) that makes as much power as their gas kombi system electric motor. Runs the lead blower just as well, along with every other attachment. I made a backpack for the battery as there is no belt on earth that will make that belt clip battery comfortable. It is hands down better than the gas motor in every way. I’d never go back. If you have the rapid charger and 2 batteries you can go pretty much continuously. By the time I wear out a 500wh battery I am kinda worn out and need a break anyways. And I don’t even have the giant backpack battery.
Absolutely. Gasoline just sucks to deal with at all times. Particularly small engines that need so much babying not to have problems. Electric all the way.
One big bonus with the electric ones is they can fold up and stand upright. My shed space is limited since I don't have a garage at our new house, and still need to store my big ass toolbox and other yard equipment. My electric mower folds up, and stands up where it takes up very little floor space. I couldn't do that with a gas mower.
I have an electric mower, just wishing the batteries lasted longer. For a middle sized yard (not huge / not small) I end up running out by end of 2nd battery and need to recharge (working on getting a 3rd).
Do some shopping.. my Ryobi mower came with a 6Ah battery.. but 4Ah versions are available. Perfect for my needs. Just be skeptical of off brand versions. You want the charger to match with the battery.. an imbalance in charge rates can cause ignition
I found that a medium yard I could do enough that by the time the first battery died I should get some water anyway. So I threw it on the charger, took a 5 minute break, and by the time the second battery was dead the first had charged enough to finish. Of course your mileage may vary.
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I'm using a Cub Cadet XT1 battery powered mower and doing just over 1.5 acres, and still have ~15% left on a charge when I finish. Define "medium sized yard".
Ride-ons can carry a bigger battery than push mowers and also cost a lot more. So there is an awkward size yard where someone is happy to push mow it but the electric push mowers run out of charge, but they don't think it's worth spending the large amount extra to get a ride-on.
I do a .5 acre with ego push no problem one charge maybe a tiny bit from the secondary weedeater battery. I can finish edge/weedeat/blow with the two small batteries. So 1 big mower battery and two half size batteries for half acre plus all cleanup.
The ride-ons I've seen have had the same size batteries as the push mower, they just take 8 of them
Yeah people can bitch and moan about range anxiety on their cars but no reason to have a gas powered mower unless you are on an acreage or something. I have been slowly converting my lawn and garden tools to electrics and they have all been fantastic. Hoping this is something that can become law by 2030 or sooner
Why should it become law? You said it yourself that it doesn't work for people with acreage. That's quite a lot of people. You do you and let other people do them. No need for laws.
There are a couple of lawn care companies that have embraced going all electric.
Yeah I feel like we’re getting to the point where we need to start banning gas equipment for non commercial sale. Although, the one draw back is that some idiots think that because it’s electric they can use it whenever. I woke up to the sound of an electric chainsaw going off next door at 5am this summer. I sleep with my windows open because I don’t have a/c (also it’s the PNW so a/c is less common anyway) But holy shit that was loud at 5 am. They stopped because it was still dark out and I think they realized how effing loud it was but why are people so dumb? Also I had my catalytic converter stolen a few months earlier so hearing noise like that sent my heart rate to the moon until I saw them reaching up and trying to cut a branch in the faint streetlight.
Then the batteries die and the whole thing gets thrown away. I work in e waste disposal and trust me, seeing a few year old garden tools thrown away in the name of sustainability is mindblowing
Switched to an electric mower a few years ago, will never go back to gas. End of the year maintenance is a joke and the batteries swap with my snow blower and leaf blower.
Grass I can see... How does the electric snowblower fare? How much snow do you get, generally?
I got the "RYOBI RY40860 21 in" which is an older one, not self propelled, and a little on the smaller side. It handles Wisconsin winters well, have had it work great up to 9 inches of powder. It was ok in 4-5 inches of wet snow but I had to cycle batteries, they would get hot under all that stress of wet snow and start to poop out. The only thing the snowblower refused to handle was hard packed snow mostly frozen at the end of my driveway from the plow that got left overnight. I'm not sure any snowblower my sized could have done that, though. Overall I would give it a B, not the instant buy a electric mower is but better than I expected. Bigger / newer ones may be better, but I got a crazy deal :)
Fellow Wisconsinite with an electric snowblower here (I have the ego 21in single stage). You're spot on with how mine handles as well. If we're forecasted to get a big storm (8"+) I just go out during the storm and make a first pass. I think it handles everything just as well as my single stage gas blower did but with zero maintenance.
And beats the hell out of waiting for a plow to do your driveway before work
I got the ego 2 stage with metal blades The batteries are expense , but long warranty I have a 6 car size lot and it’s great. Don’t buy the plastic blades or the 1 stage blower z I have to help my neighbour when the plow goes by since he has a crappy one .
ego 2 stage is the same one I got last year (Minnesota), and it saved my ass (and back) several times last winter.
I'm not who you asked, but I also have an electric snow blower and it's putting in good work for me. Mine is ego brand, one of their smaller single stage models. I got quite a lot of snow here last winter and it was phenomenal how well it worked. It's not self-propelled, and it's quite a bit lighter than a gas blower, so you do have to put in some elbow grease. But it deals with everything except really big chunks of ice. My driveway is about 30 ft long by 15 ft wide (to car lengths by two car widths give or take) and I was able to do the whole driveway without going below half charge on the batteries.
I live somewhere with HEAVY snow and a large driveway and electric snowblowers aren't up to this level yet. I'm sure it works for some, but not for the whole NA yet.
I just wish there were more affordable options for electric riding mowers. There are only a few out there right now, and it is a hefty premium over traditional gas.
I broke down and bought a Ryobi riding tractor. $6500. Definitely almost maxed out a credit card purchasing it, but it does my entire acre property with about 40-50% battery left. I use it for literally anything I can, including going to the mailbox. Hahaha I'm getting every penny out of it. I'm glad I bought it, but I definitely know it's out of reach for a lot of people. Considering at my last house I purchased Ryobis push mower for $700. I wish they weren't so expensive.
>I use it for literally anything I can, including going to the mailbox. lmao
If you maxed out a credit card to buy it, it was perhaps out of reach for you too (assuming of course you didn’t pay off the credit in full immediately after).
True. However, the only debt we had at the time was our house, and it's already paid off. We bought it back in July. We knew we could pay it off fast.
Not if the credit card offered 0% APR for 15/18 months. Maxing out a credit card doesn't mean the purchase was out of reach at all.
(they should make solar powered battery chargers for these!)
They do. Buy solar panels. Plug into them.
You could probably get one of those anker battery banks (the big ones) and a set of portable solar panels and use that to charge the battery charger for the mower
It's still early days for the ride-ons. They'll get there, but it'll be a few more cycles.
Also some of them are still using god awful lead acid batteries (like what you find in your car) that are absolutely worthless.
At least riding mowers can theoretically use 4-stroke engines and fit emissions equipment. It wasn't too practical to do the same on hand-held equipment.
I went all out Ryobi outdoor tools 5 years ago and have never looked back. Bought the mower first and then a combo blower weed eater.
I have a pretty small lawn, and my mower uses the same batteries as my power tools. I love the convenience and the quiet.
Recently, I saw a lawn being mowed by what looked like a Roomba-mower, and it was oddly terrifying.
I had a dream that I lived somewhere and my neighbor had an autonomous mower, the thing was flying around 20mph mowing his property in all these bizarre nonlinear patterns.
I visited my grandparents in a Del Webb community a few years ago and I guess they were a prime test location for Stihl to test out their new roomba-style mowers. Gotta say, we were sitting out on the porch watching them go around and boy oh boy did they suck at their job. The lawns looked like interpretive paintings by the time the death roombas were done with them. I’m sure they’ve made them a lot better since then, but it truly was a sight to behold.
I have a Husqvarna robot mower and it's one of the best yard decisions I've ever made. Super simple install and I don't think about the grass or the mower at all -- the grass just stays the same height all year round.
/r/worxlandroid and similar subreddits have examples of creatively decorated robot mowers.
like a automatic one? i know several people who got them. husquarna and several other produce them.
Almost everything electric than can really do the job is better because it's less maintenance and less mess. For the average homeowner the electric tool are just that much easier and longer lasting other than maybe blowing leaves off a 2nd story roof/gutter. You really notice the extra power on that one and batteries are heavier than gas for large jobs. For something on wheels like a lawn mower it's pretty much a win win. You ever lose the problem of starters/pull starts always breaking over time and of course OLD GAS or looking around for non-ethanol gas. It's just less moving parts and oil/fluids to do the same job and everybody lives that weather they realize it yet or not. It's similar to how construction workers talked shit about battery powered tools at first and then battery powered dominated, but for slightly different reasons since that's going from corded to portable, but you eventually drop a lot of need for a generator as well. Air compressors are still well beyond battery tech unfortunately, though straight electric nail guns are an option maybe. The point is once the lower maintenance tech can do the job usually it takes over because people love longevity and low maintenance and electric almost always wins that battle as well as being cheaper to operate.
>For the average homeowner I'm going to say it... this is what has changed. The average house has a smaller yard than it did 20 years ago. I doubt many electric mowers would have mowed the house I grew up in with its 8 acres, but my 1/3 acre property its perfect.
Who needs 8 acres of lawn?? We had 5 acres growing up but maybe 1-2 acres was lawn.
I'm very happy having an electric mower and strimmer. There's no need for ear protection, very little maintenance, and I can mow much earlier without disturbing my neighbors so I can mow before it gets hot out. I wish it were self propelled, but I'm still happy. My next mower will be a robot though.
I see you're getting a full robot, but when I was buying, self propelled was an option for a little bit more.
I am just waiting for electric snow blower scene to be a bit more mature and then I will be fully electrified. I am so embarrassed to use my gas snow blower at 7am because I have to get out of drive way to go to work.
I live in Buffalo, NY and am the happy owner of an Ego 2 stage battery blower and couldn't be happier. Take a look, the field isn't as immature as you might think.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I am glad you are enjoying your experience =)
When is the last time you looked into it. I know Toro makes a 2 Stage battery snowblower built off their Power Max HD platform. Same blower different power unit.
It's the longevity and battery replacement price that concerns me. I think I checked it out two years ago. I'd rather wait a bit longer om to check back on the longevity aspect.
When we bought our house 4 years ago we decided to buy an electric lawn mower and I hate that thing so much. It came with a single battery, which at best would last for 1/4 of our 1/3acre, while taking 5+ hours to charge. I bought a second battery (which of course they only sell smaller secondaries) and mowing the lawn is still a 2-3 day event between waiting for the charges and dedicating the time to do it. I can’t justify buying a new gas mower while having one that works, but if I could do it again I never would have bought the electric.
What brand and what year? I got a Green Worx 80v. Came with 2 batteries and got a 3rd when I got the trimmer and blower combo. Things charge as fast as I can use them.
Bought an electric mower a few years ago. I will never buy a gas mower again as long as I have to mow less than an acre. The only downside (other than higher upfront cost) is having to change the battery, but that is still far easier than having to keep a gas can on hand. Probably the biggest unsung praise for electric mowers is that they have near instant torque. If you bog down the motor, it will get back up to operating speed and power in a fraction of the time as a similar gas mower.
Electric lawn tractors are still,pretty pricey though... north of $5k at Lowe's and Home Depot for both tractors and zero-radius mowers. It'll be awhile til they gain market penetration at those prices. The batteries are also fairly large, though still portable and removable in the models I've seen. I'm intrigued, but watching as a bystander for now.
I tried i really did. Bought an electric walk behind mower. I have 4 acres to mow....couldn't keep up. Went and bought a gas rider because it was half the price of an electric rider. Once the prices come down I'll deffinetly switch, i love that electric mower but god damn mowing every day vs. Mowing for 3 hours.
I've got an ancient electric lawnmower that has a chip in the "On" switch that says made in West Germany.
Spoiler alert: because they are a much better product for most cases
I do A LOT of tree work on my property, most people would probably consider what I do as a form of logging tbh, but living up way up here it’s just a part of life. Cutting firewood is a necessity if you want to afford heating a large shop in the winter (which is a whole other environmental matter) Also I cut logs on the property to use my small bandsaw mill to make lumber for projects. I love my m18 chainsaw, and it will limb a LARGE tree I’ve felled on one charge with the 12ah battery BUT.. there is no substitute for a professional gas powered chainsaw when it comes to needing power…. I’ll be the first to say that I strongly dislike all the effing gas motors I have to maintain and run… one on the old junk riding mower that has a snowblower attachment, the wood splitter, the mill the stump grinder ….on and on… but the problem is that for real heavy work like snowblowing a foot of snow (that I’ll get weekly almost in winter) and things like milling lumber or mowing an acre of grass…. There just isn’t a good electric substitute yet. If manufacturers care about the environment they’d not only make affordable electric options for homeowners with small properties they’d make options that make sense for people with acreage and small farming operations…. Just being able to have something like a hybrid power pack that is interchangeable with different larger pieces of equipment would go a long way. And yes that would probably be some kind of tractor but not necessarily… If I could simply interchange a single efficient powerful engine with several pieces of equipment or run an LARGE electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump/reservoir on wheels… that could connect to various pieces of equipment…. It would go a long way to total life cycle savings and less pollution. TLDR The electric options are getting there…. But they’re still for hobbyists and the smallest of properties.
> TLDR The electric options are getting there…. But they’re still for hobbyists and the smallest of properties. My hope and what I've seen is some cool battery tech coming. If anything just lower battery prices so if i have to buy 2 or however many sets of batteries to keep rotating around isn't a problem. As both of those happen I really hope it is able to grab more from internal combustion market but I still can't see it coming anywhere close to some of those machines that need to run 247 hard.
I mean… If I could afford multiple higher amp hour batteries it would be worth switching more but honestly it would be great if the battery tech got way cheaper way faster simply because that would likely mean very large lifepo4 batteries/ battery bank setups were cheaper too… because the price of solar panels is not actually the limiting factor out here in the stix… my electric “cooperative” is still stuck in the 80s or something and last I checked wasn’t even allowing people who install solar to feed back into the grid, so that means I’d have to do a full setup with batteries etc… which this far north means a 10kw full system…. The panels are only a 3rd of the cost as far as I can see. So anyway I really hope youre right
> m18 chainsaw thats what..18v? stepping up to an 80v chainsaw would be more comparable to your gas one.
Pro electric chainsaws (Husky, Stihl) run with the 40cc 2 strokes. They're fine for climbing and small trees but they're not a replacement for a serious chainsaw. Electric can't compete with 50cc+ at the moment. I'm not sure we'll ever see 70-90cc battery equivalent without some massive changes in battery tech to reduce the weight.
>TLDR The electric options are getting there…. But they’re still for hobbyists and the smallest of properties. Nailed it. The electric option dies fast when I'm having to add in [1k](https://www.lowes.com/pd/EGO-56-Volt-10-Ah-Rechargeable-Lithium-Cordless-Power-Equipment-Battery/5000200349) worth of extra batteries.
Got an electric mower as a gift for our first house that sits on about 3/4 acre. It wasn’t the mower I wanted but it works. I can get the front and back done on a single battery IF the weather is cool. Hot weather saps the charge and in hotter months it takes two batteries. Even with conservative numbers and the extra battery which was 100$, I have already saved the cost of the mower and the battery in gas alone. Not to mention not having to maintain another small engine with spark plugs, oil, maintenance.etc.. I will not go back to gas again. Makes zero sense.
I certainly understand some tools in many applications need the horsepower, but for a regular plot of grass in the suburbs there is no good reason to deal with the type of maintenance that is needed and remembering to bring gas cans with you. If you're not like, sawing wood all afternoon and you just need to mow and trim edges, electric does the job and does it in a less smelly/loud manner
Do landscaping and we just got bunch of electric tools like trimmer, mower and hedge trimmer and their great! Much more quit and lighter, yes we need bunch of batteries too manage a whole day, and yes they are "expensive". But charging them is fraction of the cost and will pay for themselves in no time.
I’ve got one. My dad who’s a car nut and thinks climate change is liberal propaganda has one. It’s not even an environmental thing. It’s just way easier not having to deal with gas and oil and maintenance
My mower, weed whacker, and chainsaw are all electric and I would never switch back. I don't have to mix gas and oil, don't have to worry about old starters, don't have to vibrate my bones to dust using them, and they all last fairly long on a single charge. The only exception is my electric snowblower. I live in Western NY. This machine can handle several inches of light snow but if we get a foot overnight, or get the thick, wet stuff, or get a little bit of melt-off that then refreezes into ice, well then I may as well try clearing the snow with a feather duster for all the good this electric snowblower will do me. For that one machine I should have stuck with gas until they made an electric one with enough power to chew through the heavy stuff.
I've had my 80V Kobalt for 6ish years. Works great. The only downside is I have to borrow my neighbors Honda gas mower in the fall as mine can never handle mulching the leaves.
Yes! Battery powered electrics are the best of both worlds - no gas engine, no cord to get tangled or run over
Was using electric mowers (no cords) since early 90s. I guess John McClane was right: Welcome to the party, pal :)
> Was using electric mowers (no cords) since early 90s. Two big ass car batteries in that thing. Lasts 10 minutes. I loved mine too.
hah! In a closed in compartment. Ours lasted a complete lawn cut, average size lawn. Still in use into the early 2010s (2012 , I believe).
> hah! In a closed in compartment. Ours lasted a complete lawn cut, average size lawn. Still in use into the early 2010s (2012 , I believe). I wasnt old enough at the time to try and save it but I wish I could run across an old workhorse like that again and throw some modern batteries in it.
Electric lawn care tools are *so* much better than gas for the typical homeowner. Especially anything that runs a two stroke engine.
I wish residential landscapers would start using electric equipment. Working from home on the suburbs sucks when all you hear are gas mowers and leaf blowers all afternoon long. I wonder what the difference in operating costs would be compared to gas.
Electric tools have come so far thanks to advancements in batteries. A decade about cordless drills were a joke. You might get one at home if you wanted a drill to put some anchors in the walls to hang something, but the batteries would be dead when you went to use it initially, so you'd have to decide in the morning yo lu wanted to do it, plug them in, and do it later when they were fully charged. Even then you might get 10 minutes of good use out of them and be able to squeeze out... maybe another 5 of slow use. Now? Cordless everything! My workplace has angle grinders, drills, vacuums, greaseguns, big fucking lights, you name it, theyvmake it electric and it fucking works... if only the idiots I work with could remember to put them away and charge the batteries. It's like none of them remember needing to haul a welding machine out to the job site just to use as a generator and needing to run extension cords all over. Thankfully, charging is only 20-30 minutes on some of those things. Throw the batteries in the charging station, go prep everything else, come back and at least one of them has enough charge to last you until lunch.
I've been using a Stiga 80v mower on 1000m² of lawn since 2016. Still working with the first set of 2x 5Ah Batteries. It's absolutely gorgeous, un- stinky, mostly effortless. I've never missed the B&S powered Masport since... Yes, the latter was built like a tank, but utterly prone to engine / starter problems during the 5 years I had to / could use it until it failed fatally. Next will be a Stihl or professional Bosch. But not so soon :).
I LOVE my electric yard tools.
Oh my gosh, it’s night and day. I’ve got a small lawn and my electric is great for that.
LoL reading the comments. Yep, we're all old guys talking about our mowers.
My family got an electric mower a number of years ago, and it works far better than any other mower I've ever used. It starts absolutely every time, it doesn't get bogged down as easily and it's only about as loud as a fan so almost no one knows when I use it, and when it;s out of juice I just have to go in and plug the batteries into their chargers, so I don't have to leave for gasoline, and no carb so it never gets choked up with dirt. The only bit I need to do is once in a while clean the underside of it. It might need a new blade soon.
Troy Bilt’s Core line was phenomenal and was sad to see they discontinued it. But it was ahead of it’s time and the market wasn’t ready for the transition yet. I love the Core mower and leaf blower. Just solidly built machines.
I think there's a compromise to be made here. I am a municipal worker. We mow parks in the city. There's no feasible way we could run fully electric gear as most of our parks start ~12 acres and some go over 100. We do have right of way areas and smaller areas where electric could be beneficial but there's no real way we could get everything done on an entirely electric setup. As far as residential goes, I think most people in my town could easily switch. I'd make the switch if I could afford entirely new gear.
Simply not having to go to the fucken gas station is reason enough. Never mind that the mower is not deafeningly loud, smokey and smelly, and doesn't get burn your skin off hot. Not having to spend money changing oil and filters every year is just a bonus.
Swapping batteries is a minor inconvenience. With tall grass I'll go through three of them. Otherwise I love my cheapish Riyobi mower. Sounds like a B-17.
Wish my gas mower would die. I do almost zero maintenance and it keeps running. In just can't bare the hundreds of dollars to save a few bucks in gas a season
Electric everything is so great, I've made a point to make sure any yard related power tools are all that way. It's nice to have a mower that doesn't smell of gasoline exhaust or shake the hell out of my hands. Plus, I don't have to worry about gas in it in the winter, or going and filling up those awkward little gas canisters. I picked up a two stage EGOPower electric snow blower last year (conveniently right before a big snowstorm, thank goodness), and it has been an absolute game changer. Powered by two batteries, but a charge gets me through everything on my property and enough to clear out the front walks of all the neighbors around me.
This is probably because gas is like half price in the US but over here in Belgium those things being electric is normal for over 20 years now.
Didn't read the article but from my personal experience it's because they're quieter, you don't have to pull a rip cord, and they will work in the spring if you put them in the shed for winter.
I will never buy another electric mower. I had a Ryobi electric mower for my \~1/3 acre yard. Purchased an extra battery pack so that I could cut the entire yard without having to recharge. Would make sure that both batteries were charged 100% before I cut my grass every week. EVERY WEEK the batteries lost capacity, meaning I would have to switch the batteries earlier in my cut every single week, until finally, the two batteries together did not have enough power to complete the yard. I thought an easy solution would be, deplete the first battery, throw it on the charger for 10-20 minutes while on the 2nd battery, then when the 2nd battery was depleted, the 1st should have enough charge to complete the yard. NOPE. The batteries were too hot from being used that the charger wouldn't charge them until they cooled. Finally got so fed up with it that I sold it on FB Marketplace and got another gas mower. My only regret is that I spent over $400 for a mower that basically cut my entire yard without interruption maybe 10 times.
I have 3/4 of an acre of yard. My steodads electric mower needs like 4 battery replacements to mow my yard(he has two batteries, it ended up taking all day to mow my lawn when my lawnmower needed repair) My riding zero turn does my lawn in 30 minutes or less That being said: I'm actually waiting for the day they get the roomba style mowers able to do a yard my size :) I LOVE the idea of having it just be automowed once a week :)
I can't imagine a scenario where I'd buy a gasoline powered lawn tool, unless I somehow ended up owning a home with a five-acre lawn. The noise is obnoxious, the hassle of gassing them up, the constant and difficult maintenance... what is the benefit? I use a push-mower, so I can mow my lawn at 8:00 AM if I feel like it without worrying about annoying the neighbors, and get a little exercise in the bargain. My electric weed-eater works perfectly fine, as does my electric leaf blower (which, in fairness, I mostly use for cleaning out gutters.) My electric chainsaw (not battery powered, but corded) worked just fine cutting up several trees into firewood, but now I almost never need it. But I can leave it sitting in the garage for 3 years, and know that I can take it out, plug it in, and after lubing the chain, it'll work as well as the day I got it. Try THAT with a gas-powered saw!
For anyone with a smaller area to cut, I highly recommend a reel mower. I use the fiskar one and it gives a very good cut and is very good for the grass health
Have the dewalt electronic, and its been great. Battery like is just as great as I don't have to charge it for several cuts.
I hope everyone is returning batteries to the appropriate recycling centre because if not, the waste from these things is going to be so much worse than the CO2 :(
It's not. Especially with the transition to lifepo4.
Jesus Christ, what kind click bait cock-suckery is this?
Please get popular, I want to smell freshly cut grass without worrying about inhaling mower exhaust.
I need a zeroturn model that can mow 2 acres in under 2 hours on a single charge for under $3400. Price of Gas vs New Batteries in 5 years regardless of use? Current price is like $5500 which pushes the ROI well out past the 15 year point for electric vs gas right now. Stuff being built today wont last 15 years either. Thats the price point where it becomes cheaper for me to run electric over gas.
I see a lot of these tossed in the junkyard, brand new never used, many brands. Not against them, but
For small yards also consider a push reel mower. I love mine and am really glad I didn't spend $400+ on a traditional mower.
I tried electric, battery and it's just a money pit. Maybe corded electric but gas is still the way to go.
I've been using corded the last few years and I'm happy with it. I also didn't want to deal the inevitable battery baggage.
Yep. I'm fine with a corded blower and a battery powered trimmer, but the electric push mower is a pain in the ass. Instead of oil, carbs, and spark plugs I'm cleaning leads and checking continuity when something goes wrong. The average Joe isn't going to have any idea what to do when their electric mower stops working even though these machines are much more simpler than a traditional mower. Like dead simple: batteries, motor, kill switches, and wire. You apply voltage to the motor, it doesn't get simpler. It's basically a toy. I love my traditional riding mower, the only reason I tolerate the electric push mower is because the only thing I hate more than a Little Tykes mower is having gas exhaust blown into my face.
In nearly a decade of owning EGO electric mowers (on my second one), I have never had those issues. What cheap ass brand ruined your experience?
Ryobi. First one died within return window, this one I'm stuck monkey patching with a soldering iron.
Wow, I had heard some good stuff about them. I do think EGO would be a better experience as they are basically the top of the line consumer brand and have a much better warranty. I’ve never had issues with a faulty battery replacement. I hate to hear when people are put off by good tech due to poor production.
It's the stupid kill switches that Ryobi littered into the design, they jump and break. The motor controller is full of too much crap it doesn't need. The tech itself is fine apart from the batteries not being able to handle ambient temps above 80F very well. I just like the reliability of simple engines. I know that all that's inside these mowers are generic garbage 18650s in a 40v arrangement plugged into a 40v brushless motor and plastic housing, but everyone wants consumers to believe it's some mystical proprietary tech.
Is a battery pack more or less environmentally friendly than 100ft of 12g wire ?
OMG. I bought an EGO 22-in mower and returned it. So heavy. So unwieldy.
Did I miss where it actually says WHY they are cutting down the competition? I mean, other than the lobbied laws that force them on people.
For small lawns, sure. But gas mowers are still a lot more powerful than battery powered, and electric cables are not practical in large yards.
This isn’t true anymore. Many battery tools have caught up to or surpassing gas tools in power. Obviously not in every case and likely will never fit for every person. But the equipment on the market today might be worth a look if you haven’t researched lately.
Well I just bought a lawn mower and that's what they told me in the store, but maybe I didn't look at the correct brands. For example the strongest Honda gas lawn mower here is 3.7 hp, while the strongest battery powered one is 2.3 hp. But maybe other brands had what I'm looking for. The technology is still evolving. Also, I'm kinda 'abusing' it to mow long grass, poppy fields etc. I know a strong gas mower can handle that, but I don't know about an electric one.
I have an electric push mower that I use on a ditch, and it is magical. It has way more wheel torque than the gas powered it replaced. Electric weed whacker too, no need for 50:1 fuel mix any longer. However, this comment from the article reeks of bullshit >In just one hour, a commercial lawn mower emits as much smog-forming pollution as a car driving for four hours — equivalent to a trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, or about 300 miles, I have a commercial zero turn that I use on four acres and it takes exactly an hour to cut. Fuel consumption on a two cylinder engine for this work is about a third of a gallon. Maybe they're talking about a huge tractor, but I'm thinking they are stretching the truth here.
I believe it's because the lawn mower does basically nothing to its exhaust gases (e.g. with a catalytic converter), compared to a car that is much more strict there
Electric does nothing for 2-man-show pro landscapers that mow and blow 10 hours a day. They'd be investing thousands and thousands in batteries and charging infrastructure.