Thread: Electric Lawmowers

Originally Posted by austastar

The lead on mine was only 2 core, so no earth protection if used on other appliances.
Cheers

Yep mine was the same although it did have a plug with the earth pin.

I snapped this pin off to remind me it was not earthed, so I would only use it on double insulated appliances.

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.

Interestingly the 6hp probably has a carb blockage issue stopping the governor to work correctly so will cost about $100 to get fixed,

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.

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

Garry

So while my ICE was in for repair I have mowed my lawn twice with the 36v Ryobi. Used about half the battery capacity of the first mow but still needs another battery - mowing ability is impressive though. The issue would be the longevity of the of the chassis - all plastic and with gouges on the underside even at this early stage of its life - mows well but is not heavy duty as far as longevity would be concerned.

Well I just picked up my Masport 6hp from the repairer - noting it would idle only and not rev - pointing to a carb/gov issue - well not what happened was the key on the flywheel sheared and the flywheel moved a little changing its timing - would idle but not rev. Fuel tank apparently split at the top, and mech claims blades held on with normal bolts - if so is a manufacturing issue as blades with the bolts in the packet used.

So - my old mower still goes but time to think about an update - options are a new ICE mower, just a new engine or a battery powered version. I like the ease of the battery models but quality is expensive and you need to buy additional very expensive batteries - or maybe I just push my current mower into the ground and make a decision then - maybe battery mowers will be better.

Garry

Originally Posted by incisor

Love my Makita battery powered mower!

So does the better half!

Had no issues with mine and I have had it a while now.

I was looking at a Makita Mower last week when my Chinese self propelled mower stopped , last time it stopped no mower shop would even let me take it out of the ute . I rang a mobile mower repair guy & he told me to buy a new NGK spark plug & told me the part no. I decided to give that a try again & started 1st pull . I was hoping to get 5 years out of the mower & it has now made it to 7 years. I have a battery powered Makita wiper sniper that will be a year old come January but the battery or charger has died & won't charge. I am trying to work out which one because the battery only has one year warranty.

My sister bought an el cheapo Ozito cordless mower about 6 years ago, It is still going strong

Originally Posted by Tote

That triggered a bout of internet research.... I can remember being taken to a home show when I was about 5 and marveling at a mower that worked like a hovercraft. Hovercraft were also cool and by 1980 surely everyone would be driving one.......


Regards,
Tote

Back in the early 70s my mum had a vacuum cleaner that didn't have wheels and floated on a cushion of air - but it seemed to have the effect of blowing dust to the corners of the room, which would've been counterproductive.

Hoover Constellation

My uncle had one
We used to do the vacuuming for him every time we went to his place
Probably just played in the exhaust air rather than vacuum
At least we didn’t just play with the hose I suppose 🤣🤣

Originally Posted by 101RRS

So while my ICE was in for repair I have mowed my lawn twice with the 36v Ryobi. Used about half the battery capacity of the first mow but still needs another battery - mowing ability is impressive though. The issue would be the longevity of the of the chassis - all plastic and with gouges on the underside even at this early stage of its life - mows well but is not heavy duty as far as longevity would be concerned.

Well I just picked up my Masport 6hp from the repairer - noting it would idle only and not rev - pointing to a carb/gov issue - well not what happened was the key on the flywheel sheared and the flywheel moved a little changing its timing - would idle but not rev. Fuel tank apparently split at the top, and mech claims blades held on with normal bolts - if so is a manufacturing issue as blades with the bolts in the packet used.

So - my old mower still goes but time to think about an update - options are a new ICE mower, just a new engine or a battery powered version. I like the ease of the battery models but quality is expensive and you need to buy additional very expensive batteries - or maybe I just push my current mower into the ground and make a decision then - maybe battery mowers will be better.

Garry

I have just purchased a Makita 21 inch self propelled battery electric mower.
Steel chassis.......well made.
Comes as package with four 5AH batteries and dual battery charger.
Cost was $1350.00.
It is replacing a Honda self drive mower I purchased 23 years ago and paid at the time $1200.00
The Makita only uses 2 batteries at a time (36 volt operation)with a switch that will swap over to the other two without stuffing around.........ie you have 20Ah to play with and 6 AH batteries will fit to give 24 AH if you are already using 6 AH batteries on some other Makita product or pay extra for bigger batteries to go with the mower.
Makita also have at extra cost a backpack battery system which holds four Makita batteries up to 6AH each plus while using this you still have another two spare ready to switch over in the mower giving up to 36 AH without changing batteries.
I was already on the Makita 18volt format so it was no brainer.
I find with the Batteries supplied with the mower
Doing front and rear lawns in one go is not a problem...but with little battery reserve left.
(I may buy 6 AH batteries at a later date)
.Makita is expensive, but works well and has the tradesman in mind.
The only down fall is out right power for wet grass catching.
I tend to motch..so not a issue.
Makita are now going over to a new higher voltage format and expect greater things, but at a price.
What I got seemed value for money with quality to last.....Makita have full on tradesman battery electric in the new format with huge batteries to run the mower though hours of hard work.
Price is the killer on the big battery tradesman models.

Originally Posted by Gav 110

Hoover Constellation

My uncle had one
We used to do the vacuuming for him every time we went to his place
Probably just played in the exhaust air rather than vacuum
At least we didn’t just play with the hose I suppose 🤣🤣

That's the one, and it turns out that there's a guy in the UK who collects them and has a Youtube review of one - for 30 minutes ....