Electric cordless SP lawnmower

Every time I go to Home Depot, I walk past the battery-powered mowers and think I need to make the change from gas to battery. I watch videos on YouTube of all the reviews. I have even saved all my HD gift cards (nearly $300) from several Christmas' for when I will purchase one.
Two things hold me back. My yard is pretty large with heavy grass, so I'm sure it will take 2 batteries or a recharge delay. It takes me about an hour to mow it with gas powered. But my biggest hesitation in switching is my loyalty to my 28 year-old Toro Super Recycler. It still does a fantastic job mowing and starts on the first or second pull every time. I replaced the electric start so now I don't even have to pull start it. I clean the carb every 2 years, sharpen the blade a couple of times each season and it answers the call every time I open the shed door. I feel like she would be insulted if I brought home a battery mower. Plus I inherited it in 2005 after my FIL passed, so DW is happy that I take good care of it.
 
nap470 said:
Every time I go to Home Depot, I walk past the battery-powered mowers and think I need to make the change from gas to battery. I watch videos on YouTube of all the reviews. I have even saved all my HD gift cards (nearly $300) from several Christmas' for when I will purchase one.
Two things hold me back. My yard is pretty large with heavy grass, so I'm sure it will take 2 batteries or a recharge delay. It takes me about an hour to mow it with gas powered. But my biggest hesitation in switching is my loyalty to my 28 year-old Toro Super Recycler. It still does a fantastic job mowing and starts on the first or second pull every time. I replaced the electric start so now I don't even have to pull start it. I clean the carb every 2 years, sharpen the blade a couple of times each season and it answers the call every time I open the shed door. I feel like she would be insulted if I brought home a battery mower. Plus I inherited it in 2005 after my FIL passed, so DW is happy that I take good care of it.
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Well, I was lucky that the battery mower was handed to me essentially free. Otherwise, I wouldn't have switched.

I kept the gas mower 3 years "just in case." Never used it, so I gave it away.

But I understand your hesitance. Just stay the course if your old mower is working. They are making improvements in the battery tech every year. When the time finally comes (it was a rusted deck on my first mower which lasted 22 years), then you'll be ready to make a decision.
 
Well, we did a little more research and ended up buying a Toro battery powered Recycler. We have always had a Toro, so this is not much of a switch. I like that it has a metal deck, not plastic like so many of the others. We unboxed it and set it up. The only thing not great about it is that it lacks a side chute option. I'm pretty jazzed. The instructions recommended changing the blade each year, did not mention sharpening the blade. The blades are inexpensive. Our previous Toro was leaking oil, wouldn't easily start with either the pull or the electric start. We had to plug in the electric starter to get it started, and it was stalling all the time.

On Wednesdays, the day before trash day, a local guy with a truck and trailer comes around and picks up scrap metal-we just have to leave it out. My husband flagged him down and he wanted to take our old mower, even though we hadn't bothered to clean it. So now we have a new mower, and a place where it fits in the garage. I spent today washing half of the garage, setting up a charging station, then we set up the mower.
 
Greenworks 80V Lithium-Ion 21" Self Propelled Mower With Two Batteries and Charger on sale right now at Costco.com for $499. Might be less $ at warehouse
 
EastWest Gal said:
The only thing not great about it is that it lacks a side chute option.
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My 21" SP gas-powered Toro w/Briggs & Stratton engine isn't powerful enough to 'mulch' my lawn, so a side-chute is a must-have feature if I ever get around to buying a new mower. I've been pleased with my current mower although it's a tad under-powered.

I like my suite of EGO tools (blower, string trimmer, hedge trimmer). There has been no noticeable degradation in battery capacity despite many recharge cycles over the years. I'm skeptical whether a battery-powered mower can do the job, but I'm keeping an open mind. :popcorn:
 
aldo said:
Greenworks 80V Lithium-Ion 21" Self Propelled Mower With Two Batteries and Charger on sale right now at Costco.com for $499. Might be less $ at warehouse
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That’s a good price. Just the batteries alone would cost $400. The problem with Greenworks is that they make 40V/60V/80V tools and the batteries are not interchangeable between voltages. So my 60V Greenworks leaf blower can’t share a battery with this mower. Ego makes it easier by standardizing on 56V for all of their tools.
 
aldo said:
Greenworks 80V Lithium-Ion 21" Self Propelled Mower With Two Batteries and Charger on sale right now at Costco.com for $499. Might be less $ at warehouse
Click to expand...

That's the package I bought last year. I think it's only available online.
 
I have the EGO LM2135SP self propelled mower. With the 7.5AH battery I can mow our nearly 1 acre yard and still have 2 bars left when I'm done. Part of our yard is sloped making the self propel a necessity, but even on the flat parts I do most of my mowing one handed. I let the mower do the work and just follow it around the yard. :) It's a nice walk once a week or so. It's every bit as powerful as my old Honda HR214 mower, just without the hassles of gas, oil, and noise.

As has been mentioned before you're buying into a battery system when choosing these machines. I also have the EGO leaf blower, string trimmer, chainsaw, four chargers, and an assortment of batteries. I can swap batteries between machines as needed and never run out of power.

My tiller and snow blower are the only gas machines I have left.
 
nap470 said:
Every time I go to Home Depot, I walk past the battery-powered mowers and think I need to make the change from gas to battery. I watch videos on YouTube of all the reviews. I have even saved all my HD gift cards (nearly $300) from several Christmas' for when I will purchase one.
Two things hold me back. My yard is pretty large with heavy grass, so I'm sure it will take 2 batteries or a recharge delay. It takes me about an hour to mow it with gas powered. But my biggest hesitation in switching is my loyalty to my 28 year-old Toro Super Recycler. It still does a fantastic job mowing and starts on the first or second pull every time. I replaced the electric start so now I don't even have to pull start it. I clean the carb every 2 years, sharpen the blade a couple of times each season and it answers the call every time I open the shed door. I feel like she would be insulted if I brought home a battery mower. Plus I inherited it in 2005 after my FIL passed, so DW is happy that I take good care of it.
Click to expand...

I have a that Toro also (well, old school pull starter and not self-propelled) and .4 acre. It is super reliable and I have the same concerns about replacing it. I've owned it probably 15 years, since my Honda died.

Hard to replace something that works so well. It has never been in the shop and never failed to start on 1 or 2 pulls.

And though improved, sounds like battery mowers have a way to go to equal the flexibility of a gas mower for my lawn size.
 
Montecfo said:
And though improved, sounds like battery mowers have a way to go to equal the flexibility of a gas mower for my lawn size.
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It is kind of like the EV (automobile) discussion. For those not affected by range issues, they are great and wonder why people worry.

I see something similar here. I've got a suburban lot with only a front yard. Battery is absolutely fine. Over 4 years, my mower only died once and that was because I was trying to get 4 cuts out of one charge. So, I'm a battery convert. I love the quiet and lack of fumes.

Yet I can see why some people can't reliably use E-mowers and that's fine.
 
Dawg52 said:
I bought an inexpensive brand from Home Depot 5 years ago and it works as well as the day I bought it. Its a 40v 16 inch Sun Joe and has a 40 minute runtime. I bought an extra battery(refurbished) off EBay for $30 and it does just as well as the battery that came with it. I really didn't need an extra battery as I have a patio home on a small lot and it takes just 20-25 minutes to mow. I got it in case the mower/brand becomes obsolete making batteries hard to find later. Anyway.....I've been pleased with my purchase and if it goes out tomorrow I got my money's worth out of it. Paid $250.
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Got the same SunJoe 2 years ago, paid under $200 on a special promotion. Charge lasts long enough to mow either front or back, so it gives me an excuse to stagger them[emoji846]. Works great for my relatively small mowable area.
 
nap470 said:
Every time I go to Home Depot, I walk past the battery-powered mowers and think I need to make the change from gas to battery. I watch videos on YouTube of all the reviews. I have even saved all my HD gift cards (nearly $300) from several Christmas' for when I will purchase one.
Two things hold me back. My yard is pretty large with heavy grass, so I'm sure it will take 2 batteries or a recharge delay. It takes me about an hour to mow it with gas powered. But my biggest hesitation in switching is my loyalty to my 28 year-old Toro Super Recycler. It still does a fantastic job mowing and starts on the first or second pull every time. I replaced the electric start so now I don't even have to pull start it. I clean the carb every 2 years, sharpen the blade a couple of times each season and it answers the call every time I open the shed door. I feel like she would be insulted if I brought home a battery mower. Plus I inherited it in 2005 after my FIL passed, so DW is happy that I take good care of it.
Click to expand...

For people who don't mind doing the maintenance that a gas powered mower requires they work perfectly fine. I regularly maintain my riding mower. But, I also have a cordless weed whacker and an electric chainsaw and have no interest in gas models of those tools.

My GF (who now lives with me) had a battery push mower specifically because the didn't want to deal with engine maintenance, mixing gas, etc. She's now the person who uses the riding mower on our large property but I'm the one that maintains it.
 
JoeWras said:
It is kind of like the EV (automobile) discussion. For those not affected by range issues, they are great and wonder why people worry.

I see something similar here. I've got a suburban lot with only a front yard. Battery is absolutely fine. Over 4 years, my mower only died once and that was because I was trying to get 4 cuts out of one charge. So, I'm a battery convert. I love the quiet and lack of fumes.
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The type of lawn certainly factors into it. As I said, my yard is about 1 acre. It is mostly shaded so our grass tends to be rather thin. I can easily cut our entire yard in about 40-50 minutes on one battery with plenty of capacity leftover.

That said, the EGO mower is light so I occasionally fold it up and pop it in the car to mow my mother-in-laws yard. She has a standard city lot but her grass is in full sunlight in very fertile soil. It is much thicker than our grass, and we don't mow it as often so it tends to get taller between mowings too. Despite her much smaller yard, it uses most of the battery in my EGO mower too. I still haven't run out of power, but it comes close.

For those with much larger lots, EGO does make a zero turn battery powered riding mower now. With four batteries it's quite expensive (around $5000 I think). Someday I might not be able to use a walk behind mower anymore, but right now that's way out of my price range. I wouldn't have any place to store it anyway.

https://egopowerplus.com/zero-turn-riding-mower-zt4204l/
 
EastWest Gal said:
The instructions recommended changing the blade each year, did not mention sharpening the blade. The blades are inexpensive.
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That's surprising that they no longer recommend sharpening the blades. It's easy to do, I sharpen mine several times a year and just alternate two blades, sharpening the "off" one when I feel like it so it's then ready to use.

To sharpen it I just use an angle grinder (wear goggles!) and one of those cheap blade balancers that I've had for ~40 years. Works fine. There are any number of videos on youtube on how to sharpen a lawn mower blade.

I guess they don't make enough money off the mower, now they want to sell blades like Gillette does it.:LOL:

When I bought the last lawn mower, also a Toro but gasoline powered, the manual says you don't have to change the oil. Huh? The physics haven't changed although I'll grant that oils are better in the last 40 years. Well, it seems that the average lawn mower life is seven years. That being the case if you're going to throw it out every seven years then you don't need to change the oil. Where I come from a power lawn mower is a luxury, coming up from a hand-powered reel mower, so they are treated with care and I usually get ~20 years out of one.
 
I recall dad trying to teach me how to sharpen our reel push mower. It was difficult and tricky, and I messed it up.

They work best sharpened, otherwise you just create a grass juicer.
 
Music Lover said:
It sounds like they're trying to create an annual revenue stream.
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Just becuase they recommend changing the blades every year doesn't mean you have to. I have gone 4 full years on the same blade in my EGO and probably won't change it this year either.
 
aaronc879 said:
Just becuase they recommend changing the blades every year doesn't mean you have to. I have gone 4 full years on the same blade in my EGO and probably won't change it this year either.
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Of course not. But the fact that they suggest changing them every year instead of every XXX hours of operation is dishonest and tells me that they want a constant revenue stream. Person A could use it 10 hours a year while person B uses it 100 hours a year.
 
JoeWras said:
I recall dad trying to teach me how to sharpen our reel push mower. It was difficult and tricky, and I messed it up.

They work best sharpened, otherwise you just create a grass juicer.
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I still have a reel push mower. I got it for free.

I tried to use it a couple of times since I have a small plot. Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me - stone driveway, so I always have the random stones in the grass from snow events. It's not fun when you catch a stone in a reel mower. :(

It also cuts too low. There is an adjustment, but it's still not high enough, so that facilitates catching more stones.
 
RetiredAt55.5 said:
It also cuts too low. There is an adjustment, but it's still not high enough, so that facilitates catching more stones.
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Some reel mowers just start really low and won't go up much. We had a tiny lot in Chicago (33 ft wide) so the lawn was perfect for a hand reel push mower. Dad originally planted bent grass. We could cut it real low (think of a golf green). It could not adjust high. The back yard eventually died out to due to some shade from the neighbor, so he planted blue grass. We had to get a new mower for it that could adjust higher!

Eventually we got a gas powered mower. I could cut our tiny lawn in about 7 minutes. This was great since I had time and I started cutting some neighbor's lawns for a few bucks. It was my first taste at making money and saving for the future.
 
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JoeWras said:
Some reel mowers just start really low and won't go up much. We had a tiny lot in Chicago (33 ft wide) so the lawn was perfect for a hand reel push mower. Dad originally planted bent grass. We could cut it real low (think of a golf green). It could not adjust high.
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Very few reel mowers will and for good reason. They just won't cut well any higher than two inches or so. I forget the reason but it has to do with the mechanical "scissors" action of the mower blades and the bed knife. Most of the northern lawn grasses in use now grow much better anyway when mowed at two and a half inches or higher, up to about four inches, which is where I mow mine and it's also the highest the mower will go.

The bermudagrasses that do well in southern states can do well being mowed at two inches or less but the northern grasses that will grow well in Chicago won't do well being cut that low.
 
Walt34 said:
Very few reel mowers will and for good reason. They just won't cut well any higher than two inches or so. I forget the reason but it has to do with the mechanical "scissors" action of the mower blades and the bed knife. Most of the northern lawn grasses in use now grow much better anyway when mowed at two and a half inches or higher, up to about four inches, which is where I mow mine and it's also the highest the mower will go.

The bermudagrasses that do well in southern states can do well being mowed at two inches or less but the northern grasses that will grow well in Chicago won't do well being cut that low.
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Yeah, we're in a grass no-mans land in the Piedmont. Nothing does well.

Right now I have fescue and cut it at 3.5" or 4". I share a strip with my neighbor we are converting to warm season zoysia. We cut it much lower. This is one area Snapper excels. It is trivial to change between the two heights with a simple adjustment.

I guess this is a good point when looking for a mower. Check on how it does cutting height.
 
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