I just bought my first battery powered string trimmer. I’ve always hated messing with my gas powered one, although when it works it works great. Years ago I gave up on gas powered chainsaws and now only use corded ones.
My neighbor has a battery powered lawn mower. I doubt I’ll ever replace my gas mower since I cannot see the battery powered ones having the same amount of power nor do I want to have to get new batteries.
So I’d like to ask you all who have lawns. Have you switched over to battery powered lawn mowers and trimmers? What do you think of them?
I have a set of the 40V Ryobi stuff. 16" mower, string trimmer, hedge clipper. The mower is underpowered, but as I have a postage stamp-sized lawn it doesn’t matter. Having to run over some stuff twice is a small price to pay to avoid messing with cords or a gas engine. The string trimmer and hedge clipper are great. They work as well as corded ones, without the cords.
I have a battery powered mower and it works well. The only issue is that the one battery I have doesn’t have enough charge to mow the lawns and trim all the edges so it has become a two day job.
Gas mower and an electric trimmer with an extension cord. My lawn is likely too large for a single battery charge and I don’t trim often enough to trust a battery to hold its charge or go through the hassle of realizing that I forgot to charge it, etc.
Yes, battery powered mower, had it about five years, love it. No gas, no mess. Very easy to start. Has plenty of power. I would never never never go back.
I have a Greenworks rotary mower and a Greenworks string trimmer. Both use the same battery model, and one battery does my entire lawn.
However, there seems to be a serious quality control problem here. I have acquired two chargers and five batteries. Three of the batteries were defective; one was replaced by the company under warranty, but the replacement wouldn’t charge either, and the size they sent me was smaller than the original. Batteries are heavy, and it wasn’t worth returning it. One unit was spec’d identically online, but didn’t fit when I got it.
And one of the brand-new chargers doesn’t charge at all. So the end result is I have only one usable battery and one charger. Disappointing, but it gets the job done.
I gave my gas mower and gas trimmer to a neighbor who tinkers with gas engines and doesn’t mind their foibles. I don’t want those smelly, leak-prone gadgets anywhere near my house. Now when spring comes around, I just press the switch and everything starts up the first time. That has never happened with the gas units, which had to be winterized, then coaxed to start in the spring.
We cut a lot of grass, and I never thought I’d see the day when we converted, but we have.
Other than our lawn tractor, we’ve totally gone over to batteries. Weed whacker, hedge trimmers, a power washer, leaf blower, small chainsaw and pole attachment, full size chainsaw, and a push mower. All these we switched over this year.
My gf loves the lighter weights and the batteries last far longer than they used to. Plus they’re whisper quiet compared to gasoline engines, no gas spills, smell better, etc.
I’m actually going the opposite direction now, from electric to gas. I finally put my Craftsman battery-powered electric mower that I bought and used since 1998 to the curb. Between paying for its expensive lead acid batteries and finding replacements for its proprietary charger, I didn’t want to maintain it anymore, so I picked up a nice Honda four-stroke gasoline mower.
Kind of the same with my weed whacker (string trimmer). The proprietary batteries needed to be replaced, and they cost nearly as much as a new trimmer. Although I had a two-stroke trimmer that I used with non-trimmer attachments, I picked up a nice, quiet four-stroke for trimming.
Maintenance is fairly easy, but admittedly not as easy at the electrics. Not having to worry about batteries and chargers makes it worth it to me.
I love my Ego battery powered lawn mower which is lighter and quieter than a gas mower and it cuts great. I also like storing it sitting up in my basement.
They are still too expensive I think and as others have stated, replacement batteries are very expensive.
My battery charges pretty fast though and I want to buy the battery trimmer to complement my mower.
I have an Ego trimmer which has worked great, and am contemplating getting an electric mower as well (to replace my human-powered reel mower).
As others have said, the “push the button and go” convenience is hard to beat. Also, I have a 1/4 acre lot with numerous gardens/beds, and I can do a nice trim around everything, as well as literally mow the lawn all on one charge with the trimmer. And, the power seems to stay at 100% until the last 10% or so of battery life.
No batteries for me yet, but I do have to say that I’m tempted to make the switch. I’m really tired of of having to deal with a trailing extension cord that unplugs itself every 30 seconds.
We don’t have a lot of lawn but we’ve been battery for years now; say roughly 15. We do keep a corded mower around for times when the grass gets too high and thick to easily do with the battery one but those times are very few and far between. The other exception is the chainsaw I have for the fall hedge trimmings when I really lay them down for the winter.
I’ve got a 4-hp gas mower that’s about 16 years old. The wheels are literally about to fall off, but I’ve never had any trouble at all from the engine; it always starts on the first pull, even after hibernating all winter.
A battery-powered mower is attractive primarily because I don’t like inhaling the exhaust from the gas mower. And a battery-powered trimmer and leaf blower would be great because that would eliminate the electrical cord I have to drag all over the yard.
But…I’m a little bit phobic about Li-ion batteries, perhaps because so may incidents have been reported in the news about spontaneous thermal runaway. Even the most carefully engineered batteries in the most critical of safety situations have been known to catch fire. Yeah, I’ve got a few Li-ion batteries around the house - mostly little ones, like cell phones and an iPad. But we don’t charge them unattended, and they’re generally within eyesight even when not being charged. Leaving a much bigger battery out of sight in the garage, where it’s subjected to much hotter and colder temps than my cell phone, makes me a little edgy. Not entirely rational, I know. If the batteries for these devices were removable, so that I could charge/store them in a steel case when not in use, I’d feel better about it.
I brought my old gas powered Honda back from the dead simply by putting on a new carburetor. It was only about $25 plus another $10 for the other parts like the seals. It wasnt hard to replace. Just a few screws really.
Yes, I know I can go thru and clean out a clogged carburetor. But I dont have all day and dont want the mess so a swap out was easier for me.
But, if this one totally konks out I am thinking about an electric mower. They keep improving but I have a pretty large yard to mow plus I sometimes do neighbors for extra money so the key for me is will it mow heavy grass plus I want self propelled.
The weed eater is a no brainer because of the mixing oil/gas thing plus clogged filters and hard to start.
I bought a 40v Black and Decker on Amazon prime day for about $100 which included a blower.
The batteries for my Greenworks are removable. How else could I share the same batts with two devices? The mower even has a compartment for a spare battery; I guess the theory is if you are far from the base and need a second battery, there it is, but you do have to plug it in to the mower’s active socket.
I’ve been all corded for 15 years and love it. Gas is too polluting and too much maintenance, and I didn’t want to deal with batteries. I never have to worry if they’re charged, if I finish with a single charge, if the batteries are defective, or how to dispose of them. Mowing with a cord is a minor inconvenience at first, but you quickly learn the patterns on your lawn to get around trees without getting tangled. It’s definitely worth the trade-off to me.
But I have a small lawn - I can cover it all with a 50’ cord. I’d go with a battery if it was bigger.
My previous yard was really big, so a combination of a gas-powered riding mower and an electric mower (Greenworks 40) worked quite well. My current yard, though, is big, but not big enough to justify the riding mower- so for about two years I just used the electric mower. It really didn’t work well enough- two batteries wasn’t enough, and if the grass got over three inches it was hell.
Eventually I sold my electric mower and got a gas mower.
I tried using an electric weedwacker (also Greenworks), but I could never get the string to be reliable- it always jammed. I also replaced it with a gas model, and have been a lot happier.
I also use a Greenworks snowblower, and I love the damn thing. As long as the snow is less than 8 inches or so, I can easily clear all of my walkways on one charge.
I’d like to go back to fully electric, and will probably try it again in a few years. I really don’t like having to deal with gas engines if I don’t have to.
I’ve got the Ryobi 40v string trimmer. It’s awesome.
Still have a gas mower. Don’t have a very big yard; at first we tried just a manual reel mower, but it never really worked very well. Eventually I got frustrated with it and just bought a gas mower.
I have black & Decker battery powered drill, hedge trimmer and weed wacker and am pleased with all of them. I bought two battery powered Lawn mowers a number of years ago and they both quickly failed and were thrown in the landfill. Now I use a lawn service and their large gas powered machines make short work of my lawn. Best idea i ever had.
I’ve had battery powered lawn mowers for years. I’ve gotten them off craigslist for almost nothing and just had to replace their 2 lead-acid batteries (about $70 for the pair). The batteries last a few years before their runtime gets too short for me to mow front and back.
I have a 18v string Ryobi trimmer, but I don’t like it. It only feeds when it starts/stops rather than continually while it’s running. I continually have to stop trimming and flip the trimmer on/off several times to get the line long enough to continue. I went back to a corded Black and Decker which has an Automatic Feed System that seems to work better. One of my theories is that the battery mower uses lighter string to save battery power, which wears down quicker than the line in the corded trimmer. Are there any battery powered trimmers which feed continually while it’s on?