I switched out my aging Honda for a Greenworks 80v mower I got from Costco here in Canada. I have a 1/2 acre property so probably cutting about 1/4 acre and I can do it on one charge. The mulching isn't the best if the grass is damp at all. In that case I need to wipe accumulated clippings about 1/2 way thru the cut. Otherwise it's great. The Honda was burning more oil than gas.I have a professional Carbon Dioxide meter and it was really surprising to me how much CO a lawn mower and Generator release when compared to a full size gas vehicle. The Catalytic converters really do a great job at scrubbing out the CO.
As for the laws etc. I was going to get an electric Lawn mower anyway. The Gas ones are just a pain in the rear once they get past a certain age. I ditched the Gas weed whacker about a year ago for a battery powered one and I would never go back to gas. I am looking for a mid priced Lawn mower that has removable battery packs that can do a lot sized lawn. Any suggestions are welcome as most of the mid priced ones I see on Amazon have horrible reviews
It's a laughing matter today, but a lot of foolish things we laughed at twenty years ago, are rammed down our throats now.Soon making one’s own electricity will be as restricted as capturing one’s own rainwater!
I have the Ryobi crosscut since June. It was great for my 1/2 acre lot. Came with 2 batteries at about $550I have a professional Carbon Dioxide meter and it was really surprising to me how much CO a lawn mower and Generator release when compared to a full size gas vehicle. The Catalytic converters really do a great job at scrubbing out the CO.
As for the laws etc. I was going to get an electric Lawn mower anyway. The Gas ones are just a pain in the rear once they get past a certain age. I ditched the Gas weed whacker about a year ago for a battery powered one and I would never go back to gas. I am looking for a mid priced Lawn mower that has removable battery packs that can do a lot sized lawn. Any suggestions are welcome as most of the mid priced ones I see on Amazon have horrible reviews
Wow, my experience cannot be more the opposite. I have the brushless 40 volt power head and the leaf vacuum, and the 22” dual bladed mower. The power head and leaf vac have 3 or 4 seasons behind em, the mower only one. Like I said above I have a 1/2 lot with about I gues 300 or 400 foot of fence around the back. I use a gator head, a 6.5” edger, and a blower attachment on the power head, and have never had a problem with it clipping. It will do it once in a great while if I try to rush the edger in real dry dirt, but only rarelyIm revisiting this thread..
My ryobi set (blower/chainsaw/mower) all perform sub par.
The blower "high" switch is a real pain, I've replaced it once already, but it is near impossible to keep it on high. Otherwise it is the best of the three.
The saw seemed great when brand new. I have three batteries and the only one that will not "trip" now very often is the 6ah one that came with the mower. It'll still "trip" though. The other two are mostly useless with it (the one that came with it is one of those).
This leaves the mower. The area I mow is not that large and it frequently dies. If there is any grass under it I have to clear it to get it to restart. The speed also seems to vary far too much. When its "high" it has more power, but, this last a short time. The amount of grass I'm mowing at the time doesn't seem to make a difference on its speed/power.
So, are battery ones ready? No, at least not from Ryobi.
Sure they have "decent" warranties but considering I'd have to warranty all three this seems like a crap deal in the long run. I'll just end up with three tools that won't work right anyways.
Oh, its also the 2cnd saw from them, had to replace the first one right away also... Didn't work right either....
Is it the right direction for humanty to go? Oh yes. But the State of California has passed this despite it not being ready. One has to wonder how much kickback$ was given to them despite it being us who will pay the price.
To my way of thinking if all you need a leaf blower for is just twenty minutes you don’t need a leaf blower you need a rake. That’s one of my issues with cordless yard tools.2x 18v batteries only last about 20 minutes on full power
I just use the blower to clear clippings from the walk and drive after cutting, and tokeep the patio clean. Leaves are either for bagging, or as you suggest raking, but we don’t have that many trees inside the fenceTo my way of thinking if all you need a leaf blower for is just twenty minutes you don’t need a leaf blower you need a rake. That’s one of my issues with cordless yard tools.
Another is ‘the masses’ judge them subjectively. Take a landscape contractor around here and the anemic underpowered cordless stuff won’t even make it through a morning. There’s a LOT of power in a tank of gasoline. And it’s cheap.
A rake would have taken an hour and doesn't work nearly as well with pine needles. We have oak, maple, and pine here.To my way of thinking if all you need a leaf blower for is just twenty minutes you don’t need a leaf blower you need a rake. That’s one of my issues with cordless yard tools.
I understand where you're coming from, really I do. One of my closest friends is a landscaper who's main business is cutting grass. He uses his equipment more in one day than I use mine all summer long. There is no way a battery powered anything is going to work for him...Another is ‘the masses’ judge them subjectively. Take a landscape contractor around here and the anemic underpowered cordless stuff won’t even make it through a morning. There’s a LOT of power in a tank of gasoline. And it’s cheap.
I have 145m (475') of gutters to blow out, plus the rooftops as well, in particular two of the buildings are skillion flat metal roofs. This is an absolutely vital task, especially for Summer bushfire protection. Only takes one stray ember. But also for keeping the gutters clear for our inevitable downpours.We also use our leaf blower to clean our gutters.
I used to do that but for convenience I tend to use my air compressor instead as it is located where I park the mower.I also use the leaf blower to clean the zero turn mower after cutting the grass.
They want you to buy these things because they want you to subsidize their durability testing AND actually they don’t really care because they want you to have enough related batteries and other tools to just go buy another bare tool in a year or two when it dies.If I could be certain an electric brush cutter and blower were up to the task then I'd consider the change. But I'm not convinced they have the power, runtime or durability I would expect, especially considering their cost
I think its worth pointing out that these same EXACT concerns were expressed when the cordless drills first came out..I could not contemplate doing that job with an underpowered blower. I would prefer to vac it rather than blow the crap onto the ground/garden below but that requires industrial equipment the gutter cleaning pros use (a truck/trailer with a powerful generator driving a vac hose system).
I hope so.I think we can expect the same with the lawn tools shortly.. very shortly..
The lack of a battery connection standard is frustrating. I mean we can buy universal design AA batteries or C cells or 9V cells etc for small electrical items but for a power tool you get locked into one manufacturer or end up with a plethora of chargers and batteries. Meanwhile my yard tools don't give a stuff which petrol station I get my fuel from.
Actually, TX had the generating capacity and asked for an emissions waiver.Actually, it's because Texas decided to be on their own and then decided it wasn't worth the money to design the power plants and wind farms to work in sub zero weather. They have windmills all over the world where it gets colder than Texas got. Texas just has a mis managed power system.
Federal regulators warned Texas 10 years earlier this could happen. Texas ignored them because they wanted to go on their own! Because they wanted to stay unregulated, they also had no tie ins to other states to import electricity. The "Go Green" people didn't do anything. Texas was on their own and made their own faulty decisions.
210 people died in Texas due to the power issues...but who counts deaths in texas these days LOL
Sthil sells battery powered devices as well…I have 145m (475') of gutters to blow out, plus the rooftops as well, in particular two of the buildings are skillion flat metal roofs. This is an absolutely vital task, especially for Summer bushfire protection. Only takes one stray ember. But also for keeping the gutters clear for our inevitable downpours.
I could not contemplate doing that job with an underpowered blower. I would prefer to vac it rather than blow the crap onto the ground/garden below but that requires industrial equipment the gutter cleaning pros use (a truck/trailer with a powerful generator driving a vac hose system).
There is ~330m (>1000') of fence line to keep clear with brush cutter plus of course all the mower and garden edges and tree surrounds. Fortunately we don't need to do most of the boundary as much of it is bushland.
My blower, chainsaw and brush cutter are all Stihl units. Of these the chainsaw is probably the one unit which could be swapped out now for an electric option. But what's the point? The chainsaw is the unit used the least and looked after it will last 25 years.
If I could be certain an electric brush cutter and blower were up to the task then I'd consider the change. But I'm not convinced they have the power, runtime or durability I would expect, especially considering their cost. I would love to charge their batteries from my off-grid solar PV system though!
Gave my Yamaha backup generator a run yesterday, good to ensure it will be ready should we need it (we are in storm season, a cracker blew through last night). The generator used to be our main power backup but now it's mostly for redundancy, a backup to the off-grid solar/battery power backup system I built. But good to know that if an outage is extra long and the weather poor, then the generator can charge the batteries. It's an efficient use of the generator as 2 hours of generator ~= 8 hours of backup energy in the batteries. Better than the generator puttering along for 8 hours.
I used to do that but for convenience I tend to use my air compressor instead as it is located where I park the mower.
I'm not sure that will work. Apart from the energy controls, there are likely different battery management and monitoring systems.Maybe some aftermarket manufacturers could start making more simple adapters for converting (example like 18v Dewalt battery > 18v Milwaukee tool, etc)...