So, I’m thinking of buying an electric lawnmower. Has anyone had experience with these? FlyMo by Electrolux seems to be the most popular brand here in Oz.
I was wondering what the deal is with them, though. Do they, well, work? Any pitfalls? I don’t have a big lawn and I hate the racket and hassle of two stroke motors, especially for such a small area.
Does anyone have experience with flymo’s?
ta
If you have a small lawn (and you said you did), they can be a good choice. They are lower maintenance, less noisy, etc.
The main problem is if you let the lawn get too long or thick; electric mowers just don’t have the power of gas mowers.
I’ve had a Black-and-Decker Lawn Hog for four years and no complaints yet.
I should mention, though, that my yard is pretty small.
I used to use one about 16 years ago. It was fine as long as you didn’t tackle overgrown lawns. Also it can be a bit of a pain keeping the cord out of the way.
It’s possible to get a cordless mower.
I’m staying with friends right now, and as a favor, I’ve been mowing their lawn. They have a large front lawn and an even larger back yard. It’s a double lot. Plus, neither of my friends (a married couple) is really into yard work. At all. The front lawn got mowed only to keep the neighbors from complaining. The back yard was more like a meadow, with grass anywhere from calf to waist height. The mower they own is a rechargable Black and Decker.
It took me the better part of three weeks to get that damn grass mowed. I would kill the charge in less than an hour of mowing, so I had to take the lawn in chunks. Because the grass was so high and thick, there were times when I could only get about forty square feet mowed before the charge gave out.
So, while I wouldn’t recommend an electic mower for a large, overgrown lawn, it’s just fine for a small, well-kept lawn. Nice and quiet. Not self-propelled, but that just means you’ll get larger arm and leg muscles like I did.
I don’t think my family has ever had anything but an electric mower. Just get a long enough extension cord, and make sure you don’t run it over.
I don’t think they sell the Flymo in the US so I can’t give any input on that, but I have had a Black and Decker Lawn Hog for about 6 months. I am totally satisfied with it. It is quieter, cleaner, and you don’t have to deal with oil and gas. It turns on and off instantly with a little trigger- no more pulling the stupid handle. It is lightweight, I can easily push and pull it with one hand like a vacuum cleaner. Although it is best on lawns that are well kept, it can go through high grass, you just gotta go slower than you would with a gas mower.
The pitfalls are that you got to get used to the cord, which is especially tough if you got trees and shrubs to deal with. I have developed a pattern that works real well so that I only notice the cord when I have to move to another section. I would not recommend an electric if you have many obstacles and not too much open space. With the Black and Decker, they recommend you use 100ft of cord maximum. Even though I got a GFI plug, I still don’t cut the grass until it is completely dry- something about using an electric appliance while I stand on damp grass makes me nervous!
I have a Toro cordless (meaning rechargeable battery powered) electric lawnmower ever since we moved into this house 8 years ago now. Unfortunately Toro doesn’t seem to sell a product like this anymore.
We have a small, flat lawn and the mower works well for us as long as we don’t let the grass get too long. The upside of the cordless is you obviously don’t have to deal with cord as you go back and forth. Also it is unbelievably quiet, little noisier than an electric weed whacker.
The downside is that the battery makes the thing heavier and you have to push fairly hard to keep it moving. I will definitely look at similar models when we need to replace this one, which doesn’t look like it is going to be any time soon.
My experience is that the type of mower is the important thing: - Rotary Vs Cylinder Vs Hover
IMO electric hover mowers don’t work too well, they’re a pain unless you have very uneven ground or rough grass (but then you’ll want the grunt of a petrol engine version) and although it’s possible to get ones that collect the grass, most don’t.
Cylinder mowers are only if your lawn is dead flat, and you want a super deluxo finish for your croquet games
Which leaves the electric rotary mower, very like a hover but with the wondrous addition of little wheels to let you push it about easily, they seem to cost a bit more than hovers but IMO are about 5 times easier to use
A web site for you
(Which I’ve not actually read, so it may flatly contradict everything I’ve just typed)
I used an electric mower all the time when I was growing up… no problems except the sometimes annoyance of the cord.
Now I use a non-powered mechanical mower. Works great on my not too big backyard. Even quieter than an electric!
I just semi-retired my Craftsman cordless electric mower in favor of a riding mower (new pad, eh).
Worked perfectly well for 7 years, and only had to put new batteries into at that the beginning of our spring this year (right before we moved, wouldn’t you know).
It bagged, discharged, or mulched (I usually only mulched). If you don’t let the grass get overgrown, it was perfectly fine. It’d even take some degree of overgrowth with nothing more than a slowdown of the motor.
I used to mow a fairly large yard with an electric cordless mower. As others have mentioned, I could get about an hours worth of mowing out of a full charge. That meant that the front got mowed one day, the back on the next day.
Pluses - quiet. I could hold a conversation while mowing.
- light. It wasn’t self-propelled, but it was light enough not to be a problem on a mostly flat lawn
- manuverable - because it was a push mower, it was much easier to mow upto/around objects.
Minuses - 1 hr battery life
- as mentioned, does fairly poorly on long grass.
- damp grass tended to clog it up also. Don’t even consider wet and long grass.
- it seemed to do a poorer job of mulching.
Thanks guys, lotsa great stuff here. I’m gonna go get me a 'letric mower. yay.
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