1988RedT2 said:In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :
If you make a habit of mowing when the grass is wet and don't scrape accumulations of grass clippings from the underside of the deck, the build-up of wet grass holds moisture against the steel and encourages rusting.
I'm quite bad about maintaining my mowers, but I don't generally mow when the grass is wet for the sake of the grass.
Probably guilty of this, but I generally don't mow when wet because the mower shute gets clogged easily.
Too funny, I just went out to clean up the dog poo from the yard so I could mow. Noticed the grass was still pretty wet, decided to wait until later in the morning/day to mow it. My old Toro (19 years old?) is still going strong. When it dies, I'll consider getting an electric mower but I like the fact that I can fix a gas mower at home. If the electric mower stops working and it's out of warranty, I have to throw it away and buy another one. That's not all that attractive to me....
In reply to docwyte :
That is part of why I still have my gas mower. Once in awhile (every few years, maybe) it'll stop running and refuse to start. So I'll pull the carb off the engine, clean gunk out of the bowl and orifices, put it back together and it usually starts on the first pull. Costs nothing but a bit of time and a few squirts of carb cleaner.
And with that, I'm reminded I need to mow today...
vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:Probably guilty of this, but I generally don't mow when wet because the mower shute gets clogged easily.
I have to mow today and it's been raining all weekend :/. Not looking forward to this.
An appropriate update since I plan on mowing this evening: Our 20-plus-year-old Honda is still rocking along.
In reply to porschenut :
I'm convinced, that brand is off my list of potential products. Thanks for sharing your experience.
My gas mower will probably need replacing before summer. I've already got the Kobalt 80v line trimmer with a bunch of attachments and spare batteries but Lowe's stopped using that battery so I can't add a mower without needing a new battery system.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Gotta eat my words now. Even though the blade still gets dull monthly and the self propelled switch failed I am still using it. More wires zip tied to the handle and a micro switch screwed on and it is still working. But what I learned this year is so many people bought and hated an ego buying a used one is cheap. So I got a year old model with battery for $150, gave my old one to the kid and keep sharpening the blade every month. Refurb batteries are way cheap and if I have 2 or 3 on a charger I can cut the whole lawn. Someone on FB has used broken mowers for 25 bucks so now that I know how to keep them running and have a source of parts they seem to be a good option.
I don't have much of a yard anymore so the gas push mower probably only runs about an hour per year. I'll go electric if it ever wears out. I'm in the habit of using Stabil in my gas can without fail as it fuels the generator, lawn mower, lawn tractor, tractor, and Spitfire. I never can remember when what has been run last or how old the gas might be. I always bush hog or mow when it's wet because I HATE dust. Easy enough to rinse underneath.
Thread bump.
I have a 21" 160cc Honda-powered Husqy that is at least 20 years old. It's still in one piece but it is wearing out. Last night it quit 10 minutes into the job, and 2 hours of dicking around with it didn't get it running again. Won't even fire. Taking the carburetor on and off this thing is a Minor Rant™ of its own.
Fuel? Spark? Who knows? A handy retired guy could get it running and sell it for a few bucks or use it for a few more years.
I'm not retired and my grass needs to be cut very soon, so I figure it might be time to switch to cordless electric.
What is the state of cordless mowers in 2024? I've got a less than a quarter acre of typical suburban lawn. Takes about 50 minutes run time for a gas mower; the back yard gets a fair amount of water and sun so the grass can get dense.
I'm not really in a battery ecosystem at this point. I have some WORX branded 20V yard tools (not my first choice but they were essentially free) but nothing else really At some point I wouldn't mind adding a cordless string trimmer and chainsaw, but those could continue in the WORX system, too.
I'm making a couple assumptions:
Are my assumptions correct? I'm a suburban guy, it's a suburban lawn; I'm not going into the lawncare business... but I don't want to be replacing it in 5 years.
Stopped at my local been-there-forever independent commercial lawn care shop. They had 3 reasonable options:
I know Ryobi is popular; who else? I understand this technology will be ever-changing, but I'd like to get 10 years out of this if possible. By that time I'll have probably succumbed to the temptation to just pay someone to mow it for me, but that day is not today.
Thanks!
I have a friend with a Mikita. He likes it and it uses the same batteries as his power tools.
I'd be tempted to buy whatever uses the batteries I already have.
For me, that's either Cub Cadet 60 volt or Milwaukee M18.
If you have a small yard, moving an extension cord around for a corded electric mower is less work than the care and feeding of a small gas engine. Corded mowers are cheaper than cordless and last approximately forever.
In reply to Toyman! :
I'm not in an important battery ecosystem yet. I have 18V RIGID hand tools (drill / driver) and the WORX yard tools (leaf blower and hedge trimmer) are only 20V. Those were more-or-less a gift from a very limited selection, and I don't want to spend my own money in that direction.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Yeah, if I had half a duplex or a typical in-town house with a little garden out back, I might go that route. But here, I'd need another 100-footer on top of my current 100 and I'd have to deal with wrangling the cord. You're absolutely correct that US 120V / 60Hz line power isn't going out of style any time soon and the hardware should last forever, but the price difference is affordable and convenience is a worthy investment at this point.
My brother has Ego cordless tools and loves them. I've been happy with my Kobalt 80v tools but haven't tried the mower. We have a huge yard so riding mower is a must and we're not quite there for electric, cost wise. Everything else, electric has been great.
In reply to Duke :
I'm in the same boat, after my last gas weed wacker died, I picked up an Ego trimmer. 56V battery pack, this thing is a beast. As soon as my mower finally bites the dust i'm picking up the the matching Ego mower and never looking back. Probably this one: EGO-POWER 56 volt 21 in self propelled
We bought one of the higher-end Ryobi 40v units, 21" self-propelled. I carries two batteries with a quick switch, so when one dies you just flip the key around and the other one takes over. It seems to have a load sensor, so when the grass gets heavier, the speed kicks up. I does get bogged down in really heavy stuff, but it's pretty effective for anything reasonable. We bought it from https://www.directtoolsoutlet.com/ , which someone recommended here.
I took the jump this year to the M18 string trimmer and leaf blower.
String trimmer is great.
Leaf blower is OK, its the single battery model. Its not as powerful as my Stihl gas blower.
Neither feel like they are here for a long time. I am sure my old Tanaka string trimmer and Stihl gas blower will still be kicking in 30 years.
But it is oh so nice to just get it off the hook and squeeze the trigger and go. About every 2-3 mows I gotta charge the batteries.
And no more 2 stroke gas, so thats a win too.
As far as mowers, we are not there yet. The issue being the commercial duty ones will always be gas engines, same reason gas trucks will always win out for doing real work day in and day out - they gotta run 100% of the time to make the owners money and the battery and charging tech is just too slow compared to topping off a tank of gas.
The battery pushmowers are poorly built toys, even the M18 which is a full $1,000, is plastic garbage and will be in a landfill in 5 years. Meanwhile an Exmark Commercial 21" is only $1800 and when the red menace nukes us all will still be running 100%. A consumer grade Honda is $600 and needs nothing but the occasional slug of gas.
Just ordered the Ryobi 40v HP with two batteries, self propelled, 3n1. Lets' see how things go. I wanted the AWD but not for $250 more. No charge, delivered to my house.
In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :
Yeah, I'm looking at that one too, and wondering if a higher voltage unit is worth another hundred.
Ego, Milwaukee, Ryobi and Makita are the only ones that actually design their own mowers. Everything else is just rebranded from Global Tools, the Echo and Stihl listed above fall under this category even. The Makita with a cast aluminum deck is a solid performer, Ryobi has better customer service than EGO but the EGO is better put together and really hard to compete with. This is coming from the guy that designed the Ryobi AWD mower. The Milwaukee is ugly, the batteries are expensive and it's pretty loud for a battery mower.
In reply to RacetruckRon :
So if you're an engineer in this field I'd say that gives your opinion some weight!
I like the Ryobi brand in general, but I wish they were available between 40v and 80v.
Makita only makes commercial walkbehinds and at $1100+ that's too rich for my blood, though every piece of Makita equipment I own is still going strong. I've heard that the Global Tools stuff is hit or miss by brand, so... meh. Milwaukee stuff also has the Red tax and if you're not impressed, I won't be either.
So I guess EGO it is, based on responses here.
Currently favoring the EGO LM 2125SP which for $649 comes with a 550 watt charger and a 7.5 Ah battery. For the same price it can be had with 2x 4.0 Ah batteries instead... any preference? It seems to be very flexible on what batteries it accepts, compared to some of their other models.
It's a brushless motor, whereas the one linked by 06HHR is brushed. Don't know if that's hugely important. This is all new ground for me, so thanks.
[edit] I'm struggling a bit to find out if that mower can take 2 batteries at the same time. It's implied that it can, but I can't find any pictures of the inside of the battery compartment.
In reply to Duke :
18v, 24v, 40v, 56v, 80v... watts are watts. The lower nominal voltage just flows more amps. Over 60V actually is more expensive for the performance because you are into "high dc voltage" and have a different set of regulatory requirements which adds cost to the product. Definitely get a brushless mower, I am not aware of many brushed mowers that aren't entry level 18" or smaller.
Between Ryobi and EGO I think the Ryobi 40v is a better system with more tools and with direct tools sales it's much more affordable than EGO. Head to head is a very close call. EGO was slightly better in runtime and we had better bagging and side discharge performance in 2022. I no longer work for Ryobi but I'm still biased towards them and the Ryobi 21" mowers are built in South Carolina if that has any weight to you
In reply to Duke :
End of season may provide some good deals. Lowes had a special on EGO in the spring, SP mower, a 7 and 5 amp battery for 500 if you got a new lowes card. And with the lowes card you can get a one year replacement at no cost benefit. With these 2 batteries you can do an acre without a problem. And why worry about 2 batteries, after 45 minutes a break and cool drink are welcome anyway.
Our 80v stuff was great. Sold it years ago and we went to having someone take care of the yard because we have a corner lot and the amount of edging was 3-4x the amount of work of mowing. We went back to doing it ourselves last year when the better half was out of work most of the year. She bought some cheap Walmart stuff that seems to be working well. I can't get out and help anymore, my allergies (even taking mulitple pills and eye drops per day) will put me in a coma for 24-48 hours.
I have a quarter acre with a 1456sqft house. The back yard is pretty big and the previous owner put in sod before we bought it. I love how quiet the Ryobi mower is, but it was NOT up to the task for my use. I mowed once a week and I don't want to more more often than that. If I mowed twice a week it would have been almost acceptable. In the lush section of lawn I could take a step, let it cut and bog, lift up the deck to let it clear, rinse repeat. Sold it to a good friend with a small yard and with those monies I bought a 1969 Cub Cadet riding mower. It cuts the grass and I don't have to push it.
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