Battery Mowers

I'm tired of dealing with small gas engines. I want to get a battery powered mower. 

Any thoughts on which ones work best? It is a small yard, but I'll want to use it for leaf cleanup in the fall so it must have a bagger. Other than that, I really don't care. I already have a Dewalt ecosystem of batteries for my tools, but by no means am I hooked on DeWalt.

Oops, meant to put this in off topic

I've been using a battery mower exactly for that purpose for about 4 years now.  Works great.  It's a Black & Decker.  Has more than enough battery to go over my lawn multiple times shredding and picking up leaves.

I'm not able to look for the discussion, but there was a good response to this question some time in the last year. 

I have some input, but can't post more until I get off work. I don't have a battery mower, but have some tools that use the 80 volt battery that the mower uses.

I just picked up a Kobalt 80V mower from Lowe's, our yard is light on grass so I haven't had a chance to use it yet. But I will in the next few days. 5 year warranty on the mower itself, 3 year on the batteries. It came with two.  

And of course there are a bunch of other yard tools in the 80V line that will use the same batteries. 

I also was tired of dealing with small gas engines and having oil/gas in the garage. 

Downside, it was $499+tax.

I have the ryobi if you want you are free to borrow it and try it out.

I very much want a battery ride-on. They are starting to come down to reasonable prices now.

How loud are the electric pushers? I always wondered how much noise was blades and how much noise was engine.

Robbie said:

I have the ryobi if you want you are free to borrow it and try it out.

Probably not worth that much effort--does it work?

In reply to tuna55 :

Pretty darned quiet.  

mtn said:

Robbie said:

I have the ryobi if you want you are free to borrow it and try it out.

Probably not worth that much effort--does it work?

ha! I was secretly hoping you would volunteer to mow my yard...

It does work great. I wish the headlights didn't always run, but I DO love the headlights. It is quiet enough (much like an electric weedwacker) that I don't feel bad mowing at dusk, and the headlights make it really easy to see where you have mowed and where you haven't.

Headlights would be a worthwhile upgrade to a standard gas pusher.

My experience was that the cordless I had at the time didnt have the juice for heavy/wet lawn, but the corded electric one i had would go through anything.

I really like my newer Toro mower (gas 4 stroke) that you can stand on its end for storage

Homedepot was having a really good deal on a Ryobi when I just looked, so I pulled the trigger. 

In reply to mtn :

I hope you have better luck than I’ve had with their cordless blower & weed eater. Within 2 years I’ve had one battery & one charger die. I rarely use them too. I contacted Ryobi about warranty replacement since I’d mailed in the registration cards after I bought them, but they said that doesn’t apply to the warranty & I need my receipt. I’m not about to spend hours combing through my box of receipts from 2-years ago, so I’ll not be buying any of their products in the future. 

I'll save the receipts and also plan on storing the batteries indoors over the winter. 

Handy info I have heard, and believe. 

It is better to use the holy heckfire out of your cordless tools, than to rarely use them/keep them charged. 

I bought a $200 cordless Jegs impact, and got approximately $10 of use out of the darned thing before the batteries went breasts up. It would have cost approximately $10 less than the whole thing cost to get new batteries.

TLDR: Use them hard, run them down to zero charge, and don't store the battery on the charger.

Lithium ions definitely prefer to be stored at lower charge levels.  Stone dead isn't good (because if you over-discharge it, it's toast for good).  But definitely charge before use, not after.  And storing the batteries in a cooler environment will help their lifespan as well.  

Good to know about the battery stuff.  I just bought the Kobalt 40V model, so far so good.

Jaynen said:

My experience was that the cordless I had at the time didnt have the juice for heavy/wet lawn, but the corded electric one i had would go through anything.

I really like my newer Toro mower (gas 4 stroke) that you can stand on its end for storage

Brand? Voltage? 

z31maniac said:

Jaynen said:

My experience was that the cordless I had at the time didnt have the juice for heavy/wet lawn, but the corded electric one i had would go through anything.

I really like my newer Toro mower (gas 4 stroke) that you can stand on its end for storage

Brand? Voltage? 

Neuton CE6 I think, https://www.neutonpower.com/ce6-mower/ce6-4-neuton-mower-19in-w-bagger-plug-charger-new.axd

The corded one was this one

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZVOLXE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Greenworks 12amp. I could cut knee high grass that was wet and it would just go through it

In reply to tuna55 :

My grandfather had one of these when I was growing up. Way ahead of its time, but subjected to battery limitations at the time (1970-1980s).

I want one of these, but still struggle with the price

I have the 80v kobalt line trimmer, which I use with multiple other attachments: pole saw, edger. Thing's a beast, especially the chainsaw. Battery charges fast. Can run it really hard for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Friend has the mower, which he loves. 

I did have to change the trimmer head, the original one was terrible. Other glitch, the attachment got stuck on the first one and I had to return it. I keep it well greased now. 

No Time said:

In reply to tuna55 :

My grandfather had one of these when I was growing up. Way ahead of its time, but subjected to battery limitations at the time (1970-1980s).

 

I want one of these, but still struggle with the price

A buddy at work took a ton of time and energy and rebuilt one of those, even though we couldn't find the drawings anywhere. He's weird, and for some reason, it is re-disassembled and in his basement,.

I have used Greenworks, eGo, and the Kobalt battery versions. All are good, but the main piece of advice I would give is go for the highest voltage you can afford, as the 56-80v versions seem equivalent to cheaper gas options in terms of performance!

I've also heard that Worx tools are pretty robust.

Bought an EGO self propelled last year.  Worked great but bagging it did not pick up as efficiently as a gas mower. It runs for over an hour on a charge and cuts clean.  So quiet you can hear people walking by talk.  I didn't store the battery inside, was in a garage that gets down to about 20.  It had a full charge, seems ok now but just did one cut.  Will see if it hold up.

I bought the Kobalt 40v pusher ($299) last summer - it folds up and stands on its end for storage, has plenty of juice to do my small yard (subdivision boredom), pretty quiet - you can carry on a conversation with it running.