Daming indictment on the state of cordless mowers

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My son wants a self-propelled cordless mower for his small but sloped yard in Pittsburgh. I have been trying to help him by researching these mowers to determine what brand is best. I found many of them to be heavily marketed with no service/parts support. I then found the Snapper cordless mowers, found a Snapper Dealer fairly close to his house, and thought I had my answer. Just tonight I found this review on the Home Depot web page (Home Depot sells the Snapper cordless mowers).


"Well made and does a fairly decent lawn mowing--but the mower doesn't pick up small leaves in my yard.. Contacted Snapper--Briggs and Stratton customer service about problem with not picking up leaves. Newsmore calls (sic) and emails to the customer service.. Was told to take it to a Snapper Dealer to have them address the problem. Took to Mike's Lawnmower service and the owner refused to work on the mower. Called other snapper dealers and none of them would work on this $600.00 lawn mower.
Back and forth with management to get the problem fixed. Was told by management that they could not find any Snapper dealers in my area that would work on fixing the problem. Received the following msg from them:

I understand it is a difficult decision for you.
It is difficult for me as well, because I can offer no available dealer to repair or even look at the unit. That could possibly change tomorrow but I cannot guarantee that.

The only way I can do any type of refund is to go by what was purchased. So, if I take the walk mower back, I would of course have to take the battery that came with it.

The only other option is to keep the equipment and if there is indeed a failure of some sort, take it into a Greenworks Dealer. Greenworks is actually the manufacture of the equipment but because it is branded Snapper, we handle the service/warranty repair for it. They could do a repair but it would not be "warranty", as they do not do warranty work on Snapper branded product. They can fix it, just not under warranty. Confusing I know.

I can do nothing about the extended warranty purchase. That was not purchased from us so therefore I cannot refund it.

I understand this puts you in a quandary and I do apologize for that. I wish I had better answers for you. I will await your decision as to what you would like to do...



I was originally told the Snapper mowers were made by Briggs and Stratton--Now I'm told it is Green Works. What good is a five year warranty when Snapper can't provide repair service under warranty.

I'm requesting a full refund for the Snapper mower and Snapper battery operated lawn trimmer .

Snapper/Briggs and Stratton/Green Work really screwed up via no planning for how a customer was to obtain warranty/repair work.. I'm no longer a Snapper buyer.."


So..... assuming the above message is based in fact, it seems as if all current buyers of cordless mowers are buying a real pig in a poke. No guarantee of parts. No guarantee of service. No guarantee of warranty - even extra cost extended warranties purchased from retailers.. Effectively cordless mowers are currently $500 disposables tools that you can only hope will work properly when it comes out of the box.

Very discouraging.................. I wonder if the blade was installed upside down which is resulting in no vacuum action for small leaves?
 
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Too bad the extended warranty wasn't the cure-all it's implied to be. Home Depot should have stepped up.
 
Something to consider is Greenworks, Snapper, and Kobalt all key the 82V batteries so they aren't interchangeable.
(If that review is from a 40V version that may have something to do with the performance.)

I kind of think you should be buying the larger battery if you're running the mower.
It's expensive.
For something handheld, the smaller battery is better for the arms, and the tool is better balanced.
 
Did you buy it from a Snapper servicing dealer? If so, you should take it back to the dealer you bought it from. If I remember from when I was a Snapper dealer, we were required to do warranty work on the product we sold. Of course if it was not purchased from us, we could use our discretion if we worked on it or not.
 
Originally Posted by spackard
Something to consider is Greenworks, Snapper, and Kobalt all key the 82V batteries so they aren't interchangeable.

I've heard discussion of using a Dremel to remedy the keying situation. A buddy accomplished that successfully with some older NiCad era batteries. Of course you're talking about some serious stored energy here, so if you go that route, please be careful.
 
Snapper is not what it used to be. They have sold out what they were popular for. Now you can find them in Walmart and they always bragged that they were not something you could buy at Walmart.
 
Self propelled, cordless, and sloping yard sound like 3 things that could spell trouble for a mower-they have limited power to begin with. We've been down this road (somewhat) with my Mom's yard-battery operated leaf blowers (she's not capable of starting a gas one) plus heavy oak leaves=worthless!
 
I don't understand what you expect. The mower cuts grass. Ir was not designed to pick up leaves. The design is set.....there is really nothing to service. And if you think the blade is upside down it hardly takes but a minute to flip it.
 
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For a cordless tool like this, I'm not too surprised. You'd be lucky to get replacement batteries, maybe wheels and a switch if need be 2-3yrs down the road. These things change-over so quickly, it's a risk no matter what you buy in this realm.
 
He didn't buy the mower, he is reposting a review from Home Depot:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Snapper...eries-Charger-Included-1687914/303626035

(Look at the one star review)

I guess I find it a little hard to believe that a Snapper Dealer can outright refuse to provide warranty service on a Snapper Product and remain a Snapper Dealer, but I suppose stranger things have happened... I also note that this review lacks the "verified purchase" indicator and is the lowest rated review by far (though some of the others are "seeds program" (free product for a review))
 
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Originally Posted by Gasbuggy
I use a Reel mower. It's on the only true "green" mower.


That's what I use also for my small hilly front yard with big roots sticking up. It's great exercise and I never have to be bothered with cleaning or replacing the carb
lol.gif
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Whimsey
 
This one does not even use electricity … and does all that with gusto (perhaps a bit louder) …

B5DEA95F-DCF9-42B9-8F01-6D7EBFE3AA6F.jpeg
 
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