I'll preface this by saying that I'm not a greenie, tree hugging, environmentalist. I don't set tires on fire for fun(well, not often), or dump used motor oil down storm drains, and make use of my recycling bin because my garbage can is too small. I'm not using battery electric stuff to save the world. Not because it doesn't(and it doesn't), but because it works, I'm lazy, and I don't care. I can get the job done acceptably well, without having to maintain another gasoline engine? Without having to stop somewhere with a gas can? Game on, sign me up.
7 years using this stuff to maintain my 1/3rd acre property, here's my take on it.
I'll start with the mower.
The mower came with a charger and two batteries, a bag, a blocker for the bagger if you want to mulch or side discharge, and a clip-on chute for when you want to side discharge. I mulch almost all the time, because the less I have to mess with grass clippings, the better. My mower is older, self propel wasn't available then. It's the easiest pushing and best balanced mower I've ever used, I haven't missed it.
The mower runs at low speed in low load situations to save battery life, then switches to high speed and high power mode when load is detected. Odd to have a mower rev itself up when under load, but you get used to it. I do wish there was a way to manually put it in high power mode and leave it there. As long as the grass is dry, it'll mow grass as tall as the "engine" battery housing, without bogging, at a reasonable speed. Power easily equivalent or better than my previous experience with homeowner gassers. The only push gasser I've used that is better was a commercial Toro with a Suzuki two stroke engine.
About half of my 1/3rd acre property is grass. When doing a mid-summer touch up, I can mow the whole place on 1/3rd of one battery. When I've been lazy or busy, and haven't gotten to the lawn, it can take 3 full batteries to do. I have four batteries and three chargers, so this has been a non-issue. This is mulching, which I do 98% of the time. Sometimes I'll bag if there are a lot of weed seeds that I don't want going back into the grass, or side discharge, if I just want it knocked down.
Maintenance is easy, sharpen the blade every year, clean out the gunge underneath the deck, and spray with Pam before putting it up for the year. The deck is steel and will need to be protected like any other mower. That's it, no oil to change or air filters to clean, obviously. Only repair it's needed was one wheel bearing, a couple bucks on Amazon.
I've pushed it back in the weeds, mowed the small trees and runners between the bushes and fence at the edge of the yard, mowed sticks, hit rocks, gopher mounds, tree roots. Knocked down waist high grass that I had to lift the front of the mower to get over, and then set down to cut on top of. Mower keeps going, no issues. At first I was kind of delicate with it, now I thrash it like any other mower. Gets the job done, no issues.
My only complaint is that it clogs the discharge chutes occasionally when mowing in damp grass. The chutes for bagging and side discharge are too small, and the blade doesn't have much "fan" to it, and doesn't move much air. Moving air takes battery power, so I understand why this was done, but I'd rather burn more battery power and move more air, and clog less. I mulch 98% of the time, so this isn't an issue, and ideally wouldn't be mowing damp grass. Hasn't been a big enough issue for me to find a blade with more fan to it, or modify the existing blade.
I'm just now starting to notice that the batteries have less capacity, 7 years onward. They still function just fine and get the job done, but I do notice they don't last quite like they used to. I store them in the climate controlled house, instead of leaving them in the garage or shop at 15-105 deg F, and otherwise have paid zero attention to any kind of good battery maintenance. They've only ever been charged on fast chargers.
Final conclusion, for this size lot, gasoline mowers are dead. You couldn't give me a gas powered push mower. If I go to dewinterize the mower this year(pop a battery in and push a button), and it lets the smoke out and refuses to chooch anymore, I'll go buy another battery electric mower immediately.
Questions welcome, more reviews to follow.
7 years using this stuff to maintain my 1/3rd acre property, here's my take on it.
I'll start with the mower.
The mower came with a charger and two batteries, a bag, a blocker for the bagger if you want to mulch or side discharge, and a clip-on chute for when you want to side discharge. I mulch almost all the time, because the less I have to mess with grass clippings, the better. My mower is older, self propel wasn't available then. It's the easiest pushing and best balanced mower I've ever used, I haven't missed it.
The mower runs at low speed in low load situations to save battery life, then switches to high speed and high power mode when load is detected. Odd to have a mower rev itself up when under load, but you get used to it. I do wish there was a way to manually put it in high power mode and leave it there. As long as the grass is dry, it'll mow grass as tall as the "engine" battery housing, without bogging, at a reasonable speed. Power easily equivalent or better than my previous experience with homeowner gassers. The only push gasser I've used that is better was a commercial Toro with a Suzuki two stroke engine.
About half of my 1/3rd acre property is grass. When doing a mid-summer touch up, I can mow the whole place on 1/3rd of one battery. When I've been lazy or busy, and haven't gotten to the lawn, it can take 3 full batteries to do. I have four batteries and three chargers, so this has been a non-issue. This is mulching, which I do 98% of the time. Sometimes I'll bag if there are a lot of weed seeds that I don't want going back into the grass, or side discharge, if I just want it knocked down.
Maintenance is easy, sharpen the blade every year, clean out the gunge underneath the deck, and spray with Pam before putting it up for the year. The deck is steel and will need to be protected like any other mower. That's it, no oil to change or air filters to clean, obviously. Only repair it's needed was one wheel bearing, a couple bucks on Amazon.
I've pushed it back in the weeds, mowed the small trees and runners between the bushes and fence at the edge of the yard, mowed sticks, hit rocks, gopher mounds, tree roots. Knocked down waist high grass that I had to lift the front of the mower to get over, and then set down to cut on top of. Mower keeps going, no issues. At first I was kind of delicate with it, now I thrash it like any other mower. Gets the job done, no issues.
My only complaint is that it clogs the discharge chutes occasionally when mowing in damp grass. The chutes for bagging and side discharge are too small, and the blade doesn't have much "fan" to it, and doesn't move much air. Moving air takes battery power, so I understand why this was done, but I'd rather burn more battery power and move more air, and clog less. I mulch 98% of the time, so this isn't an issue, and ideally wouldn't be mowing damp grass. Hasn't been a big enough issue for me to find a blade with more fan to it, or modify the existing blade.
I'm just now starting to notice that the batteries have less capacity, 7 years onward. They still function just fine and get the job done, but I do notice they don't last quite like they used to. I store them in the climate controlled house, instead of leaving them in the garage or shop at 15-105 deg F, and otherwise have paid zero attention to any kind of good battery maintenance. They've only ever been charged on fast chargers.
Final conclusion, for this size lot, gasoline mowers are dead. You couldn't give me a gas powered push mower. If I go to dewinterize the mower this year(pop a battery in and push a button), and it lets the smoke out and refuses to chooch anymore, I'll go buy another battery electric mower immediately.
Questions welcome, more reviews to follow.
