Battery Power for Lawn equipment -- is it time?

There are definitely big differences in effort and appearance. I've tried mine (0.8ac mowed area) a few ways around.

I have done it with a 19" electric greenworks. I've also done it with the tractor my neighbor threw away (and I then rebuilt for $150) and I've also had a robot do it.

The electric push mower was by far the most effort, and looked okay but never great. It was usually time to start again right about when I finished.

The riding mower gets it done in two hours flat, but it looks like I've dragged a big comb across the lawn with big weird stripes.

The robot made it look as smooth as a billiards table. Just an amazing finish, with no marks, drags or ruts.

 

^Still waiting for somebody to throw one of those away.

Robbie the robot has an extraordinarily low WAF.
I can't even talk my CFO into getting a floor vac - although it would be great fun to see what the pooch (a 2-year old Boxer) thinks of her new 'play-mate!'
- and I have too many EXPENSIVE hobbies to fund one out of my allowance.

I've actually gotten some fairly impressive results out of the corded electric push mower - but I'm probably an 'easy room."
Most of my neighbors use what I call the "Whammo Lawn Care Company" - which, in the Deep South tends to be an underemployed millennial driving a $50,000 pickup truck, and towing $25,000 worth of lawn care equipment that they're barely making payments on by charging my neighbors $50-75 for 10 minutes a week of destructive lawn care.

 

Any recommendations for electric wood chipper/shredders? My old one is discontinued, with no parts available. Still can do mostly straight branches, but no more brush or leaves. Which happens to be what I have a pile of.

 

Wonder if they'll ever come up with a Battery powered log splitter. Those hydraulic motors are far from being lightweights.
They do have corded ones;

Heavy Duty 7 Tons Electric Hydraulic Log Splitter Machine

EDIT
found it !

RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 12-Ton Kinetic Battery Electric Log Splitter Kit - 4.0Ah Battery and Charger Included RY40740 - The Home Depot

 

They also have inertial based splitters that are effective. These spin up a flywheel and use the kinetic energy to split a log.

JeffD

 

Aren't there also hand pump hydraulic log splitters?

 

oh yeah, but no thanks
IMO - Hand jacking a hydraulic pump is like using a Yankee screwdriver instead of a Ryobi screw gun. No one needs that much exercise.

.

 

Don't say that to the people using bike pumps on car tires.

 

We have a Ryobi mower and hedge-trimmer with interchangeable batteries. For years before that we had a no-name corded electric mower. And before that ICE mowers.

The two "killer" reasons for me to have an electric mower were (and still are):

1) No maintenance with electric mowers (except clearing away accumulated grass etc.). The ICE mowers perpetually needed timing adjusted, spark-plug cleaning/adjusting, ...
2) Electric mowers aren't heavy - ours is light enough that my wife can do the mowing when it suits.
Also, she wouldn't do any maintenance of any ICE engine (no interest in it so never learnt).​

And then there are other benefits:

3) Electric tools are far quieter. Especially good when we're both in the garden.
4) We don't have to make sure petrol, oil, etc. are available and the tank filled.​

[We've all experienced those gorgeous, sunny days when all you want to do is relax in you own garden you've laboured on (and paid for/paying for) BUT the neighbour has his/her weed-eater attacking their entire lawn (... no mower ...) followed by the leaf-blower howling away to clear their cuttings from the concrete. Noise for hours pervading all their neighbours' lawns. Grrr.]

So, I/we will never being go back to ICE mowers after years experiencing how much time and hassle electric garden equipment saves. This applies equally to all lawn and garden equipment.

 

My 80V battery, list of tools consists of:

• Mower
• String trimmer
• Leaf blower
• Cultivator (i.e, light duty tiller)

With the exception of the leaf blower, the others can be used at night without disturbing the neighbors.

Bob Wilson

 

My Makita 36v leaf blower is quiet. It uses a turbine fan, not a centrifugal fan. The power head also drives my string trimmer. I went with a corded cultivator (12 amp) as it was less expensive and could handle a heavier duty job than the Makita cultivator attachment for my power head.

JeffD

 

Snow blowers are still kind of meager in the electric version so we opted for a nice wide Craftsman gasser instead. Hate hate hate having to drain the float Bowl, tank Etc at the end of snow season. Especially when it ends up being winterized just a little too soon.

 

As an owner/maintainer of 1/3 of an acre of city lawn and 5 acres out in the country - 2 acres of which are mowed, I see many of the same advantages and disadvantages in lawn equipment as I do with BEVs.
In town we're using about a 6 year-old 30" petrol riding mower augmented by a corded mower and electric blower, line trimmer, and saw.
I have a nearly 20 year old Echo 2-cycle to assist in the city when I don't feel like dealing with battery trimmers.
Since I do not seem to be plagued with the constant timing and spark-plug cleaning/adjusting mentioned earlier, the 12-year old 42" tractor was put out to pasture in the country place to augment the 17 year old zero turn (the smaller unit has a bagger.)

I use the 'recycled' corded mower a LOT but I've already gone through several battery packs (DeWalt and B+D) for the blower/trimmer/saws - but in truth these also are used for saws and drills. The point about the weight of (even wireless) electrical movers is valid. My corded unit is pressed into duty for the 150' of 'population control ditches' that front my rural property.

'Range and battery anxiety' along with economics still make battery electrics unsuitable for rural living in my case - so I will remain 'hybrid' until this changes or I become too old to properly maintain my property - and then I will be another victim of the "Whammo Lawn Care" folks.
Sample size = 1.
YMMV.

 

Well, it looks like things just got serious for me.

My primary lawnmower has just broken down significantly.

It's fixable- everything is. But I do think this one could be beyond my interest. (It's a 40 year old Bolens hydrostatic with a 36" deck. Blade bearing just locked up, needs a full deck rebuild and the parts are hard to find)

Also I just put a big rack of solar panels in my yard, and we are thinking of landscaping around it somehow, meaning less to mow overall.

I am thinking of an electric tractor mower. Something on the small side, and then later supplementing it with a robot or two later. I could get another gas rider but I don't love the thought of it, really.

Time to see what's fresh for '24...

 

Should be interesting to see what you come up with.

See what the antique market is for the Bolen?

 

I did some research and came up with a decision.

I have a lot of travel booked for this year. I wasn't planning on the expense of a new lawnmower this year.

The cheap used lawnmowers aren't cheap anymore. The $1,000 (new, gas) barebones riding mowers are all $2,000 now. Nice electric riders are coming down, but not quite there yet.

So I think I'm going to farm it out this season and punt into next year for a new overall solution.

Between now and then I'll be doing some landscaping around the new solar rig. The array and its gravel base only cover about 1200sf, but because of where it is I think all of the land behind it is going to get declared "not lawn anymore" and I'll put in trees and bushes instead. This should cut my actual mowed area down to a half acre or so.

 

COSTCO sells 80 V lawn equipment for a reasonable price. So we have:

• Mower
• Leaf blower
• String trimmer
• Cultivator (light duty tiller)

Depending upon what happens with the pressure washer, gas engine, it may be replaced by the 80 V unit.

I'm also looking at 6-7 kW inverters for solar, EV, and emergency power. Still pretty pricy, I don't have to buy everything at once but with a solid inverter, add panels as time and budgets allow.

Bob Wilson

 

I really like the look of the Greenworks 60V riding mower. The built-in cargo bucket, hauling capacity and front & rear box receiver attachments are all of particular interest, in addition to the grass cutting.

But with so much time on the road planned for this summer, I just won't be around to use it.