Cordless mowers

[gogmorgo]

Anyone have recommendations?

This little guy maintained my dad’s lawn for 17 years, but about five years back he decided it was too much for him to be pushing around, and too much effort to get started. He’s in his 70’s, I get it. He replaced it with a cheap little 110V corded deal, I think it’s got all of a 12” blade and while it’s definitely easier for him to move around it takes forever to mow the lawn. When I was a kid I could do it in an hour and a half, but just now it was almost four hours. Nothing against electric, that particular one is just way too small a cut for how much lawn there is. But the electric is so much better that he’s never going back to gas now. 
I’m going to give the old Tecumseh a good tuneup and that’ll be good enough for me, but I live about 80 miles away and I can’t make it back often enough. He needs something better. As it is right now it’s a 2-3 day process for him to mow, and it might take a few days for him to recover. But he likes mowing it himself and it’s some of the only exercise he gets… yeah the sensible thing would be to hire the neighbour’s kids, but I don’t see that happening for a while yet.
I’ve been looking at self-propelled stuff. Anything less is going to be too much. Cordless because dragging that cord around is a pain and I’m likely going to be using it too. 
 

Right now I’m leaning towards the Milwaukee M18 Fuel 21-inch, 2823-22HD, mostly because I’ve had good experience with the battery system. But it’s got a pretty hefty price tag. Looking at reviews it seems like it might deserve the higher price, but similar products from other brands are around 2/3 the price. And I’m sure most of them will do as good of a job.

Something else I’ve noticed for about the same price as the Milwaukee is robotic mowers. Basically a Roomba for the lawn. There’s a Worx brand and a Husqvarna, probably others. Seems like a cool idea but the lawn isn’t the most optimal shape, it’s got trees and flower beds, and narrow paths between obstacles, some steps between front and side yards, I think you’d need more than one to make it work the way it’s supposed to for us. But if the mower can move itself around, presumably that means it could be remote controlled and could be driven between yards?

Father’s Day is coming up. I’m hoping to talk my brother into splitting the cost, but we’ll see how keen he is. 
The one thing my dad likes about the tiny mower is it fits into some spots a bigger mower doesn’t. Which might mean a battery trimmer might eventually need to become part of the package. Looks like every major cordless brand has one of those as well…
 

[75sv1]

     Can't say anything on the mowers. I do have a Dewalt electric trimmer. I paid about $50 more than some other brands. I have other Dewalt stuff. So, I have other batteries. The trimmer works well. A lot less hassle than the gas ones I have. 

     I'm not happy at the moment on the lower end Dewalt Impact nor the Milwaukee Impact. I did use an older Milwaukee Impact that was great. 

[Pete M]

I've been very pleased with my 40v Kobalt weed-whacker and leaf blower.  got too much to mow to have gotten the 40v push mower though (need a riding mower).  a friend of mine tried to get an Ego mower recently, but went through 3 from 2 different stores that wouldn't spin the blades at all (needed "easy rewiring" as she was told, which is ridiculous for a brand new item) and gave up for a gas powered one. 

[89eliminator]

i have an EGO for the small areas my kubota can't fit in.  I'm am super happy with its performance.  

[olddude]

I have used snapper mowers for about 50 years. very dependable.

[dante2]

I have been cutting with a Greenworks 40v mower since last year. I would guess that our lot is roughly about 50x200 more than half is grass/weeds (if you cut it short enough it all looks the same). Backyard, front, and around the shop is usually 1-1.5 batteries with dry grass. This year is very wet here in OK so mowing has been more frequent and usually damp. Worst so far is about 2.5 4.0ah batteries for everything. More than a few stop and tips to clear out the wet grass stuck to the bottom. I do like the electric for that part, gas mowers in my experience don't like to tip on their side without protesting afterward.

Just finished up today before the rain hits for the next week and a half. Grass used 2 4.0 batteries and weed eating used up the 2.5ah. Going electric is not cheap but in the long run I like it more everytime I have to mow.

[Car Enthusiast]

I went all battery when I moved into my house back in '17 and I bought the basic stuff from Stihl. 6 years in and everything is still working like a champ. I bought it not just for the battery size but the work per hour number that Stihl was claiming (I forget the official term now). My yard is not big by any means (third of an acre), but I can mow the whole thing on one battery, and then trim and blow off the driveway, back patio, and the street in front on another battery (the leaf blower eats up power!). I will say my neighbor has an Ego or Greenworks brand and my stuff is WAY quieter, and he has had to buy a couple batteries since some of his have quit working. The charger that came with my stuff works real fast also. It will pretty much charge one battery while I am using another one. I also bought their chainsaw and I will say I am used to 660s, and 880s from my logging days, but it works really well for around the house. I have had a couple pretty stout trees fall down and it cut them up no problem with using the right technique to cut them up. The trees were almost twice the diameter of the bar. My 051 Stihl was down at the time so I had to use the little battery saw. My dad giggles at my battery saw but it really does a good job, I am thinking about buy the bigger model they are coming out with. After it was all said and done I bought the mower, weedeater, hedge trimmer, leaf blower, and saw. They also make one of those interchangeable deals where you can add all the attachments to one power unit, if I would have had that option back then I would have done that.

 

Stihl also was making a powered mower that will help with the push part of mowing

 

 

[gogmorgo]

That’s a good point, replacing batteries. The 2x 12ah in the Milwaukee on their own is ballpark same price as some of the more affordable mowers. Not ideal.

Battery life in terms of time between charges isn’t super critical I don’t think. As long as he’s getting at least a half-hour out of them. As it is when he mows he’s not doing the whole yard in one shot anyway, so having to take a break before he gets tired is probably a good thing. 
Hadn’t really given much thought to Stihl, being a Husqy guy when it comes to saws. But the entry level Stihl self-propelled mower is much cheaper and about 20lbs lighter than the bottom end Husqy, which looks more like a pro tool, not so much one for homeowners. Mowing eight hours a day vs eight hours a month situation.

But the rest of you are probably right, the medium-grade stuff I’d sorta discounted is more than likely going to be good enough. And it’s not like he’s already invested in a battery system. Tbh I was mostly leaning towards team red cause that’s the system I want to get into but haven’t yet.

Lots to think about. Still haven’t worked out a budget or anything either. Sorta hoping Father’s Day sales might be a thing but don’t know yet.

[Pete M]

On 5/23/2023 at 10:39 AM, 89eliminator said:

i have an EGO for the small areas my kubota can't fit in.  I'm am super happy with its performance.  

 

I had heard nothing but good things about ego, that's why she went in that direction.  but being told that the owner needs to rewire a thing on her brand new mower really shocked me.    I really hope that isn't a trend.  

[gogmorgo]

1 hour ago, Pete M said:

 

I had heard nothing but good things about ego, that's why she went in that direction.  but being told that the owner needs to rewire a thing on her brand new mower really shocked me.    I really hope that isn't a trend.  

Honestly that seems to be the case for a LOT of mowers. There are lots of poor reviews with similar things said. A few where they had a couple replacements dead on arrival or after a few uses before they got a good one that they love. Once you move up market a ways the negative reviews turn into things like “not enough power” or “battery doesn’t last long enough”. It’s something that initially made me keep looking further up market than I maybe should have been. My parents can pick up some of the big tool names at the local farm supply, but anything else is an 80-mile drive into the small city to return something if we get it home, assemble it, and it’s no good. As it was because my brother’s coming out for a couple weeks on either side of Father’s Day I have to run into the Big city 250 miles away to pick him up at the airport and drop him off again so my plan was to get something there, and at least I’ll have a crack at returning stuff without going too far out of the way. 
I do love living in the middle of nowhere, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t get inconvenient sometimes.

[gogmorgo]

On 5/24/2023 at 10:14 AM, Car Enthusiast said:

I went all battery when I moved into my house back in '17 and I bought the basic stuff from Stihl.

 

 

Are you running the AP or AK batteries? Looking at the Stihl RMA 460V and 510V. The 510 is a touch bigger and heavier, but seems like the battery lasts longer in it. The main difference is the battery series.

I’m starting to get the impression Stihl just has two seperate battery systems for some reason, but I wouldn’t want buy into a system that’s on its way out where I wouldn’t be able to find replacement batteries five years down the road if need be.

[Car Enthusiast]

I have the AP series. RMA 510 mower, 200C chainsaw, BG86 blower, FS90 trimmer, and hsa66 hedge trimmer. I will say that I really like the mower and chainsaw. I am a little bit of a chainsaw fan, and have a few old Stihls that I have restored and am in the process of fixing up, big 1111 series that are torquey and heavy. I still like the battery one I have. A couple of trees have fallen down in the yard and its little bar with the right techniques have trimmed them up for firewood with no issue. My Dad teases me about it since he owns a sawmill (huskys and big 660 and 880 Stihls) and runs logging crews in Ohio, but he used it when a pear tree was dying in the front yard and he fell it and we cut it up.

 

Man, I haven't checked in on their lineup lately, but since you brought it up Gogmorgo, they have all kinds of new products that now I want to check out. I might pick up one of those 300 series chainsaws!

[pizzaman09]

I'm a big DeWalt fan. I have their smaller string trimmer which is awesomely powerful, smooth and light.  I also have the big bad 60V leaf blower which clean eat battery power but it's also quite good.  I have also used the small DeWalt electric chainsaw, it is phenomenal and am thinking of purchasing one.  I have way way more grass to mow than any current electric could conceivably mow, I'm running a 1986 Gravely promaster 50 zero turn for that.

 

I'm waiting for the day that a robo mower could mow up to 5 acres, or a robo brush hog.

[Car Enthusiast]

26 minutes ago, pizzaman09 said:

I'm a big DeWalt fan. I have their smaller string trimmer which is awesomely powerful, smooth and light.  I also have the big bad 60V leaf blower which clean eat battery power but it's also quite good.  I have also used the small DeWalt electric chainsaw, it is phenomenal and am thinking of purchasing one.  I have way way more grass to mow than any current electric could conceivably mow, I'm running a 1986 Gravely promaster 50 zero turn for that.

 

I'm waiting for the day that a robo mower could mow up to 5 acres, or a robo brush hog.

One day it will be here

 

Then judgement day