Battery Power for Lawn equipment -- is it time?

Well, not really, because to have a successful cleaning session you have to remove almost any type of potential obstacles that Roomba can get stuck. Those include small cat toys on floor, any clothing items, loose paper or any floor mat. That "preparation" alone can take longer than 5 min. If I am vacuuming by hand, I can just push them to the side with my foot or by the front of the vacuum machine as I go and whole thing takes less than 5 min.

Theoretically speaking, yes. But in our experience, 4 out of 5 times it fails to go back to the home station on it's own power. Either it gets "lost" or runs out of battery power or get stuck in obstacle. Oh, yeah, when it doe get stuck, it sends a notification to my wife's cell phone app. If she is not home, what does she suppose to do??? LOL

 

My father has a electric lawnmower. I think it's called E~GO or something like that.

 

Yeah, the early rechargeable stuff really was junk. But there's some good stuff out there now.

I've been using an 18 volt 1/2" DeWalt hammer drill for about 7-8 years now. The original batteries died fairly young. I got a pair of lithium batteries for it about six years ago and they run as hard and long now as they ever did. You do not want to let that thing snag at high speed if you're not ready! Yikes!!

A couple months ago I finally got rid of the corded lawn mower. Dealing with the 100' extension cord was a real PITA. I got an EGO 21" non-self-propelled 56V mower and it's amazing. It takes about half the time to mow that it used to. Even during rainy season when I really SHOULD mow twice a week, I can mow the whole front and back on just over a half charge on the 5AH battery. I like it so much I got their edger. I can do the whole yard on one charge, mow and edge. Oh! The mower cuts better as well as faster. One online review said that they wished the professional gear worked that well.

 

Geesh, it's so bloody dry here I'm mowing maybe every couple of months. Black berries are anemic this year, leaves are falling off the trees.

To be fair, our "lawn" is pretty much fallow, never feed or weed it to speak of.

 

You can have some of ours! I think we're 15" over average so far. Last weekend, it never did stop raining. I caught it when it was just sprinkling and mowed while I could. Grass is growing about 6" a week. Come winter, I mow about ever 4-8 weeks to knock off the weeds.

 

Yeah I recall you talking about dumping inches out of the rain gauge, regularly. Looked up our stats for August:

Daily Data Report for August 2019 - Climate - Environment and Climate Change Canada

We have a Sears corded-electric, for maybe 15 years now. I'll mow the back yard one week, then the front in another week or two. Then repeat in another month, if that. Can't recall ever mowing past the end of September.

 

It is the same basic equipment as a fenceless dog containment system. I'm sure you could get a quote from an installer for one of those.

 

I have 12 acres of land but it is mostly untouched woods. When we first bought the property, there used to be half to 3/4 acre of lawn just around the house, but I have slowly converted it to mostly wildflower meadow over last 10 years that now requires no mowing. I still have to use weed trimmer in some areas but I have not used my gas mower since early this spring. Once all the tall flowers (and weeds) are dead I will go over with the mower in the late fall to make room for new growth next spring. I hate mowing the grass. I think the neatly manicured green lawn is not very environmentally friendly, and they are just not attractive to me nor to my bees and other pollinators.

 

I 'mow' typically once sometime between September and March. But I 'power vacuum' the fallen leaves with the same device multiple times. Leaf falling season here is quite long.

 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Greenworks-Pro-GW-60-V-String-Trimmer-Blower-Combo-Kit-with-1-2-Ah-Battery-Charger/1000820238

Bought the above after my accident. Works pretty well, considering. Just used the blower for the first time since my accident. Not close to the power that my Stihl has....

BR 430 Backpack Blower | Professional Use | STIHL USA

But it does a good job on the roof....speaking of roofs. I was able to make it on part of our roofs today. The easy parts, but was terrified to try to get on the second-story roof. Kevin (husband) is terrified of heights, so he is no help.

But, considering it turned out O.K., may try the second-story. Any tips, send them my way. Once leaves start falling, it will be a requirement that someone goes on the second-story roof.

Oh, the weed wacker part of the combo is REALLY good. My only complaint is that the battery runs down after about 35 minutes.

kris

 

Those Greenworks products are really good. We have a bunch of things based on their 40V system. The electric chainsaws are light ot handle and good for small jobs. We bought even more of the Greenworks things after our Black & Decker chargers died, killing our investment in their system.
At times is is cheaper to bu a tool with battery & charger than to but another battery & charger. Strange, but true.

 

I've got an E-go (yeah, terrible name, I know) walk behind self-propelled lawn battery powered mower. I like it. For a year it has worked quite well.
I understand they have other battery-powered tools. They might have what you want.

 

I have one that's not self propelled. It really performs well. I also got their edger and use the same battery for both.

 

How big is your battery? How long can you run the edger with that battery? I was looking at E-Go string trimmer at Home Depot site. They have it at reasonable price ~$200 packaged with 2.5Ah Battery & charger. But if I go with 5.0Ah battery the price doubles. And replacement battery is so expensive. $150 for 2.5Ah, $250 for 5.0Ah, and $350 for 7.5Ah. If initial 2.5Ah battery that comes with the trimmer last less than 30 min, I will be needing additional battery.

 

@Salamander_King, I have the 5 Ah battery. We have a small lot. I can mow the front and back in less than 30 minutes and then I still have more than enough juice to edge the front sidewalk and the driveway.

 

So, will you care to guess with 2.5 Ah battery, run time for a string trimmer would be more than 30 min?

 

That would seem like a reasonable guess to me for a string trimmer. I would like to have one of their string trimmers myself. Something to keep in mind is that the capacity will degrade over time. In order to give mine the best chance at the longest life, I keep it and the charger inside and charge it right before use.

 

I spent the better part of 3 days crawling around my lot to set up my wire. And cumulatively another day diagnosing and correcting various problems that were impeding the robot’s performance.

Now all of that is in the rearview mirror, and it is very close to set-and-forget. In 3 seasons of operation I estimate it has saved me about 150 hours of mowing, so it is already a net gain.

…which is great because I needed that time to deal with trees and other landscaping.

You can get a wire-laying machine for big jobs. it’s a pushcart tool with a little gas engine, spool holder and a magazine of turf staples. It does the whole thing in one pass. You can rent them from ordinary tool rental places. I wish I’d known about it.

 

... and to go to the gym and get the exercise you miss out on by not mowing.

 

And do you keep 80% full, and never deplete completely to 0% like PRIME?

I have a half dozen 18V lithium battery pack for my Ryobi One+ ecosystem power tools. I didn't pay much attention on charge level. Although they were always kept inside, they are always charged to full and depleted to null. I have a few of older ones (about 5 years?) that are no longer holding much charge any more. Still those batteries are much cheaper than E-Go replacement batteries for sure. I can afford to get some more. I hate to spend $200 for a battery tool and spending equal or more for spare battery in a short term. That's almost like the Ink Jet printer scam. LOL