Electric Lawmowers

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Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Wow I just saw the original post ..... . How on earth are you spending $100 a month on petrol. I doubt I spend that a year to cut 5 acres!

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thanks for jerking me back to my original post

I think grass grows a lot faster here than in Ballarat.....and it's not $100/month but every couple of months , which equates to about 60 litres , which equates to 10-12 hrs mowing , can be several times / month depending on rainfall

its a 38hp mower , not really very economical

having reread this entire thread , I'm seriously considering dumping all of my ice machinery and going battery.....most of it is due major servicing , new belts needed on the ride on....oil leaks on the 2 strokes

Hmmm , no more petrol , no more mixing 2 stroke , no more hearing protection needed, just power everything off my solar , which is where this thread started.

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Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

thanks for jerking me back to my original post

I think grass grows a lot faster here than in Ballarat.....and it's not $100/month but every couple of months , which equates to about 60 litres , which equates to 10-12 hrs mowing , can be several times / month depending on rainfall

its a 38hp mower , not really very economical

having reread this entire thread , I'm seriously considering dumping all of my ice machinery and going battery.....most of it is due major servicing , new belts needed on the ride on....oil leaks on the 2 strokes

Hmmm , no more petrol , no more mixing 2 stroke , no more hearing protection needed, just power everything off my solar , which is where this thread started.

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I need to see this 38hp petrol lawn motor .... What a beast! My tractor spinning an 8foot flail mower is only 40hp (I'm always amazed at how little fuel this ancient crusty POS uses ).

Post 50 vaccines Sunday this morning. I got to use the my new Electric mower this arvo. While running after that i was wondering??? As a kid the sheep, horses and cows would not touch the grass from the lawn mower. I always assumed it was the exhaust into the grass?

Grass went into my big compost bins/Worm bin really as I have millions [biggrin]

Would sheep, horses and cows eat the grass cut by an electric lawn mower? I am assuming they would. On that odd thought I saw goats eating cardboard last night[wink11] No grass to mow at this place "Life at 50C: Fleeing Sahara's shifting sands

Life at 50C: Fleeing Sahara's shifting sands




In northern Mauritania, people are seeing first-hand the impact of climate change.

Rising temperatures and desertification are wiping out communities and as the Life at 50C series has discovered, many are being forced to leave their ancestral homes in search of a better life.



"
Back to grass. Put several areas with "Dichondra repens" down before the rain started a week ago. Suggests it takes 14 days. Its like watching paint dry waiting for seed to take[biggrin]

Grass cut by any mower is deadly to horses!!! There's gasses in the process and it is extremely dangerous to feed it to horses, it can kill them and is extremely extremely dangerous. Slashed grass however is different and safe!

Last weekend mowing my front lawn with my 6hp ICE mower it went to idle and would not budge - managed to finish on idle but no power to do the back which was really long.

Borrowed a friends 32v Ryobi which has a 6ah battery. Also borrowed the 2ah battery out of his trimmer. The battery only lasted for half of the back, put the 6ah on charge and continued with the 2ah battery which did another quarter, the 6ah on charge just had enough to finish. So to mow my complete lawn front and back would take about 12ah of battery. So with a standard battery it would take at least three lots of charges or at least two additional batteries.

Like EV cars the technology is not quite there - the mower performs as well as the 6hp ICE but at $600 for the mower including a battery the price is not too bad. Charging takes about an hour a pop so adds a lot to the time it takes to mow - two additional batteries cost $600 making the mower a very expensive exercise - but it does mow well.

Interestingly the 6hp probably has a carb blockage issue stopping the governor to work correctly so will cost about $100 to get fixed, but a whole new Briggs and Stratton engine only costs between $350 to $400 so not much more than just one additional battery for the Ryobi.

So battery mowers - good but like EVs the technology is not quite there yet.

Garry

How old was the battery in your friend's Ryobi?
My son's 36V Ryobi is almost 5 years old and when he bought a new battery recently he was impressed with how much more work he could do with the new battery.
From his description, the old one may have lost about half its capacity.
He kept the old one because even at reduced capacity it can do a useful amount of mowing.

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Originally Posted by 101RRS

Last weekend mowing my front lawn with my 6hp ICE mower it went to idle and would not budge - managed to finish on idle but no power to do the back which was really long.

Borrowed a friends 32v Ryobi which has a 6ah battery. Also borrowed the 2ah battery out of his trimmer. The battery only lasted for half of the back, put the 6ah on charge and continued with the 2ah battery which did another quarter, the 6ah on charge just had enough to finish. So to mow my complete lawn front and back would take about 12ah of battery. So with a standard battery it would take at least three lots of charges or at least two additional batteries.

Like EV cars the technology is not quite there - the mower performs as well as the 6hp ICE but at $600 for the mower including a battery the price is not too bad. Charging takes about an hour a pop so adds a lot to the time it takes to mow - two additional batteries cost $600 making the mower a very expensive exercise - but it does mow well.

Interestingly the 6hp probably has a carb blockage issue stopping the governor to work correctly so will cost about $100 to get fixed, but a whole new Briggs and Stratton engine only costs between $350 to $400 so not much more than just one additional battery for the Ryobi.

So battery mowers - good but like EVs the technology is not quite there yet.

Garry

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How big is your yard? The same as EV’s, electric mowers need to be used within their capabilities. The tech is well and truly there for normal suburban backyards. My grassed area is around 150 square meters and I can cut this twice on one charge with change left over - even in wet long Spring growth we have at the moment. If my yard was like Mum and Dads old quarter acre block with a tine house on it then no, it wouldn’t work without multiple recharges.

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Originally Posted by Homestar

How big is your yard? The same as EV’s, electric mowers need to be used within their capabilities. The tech is well and truly there for normal suburban backyards. My grassed area is around 150 square meters and I can cut this twice on one charge with change left over - even in wet long Spring growth we have at the moment. If my yard was like Mum and Dads old quarter acre block with a tine house on it then no, it wouldn’t work without multiple recharges.

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We have just over 200m2 of lawn, our 1 x 36v 5ah stihl battery will do the lot being switched out between the mower and whipper snipper.
But a 2nd battery and chainsaw will be making its way as soon as i sell my stihl ms390 [emoji6]

We do around 900m² with one and a half batteries, using a Stihl RMA 510 V (Self Propelled), on sloping ground.

I must be a Luddite, still using ICE for mowers & whipper snippers.

Ride on I've had for 20 years, very secondhand when I got it, re-powered with a Honda motor from a pressure washer. Pull start so no battery. Had one air filter and several oil changes over the years. A couple of times it wouldn't start but then I twigged it had a low oil level sensor that stops you starting it ! I check the oil a bit more often now....

Whipper snippers have come from Tip Shop or Trash & Treasure, typically clean the carby and they work. The best one I paid $5 for and just replaced the fuel lines. If they play up it's usually just a case of cleaning the carby. I inherited a McCulloch and it kept playing up, new carby, air filter, fuel lines & spark plug was about $35 inc freight from Ebay.

I'm running two push mowers that came from hard rubbish (my son collects them, gets them working and sells them). One is smoking a bit (a Sanli) so it will end up on our hard rubbish soon, still starts first pull. The other one is like new, all that was wrong was the blade retaining bolt had come undone, it's in reserve ready to take over from the dying Sanli.

I keep an eye on bttery versions but, to be honest, can't justify the cost. I have more important things to spend my money on.


Colin