Electric push mower

Groundpounder

Groundpounder

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Emerson Bigguns
I have an old push mower that I use to get the spots that the ride on can't reach. It won't start yet again, and I am tired of fixing it every spring. Looking at the Home Depot website, there is a Ryobi electric push mower for about the same amount of money as a basic gas push mower, and it takes the same battery packs as I have for other Ryobi tools. Its only 13", and they say it only lasts for a half hour, but when I used the gas one, it took me maybe 10 min to hit the spots I needed to it, and if for some reason I need to run it longer, I have 3 other battery packs I could use. It is also a lot smaller than the old pusher, so it won't take up as much room in my shed.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RYOBI-1...-Included-P1180VNM/314468508#product-overview

Anyone have one, and if so how has it worked for you?
 
Can't speak to the ryobi, but for not much more you could get a mower with a brushless motor, which will get much better mileage out of the battery packs. I have a small 40V mower with a plastic deck for home and a larger 80V mower with a metal deck for the airport.
 
I don't yet have an electric mower, I'm still using the people powered reel mower. But when I do, I'll likely get the E-Go, as my E-Go blower and weed trimmer have been fantastic, and I'm already in that battery eco system.
 
My neighbor has one of these EGo mowers:
https://egopowerplus.com/

She's had it 2(?) full seasons, starting another one now. It's very quiet. I do think it's making a little more noise now than in the past, and that might just mean the blade needs sharpening.

It holds enough of a charge that she can mow and bag her whole yard (and it's self propelled) without needing to top off the battery. Her yard is maybe 1/4 acre.

One big advantage is that you can mow your lawn as early as you want and not wake the neighbors.
 
Well, I just went to try to start the old mower one more time and it fired up on the first pull. Guess it heard I was thinking of sending it off to the great junkyard in the sky. I'll revisit this thread when it dies for good.
 
Bill said:
I don't yet have an electric mower, I'm still using the people powered reel mower. But when I do, I'll likely get the E-Go, as my E-Go blower and weed trimmer have been fantastic, and I'm already in that battery eco system.
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I just picked up a new EGO edger for $130 and got a battery and charger for $80. I got tired of using the Echo gas line trimmer as an edger and didn't want another piece of gas-powered lawn equipment to maintain. For the 3-5 minutes of use that it gets per lawn mowing, the battery works great. It's obviously not as powerful as a gasoline-equivalent, but it works just fine if you're not trying to clear brush with it. Packed dirt/mud will cause it to bog/shut down. It's also a good bit heavier than my Echo gas trimmer (mine has the small 2.5Ah battery), so I don't think I'd want to lug it around the yard for the 15-20 minutes it takes me to trim everything up for mowing if it would even make it that long without having to upgrade to the 5Ah battery.

Groundpounder said:
Well, I just went to try to start the old mower one more time and it fired up on the first pull. Guess it heard I was thinking of sending it off to the great junkyard in the sky. I'll revisit this thread when it dies for good.
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The battery-powered mower would work great for your use. I have an old Toro push mower that still fires right up on the first pull even though it gets no maintenance to speak of outside of the tune-up kit every few years. I only use it to mow our drainage ditch where the riding mower might get stuck. Probably runs less than 5-7 minutes total each mowing. If the Toro ever craps out, I'd definitely consider a battery mower (maybe a used one) for no more than I need it to work.
 
Groundpounder said:
Well, I just went to try to start the old mower one more time and it fired up on the first pull. Guess it heard I was thinking of sending it off to the great junkyard in the sky. I'll revisit this thread when it dies for good.
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Keep its respect! That's the ticket.

Sounds like the cordless electric would be great for your use case.
 
I have a decent suite of the Ego products, and I frigging love them. Zero maintenance. Since I have several pieces, I have a few batteries and chargers. I've never been left waiting for a battery to charge. It's pretty rare that my mower will kill a battery (1/4 acre), but if the grass is long and wet, it can. But... I've got two other batteries waiting for me, so no big deal. I can generally trim, mow, and blow on two of the 4Ah batteries with plenty to spare. Only in the fall do I really have to do the battery dance (run out a battery, get it on the charger so it's juicing up while I use another) when I'm blowing leaves.

Ego now has a freaking zero turn mower with giant batteries... apparently it'll mow north of 3 acres on a single charge. That's... pretty amazing.
 
I'm need a new leaf blower -- the impeller in my old electric one died last fall and for some reason nobody will sell a replacement (I'm guessing it was recalled or something). But I can't find a cordless leaf blower that is also a leaf vacuum. I really like the vacuum for picking up the leaves from the garden and flower beds in the fall. Anyone seen a battery blower/vacuum?
 
FWIW, I've had a Black and Decker cordless mower (19 inch, lead acid battery) for several years - does fine on my not much grass city lot...
 
Surprised that I haven't seen any mention of Honda's autonomous mower. Clearly their setup at Oshkosh isn't having the desired effect.
 
Interesting thread. The two people I know personally who tried battery powered mowers were very disappointed in the amount of grass the mowers could cut and ultimately returned their mowers and replaced them with recip mowers.

I'd love to find a good battery powered mower for our back yard. 4,000 SF of uneven terrain - a self prop would be necessary. An electric mower would put the >currently< 10 year old quite a bit closer to taking on another chore around the house. ;-)
 
kyleb said:
Interesting thread. The two people I know personally who tried battery powered mowers were very disappointed in the amount of grass the mowers could cut and ultimately returned their mowers and replaced them with recip mowers.

I'd love to find a good battery powered mower for our back yard. 4,000 SF of uneven terrain - a self prop would be necessary. An electric mower would put the >currently< 10 year old quite a bit closer to taking on another chore around the house. ;-)
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Last year I bought a Toro gas mower with a 170cc gas engine. I had to return it and get one with a 200 cc Honda engine because the Toro kept bogging down climbing the hill. No way could I do an electric.

When I was in 4th grade, my dad bought a riding mower, and that was the last time he ever cut the grass. It was my responsibility from then on out.

We moved to Florida, had a much smaller yard with a pool. I had to cut the grass and clean the pool. I'm still trying to figure out what my sister did, but it couldn't have been much. Our house wasn't all that big and my mother had someone come in and clean it once a week. She did all the shopping and cooking, I can't think what was left for my sister to do. Dishes, maybe.
 
Steve Costello said:
I have a decent suite of the Ego products, and I frigging love them. Zero maintenance. Since I have several pieces, I have a few batteries and chargers. I've never been left waiting for a battery to charge.
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Yeah, I have the trimmer and blower, so have two batteries and chargers. One battery will trim the yard and blow everything with power to spare. I rotate the batteries hoping it keeps both healthy.

Daleandee said:
I thought all you rich pilots were having the servants cut, trim, weed eat, fertilize, and blow the lawn ... :stirpot:
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My young couple neighbors all wonder how I can afford to fly and ride motorcycles, yet they all pay $80/week to have their grass cut, don't do any of their own car mx/repair, get dinner delivered every night, etc.
 
kyleb said:
Interesting thread. The two people I know personally who tried battery powered mowers were very disappointed in the amount of grass the mowers could cut and ultimately returned their mowers and replaced them with recip mowers.

I'd love to find a good battery powered mower for our back yard. 4,000 SF of uneven terrain - a self prop would be necessary. An electric mower would put the >currently< 10 year old quite a bit closer to taking on another chore around the house. ;-)
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Ego sells several levels of their push mower. Their more capable ones aren't generally available in stores, since they are pretty spendy and wouldn't move off the shelf. But... those high dollar ones come with significantly higher capacity batteries (which is where all the $$$) is.
 
Bill said:
My young couple neighbors all wonder how I can afford to fly and ride motorcycles, yet they all pay $80/week to have their grass cut, don't do any of their own car mx/repair, get dinner delivered every night, etc.
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I really do get what you are saying. It truly is about being a good steward of the resources you have.

I went through the "I make enough money to burn some" part of my life and now realize that if I'd known then what I know now ...

I don't live in the past and yet I have learned a great deal from it.
 
Bill said:
My young couple neighbors all wonder how I can afford to fly and ride motorcycles, yet they all pay $80/week to have their grass cut, don't do any of their own car mx/repair, get dinner delivered every night, etc.
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To be fair, there are some things that, income pending, are just worth having someone else do. I used to do all my own oil changes. It's just not worth my time any more. A few years ago we hired a house cleaner (she independent, and AWESOME). Worth every darned penny to get our weekends back.

My personal time has pretty significant value. I've learned to start attaching a monetary value to that. Anything that costs much more than that gets outsourced, unless I actually enjoy that particular activity.

Lawn care? I actually don't mind that, and sometimes even enjoy it. So I still do it.

Painting? Very done with that. I've painted enough rooms and ceilings in my life. I hire that stuff out now (literally just wrapped up having nearly the entire inside of our house painted... total cost was just barely into five figure territory - worth every darned penny).

Anyway. Ego mowers and other yard tools... really great stuff.
 
Bill said:
Yeah, I have the trimmer and blower, so have two batteries and chargers. One battery will trim the yard and blow everything with power to spare. I rotate the batteries hoping it keeps both healthy.



My young couple neighbors all wonder how I can afford to fly and ride motorcycles, yet they all pay $80/week to have their grass cut, don't do any of their own car mx/repair, get dinner delivered every night, etc.
Click to expand...

Daleandee said:
I really do get what you are saying. It truly is about being a good steward of the resources you have.

I went through the "I make enough money to burn some" part of my life and now realize that if I'd known then what I know now ...

I don't live in the past and yet I have learned a great deal from it.
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yup I’m a cheapskate to no end outside of aviation :)

I have even ventured into appliance repair, usually they are pretty easy fixes and cheap! I feel it’s allowed me to make gains I would t have otherwise.

I blew through cash in my younger days, ended up out of business and in bankruptcy, now my kids roll their eyes when I calculate all costs at what it costs over a year.
 
I got tired of rebuilding my gas weedeater carb (despite putting in non ethonal gas) several years ago so I bought an battery powered weedeater. God i dont miss smelling like exhaust fumes or mixing oil/gas! Yard is too big for an electric mower (2 acres) so still using the riding mower for that (c'mon Elon Musk....help me out!). I tried an electric battery powered blower but it wouldn't blow for anything. Still have to haul out the extension cords for the old blower at the moment.
 
scarcherpilot said:
I tried an electric battery powered blower but it wouldn't blow for anything. Still have to haul out the extension cords for the old blower at the moment.
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I like my EGO battery powered blower, it works well for my application. Smaller yard, I'm totally gasless.
 
We had an early Greenworks mower. It worked well enough I guess. Our neighbor has it now.

I have a B&D battery blower but I don't use it for yard work. It's used to blow dust out of the hangar. My wife has a monster echo backpack blower for the yard work.
 
I had a 13amp corded Greenworks lawn mower.
It lasted almost one season, Greenworks replaced it under warranty.
The replacement lasted about two and half seasons.
In both cases, it the motor died.

Tim
 
flyingron said:
We had an early Greenworks mower. It worked well enough I guess. Our neighbor has it now.

I have a B&D battery blower but I don't use it for yard work. It's used to blow dust out of the hangar. My wife has a monster echo backpack blower for the yard work.
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I use the Echo 700-series backpack blower as well (not even a handheld will deal with a dozen oak trees and a 60'+ Southern Magnolia, lol).
 
Bill said:
I like my EGO battery powered blower, it works well for my application. Smaller yard, I'm totally gasless.
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I might have to go gasless all the way, probably sooner than later.

We had over a week of rain, set new records and everything. The yard ended up so bad that I had to mow it twice at two different height settings, just about knocked me out. Electric would have been a problem unless I had several batteries, but...

We did have a break sometime last week when I was out, so my wife thought about mowing and giving me a head start that way. Then it rained again, so that idea never came to anything. I thought about it a bit, and realized my gas mower is pretty temperamental at its current age (around 20yrs old) and that I may be the only mower-whisperer that can keep it running - especially when hot starting. An EGO would be a simple "press here to start, and off you go."

My Ryobi trimmer is another one of those things. I put a new carb on it a year or so ago and it's back to running pretty well, but it's a pain to keep that second can of gas/oil and it's pretty loud.

I keep thinking about my neighbor and her EGO mower. She can fire that up any time of the day without bothering neighbors, and it just works.
 
Matthew said:
I might have to go gasless all the way, probably sooner than later.

We had over a week of rain, set new records and everything. The yard ended up so bad that I had to mow it twice at two different height settings, just about knocked me out. Electric would have been a problem unless I had several batteries, but...

We did have a break sometime last week when I was out, so my wife thought about mowing and giving me a head start that way. Then it rained again, so that idea never came to anything. I thought about it a bit, and realized my gas mower is pretty temperamental at its current age (around 20yrs old) and that I may be the only mower-whisperer that can keep it running - especially when hot starting. An EGO would be a simple "press here to start, and off you go."

My Ryobi trimmer is another one of those things. I put a new carb on it a year or so ago and it's back to running pretty well, but it's a pain to keep that second can of gas/oil and it's pretty loud.

I keep thinking about my neighbor and her EGO mower. She can fire that up any time of the day without bothering neighbors, and it just works.
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Just like with electric vehicles, it's a cost-to-value proposition. Does the 50% (or more) cost of buying an EGO mower (and potential extra battery) offset having a traditional ICE mower and keeping a 5 gallon can of gas for a a few months of mowing. You can probably get another 20 years out of a new ICE mower for much less cost than the EGO, but what's it worth to you to not have to keep gas on hand? Also, the EGO seems to be a decent mower, but it's not going to be on-par with the nicer mowers like Toro/Honda, but then the price differential gets lower. Answer won't be the same for everyone.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Just like with electric vehicles, it's a cost-to-value proposition. Does the 50% (or more) cost of buying an EGO mower (and potential extra battery) offset having a traditional ICE mower and keeping a 5 gallon can of gas for a a few months of mowing. You can probably get another 20 years out of a new ICE mower for much less cost than the EGO, but what's it worth to you to not have to keep gas on hand? Also, the EGO seems to be a decent mower, but it's not going to be on-par with the nicer mowers like Toro/Honda, but then the price differential gets lower. Answer won't be the same for everyone.
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Yeah, well at my age I'm looking for my terminal mower.

I *could* go with battery trimmer and then get a new Toro that will get me there. That's something I'm considering. That Briggs engine on my current mower will last forever, but the parts that hold the rest of the mower components together are getting harder and harder to find. If the drive axle fails again, I don't think I can get parts for it anymore. There's an online parts store I've used, and each time I've had to buy repair parts I can see their inventory of "x left in stock" drop by 1. I am pretty sure I will get one more season easily, but any more than that could be a problem. So my mower decision will have to be made over the winter or early next spring.

A new ICE Toro and an EGO will probably be close in price, but I do think performance of the ICE will be better. I also have to consider ease of starting, though, for my wife's sake. I haven't ever looked closely at the electric start ICE mowers, that might be an option, too.
 
Matthew said:
That Briggs engine on my current mower will last forever, but the parts that hold the rest of the mower components together are getting harder and harder to find.
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Finding parts for electric mowers that are only a few years old can also be a challenge :( Moving forward, I would buy spare blades at the time of purchasing the mower.
 
Matthew said:
Yeah, well at my age I'm looking for my terminal mower.

I *could* go with battery trimmer and then get a new Toro that will get me there. That's something I'm considering. That Briggs engine on my current mower will last forever, but the parts that hold the rest of the mower components together are getting harder and harder to find. If the drive axle fails again, I don't think I can get parts for it anymore. There's an online parts store I've used, and each time I've had to buy repair parts I can see their inventory of "x left in stock" drop by 1. I am pretty sure I will get one more season easily, but any more than that could be a problem. So my mower decision will have to be made over the winter or early next spring.

A new ICE Toro and an EGO will probably be close in price, but I do think performance of the ICE will be better. I also have to consider ease of starting, though, for my wife's sake. I haven't ever looked closely at the electric start ICE mowers, that might be an option, too.
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My parents have an electric-start Toro Personal Pace mower that rarely gets used except for a few passes in areas hard to reach with the 60" zero turn. No fuss whatsoever other than plugging in the starting battery every few weeks to keep it topped off. The drive axles will wear just the same on the electric mowers, since they generally use the same mechanisms for propulsion. My concern on the EGO (and others) would be parts availability in 10-15 years as well, since they may not have the enormous aftermarket support like most of the ICE brands do. Electronic control board fries out of warranty 10 years down the road, and EGO doesn't make that model anymore, etc. Those batteries may last for 4-5 years or 10-years (who knows), but then you're paying $350 for a 7.5 amp-hour battery (1-hr run time, new) or $450 for a 10 amp-hour the cost savings may not be there long term. I definitely like the idea of having quieter equipment and not maintaining as many pieces of lawn equipment, but I also enjoy how light my line trimmer is compared to my EGO edger. No free lunch, I suppose.
 
Although it was out of the city a little bit, I had an old high school buddy who bought two sheep every spring and kept them in his fenced yard.
Never mowed, and held a big bbq every fall.
 
I don't know about the Ryobi, but electric lawn mowers are great. I had a Black & Decker mower at the prior home; now in a townhome, so someone else cuts the grass. It was so quiet I could talk to someone in the yard while it was running. The gas mower was so loud I wore ear protection. The only grass we had was in the front yard, the back was wooded. So the battery lasted fine unless it got too tall. Now the batteries are even better.
 
wayne said:
So the battery lasted fine unless it got too tall. Now the batteries are even better.
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No doubt. Current is what's hard on batteries so I bought the highest voltage system available. I'm still on my first battery for the 80V greenworks I bought in 2014.
 
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