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stacey_mb

Do you have a cordless electric lawnmower?

6 years ago

Our gas lawnmower is fairly old and is increasingly giving us problems. DH has suggested that a cordless electric lawnmower would make a good replacement so we are looking for experiences that other people have had with these, and any recommendations for type, brand, etc.

Comments (6)

  • 6 years ago

    I have an EGO self propelled mower from Home Depot. This is my second battery mower. I got it in 2018 and loved everything about it...until it stopped running this past May. It just stopped. It's not the battery. I have spares and they all work in other EGO tools. It does not appear to be the safety switches they put all over the machine to be sure you have it fully assembled and locked in position. I called EGO. They are working from home, so I got a call back on a Sunday. They gave me a work order number and had me take it to a Home Depot with a tool rental. That was May 19th. HD told me they would be shipping it from San Antonio to Atlanta to be repaired and it would be 6 to 8 weeks before I saw it again. Apparently San Antonio and Houston and New Orleans and all the other large cities along the route do not have the electrical know-how and talent that Atlanta has. It's been 6 weeks so I have been nagging HD for information. All they can tell me is they shipped it from Atlanta on June 12 and it has not been delivered to any HD store yet. They cannot track the mower or give me an estimated time of arrival. It is now July 7. That seems like a long time for shipping.

    So the point of the story is this: if you are considering a battery powered mower, ask around to see where you can get it repaired LOCALLY. If mine had been a gas powered mower, someone within a mile could have fixed it and I'd be mowing again after 2 days.

    One more thing about the EGO mowers. You are not supposed to clean the under side of the deck with water. WHAT? Who doesn't use a hard water stream to clean underneath the mower deck??? The EGO has holes through the deck for the electronics to breathe. Spraying it apparently jets water right into the motor...or something. So if you're in the market for a battery mower, ask specifically if you can hose off the deck to clean out the grass.

    Other than that, I do love how the mower works. I like the adjustments, the auto upspeed for dense grass, the adjustable walking speed, and just the way it feels on my hands. Great mower when it works.

    stacey_mb thanked dchall_san_antonio
  • 6 years ago

    I not only have a cord less lawnmower but it is robotic. That is the way to go. You peg down a wire about 1 foot away from the edge of your lawn all the way around the house, trees, whatever, from the charging unit back to it. Set the time parameters and let it go. Once a month change the blade. Simple as that... haven't 'mowed' the lawn in over 13 years.... Lawn always looks freshly mowed!! (mowed twice a week)

    stacey_mb thanked toolbelt68
  • 6 years ago

    I've had an Echo mower for about 5 years along with the rest of the Echo cordless ecosystem. This was for a 0.4 acre lot that typically takes about 2-3 hrs to mow and another hour to edge, trim hedges, etc.

    Overall everything works quite well. My only complaint with the mower is that it does not recycle clippings as well as my prior Toro Recycler. From conversations with others it does as well or better than all other mowers though. Trimmer power head, hedge clipper, leaf blower, and chain saw all work well. I've used many of the Echo attachments on the power head with good success. The only exception is the bed redefiner that it does not have enough power to keep it from bogging down occasionally.

    The electric-ness is wonderful. Much Quieter and smoother running (no hand vibration). No exhaust fumes. Never run out of gas, never have to stop to get gas or mix oil+gas. No maintenance. I'll never go back to gas.

    HOWEVER...

    One issue I've had is the switch on the leaf blower. I'm on my third one. It's simply a bad design.

    The big issue though is that Echo have an exceptionally poor battery management system (BMS). I own 3 batteries and number them to track how they are doing. I'm currently using replacement batteries 4, 10 and 13. Echo (Gardner Hardware) had been good about replacements since they are in warranty but recently they've tried to not replace them unless I could provide documentation that they said shipped w/ the batteries but did not (I actually did an unpacking video of my most recent to prove to Echo that Gardner are not including what they are asking for).

    This is likely one of three things; They are charging the batteries too high (should leave about 10% uncharged at top of Li-ion), they are allowing them to drain down too low (should leave about 15% base charge), or they are using too high of charge current (too high of a charge curve or maybe not even using a proper curve). For perspective a battery rated for 7,500Ah s/b a 10,000Ah battery that uses only the middle 7,500.

    Echo's problems are an issue of poor design, not technology. My Tesla is 6 years old w/ 60k miles and still has about 95% of it's original battery capacity. I expect my wife's Tesla to do just as well or better. Other Tesla owners have had similar experiences including taxi services that are reporting 200k-300k miles with over 85% of capacity still available. The more that they are able to use the middle range of the battery's charge the greater capacity the batteries retain so it's not unusual to hear of people with 100k miles on a 5 year old car with 99% of their original capacity because they use only the middle (charge to 70%, use to 30% for instance).

    My Echo stuff is all stuck in storage until October (we're moving) so I'm taking the opportunity of needing to buy a new mower to try a different brand. Likely EGO (hopefully @dchall_san_antonio's experience is a one-off.)


  • 6 years ago

    Glad you got it back. Shouldn't take 8 weeks though, that's really disappointing. What do they expect you to do in the interim?

    I am leaning towards an EGO mower and ecosystem stuff. I'll likely get the mower and a trimmer (or powerhead + trimmer) to see how they do compared to Echo. If all goes well then I can sell the Echo stuff (still in good shape) and get the rest of the attachments I use regularly.

    I wonder how well made and sturdy their 2-stage snowblower will be. That'd be a nice bonus of EGO if it's well made and not flimsy like the SnowJoe 2-stage.

  • 6 years ago

    There is nothing flimsy about my EGO products. I got the chain saw first, then the leaf blower, string trimmer, and mower. I have 4 tools, 3 batteries, and 3 chargers. I use all three batteries and only one of the chargers. Of those tools, the leaf blower is the most impressive. It is amazingly easy to use, especially compared to gas blowers. And it's amazingly effective.

    I think Lowe's is taking over the EGO brand in December. If you can wait, I'd be inclined to do that...unless HD has a big sale.