I convinced my truck drivin’, Trump votin’, gun totin’, beer swillin’ redneck neighbor to switch to an electric mower purely because he was envious of my own electric one and how it just runs when you press the button, without fail and every single time. It was actually kind of hilarious.
I have got 9 people to buy electric lawn mowers. Electric lawn mowers are amazing.
You can one up him buy getting one of those automated ones that run automatically every couple of days. Get it to run at night and he will be amazed how you keep a perfect lawn without him ever seeing you mow
Aside from being able to harm small wildlife like hedgehogs, squirrels, snakes etc. it poses no risk whatsoever to anything…maybe your flowerbeds if you don’t set it up correctly. They’re low, slow and very weak.
Really depends on your area whether or not that’s a real risk TBH, we (unfortunately) have very little wildlife where we live so the risk of them getting hurt is a non-issue. I also don’t have one of them, but that’s a different matter.
On my Gardena, it would be no chance. The “skirt” around it means you would need to lift it to get hurt, and any attempts to lift it triggers the emergency stop. I reckon that’s standard with most of them. The teeny tiny blades are also not really screwed down, so it doesn’t have much cutting potential, just enough for grass and weeds.
You’d leave your toddlers unattended if you know you have a mower running? Otherwise I don’t see any risk no. Most set them up to either run during the day when no one is home, or during the night…neither scenarios put fingers in harms way.
They can also clip adult fingers (not off, they’re not that powerful, just cut them) if you put your hands under it while it’s running FYI. So yeah I guess they do require the user to not be a complete idiot.
Meanwhile mine runs every night. Only complaint is every once in a while it gets stuck on an awkward concrete corner that I haven’t fixed yet because it’s hardly a big deal. It also adjusts to the weather.
In reality, my biggest complaint is that I still have to trim the edges.
Don’t mow nearly that often, you need to give the grass time to grow so local wildlife can try to go through a lifecycle when it can. Constantly mowing your grass is terrible for overall biodiversity, lowers soil quality and is bad for pollinators. Only mow like every two weeks if you can.
Doesn’t matter, mowing often will make the problem worse regardless of what’s being mowed. Plus, there are tons of local fauna that will use grass to hide, live and grow during the time you’ll be not mowing.
Would it be better to plant native grasses? Absolutely. But we should still encourage whatever biodiversity we can to help our local area. Every little bit helps, because it’s not just the grass that you’re helping by leaving it to grow.
Oh neato then. I had a full-sized corded lawn mower back when I lived in a house where I was burdened with a lawn. It was quieter, but still loud.
Glad to hear that there are quieter ones.
Or the properties are just so huge you wouldn’t disturb anyone haha (I lived in a inner suburban place where the next house was less than 5m wall to wall)
All of the above but Trump votin’. My wife is happy to push the electric DeWalt around. First electric mower, scored it new for $199, bought a pair of batteries and a charger. Pretty happy.
Neighbor chunked a very nice looking ICE mower. Going to take it down the street to the retired small-engine guy. He’ll probably charge $20 + parts, maybe $40 tops. But now I’m wondering if I can even sell it for a profit. I could haul it to camp for random chopping work, but then I got another gas engine to fuck with. Probably not worth it.
At my job (Lowe’s) we sell almost all battery mowers. As cheap as ICE mowers are, not seeing them run out the door nearly as fast. Haven’t seen one sold yet, but I’m outside garden.
Anyone got tips on a battery weed eater? Mine’s pretty well shot, eats full batteries in minutes. Thinking on trying EGO stuff from Lowe’s since I get a discount. Inside lawn and garden expert told me they’re the best on the market ATM. ?
They’re all functionally interchangeable as far as I can tell, but only conceptually and not in the sense that your batteries will fit all the different machines because the manufacturers have seen to it that it doesn’t work this way (because fuck you, that’s why).
If your machine is dying in minutes the issue is probably that the battery is roached, not the machine. Lithium-whatever batteries do not last forever, and generally the ones in outdoor equipment are not charged or stored with much care, or in ideal temperature conditions, etc.
The secret is to just buy Chinese knockoff off-brand batteries. “But,” all the oldheads will cry, “Those are Chinese garbage!”
Yes, they are. But so are the “OEM” batteries. The only real difference is the audacity of the markup; you may as well pay what they’re actually worth rather than what your local big box store thinks people ought to believe they’re worth. Before you throw away your weedwhacker, get a knockoff battery pack from Aliexpress or Amazon or whatever and give it a shot. Worst case you’re out thirty bucks, but the gamble is probably better than buying a whole new weedwhacker.
I have all Ryobi crap, for the most part, because that’s where I got roped in initially and that way I only have to stock one kind of battery. I have two genuine batteries that came with my stuff, but all the rest are knockoffs. The knockoffs are everything the genuine batteries are, but 1/6 of the cost. Actually, due to the perpetual slow march of battery tech improvements, one of my knockoffs is legitimately a noticeably higher capacity than my oldest genuine Ryobi batteries were even when they were brand new.
I have several batteries, different ages and usages, seems random how long one will last. I’m thinking there’s too much resistance on the spinning bits as it seems to get hot too fast. As always, I’ll do my best to fix before buying new, but it’s a drag constantly fixing shit to avoid feeding the beast.
I’ve got a few ego tools and the only one I’m slightly disappointed with is the mower. The outlet design isn’t great and can clog up if you mow anything denser than grass.
String trimmer, leaf blower and snow blowers (both single and dual stage) all work great.
I convinced my truck drivin’, Trump votin’, gun totin’, beer swillin’ redneck neighbor to switch to an electric mower purely because he was envious of my own electric one and how it just runs when you press the button, without fail and every single time. It was actually kind of hilarious.
I have got 9 people to buy electric lawn mowers. Electric lawn mowers are amazing.
You can one up him buy getting one of those automated ones that run automatically every couple of days. Get it to run at night and he will be amazed how you keep a perfect lawn without him ever seeing you mow
Careful running those at night. Depending on local wildlife, you might end up waking up to a mowed hedgehog.
I feel there is real life experience to this post…
I’ll get you THIS time, Sonic.
Yeah vacuums are one thing. I’m not sure how I’d feel about an automated lawn mower.
Aside from being able to harm small wildlife like hedgehogs, squirrels, snakes etc. it poses no risk whatsoever to anything…maybe your flowerbeds if you don’t set it up correctly. They’re low, slow and very weak.
Well, that’s enough of a reason.
Those rabbits aren’t going to mulch themselves 🤷
/s
Really depends on your area whether or not that’s a real risk TBH, we (unfortunately) have very little wildlife where we live so the risk of them getting hurt is a non-issue. I also don’t have one of them, but that’s a different matter.
You don’t think it could get something like a toddler’s fingers?
On my Gardena, it would be no chance. The “skirt” around it means you would need to lift it to get hurt, and any attempts to lift it triggers the emergency stop. I reckon that’s standard with most of them. The teeny tiny blades are also not really screwed down, so it doesn’t have much cutting potential, just enough for grass and weeds.
You’d leave your toddlers unattended if you know you have a mower running? Otherwise I don’t see any risk no. Most set them up to either run during the day when no one is home, or during the night…neither scenarios put fingers in harms way.
They can also clip adult fingers (not off, they’re not that powerful, just cut them) if you put your hands under it while it’s running FYI. So yeah I guess they do require the user to not be a complete idiot.
Yeah, no way I’d leave something like that running unsupervised.
I don’t even feel good leaving batteries charging without me near.
Meanwhile mine runs every night. Only complaint is every once in a while it gets stuck on an awkward concrete corner that I haven’t fixed yet because it’s hardly a big deal. It also adjusts to the weather.
In reality, my biggest complaint is that I still have to trim the edges.
Don’t mow nearly that often, you need to give the grass time to grow so local wildlife can try to go through a lifecycle when it can. Constantly mowing your grass is terrible for overall biodiversity, lowers soil quality and is bad for pollinators. Only mow like every two weeks if you can.
Source
Having the grass already ruins the biodiversity
Doesn’t matter, mowing often will make the problem worse regardless of what’s being mowed. Plus, there are tons of local fauna that will use grass to hide, live and grow during the time you’ll be not mowing.
Would it be better to plant native grasses? Absolutely. But we should still encourage whatever biodiversity we can to help our local area. Every little bit helps, because it’s not just the grass that you’re helping by leaving it to grow.
He’s talking robotic mowers. Afaik they have to run more frequently because they’re not as powerful.
I’d need three of those because my yard – or rather yards – are three discontinuous chunks.
But then, that may qualify as my own robot army. Hmm…
Why would you run it at night? They’re not as loud as petrol mowers, but spinning blades are not exactly quiet when mowing
The sound is negligible. You wouldn’t even notice it running.
Oh neato then. I had a full-sized corded lawn mower back when I lived in a house where I was burdened with a lawn. It was quieter, but still loud.
Glad to hear that there are quieter ones.
Or the properties are just so huge you wouldn’t disturb anyone haha (I lived in a inner suburban place where the next house was less than 5m wall to wall)
All of the above but Trump votin’. My wife is happy to push the electric DeWalt around. First electric mower, scored it new for $199, bought a pair of batteries and a charger. Pretty happy.
Neighbor chunked a very nice looking ICE mower. Going to take it down the street to the retired small-engine guy. He’ll probably charge $20 + parts, maybe $40 tops. But now I’m wondering if I can even sell it for a profit. I could haul it to camp for random chopping work, but then I got another gas engine to fuck with. Probably not worth it.
At my job (Lowe’s) we sell almost all battery mowers. As cheap as ICE mowers are, not seeing them run out the door nearly as fast. Haven’t seen one sold yet, but I’m outside garden.
Anyone got tips on a battery weed eater? Mine’s pretty well shot, eats full batteries in minutes. Thinking on trying EGO stuff from Lowe’s since I get a discount. Inside lawn and garden expert told me they’re the best on the market ATM. ?
They’re all functionally interchangeable as far as I can tell, but only conceptually and not in the sense that your batteries will fit all the different machines because the manufacturers have seen to it that it doesn’t work this way (because fuck you, that’s why).
If your machine is dying in minutes the issue is probably that the battery is roached, not the machine. Lithium-whatever batteries do not last forever, and generally the ones in outdoor equipment are not charged or stored with much care, or in ideal temperature conditions, etc.
The secret is to just buy Chinese knockoff off-brand batteries. “But,” all the oldheads will cry, “Those are Chinese garbage!”
Yes, they are. But so are the “OEM” batteries. The only real difference is the audacity of the markup; you may as well pay what they’re actually worth rather than what your local big box store thinks people ought to believe they’re worth. Before you throw away your weedwhacker, get a knockoff battery pack from Aliexpress or Amazon or whatever and give it a shot. Worst case you’re out thirty bucks, but the gamble is probably better than buying a whole new weedwhacker.
I have all Ryobi crap, for the most part, because that’s where I got roped in initially and that way I only have to stock one kind of battery. I have two genuine batteries that came with my stuff, but all the rest are knockoffs. The knockoffs are everything the genuine batteries are, but 1/6 of the cost. Actually, due to the perpetual slow march of battery tech improvements, one of my knockoffs is legitimately a noticeably higher capacity than my oldest genuine Ryobi batteries were even when they were brand new.
I have several batteries, different ages and usages, seems random how long one will last. I’m thinking there’s too much resistance on the spinning bits as it seems to get hot too fast. As always, I’ll do my best to fix before buying new, but it’s a drag constantly fixing shit to avoid feeding the beast.
You might have crap all wrapped around the axle behind the spool. It’s probably worth taking that apart and seeing if it’s packed full of weeds.
I’ve got a few ego tools and the only one I’m slightly disappointed with is the mower. The outlet design isn’t great and can clog up if you mow anything denser than grass.
String trimmer, leaf blower and snow blowers (both single and dual stage) all work great.