Battery Power for Lawn equipment -- is it time?

LOL!! I would if I could. I've only run it flat once or twice. Charging is a different matter. The fan on the charger keeps cooling the battery after it's done charging. I prefer that to yanking it out before it's done charging.

On my Black & Decker 1/2" hammer drill -- I abuse those two batteries. I leave them fully charged in our 90+F garage and run them flat. They seem to perform just as well now as they did when I got them 6-7 years ago.

 

I LOVE Battery Operated lawnmowers!
---When other people buy them.

I shamelessly plucked a GreenWorks 20" mower off of a curb in my neighborhood that had a "Free" sign on it.
The sign was made out of the side of the box that it's battery powered replacement came in, and I like to imagine that there was a segmented extension cord in the actual garbage can next to it as well.
Unusually.....my CFO was not put off by the fact that i essentially went curbside dumpster diving in my neighborhood.
Perhaps it was that one time that she had me stuff an old yellow Huffy bicycle into the back of our car that we passed up one night on our way back from the store......

Anyway
I cleaned it up, and bought a new blade for it and when I spooled it up for the first time I thought that it was broken.
I heard a wirring sound beneath the mower that exactly mimicked a free spinning motor and I thought that I had rescued a mower with a broken shaft.

Then?

I saw the clippings shooting out of the side chute....


Holy CARP that thing cuts grass!
Instead of shattering the grass blade, the GreenWorks blade spins fast enough to neatly slice through the grass, almost like the old reel mowers used to do.
It's light. It's quiet, and as long as you can navigate clear of the cord, it's ridiculously easy to use.
The front 1/2 acre of my property out in the county looks like a golf course....

I figured that the blade would wear down VERY quickly on the odd pine cone or other yard debris that I didn't pick up, but after using my foundling mower for an entire season the blade is still balanced and sharp enough that one must be very careful when poking around under the mower - lest it poke back!
GREAT MOWER!

I also have a nearly unused B&D corded line trimmer that a relative gave me.

I still have several gas appliances, including a pair of Echo line trimmers but I see myself going all electric some day including the two riding mowers. FOR RIGHT NOW, a BEV mower doesn't make sense, but I already have an electric push mower, line trimmer, and blower, and chain saws.

Interestingly enough...when I bought the blade for the mower, I saw that they still sell.....the mower.
I am not surprised.

 

Hah! I really am the opposite. I hate the thought of spending money on a gym when I can just do more work on the home & garden. I still get plenty of exercise even with the robot helping.

Regarding your new electric- that good cut you’re getting is at least partially down to a fresh sharp blade. I’ve learned that my electric push mower is highly dependent on a sharp blade for good results. Gas mowers don’t need that as much, they have enough surplus power to bash their way through. I learned how to grind it myself and typically need to do it every month.

 

I think the next frontier in cordless yard tools is going to be in higher powered applications. Meaning, >1800W or 2.4HP, because that’s about the limit for 120VAC corded tools.

But as PHEVs have proven, there’s nothing wrong with soaking up 120V over a few hours and then expending it quickly for a task.

 

Time to start hitting the big box stores for end of season clearance sales. I scored my electric chainsaw for about 40% off last year.

 

That "same battery for both" is one of their advertising points: If you buy a bunch of their tools you can save money by buying some of them without batteries. I think Ryobi has the same sort of thing. In my neck of the woods, Ego is considered higher quality, but a bit more expensive.

 

We have two 40V Ryobi batteries for our yard equipment, both about a year old now. They are kept indoors and between uses typically left at 30-70% SOC. Right before use, I will typically start charging one to >70% SOC and once 30% - 0% will plug it back in and store after reaching 30-70% SOC again.

Hoping the history learned from similar practices in EVs associated with lithium battery longevity translates to these 40V batteries. Time will tell.

 

Dose Ryobi's 40V battery pack have SOC indicator? I don't think any of my 18V battery has that feature.

 

Not sure about the Ryobi, but the Ego charger has four flashing LEDs, one for each 25% of charge.

 

This is an old thread....with 7 pages of commentary.
So I'm probably WAY off topic and Miss Havisham's Wedding Dining room late for dinner.

But I hate leaf blowers.

Gas, Electric, Wind Up, Nuclear Powered...I don't care.

I know...they can be helpful, and useful...OK....

But still if there was a product I wish simply did NOT exist, it would be the leaf blower.

Most of the time, they seem to be operated by some kid, living some "Ghost Busters" fantasy.
Inevitably if I clean my car....somebody nearby or through some area I must drive, decides to fire up the leaf blower and go make Tasmanian Devil like clouds of dust. Like moving dirt from left to right makes the world a better place.

I yearn for the more labor intensive BUT subtle sounds of rakes.

 

*looks at acreage*

Right, so when can you start?

 

My greenworks 40v kit is the same, 4 LEDs.

My DeWalt has 3 showing thirds.

Built in indicators seem to be common once you get to ≥40V packs.

I don’t do anything special for charge management. I know the batteries won’t last as long, but I really don’t mind paying a little more for instant availability. Sometimes I’m only home a day between trips, can’t spend half of it charging.

 

4 LED lights. It's a bit unscientific, but one gets a feel for how much run time between the LED light levels to roughly estimate SOC between each 25% increment.

Since there are two batteries and both are left with around 50% SOC in storage, one could start using one at the drop of a hat and plug the other in to charge.

 

I totally agree with you. If I just blow leaves with a blower, after a few days of wind, all the leaves and maybe more always end up at the same spot on the corner of my house and a retaining wall.

That being said, using the leaf blower as leaf vacuum was somewhat useful. I still had to empty the bag so frequently, that I stop using that mode as well. At my current property, I no longer bother with blowing or raking leaf. All I do is twice a season, once in spring and once in fall, I go over the leaf and dead weeds and all with my mulching mower just around the house. That's it.

However, this task requires quite bit of power, and I doubt no electric mower is up for the task. At least not yet. My current mower is Husqvarna 7021P with authentic160 cc HONDA engine. It is one of the least expensive manual-push mulching mower with HONDA engine, costing only half of what I had paid before for a self-propelled Toro mower, but has been the best mower I have owned.

 

I have a kit that attaches to my leaf blower/vac in place of the collector bag. It’s a long hose leading to a filter membrane that attaches to the top of your ~50 gallon trash can. So it shreds the leaves to make a fantastic volume reduction, and gives the capacity to get quite a lot done before having to empty the bin.

On the other hand, I didn’t need to use it last year. Two of my biggest trees aren’t healthy and had far less leaves than in the past. Dang ash borers.

 

After having one of tree fell on top of our garage early this year, I decided to fell six big trees preemptively that were close enough and leaning to the garage. This will reduce the amount of leafs falling this year quite bit. All of big trunks are now cut and given away for people who wanted for fire wood, but I still have mountain of branches (with dried leaves). I was thinking of renting one of those big wood chipper that will take up to 5 inches of branch to make the pile into wood mulch, but haven't got to it.

I wonder if there is any electric wood chipper? Although even there exist such thing, it is probably not very useful for my heavy duty tasks.

 

Yep, I’m in the process of reviewing bids for what promises to be an expensive technical removal of one of these dying ash trees.

There are electric wood chippers, I broke and repaired mine last week. You’re right, they’re much smaller- the fundamental problem is that you can only get so much power out of a 15A household circuit, and that threshold is easily exceeded by a 200cc gas engine. I borrowed such a machine from a family member and even that is slow going. I’ve been grinding up the tops pile left from some smaller trees I felled myself earlier this year. The wood mulch is lovely. It goes into a heap for composting which takes a while before it is fit for spreading.

 

Aha, 200cc. No I am thinking of renting one of those.

 

Yep, you’ll do all right with that- and it should illustrate the difficulty of electrifying that work. A machine like that typically has an engine rated for 30kW and up.

 

I have a 13 amp one that works on branches up to about an inch and a half. The branch feed is narrow, so really crooked branches aren't going to get in. It has a top hopper for leaves and twigs. Fresh green material tends to clog the discharge, so such clippings and pulled weeds need to dry a some before going through.

It's an older model, so newer ones might have a better design. None are suitable to quickly do the job you describe.