Non-Gas Lawn Mowers

I like using a push mower. Got the Brill Luxus 38" wide model. If you keep the blade adjusted it works quite well. But keep up on the lawn or you get an awesome workout! 1/4 acre is pretty big but I'd still do it "by hand". I hear battery-powered electric mowers are out there now. Get a mulching mower if it's a power mower for sure! Saves time, better for grass, reduces yard waste.

 

This is a great topic. Congratulations on your search for a greener mower.

I owned a Brill Luxus 38 and became frustrated with it on my 1/8 acre lot. During rainy weather, I was unable to mow because the wheels just slid right over the wet grass and did not get traction to turn the blades. With a lack of mowing, the grass would get pretty long. A reel mower cannot cut grass that gets too long. I had to keep a second mower around to cut the grass if it got too long.

Presently I have two mowers, one is a rechargable Black and Decker electric that works well on my 1/8 acre lot. I usually keep the height set at the midway point or higher. A higher setting means the mower doesn't work as hard. I use this mower most of the time (75% of the time).

For the other 25% of mowing, I use a gas-powered reel mower that does an outstanding job (ATCO Balmoral 17s, imported from England). My grass looks like a professionally landscaped baseball field when finished. I use it for special occasions to really add a professional touch just before family members come to visit, try to win yard of the month, etc). I am currently researching electric motors in order that I can swap a corded-electric motor into the place of the existing gasoline engine.

My neighbor's mower is a corded version of the Black and Decker electric rotary mower, and it does a very good job too. I cannot tell a difference between it and the cordless version in terms of the final results.

Good luck with your research.

 

We own a gas lawn mower but I prefer to use the push mower... I love the sound it makes and it's a great workout... smells great.

 

I have had a Black & Decker which uses a cord for six years. Works very well.

I'm pretty sure a 4-HP gas engine on a mower emits more pollution, when run for the same amount of time, than a Prius. (Can someone verify?) Gas-powered mowers should be phased out by law---especially those that run before 9 a.m. on Saturday or Sunday mornings. :lol:

 

neuton.com

I've had their cordless electric for 2 seasons and it's great! I can highly recommend it. I get over 2 hours of work out of it. Battery comes out and charges via a wall-charger. The string trimmer attachment is really nice. Just plug it into the front and you can edge or trim.

The cut of the mower (like maybe 12"?) is smaller than my old gas mower cut, but it cuts tall stuff just fine, plenty of power. More exercise, about ten minutes more mowing than my larger cut gas mower.

Wow, is it quiet! I can hear birds chirping and neighbors talking. Comes with a bagger, but I normally have the mulcher blade and plug installed.

And talk about low maintenance, no oil, no gas smell, no tune-ups. I keep the battery indoors (basement laundry room) on it's wall charger for the winter (smart-charger, just maintains charge after fully charging)...come spring, just dust the machine off, insert battery and go. Okay, maybe I do sharpen the blade...

Cheers,

Curt.

 

We have used a Black and Decker corded for about 3 years now. We considered cordless but weren't certain, with a sloping 2/3 acre yard, that mowing would be finished before the charge ran out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MtnTraveler @ May 8 2006, 12:39 AM) [snapback]251314[/snapback]</div>

I'm thinking of getting one of those Brill mowers but how does it do as far as mulching goes? Does it chop up the grass enough not to need the catcher or does it just leave a lot of cut grass laying on top of the lawn to look awful?

 

I have friends/neighbors with the Neuton, and those work very well. They are small and light-weight and very quiet. The B&D that I use is larger, heavier and a bit louder, but makes shorter work of the job. With quality battery mowers out like these, there is really no reason to use gasoline to cut a suburban lawn! Even if you didn't care about pollution, the convenience is impossible to beat. No filling a gas can as the station, no storing gas, no slopping the gas on your shoes, no oil changes or filter changes. While they are certainly far from totally quiet (the spinning blade makes plenty of noise) it is so much quieter than my old gas mower that I can mow at 7am when it is still cool in the summer. No way of doing that with a gas mower.



I first bought a push reel mower when I decided that I'd had enough of gas mowers (here I was driving an EV, but still using a gasoline mower ). The push mower just wouldn't work for my situation though. I tried like heck to make it work, and loved the workout. But it simply does not offer a high enough setting for my type of lawn. I would need to cut every day or every other day, and that's just not gonna happen! The electric was the next best thing. Mine, of cours, is solar-powered like my car.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ May 8 2006, 07:50 AM) [snapback]251436[/snapback]</div>

Didn't recognize you with the new avatar, Jack!

When I had my Brill, I found the mulch to be plenty fine enough to not look all ugly. Of course how long you let the stuff grow between cuts will make a big difference! But I NEVER catch my clippings.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ May 8 2006, 11:26 AM) [snapback]251450[/snapback]</div>

Neither do I but I remember my dad's old manual reel mower (Scots I think) and it didn't mulch well. If it doesn't mulch, having to dump grass clippings is really a waste, not to mention bothersome. I'm glad the Brill mulches well, as soon as my old Craftsman powermower croaks on me, I'm getting a Brill. Thanks for the input.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ May 8 2006, 08:41 AM) [snapback]251462[/snapback]</div>

I REALLY wish I could have used the Brill here! They are VERY nice mowers. Keep them sharp, and they'll last forever, it seems. I think you'll love it. You might love it enough to toss the gas mower BEFORE it croaks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eyeguy13 @ May 8 2006, 07:11 AM) [snapback]251385[/snapback]</div>

I'm wondering if some of those higher pollution values are for the older 2-cycle engines (where you mix the oil in the gas). Since my gas mower is still working fine and we don't have an over-abundance of cash, I'm not planning on buying an electric mower this season, but it's definitely on my list of things to change.

I did a soil test on my lawn ($15 kit from a garden store going out of business), and found I was quite low in nitrogen, otherwise okay. This might have been from the organic fertilizer I had been using, but I was able to find a different organic (well, all-natural sources) fertilizer that had higher nitrogen rates (LawnRestore), and it seemed to perk up my yard nicely. I also use a screwdriver to dig up the dandelions, my wife has bought me herbicides to use, but I refuse (and she doesn't like getting dirty with lawncare, so it's my choice . Even if I don't get the root, after getting the resprouts a month or so later that's too much for it and it dies for good. It really doesn't take any longer than going around with a spray bottle (and I won't make a mistake like my wife's cousin who used an all-purpose grass killer to get her dandelions and put big brown spots all over her yard). The yard was in decent shape when I started, but not extra green, and now I've gone several years without fossil-fuel-derived herbicides, pesticides or fertilizers, (or excessive summer watering) and it looks as good or better than the neighbors.

nerfer

 

I use a push mower. It does require my labor on the user's part. Although I appreciate this, some people may find this to be a negative. It cuts my lawn nicely (my neighbor even commented) but there is one problem that I've experienced. We have weedy trees (which I'm trying to rid my yard of when the native trees take hold and get larger) and they drop tons of stems and branches. The push mower does not cut through these like the gas mower does. They get caught up in the blades and I'm constantly having to stop and pull the matter from the blades. Other than this never ending problem, I'm very happy with the mower. I have an old gas mower that we're keeping in case and we've only used it once since we bought the push mower.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(nerfer @ May 8 2006, 09:31 AM) [snapback]251499[/snapback]</div>

Apparently now, if you believe them: "operating a typical gasoline mower with a four-cycle engine produced as much PAH as driving a modern car about 150 km or about 95 miles"

 

I just heard on 60 minutes or some such show that they want mowers to have catalytic converters on the gas ones. But Briggs and Stratton doesn't and got some senators to block this requirement except for CA.

Saw somewhere they now have Lithium battery powered electric mowers now, but they were expensive.
Had a lead acid one but it conked out before I could finish my mowing so went back to gas for now.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tomdeimos @ May 8 2006, 02:37 PM) [snapback]251598[/snapback]</div>

:lol: See how we Americans are? Never even think about going back to the manual reel mower, just figuring out how we can switch to a different kind of nonhuman power. By the way, that catalytic converter thing probably wouldn't be much use because they'd give the mower manufacturers 20 years to phase them in and we'd have every mower still polluting by then. They'd exempt professional lawn care companies so every doofus out there who didn't want one of the new ones declaring himself a professional. By the time all is said and done, there'd be like 10 people out there with the ones with catalytic converters on them.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JackDodge @ May 8 2006, 06:24 PM) [snapback]251860[/snapback]</div>

Folks could sign up for the Fuel Cell Mowers today, and would be exempt from having to switch to anything clean for the next 20 years.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(finman @ May 8 2006, 09:12 AM) [snapback]251394[/snapback]</div>

I bought the Gen 1 Neuton, if you will. It is a DR and I have had it 4 years. I like it a lot. I only have about 3000 sq ft of lawn and I use 3 batteries and frequently sharpen the blade.