Battery powered weed whacker rant

cgrab

cgrab

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cgrab
I have a large yard and a plug in weed whacker. I have had to use a second electric cord to reach to the sign and utility structures at the corner of my yard. My wife seeing my frustration with dragging out the cords bought me a battery powered weed whacker. Now I can reach the far corners but the battery life is too short to do the whole yard. My choices are:
A. Use the corded weed whacker for close to the outlets and the battery powered for far off-this still requires that I get out and wind up the power cords.
B. Buy a second battery and charger so I can put them on charge an hour before I start yard work so they will be ready when I am. A second battery actually cost more than the original kit which includes a blower.
C. Charge the one battery before starting and then whack until it dies, then mow while it recharges, then finish whacking.

I have been doing "C" but my mowing time is less than the charging time and I find myself sitting in the garage drinking beer and waiting for the green light.

On second thought, never mind
 
weilke said:
Buy Stihl gas powered unit.

Buy jug of pre-mix.

/End of thread
Click to expand...
My Stihl hasn't been used since the pull starter jammed up; I got a 4-stroke Cub Cadet, and put on plastic swing blades, and have been happily chopping ever since. I would go battery except for the amount of stuff I have to do.
 
+1 on the Cub Cadet. Best piece of equipment I've ever bought. Hands down.
 
Yeah seems those battery powered yard tools don't last long. Have a small blower for little jobs (around the pool etc) and the battery lasted about a year and a half, won't take a recharge now. So, out with the extension cord again.
 
Ask Elon Musk why he can’t sell more cars. They don’t have the range to drive to the end of the driveway and back without a recharge. Electric battery powered gadgets are still in the “how cute” stage once you get past a tool like a screw gun or oscillating saw. Gas powered cell phone? Not practical. Electric airplane? Only if it’s radio controlled.
 
I use a plug in electric. Thankfully I have a small yard, so it’s no big deal.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
My Stihl hasn't been used since the pull starter jammed up; I got a 4-stroke Cub Cadet, and put on plastic swing blades, and have been happily chopping ever since. I would go battery except for the amount of stuff I have to do.
Click to expand...

4-stroke, even better. I love my 4-stroke Subaru powered leaf blower. However, if I look on the back of landscaping trucks, all I see are Echo, Stihl and Husquarna branded 2-stroke units. The 2-stroke doesn't care whether you run it upside down and you can't run it out of oil. The leaf-blower usually remains upright so 2-stroke isn't advantageous.
 
I'm bought into the Ryobi line of 18V tools. I probably have a half dozen batteries and almost as many chargers. With a little discipline, I always have enough charged batteries to edge/weedeat/blow the whole place (we have a corner lot and about 1/2 acre of grass on the lot).
 
cgrab said:
I have a large yard and a plug in weed whacker. I have had to use a second electric cord to reach to the sign and utility structures at the corner of my yard. My wife seeing my frustration with dragging out the cords bought me a battery powered weed whacker. Now I can reach the far corners but the battery life is too short to do the whole yard. My choices are:
A. Use the corded weed whacker for close to the outlets and the battery powered for far off-this still requires that I get out and wind up the power cords.
B. Buy a second battery and charger so I can put them on charge an hour before I start yard work so they will be ready when I am. A second battery actually cost more than the original kit which includes a blower.
C. Charge the one battery before starting and then whack until it dies, then mow while it recharges, then finish whacking.

I have been doing "C" but my mowing time is less than the charging time and I find myself sitting in the garage drinking beer and waiting for the green light.

On second thought, never mind
Click to expand...

Let me see if I have this right. You’re having trouble whacking. Your wife takes pity and gives you a battery powered whacker. It’s not working right so you have a beer
 
kyleb said:
I'm bought into the Ryobi line of 18V tools. I probably have a half dozen batteries and almost as many chargers. With a little discipline, I always have enough charged batteries to edge/weedeat/blow the whole place (we have a corner lot and about 1/2 acre of grass on the lot).
Click to expand...
My strategy as well for 3/4ths of an acre with lots of nooks and trees the riding mower has to bypass. 3 batteries and 2 chargers is usually enough for the trimming and edging. The blower uses quite a bit more juice.
 
Lachlan said:
Ask Elon Musk why he can’t sell more cars. They don’t have the range to drive to the end of the driveway and back without a recharge. Electric battery powered gadgets are still in the “how cute” stage once you get past a tool like a screw gun or oscillating saw. Gas powered cell phone? Not practical. Electric airplane? Only if it’s radio controlled.
Click to expand...
Elon Musk has a huge backlog of cars to be delivered; they can (and do) go > 250 miles. For me, that's a couple of weeks of driving.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Elon Musk has a huge backlog of cars to be delivered; they can (and do) go > 250 miles. For me, that's a couple of weeks of driving.
Click to expand...

For me, it's 60% of the trip to my parents, less than half to the inlaws but will let me reach the Gulf Coast. Just need to figure out how to return . . .
 
weilke said:
4-stroke, even better. I love my 4-stroke Subaru powered leaf blower. However, if I look on the back of landscaping trucks, all I see are Echo, Stihl and Husquarna branded 2-stroke units. The 2-stroke doesn't care whether you run it upside down and you can't run it out of oil. The leaf-blower usually remains upright so 2-stroke isn't advantageous.
Click to expand...

Sure it is. A two stroke with the same output as your 4-stroke would have been lighter.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Elon Musk has a huge backlog of cars to be delivered; they can (and do) go > 250 miles. For me, that's a couple of weeks of driving.
Click to expand...

Bring that sucker on up where I live in January. Run the lights, the heater and the blower, the radio and I bet you don't make 250 mi. :rofl:

Clearly what the OP needs is a Power Wall backpack to make it to the far end of the yard and back. ;)
 
Last edited:
Rea
Lachlan said:
Ask Elon Musk why he can’t sell more cars. They don’t have the range to drive to the end of the driveway and back without a recharge. Electric battery powered gadgets are still in the “how cute” stage once you get past a tool like a screw gun or oscillating saw. Gas powered cell phone? Not practical. Electric airplane? Only if it’s radio controlled.
Click to expand...
lly you think the cars can only go a few feet. Really? Talk about misinformation. Still think the planet is flat?
 
Lachlan said:
Ask Elon Musk why he can’t sell more cars. They don’t have the range to drive to the end of the driveway and back without a recharge. Electric battery powered gadgets are still in the “how cute” stage once you get past a tool like a screw gun or oscillating saw. Gas powered cell phone? Not practical. Electric airplane? Only if it’s radio controlled.
Click to expand...
The ignorance in this post is incredible...
 
Geeeze I thought this was going to be a thread about a bigger battery.
 
if I am going to wack mine I need a bigger battery. Hmm some how that didn’t come out right.
 
Lachlan said:
Ask Elon Musk why he can’t sell more cars. They don’t have the range to drive to the end of the driveway and back without a recharge. Electric battery powered gadgets are still in the “how cute” stage once you get past a tool like a screw gun or oscillating saw. Gas powered cell phone? Not practical. Electric airplane? Only if it’s radio controlled.
Click to expand...

“Ya ain’t having fun unless you’re burnin gas” http://www.gasblender.com/
 
get a gas unit.....the battery versions just don't have the needed run time.
 
swingwing said:
“Ya ain’t having fun unless you’re burnin gas” http://www.gasblender.com/
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IMO, that product misses the mark. Daiquiris seem too sophisticated for the typical outdoorsman. Why wouldn't a daiquiri drinker simply ask the butler to make him one? No, it needs to ice down a beer. That way, you can carry more ice to the venue without wasting cooler volume on beer cans. See? It could spin the can in ice for just a few seconds and, voila, cold beer. Chuck another and pass 'em around! Needs to come in a kit, too, so you can power it up with the still great running engine from that weedwhacker/blower/edger with the stripped out gearbox and leaky gas tank you can't bear to toss out.
 
For the inveterate outdoorsman, what is needed is freeze-dried beer.

Thread drift alert.
 
Just throw the electric thing in the dumpster, and say the hell with it, weeds got rights too. :)
 
Hire a landscraper to cut and whack your lawn. More time for beer.
 
Sell the battery-powered unit, get a 2-stroke line trimmer and be done with it. I prefer Echo products myself, but my Toro line trimmer ran for a decade without needing a tune up. Switched to an Echo trimmer because I already had a backpack blower and chainsaw from them which were pretty stout.

Just don’t buy one of the Troy-Bilt/Wally World cheap models, or you’ll regret it. Battery-powered units are great for a 1/4-1/2 acre lot with only a few trees, any more than that and you start racking up dollars in spare batteries and walking back and forth to swap them out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
cgrab said:
I have a large yard and a plug in weed whacker. I have had to use a second electric cord to reach to the sign and utility structures at the corner of my yard. My wife seeing my frustration with dragging out the cords bought me a battery powered weed whacker. Now I can reach the far corners but the battery life is too short to do the whole yard.
Click to expand...

What brand?

I ask because I've bought into the Black & Decker 20V Max line, and I've been very happy with it/them. Started with the weed whacker/edger, and collected damn near the entire set - pole saw, chainsaw, blower, and the "Matrix" drill/jigsaw/other-small-tool system (I just have the drill so far, but I can get other attachments for it).

The battery that came with the weed whacker is 4.0Ah, and with the other tools I ended up with a pair of 2.0Ah ones and a pair of 1.5Ah ones. All of them have the juice to run the weed whacker, just not for as long.

The weed whacker is advertised as lasting for 20 minutes, but that must be with one of the smaller batteries, because IME it lasts way longer. Yesterday, I was using it long enough that I was having a bit of trouble grasping things and picking them up afterwards with that hand! Whacked the weeds all around my 2 acres (most of them in the cracks in the driveway :() and then edged both the driveway (160 feet long) and the front walk, then took the same battery and put it on the blower and blew all the dirt (from edging) and grass/weed clippings off the driveway, and then returned to the front walk. The battery lasted until I was just about done with the front walk, so I swapped in one of the others to finish the last 5-10 feet of the walk.

Checkout_my_Six said:
get a gas unit.....the battery versions just don't have the needed run time.
Click to expand...

No longer true - See above. FWIW, the higher voltage systems tend to do better.

dtuuri said:
IMO, that product misses the mark. Daiquiris seem too sophisticated for the typical outdoorsman. Why wouldn't a daiquiri drinker simply ask the butler to make him one? No, it needs to ice down a beer. That way, you can carry more ice to the venue without wasting cooler volume on beer cans. See? It could spin the can in ice for just a few seconds and, voila, cold beer. Chuck another and pass 'em around! Needs to come in a kit, too, so you can power it up with the still great running engine from that weedwhacker/blower/edger with the stripped out gearbox and leaky gas tank you can't bear to toss out.
Click to expand...

I actually have a drink fast-cooler like you describe... It's electric. ;) Having a waste heat source in such close proximity makes a gas-powered one pretty impractical.

1RTK1 said:
Bet that is for mainly noise
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And emissions. I've heard that with the current state of car emissions, that our lawn mowers collectively put more pollution into the atmosphere than our cars now. And I believe it - I've taken to opening both garage doors on our 3-car garage and leaving them open when I pull the tractor in and out, because the exhaust makes my eyes water when I walk through it to get inside otherwise. Got the same irritation during the local parade yesterday when a 60s-vintage Ford pickup went by. That's part of why I've gone all-in on electric equipment where possible now that it's practical. The only gas engines I have left are one of the cars and my tractor. GE's ElecTrak was really ahead of its time (a friend of mine does have one, but they're hard to find these days), and I can't afford a Mean Green.
 
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