Debating an electric zero turn mower

[FIREarly]

Originally Posted by Time2 View Post
What's a snow blower?

One of these things. See how much fun I'm having?

Snow, what is that?
Aren't we all in global warming?

 

[Eastbayboy]

I knew those 2 cycle engines were bad, but was never really sure how bad. At least a gas riding mower is 4-cycle, but it is still not good.

Two strokes motorcycles were banned in the 70s. I had a Kawasaki 750cc two strong and it was a beast. But the trail of blue smoke looked like a the trail of a Boeing 727. Two strokes are are going to be banned in 2 to 3 years in the SF East Bay for landscapers. I think the government will give incentives to get off two strokes blowers and eventually four stroke lawnmowers.

Here is a 2011 study by Edmonds comparing leaf blowers (2 & 4 stroke) to a Ford 150 Raptor:

A consumer-grade leaf blower emits more pollutants than a 6,200-pound 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, according to tests conducted by Edmunds' InsideLine.com, the premier online resource for automotive enthusiasts.

The tests found that a Ryobi 4-stroke leaf blower kicked out almost seven times more oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and 13.5 times more carbon monoxide (CO) than the Raptor, which InsideLine.com once dubbed "the ultimate Michigan mudslinger." An Echo 2-stroke leaf blower performed even worse, generating 23 times CO and nearly 300 times more non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) than the Raptor.

"The hydrocarbon emissions from a half-hour of yard work with the two-stroke leaf blower are about the same as a 3,900-mile drive from Texas to Alaska in a Raptor," said Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor at Edmunds.com. "As ridiculous as it may sound, it is more 'green' to ditch your yard equipment and find a way to blow leaves using a Raptor."

 

[travelover]

Snow, what is that?
Aren't we all in global warming?

That is so clever and original.

 

[Bamaman]

Two strokes motorcycles were banned in the 70s. I had a Kawasaki 750cc two strong and it was a beast. But the trail of blue smoke looked like a the trail of a Boeing 727. Two strokes are are going to be banned in 2 to 3 years in the SF East Bay for landscapers. I think the government will give incentives to get off two strokes blowers and eventually four stroke lawnmowers.

Here is a 2011 study by Edmonds comparing leaf blowers (2 & 4 stroke) to a Ford 150 Raptor:

A consumer-grade leaf blower emits more pollutants than a 6,200-pound 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, according to tests conducted by Edmunds' InsideLine.com, the premier online resource for automotive enthusiasts.

The tests found that a Ryobi 4-stroke leaf blower kicked out almost seven times more oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and 13.5 times more carbon monoxide (CO) than the Raptor, which InsideLine.com once dubbed "the ultimate Michigan mudslinger." An Echo 2-stroke leaf blower performed even worse, generating 23 times CO and nearly 300 times more non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) than the Raptor.

"The hydrocarbon emissions from a half-hour of yard work with the two-stroke leaf blower are about the same as a 3,900-mile drive from Texas to Alaska in a Raptor," said Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor at Edmunds.com. "As ridiculous as it may sound, it is more 'green' to ditch your yard equipment and find a way to blow leaves using a Raptor."

My diesel F250 with a tuner really puts out a smoke screen when I stomp on it. But it's very clean in times of $5.50 diesel fuel--just sitting unused.

And after 2 dead Ryobi batteries @ $139 each, I gave up on "being green." I went out and bought a 2 stroke gas head to run my string trimmers, brush cutter and edger.

We live in a very ecological community with clean air. That is when they're not bench testing huge rocket engines and missiles across town.

 

[Eastbayboy]

My diesel F250 with a tuner really puts out a smoke screen when I stomp on it. But it's very clean in times of $5.50 diesel fuel--just sitting unused.

And after 2 dead Ryobi batteries @ $139 each, I gave up on "being green." I went out and bought a 2 stroke gas head to run my string trimmers, brush cutter and edger.

We live in a very ecological community with clean air. That is when they're not bench testing huge rocket engines and missiles across town.

I get it! There are problems and grown pains much like Tesla cars did in the last 15 years. I am surprised that Ryobi wasn’t reliable.

At the Oakland airport grounds they had a jet engine repair shop. They would bolt down the motors and run them. I was about 4 miles away as the crow flys and I could hear them revving the motors in the morning. What a sound! Rocket testing takes that to another level!

I just purchased a Greenworks 80V Jet Blower battery powered blower. I had a corded WeedEater blower but the S#$t cord always got caught in around chairs, potted plants and trees. I have a decent size rear yard that has 2 huge eucalyptus trees that constantly drop buds, and husks for 3 months in a row on my grass and pavers… So I seen this unit from Costco with 2 batteries. The batteries last about 20 minutes on high but 35 minutes if you mix the speeds. It puts out 40 percent more flow than my previous blower which is a blessing. The battery takes about 30 minutes to charge. It costs $240, at the convince of non-corded or gas and was my experiment on this unit. If it doesn’t work as promised Costco will take returns. So far i am sold on the battery aspect. Sorry it didn’t work out for you and when you need a tool, you expect them to work when needed.

At the Oakland airport grounds they had a jet engine repair shop. They would bolt down the motors and run them. I was about 4 miles away as the crow flys and I could hear them revving the motors in the morning. What a sound! Rocket testing takes that to another level!

 

[MC Rider]

I'm still rocking an old plug in electric mower that I bought over 15 years ago, maybe 20. The thing just won't die. Also have plug in leaf blower, hedge trimmer, string trimmer, and chain saw. All are over 10 years old. The 100' cord is a small hassle, but I never mess with gas or oil and there are no batteries to die. Will probably look at battery power mowers if it dies.

My 86 yo Dad still does his own mowing and almost all the yard work. How can I not diy?

 

[TXBev]

Wish I could afford someone to mow for me. I'm planning to move this year to a place where I don't need a tractor. Just hope I can find a place after I sell - a whole different topic. Hope to have a big enough yard for a zero turn, they are so fast. Electric? It would be nice not to have all that fuel on hand. Right now, I use a 52" gasoline Bad Boy zero turn (deck Hight is changed with a toggle), a diesel Kubota tractor with a 60" bush hog, and a gasoline DR electric start trimmer.

 

[WWDog]

I didn't make it to the first reply without having to comment. I have been mowing, edging, trimming yards since I was 11 years old (59 years). Started with an electric (corded) mower that my father built from a kit. It was probably the best mower of them all as far as longevity. Made a lot of money mowing yards from then on till I was a senior in high school. I bought two riding lawn mowers, numerous push mowers, edgers, two cars and payed for two years of college along with spending money during that time. When I lived in Florida south of Miami I worked every day till it got dark mowing. I even mowed the yard of a future TV star and Miss Miami Beach while in high school.


But to the point, I'm astounded at the amount of money people spend on battery powered lawn equipment. I still use a corded electric lawn mower, trimmer and blower. The only reason I used gas powered equipment in the day was cause I couldn't do all the work I had scheduled with corded electric equipment. The industry has herded us into expensive equipment that is less capable and designed to die before it should.

 

[travelover]

I'm still rocking an old plug in electric mower that I bought over 15 years ago, maybe 20. The thing just won't die. Also have plug in leaf blower, hedge trimmer, string trimmer, and chain saw. All are over 10 years old. The 100' cord is a small hassle, but I never mess with gas or oil and there are no batteries to die. Will probably look at battery power mowers if it dies.

My 86 yo Dad still does his own mowing and almost all the yard work. How can I not diy?

I had all that 120 volt corded stuff, too, but once I got a cordless hedge trimmer it was a steady march to get rid of the weed whipper and even the chain saw. The jump in convenience was huge for me and evidently others. At my local Habitat ReStore they had a pile of corded trimmers and other tools that just kept getting bigger. Eventually they just scrapped them because no one wants them anymore. That cordless hedge trimmer really sold me.

 

[vdesalvo]

Electric Mowers

Yes, 2-strokes are really bad, but small 4-strokes are still very bad, compared to a car engine.

It just isn't feasible to put such expensive stuff like catalytic converters, computers, sensors computer controlled fuel injection, gas fume capture systems, and so on, into a product that is much cheaper than a car. Looks like some are switching to a simple fuel injection, which helps, but it takes all that other stuff to really lower emissions.

It just seems like going battery is a simpler, better solution. Even if you charge the batteries from a truck engine running a generator - that truck has all the modern pollution controls.

-ERD50

I prefer gas for my mower for the extra power and if you run non-ethanol fuel your mower is cleaner burning and will last a lot longer. Never have needed to setup for winter storage and worry about if it was going to start in spring.

 

[RetiredAt55.5]

Here's a video of a guy beating the crap out of a new Ego Z6.

Jesh, talk about having no empathy for machinery.

If that guy was my neighbor, I wouldn't lend him any tools. Not even a can opener.

 

[mpeirce]

But to the point, I'm astounded at the amount of money people spend on battery powered lawn equipment. I still use a corded electric lawn mower, trimmer and blower. The only reason I used gas powered equipment in the day was cause I couldn't do all the work I had scheduled with corded electric equipment. The industry has herded us into expensive equipment that is less capable and designed to die before it should.

The battery operated stuff that works is pretty pricey. The cheaper stuff seems much less reliable.

Our electric future is going to be fine for rich folks (like in this forum). But not so much for poorer folks.

 

[Walt34]

But to the point, I'm astounded at the amount of money people spend on battery powered lawn equipment.

My experience with corded OPE (outdoor power equipment) parallels travelover's. The cords are a royal PITA and of course limit how far you can go. And there is a finite amount of power you can get from a 15 amp circuit.

We had ONE corded electric lawn mower back in the late '50's or early '60's. Dad was a licensed electrician and worked for the power company so it didn't take a lot of arm-twisting to get him to buy a corded tool (which was the only alternative to gas back then). That 18-inch Sunbeam used two overlapping blades and had a toothed belt to keep them from hitting each other. That POS mower kept breaking the belts until Dad gave up and bought a new gas mower from Montgomery Ward, which I used for the next 20 years, trouble-free. BTW, because of that mower I never bought anything with the Sunbeam brand again either.

 

[travelover]

The battery operated stuff that works is pretty pricey. The cheaper stuff seems much less reliable.

Of electric future is going to be fine for rich folks (like in this forum). But not so much for poorer folks.

I just buy Ryobi stuff from Home Depot. If I ran a landscaping business, I guess I'd need better but I've had no issues with the Ryobi stuff.

 

[MC Rider]

That 18-inch Sunbeam used two overlapping blades and had a toothed belt to keep them from hitting each other. That POS mower kept breaking the belts...


Pretty lousy design I guess. Imho mowing is a pita all by itself. Then pick your secondary pita, be it gas oil etc, a 100' power cord, or batteries that fade and die.

 

[aaronc879]

OP can easily afford the $5500 so should be an easy choice. EGO is a great brand. I have the self propelled mower, standard snow blower and leaf blower. This Fall I will try to get the self propelled snow blower before they sell out even though it's pricey for me at $1600-ish. I would buy the zero turn mower tomorrow if I wasn't relatively poor. If I had 7 figures in savings it would be an easy choice to get one.

 

[Dawg52]

Bought a relative inexpensive Sun Joe lithium ion battery powered push mower 6 years ago. I've used it about 30 weeks a year on average and it still runs just as well as day one. Batteries still charge and hold up well. All I have ever done is replace the blades. No going back to gas mowers and trimmers for me.

 

[corn18]

In case anyone is still following, here is an update.

I love it! So quiet. Great cut. I mow more often now and also keep the grass a little longer so it looks nicer. I certainly had some issues driving it initially, but now I am better. I can mow my yard and my neighbor's yard (about 3/4 acre) on one charge. I look like Forest Gump.

So two thumbs up for this green mower.