Big Box Retail - Gas Mowers - End Of Season Inventory

You couldn't pay me to go back to gas for a push mower.

I have a very small fenced in section of my 1 acre yard for the dog. 48x42 . If I didn't get a free push mower (self propelled) I wasn't going to spend the money on a gas push mower for such a small area. Ryobi has a small electric mower that would run off of the batteries I have. Would have been perfect!
 
If I needed a mower I might consider electric. My neighbour got rid of his well maintained perfect functioning Honda to go electric. He sold his Honda for cheap to a guy that mows lawns for a living.

I wonder how many electric lawnmowers will be in the landfill in 10 years due to planned obsolescence, because I am sure there all proprietary electronics.
 
Curious question for everyone.......have any of you noticed of depleted or depleting inventory of gas powered push or self propelled mowers in the big box retailer near you?

I happen to be in my local HD and was told that this past season they had only 3 choices of gas powered offers in this category....Honda, Toro, and Troybilt. Dept. head told me that next year there will only be 2, but he would not tell me what brands those would be. I am guessing Toro for sure, but between Honda and Troybilt, I could see Troybilt disappearing. Just curious....anyone know. I am assuming other larger competing retailers will follow.

Yes, they are giddy about shoving electric everything down everyones throat.
The only issue with what he said is: What is their lower end offering going to be?
If they don't have Troybilt (or some other MTD/ or comparable variant) how are they going to serve that portion of the market?
Will Toro offer a lower end offering to fill that void? Either something stripped down, or slap their label on something they "Farm out?" I doubt that.
Or, will they forfeit that end of the market to other vendors?
I doubt they will. They may only have one "Cheapo" mower option, but they still need to have something on hand.
However, after looking this year at what was available, that portion of the market may be better off purchasing used.
 
Proven less reliable and more maintenance. Thems the facts.

No more having to go to the gas station with a jerry can. No more mixing. No more winterizing. No need for hearing protection.

My electric mower is lighter and more powerful. 2 Batteries cycle perfectly 45m runtime, 45m charge time. It's a win across the board for me.

I laugh when people are like, I can mow for 6 hours with my gas push mower. It's like, dude, get a bigger mower lol. My reel mower can mow NONSTOP, FOREVER. As if that's the benchmark of a good push mower haha.
More reliable? 😂 talk to me in 15 years. My Honda has needed 2 new tires, a couple blades and oil changes once a year. Oh sorry and 2 pull ropes. That’s less than $100. How long will those batteries last?
It’s fine if you like an electric mower but they aren’t saving the planet.
 
They want you using an electric mower. I got my 60V Toro self propelled mower for $399, but it's now $499. And as much as I really-really like the thing, it's not a heavy duty mower. It's a finishing mower, for areas my tractor can't easily reach. $500 gets you 15 minutes of heavy cutting, or 40 minutes of light cutting.

By way of comparison, my 21" Snapper commercial push mower with metal swiveling wheels is a much tougher machine, and no electric push mower meets this standard or capability. It will cut a 12 acre field if you ask it to, with just a few refills. Oh, you could do that with the Toro Electric, but it would take you 36 (or more) $300 batteries!
Did you upgrade to swivel wheels? Sounds like my Snapper, love that machine. 7.0 Intek and will Honda recover when needed.
 
I bought a new Echo PAS225 with the straight shaft trimmer head in 2016. I just sold it for what I paid for it. I bought a Milwaukee M18 trimmer as I have a bunch of Milwaukee batteries for my job. I will say that a 9.0 M18 battery lasts as long as an entire tank of gas and the trimmer performs equally as well as the 2 stroke counterpart. I was very surprised.

A buddy was given a Green Works electric push mower. We were both making fun of it and said we should see how long it takes to kill it mowing knee high grass. Well it took 20 min and we weren't giving it any breaks! The battery and electric motor were HOT! But I have to admit I was impressed. And he had a second battery that we could have swapped in.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Honda powered push mower. I don't think it has even taken more than 1 pull to start ever. But I have a diesel tractor with a 60" deck. The push mower is just for trimming and burns maybe 2 gallons a year.

I grew up with 2 stroke bikes and even a lawn-boy 2 stroke mower. My parents still use that lawn-boy. The smell of 2 stroke in the morning! Yes! But electric OPE really is better for the vast majority of HOs.
 
Electric certainly has advantages for some scenarios, especially smaller properties with little to maintain. The power output is similar, since the tech is getting better, and for non-mechanically inclined there is less worry of mixing fuel, storing fuel, rodent issues, or other maintenance problems. The only issue is battery life. I have a customer who went electric 2 years ago. The battery lasted just long enough to get through his yard, and it was a perfect fit. Now the battery lasts about half his yard, so he purchased 2 batteries. Not a big deal, but something to consider.

I have too much to maintain for electric to make sense, or at least for it to not be a hassle.
 
I want (need?) an electric mower for my one hill, but the price of them is hard to stomach. I’d probably destroy a gas one via oil starvation.

I have noticed lowes lacking on the gas powered push mowers, but gas zero turns and lawn tractors still reign supreme.
@ Skippy.....this exactly what happened to my first real mower (Snapper w/ Briggs engine, late 80's vintage). My front yard has a 40 degree hill and is about 25 x 40ft. When mowing the hill sideways the Snapper would start to slow down near the turn around point due to oil starvation. It lasted about 3 seasons before the rings were shot and the bore was scored beyond repair. After that I went to the Lawnboy. It was dream compared to the Snapper. Different strokes for different folks I guess. My point of this thread was merely that the big box retailers seem to really be pairing down the gas powered OPE models in most categories of push mowers and small yard equipment.
 
Consider how many relatively new gas lawnmowers get pushed to the curb due to a simple routine breakdown that the typical consumer can't deal with. Aren't most of us mowing with one of those now?
Choosing not to maintain something vs not being able to get a part even if you wanted to is fairly different.
 
Choosing not to maintain something vs not being able to get a part even if you wanted to is fairly different.
SC, Great point. I think the majority of us here on BITOG like to keep things in good repair, and repair things that have been neglected or used up by previous owners or caretakers.....I am that way personally. It gives me joy to save something from going into the trash / landfill....so much in fact that I have been mistaken for being indigent for repairing something that most people would throw in the trash. My personal thanks to those people who taught me the skills to do that......I got those from many people who intervened in my life over time.
 
@ Skippy.....this exactly what happened to my first real mower (Snapper w/ Briggs engine, late 80's vintage). My front yard has a 40 degree hill and is about 25 x 40ft. When mowing the hill sideways the Snapper would start to slow down near the turn around point due to oil starvation. It lasted about 3 seasons before the rings were shot and the bore was scored beyond repair. After that I went to the Lawnboy. It was dream compared to the Snapper. Different strokes for different folks I guess. My point of this thread was merely that the big box retailers seem to really be pairing down the gas powered OPE models in most categories of push mowers and small yard equipment.
Many of them can't get the gas equipment, so they are stocking the electric ones instead.
 
I don't think an electric unit will ever help folks in my neck of the woods with acres upon acres of property maintenance.

Love the cut from the 54" deck on my 1025R.
 
Curious question for everyone.......have any of you noticed of depleted or depleting inventory of gas powered push or self propelled mowers in the big box retailer near you?

I happen to be in my local HD and was told that this past season they had only 3 choices of gas powered offers in this category....Honda, Toro, and Troybilt. Dept. head told me that next year there will only be 2, but he would not tell me what brands those would be. I am guessing Toro for sure, but between Honda and Troybilt, I could see Troybilt disappearing. Just curious....anyone know. I am assuming other larger competing retailers will follow.
This season at Lowe's we had a very low end Bolens (MTD) push mower, a range of Craftsman (MTD) push and self propelled mowers, and one Honda self propelled. IIRC our store got only four of the latter this season. The electrics are getting more shelf space lately, including four EGO models, two Kobalt, one Skil and one Craftsman. The gas powered mowers handily outsell their battery powered counterparts in spite of this.

The selection in big box stores varies by location. Today I was working a Lowe's store in a more affluent area where Mac Mansions are common. They had EGO zero turns on display. My local Lowe's is located in a more established but somewhat less affluent area. We haven't received any of the EGO zero turns.

To be perfectly honest, most of the customers I see would be better off with the battery powered equipment. That's not because it is better; it's because most of them have no idea how to maintain and operate gasoline powered equipment. The return rate on gasoline powered equipment is easily 10-20x that of the battery powered stuff, and most of the time it is just plain stupidity. Some of the things I have seen include filling the crankcase with gasoline and handles not extended so that the blades could clear them. I could go on and on...

As another poster had mentioned, I think this has less to do with stores pushing battery powered OPE than trying to sell what we can get our hands on. Riding mowers have been hard to come by for the last two years. Most of what we can get from Deere or Husqvarna has the single cylinder Briggs motors; the V-Twins have been rare. The John Deere dealer network seems to be suffering this as well. Perhaps someone else may have some insight on this.
 
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