Battery Power for Lawn equipment -- is it time?

Can they get into crevices such as with the shop vac crevice tool or standard wand? I often need to work in areas of less than 2.5" and under/behind bushes by my fence line. Might be worth a look if so. I have yard tools on the Ryobi 40V system and Ryobi makes a leaf vacuum for this.

As for an 18V shop vac, might possibly have a chance in a few weeks. My dad is considering getting an 18V RIGID, rated at 82 CFM. By comparison my corded 12A, 16 gal, RIGID is 172 CFM. Based on its deployed tasks, it’s hard to imagine an 18V would not get bogged down frequently and add considerable time to task completion.

 

In a word, no. The pickup tube is much larger and I've not seen a kit to adapt it to anything that small. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist; I've just never had a need for anything like that so I never investigated the possibility. I do have a kit that adapts it for cleaning rain gutters, but that's about a 3" tube.

But faced with that task as described, I'd configure the tool in blower mode, blast the stuff out of the crevice and then reset for vac mode and clean up.

 

I decided to experiment with No-Mow May this year.

About 1/3 of my lawn (close to my veg garden, away from frontage) was left wild for the month of May. During this time, the grass came up to about 24" in some parts, and I got quite a few wildflowers. And yes, the bees seemed to be pretty happy about it. Now that we've got most of the garden in, I've started mowing the full area again, and we're hoping the bees notice the vegetables a few feet over from the flowers they liked yesterday.

Side note- I was a bit worried that my little Greenworks 40V mower would be overwhelmed by this task. To be sure, it wasn't pretty. I had to jack it up to the highest setting and set it up for side-exhaust to avoid mulch loading, and even with a freshly sharpened blade it struggled.

...But not so badly that it ever stalled out. It's clearly going to take a full second pass to tame that area, but the little green wonder pulled through.

On that note I offer a hearty recommendation for the Dremel Sharpening Kit. I got one this past winter and this has been my first chance to use it. Wow! It's faster, easier, and gives a much finer edge than my previous solution. Between that and the cheap, simple Oregon blade balancer, this thing has never cut better.

 

So I finally trashed my old Neuton 36v mower. $250 for a new lead acid battery just wasn't worth it, nor was about the same cost to try rigging up a lithium ion pack. It really didn't have enough power, and it was all plastic. The handle was broken and I had duct taped a landscape spike to it to keep it stable. I cut most of the yard with a rider, but need a pusher for the smaller places.

I was looking at Greenworks and Ego on line, but got to the stores and all I could find was Snapper, Yardman or Craftsman type stuff, so I ended up grabbing the Lowes house brand Kobalt 80v mower. Not too shabby. Steel deck, 80v seems like plenty of power. I had some tall dense overgrowth and it ate right through it. It's so quiet I don't need earplugs. And I like the vertical storage - that might make it easy to work on the blade or at least for cleaning the underside.

Now I need to replace a burned-out shop-vac.

 

Yeah, I just finished our first mowing of the season. The grass was not that high, but most of the dandelions are now white seeds and there are plenty of other flowers for honey flow for my bees. I just hope more and more people would leave the dandelions to bloom for bees.
Don't Pull Out Dandelions In Your Garden To Save The Bees

 

I LOVE the vertical storage option of these battery operated push mowers. It make blade sharpening so easy that i touch the blade up on our ECHO mower before *every* mowing.

 

I have had zero issues with my Ryobi 40 volt lawn mower. It's 4 years old and has performed flawlessly. I can't say the same about Ryobi lithium 40v batteries. 8 purchased so far, I've had two fail me completely. But the mower part of that equation has not let me down. It runs so well and is so lightweight and so dependable that I even bought accessories to extend its life.

I recently purchased the Ryobi 40-volt based 300w TSW inverter to expand my 40 volt tool set. It will produce a nice utility-grade sine wave up to 300 watts, but it has no overhead. I have used small house fans and a 110W air mattress inflator with no difficulties.

 

That is why I like ECHO's stuff. For consumer use, all components...even the batteries...have a 5 year warranty. And good customer service as well.

Warranty Information | ECHOCordless.com

In my opinion, the fact batteries have such a long warranty is a huge perk.

 

Sounds great, but it looks like they only have 5 tools that fit the batteries.

I've certainly seen better quality gear than my Greenworks and that Echo warranty is formidable- but a large part of the appeal was the 25+ tool family.

 

Yeah..the 5 tool suite is really all I need.

However, they do have two forms of the string trimmer...a dedicated string trimmer...and a shaft driven trimmer that allows use of their PAS attachments. It is getting hard to find the shaft driven one though...but I think you can find it in stores.

Cordless String Trimmer | ECHOCordless.com
New String Trimmer | ECHOCordless.com

In my opinion, the "new" string trimmer is a downgrade as it is dedicated and doesn't allow use of the attachments. The motor is at the trimmer head and doesn't use a shaft. The "original" string trimmer is really a shaft driven 'power head' that uses detachable PAS attachments ( the string trimmer attachment being the one you get with it ).

BTW here is the full line of PAS attachments :

https://www.echo-usa.com/getattachment/12f6249e-6195-431a-b074-f4b8d6ed35c7/Pro%20Attachment%20Series

I doubt I'll ever use any of these attachments...but the possibility is there.

I'll admit...it IS odd that ECHO doesn't list the cordless 'power head' in the link above....but it is compatible. There are some youtube videos that show use of the attachments. It also lists it as compatible in the FAQs on this page under "IS THE ECHO 58V STRING TRIMMER COMPATIBLE WITH ANY OF THE ECHO PAS ATTACHMENTS?"

FAQs | ECHOCordless.com

For hand tools and such I use Ryobi system...which has an outrageous number of tools. I was even able to get rid of my air nailer...the Ryobi Airstrike nailer is really good!

I probably wrote way more than you wanted to know...but I thought I'd add the info in case anyone is interested...because I spent a fair amount of time researching before I invested in the system.

 

The Ryobi 40 Volt range also includes the X Series interchangeable attachments. I'm very happy with the pole saw and disc-trimmer attachments. Their string trimmer attachment isn't worth a damn, it always mis-feeds and tangles its own line.

 

Its been about a year since I bought my Kobalt 80 volt mower and i love it. It works great no more gas no more oil. Its a pleasure to use it wife uses it all the time. Youy just walk behind it. I also own a 80 volt chain saw and that I really love. It tears through wood so much better than any Stilh I have owned. No more gas and oil lol.
I also have the 80 volt blower and have had that for about 3 years now I think. Never any issues with any of them.

The trick to battery life is don't keep the battery's stored in the heat. Bring them inside where its cool they last so much longer.

I really love my chainsaw. You have to have a good chain saw in Florida every time a hurricane comes close its a nightmare of oak tree debris in my yard. Irma dumped a massive amount of debris and broke and snapped off many branches on my big tress. I rented a
Nifty Lift that's a really cool lift its designed to fit through a 36 inch wide gate then it has big feet outriggers you lower to stabilize it. Its on tracks too. Gets up to 48 feet high. And its remote controlled so you walk behind it. You have to if you were in the unit as it went across the lawn it would shake your teeth out. Pretty cool it was $400 for a 3 day weekend.

Took me about 3 months to get rid of all the wood I cut.

 

I want a Nifty Lift!!

 

The last large branch of my neighbor's trash tree fell a couple of weeks ago barely missing the Gen2. The wife and I knew this day was coming for years yet he did nothing. Anyways..... I broke out the 80v Kobalt chainsaw, made sure it had lube and handed it to him. After showing him the basics and providing a spare battery (the one in it was from last fall and still show 2 of 3 SOC bars), I left him to clear it from my property. He cut it all on one batt. and was amazed.

A few days ago while I working in the backyard, he came over to the fence to tell me he was going to buy an electric but was undecided on it or the cheaper 40v. Eyeing his two HUGE overgrown oaks in the backyard, I tried to convince him to get the 80.

About a year ago, we had an extreme windstorm that knocked out power for several days due to down trees. Cutting crews from around the state came in to help and they and the power company both had these types of lifts. Incredibly agile, quick to setup, and able to get into spots that otherwise would require hazardous climbing, they made the job look almost like fun. I said, almost.

 

Wait, your saw, operated by your neighbor on your land? I've never lived in Texas but that strikes me as seriously tempting fate.

Here in PA any tree litter (including the whole tree) that my neighbor's tree drops into my yard is my problem, and vice versa.

 

Technically he was on his property most of the time but it was on the line. Yes, we're different here. We also borrow an electric pole saw from another neighbor across the street to cut the last part still attached to the trunk. I did help remove the limbs he cut that were nearest our cars so I could move those from the scene.

 

I am looking for a tiller. I found a few battery-operated ones and many corded ones on the market. The problem is that they are all very lightweight front tine cultivators not really a tiller. I really don't think those light electric cultivator would do much of digging heavy soil. Have anyone used an electric tiller?

My back yard garden is super heavy clay soil. To give it real tilth I have double dug with a spade every two to three years and use a broadfork to till down to 12 inches depth in between. I am just getting too old to till my garden with just hand tools. A small tractor would be really nice, but that would be totally out of my budget. I may have to go for much heavier gas engine rear tine tiller.

 

I just did mine (minutes ago) with a spade followed by my 40v greenworks cultivator to break it up. And yes, that is just a lightweight cultivator. Great at busting up chunks but it cannot achieve any real depth on its own.

I have considered getting a corded electric tiller, noticed a few models around $110-120 that appear to be capable of real depth. Won't do me any good this season; not enough seeds to plant my whole plot as it is so I stuck to my combo approach.

 

I have a corded electric tiller. Works great and is really powerful. However, we don't do a traditional garden anymore...we switched to "Earthbox" style self watering container gardening a few years ago and never looked back. The containers reside on the deck even!

 

Yeah, that's what I though they would do. For our super heavy clay soil, it won't even bust up chunks. The job it can accomplish I can probably do it easier and quicker with a hoe. Even corded ones or small gas engine front tine tiller will not work on our soil. Besodes. the corded tiller is just not practical with a 200 feet long extension cord. Oh well, I will start looking for rear tine gas engine tiller that weighs 200 lbs.

Container gardening is easier but most summer vegetables just do not yield as much as grown on soil. Also trying to mix enough container media for 40 tomato plants are not easy. That being said, I have made enough tomato, zucchinis, potatoes, and egg plants in containers.