Anyone with electric mower

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rocky8314

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May 12, 2014
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How are you liking your decision?

Pros and Cons please

Have a toro model from 2003 and it just quit on me this morning...Trying to decide if i should flip over to cordless mower. Was looking at the EGO from lowes for 500 or i can get a toro with a honda motor for 370.00.
 
Another thing i noticed because i haven't gone lawn mower shopping in years...What's this bs by toro and about no oil change needed just top off?? Are they crazy, every mower i've owned the oil looked disgusting after the cutting season.
 
I have the Kobalt 80v mower from Lowes but would probably go with the Ego in hindsight. I would never go back to a gas powered mower for a typical suburban lot like mine (a little over 9k sq ft). No noise, exhaust fumes, and just push a button and it starts.
 
Had corded lawnmower years ago. Mum used to use it and she went over the power wire so many times it had like 6 joins in it at one time.
User error obviously.
 
How many square ft or fractions of an acre do you have? Regarding adding the oil, Briggs had that for several years and yes, it caused a commotion with the Bitoggers. Most normal people do not have conversations on lawn mower oil. We do. The general consensus was “change it as you desire.”.Toro knows how many years it is before “ normal” people ditch their lawn mowers and know it holds up just fine by adding only. We on the other hand expect 20 years out of ours plus there are plenty of threads talking about replacing a corroded deck rather than junking it. Oh, the Humanity! If your lot is small battery electrics can be very useful. However, there are still naysayers that insist the battery will not make it very many years and will have to be replaced, wrecking the cost part of it. However, if my lot was small I would go battery electric. :)
 
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I have the Ego mower and I absolutely love it. I would never go back to gas. I had a Honda mower before this. The Ego will go through wet grass that would have killed the Honda....The only downside is the quality of cut. I mulch and this does not cut as fine as the Honda and leaves more stragglers. Other than that its great. It has a headlight on it. It is so quiet that I have mowed at 9pm in the dark before and my neighbors had no idea.
 
Two of my sons have the Ryobi from Home depot and love them. The mower changes speed dependent on the thickness of the grass.
 
I’ve switch to battery stuff with my weed wackers and I’ll tell yeah I can easily say it was the best decision I could have made.

I have acre of lawn so I’m not sure I’d go battery powered lawn mower with that, but I am considering it. Cost and reliability is something I’m worrying about. I know I can fix a lawn mower, not sure about electric. But probably. Plus I’d need a ride on mower.

A friend of mine has that automated mower (think of the iRobot house vacuum). It turns on and cuts the grass, then goes back to its docking station. He swears by it, loves the thing. Has a head light, the thing will be out there at 3am mowing the lawn. No sound. He hasn’t had to move his lawn in three years now. Expensive but he says it’s well worth it. They come and install a perimeter around your property, flowers beds, etc and it does the rest. If you have an invisible dog fence, it’s a similar procedure.
 
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rocky8314 said:
Another thing i noticed because i haven't gone lawn mower shopping in years...What's this bs by toro and about no oil change needed just top off?? Are they crazy, every mower i've owned the oil looked disgusting after the cutting season.
Click to expand...
you have to thank briggs and stratton for that one.. when i purchased my home a few years ago the previous owners left behind their craftsman mower which was in good shape. mowing season was just beginning when i got into the house figure i would tune the mower up.. flip the mower over no drain plug.. pull up the manual for oil change... no oil change required they gave a chart of temps and sae30-5w30 synthetic and that 10w30 would cause higher oil consumption. i just run the fuel out or put a plastic bag under the gas cap and turn the mower on its side.. then refill with synthetic 5w30 and i'm good for the season.

on with the electric mowing i just cant yet push myself towards one. my front yard has a good size hill and thick spots of grass i think i would eat up a battery quick. i would definitely have to find a mower that came with 2 batts. other than that i would miss having one less gas engine to maintain. 🤔
 
They are much quieter.
The battery is an issue for some more than others.

Lets say the mower and battery combo is rated for 45 minutes and it takes you 38 minutes to mow your lawn.
At first it might work great and you think it's awesome.

Then after it's 3 years old and has been charged 80 times, the battery only last 34 minutes. You almost get the lawn cut and the battery dies. You can get a new 5.0 AH battery for only $249.00. Gas isn't free either, but one might have used $50 in gas over a three year period plus $30 in oil, filters, spark plugs over three years.

But if you pay to have your mower tuned up every year and a cordless mower would suffice, a cordless mower is the better choice.

It's not naysayers, it's reality. Anyone here with a laptop, tablet... knows after it's been charged dozens of times the capacity isn't what it was when new.
They don't put hybrid or Tesla battery management in mower batteries.


BTW, Consumer Reports rates the Toro cordless mower a 5/5 for mulching and the Ego 4/5 which is something to consider if you mulch. The Toro uses the same blade as the gas mowers.
 
I have the Kobalt 80v self propelled mower from Lowes. It uses the Briggs and Stratton electric motor and platform. Please see this link for more detail. https://www.briggsandstratton.com/n...g/engines/push-mower-engines/82li-series.html

I say "platform" because you can find this same motor and deck on several different makes now; Kobalt, Snapper, Stihl, GreenWorks etc. I like the fact the battery is the same on all of them. I too researched the EGO, there were two things that stood out that I did not care for besides the premium price. I did not like the fact of a proprietary battery, nor the plastic deck. At least with the Briggs platform, you will have a more likely chance of getting a spare or replacement battery, and parts for the mower drive mechanism, plus it has a metal deck.

My front yard has a 30 degree incline so I don't have too much choice but to mow it from side to side. I had a Snapper bagger model with 3.5hp Briggs when I first moved to this property and that hill ate that mower's lunch in 2 seasons time due to the oil starvation issues while cutting on the incline. I then switched to a Lawnboy Silver Pro series with the Duraforce 2cycle engine. I still have it, but the plastic carb needs to be replaced.

Needless to say no issues mowing the hill with the Kobalt electric mower. Plus the self propel drive works independently which is a great feature for moving the mower up any incline or over any surface without the need to have the blade spinning.

My mowing season is almost over here, but after this first season of using this Kobalt cordless model, I am in no hurry to fix my old Lawnboy.
 
My Kobalt 80V blower battery failed on me after about 6 months of occasional use. The run time was about 15 minutes. About half what's needed to complete the job. Lowes replaced the entire unit and the new one works exactly like the other one. It did "slow down" annoyingly as the battery depleted.

I also purchased an EGO 56V blower. It's a better quality product. More power and lasts a touch longer. It also does not slow down as much as the battery depletes. I use each blower in different aircraft hangars, to blow out the sand/debris etc. The EGO does a better job on sand.

It's my opinion that the EGO products and the EGO battery are better quality.

FYI, neither will do the job of a quality gas powered blower. Not only will the gas blower last 4x longer on a full tank, but the higher velocity of the gas blower moves heavier debris, such as sand and gravel.
 
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I was all primed to go buy a EGO electric a few years ago because I thought then, and still do, that they are the cadillac of electric mowers. Well when I got to HD, they had a Ryobi 20" electric that had been returned, that looked new. After talking with the manager, I was able to get the thing for less than half it's original price. I've used it now for three seasons and it is fantastic. It will mow grass way higher than you would ever like to let it grow, has the power of a gas mower and is a total of 40ish pounds light. Great variable self propelled system too. I won't be going back to a gas push mower as far as I can see. It is just so much easier to deal with not worrying about oil and gas, plus you can stand it up in the corner of the garage. I have 7+ acres that I mow over 5 of, and there's a fair bit of trimming, which the Ryobi gets used for, and it's done fine. If you'd see the road ditches and banks I mow with it, you'd be very impressed indeed. I've hit gravel along the road almost every time I mow and it's not hurt the deck in the least, very tough plastic. I see no downside whatsoever with it. I have two batteries so I can mow for around 2-3 hours without stopping, which is way more than enough for me. I have forgotten to charge batteries a time or two, but that's certainly not the fault of the mower. Heck, I've run out of gas for my tractor a few times! I did take mine apart and unhook the lights, as I don't see me mowing in the dark and it just that much less battery drain.
I still believe the EGO is the best mower, it's far heavier, but built like a tank, but the Ryobi has done absolutely fine for me. After extended use, I can recommend them with no hesitation whatsoever.
 
Here is a blow-up of a Ego battery. Enjoy.

727AAD3F-A3C2-4292-BD53-E2CF162E6850.png
 
I've had a B&D battery mower since around 2000, which I will keep fixing it until I can't. No way I will ever buy a gas mower, and I wish all my neighbors would as well for the lack of noise and smell. There are some good ones out there today. My prime requirements for when I need a new one is availability of spare parts and batteries. The nice thing about my old B&D is it uses lead acid scooter batteries, which are easy to get and relatively inexpensive. It's a very simple machine.

Keeping the blade sharp is key, so plan on sharpening it at least twice a season. Bagging grass sucks power, so don't do it. I have a different blade for bagging, which I do only every couple of years and only when there are too many leaves on the lawn to mulch, but not enough to rake. Fresh cut grass and old leaves is perfect compost.
 
I have the Toro Personal Pace with the Honda engine. It's a beast. Very well made, chugs through thick grass and leaves easily. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

With that said, electric can be very beneficial from a user experience (no fuss with gas/oil or noise) depending on your yard. If you have a large yard and/or thick grass I'd advise against it. I gave my old Toro mower to a friend who previously had an electric mower (corded). The issue with my friend's mower was the annoyance of the cord, but also the fact that he had thick grass, and due to a rainy summer that year the grass would grow too tall in between mowings, and it was a struggle.
 
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