Lawnmowing: manual and electric powered

[dogman]

I carried the 15 ah battery in a bike messenger bag, but any purse or fanny pack would work. No particular reason to use more than a 5 ah pack for most yards, I just have my 6s stuff taped together to make it easy to pop in and out of the mower. You could tape a 5 ah pack to the tool easy enough, or make a box from coroplast to snugly carry a single pack.

[auraslip]

I'm thinking of getting this 18v nicd powered leaf blower for $40.

Do you think it'll last running it at 6s lipo? I hope so because my leaf blower died and I need a replacement stat....

[swbluto]

I'm thinking of getting this 18v nicd powered leaf blower for $40.

Do you think it'll last running it at 6s lipo? I hope so because my leaf blower died and I need a replacement stat....

It probably would, but just a fair warning, battery powered blowers are going to be WEAK compared to competitors. I was looking at home depot, and the electric models that started to rival the lower-end gas models in blowing power were around 7 amps of 110 volts AC -- That's something like 500-700 watts of power. A 24 wh nicad battery is probably only putting out 50-70 watts at most and the battery powered models didn't even come with a blowing power rating (Is the rating too low?), so these battery powered models are probably going to be pushing one grass-blade at a time. What I was planning on doing is hooking up batteries directly upto the significantly more powerful AC models which should give me lightness, power and portability all in one shot. And, the best part, electrics are cheap compared to comparably powerful gas equipment and they have comparatively little to none maintenance/reliability issues. (And, as you know, reliability is a requisite for business.)

[auraslip]

it claims a 10-20 minute run time out of a 18v 1.5a battery pack... sooo 6c-5c would be 160-100 watts.... yeah it's a lot less than a gas or plug in electric, but for just cleaning some grass clippings off a suburban driveway... it should be fine..
i hope..

[veloman]

What about a broom? For smooth pavement/concrete, sweeping should be fine.

[swbluto]

What about a broom? For smooth pavement/concrete, sweeping should be fine.

The condition "For smooth pavement/concrete" is key as I found out after a customer requested us to remove the leaves from her slotted wooden deck. Also, a broom seems to leave behind stragglers.

[MikeFairbanks]

I have a black and decker electric lawnmower. Growing up, my dad hated gas mowers, because he had an uncle who had severe burns. Gas freaked him out in sloppy applications (can you ever fill a gas lawnmower without spilling? Not me). Plus, he didn't want to have to store gas. Most my neighbors store it in their basement or garage, and most of us use gas furnaces and water heaters. That seems a bit dangerous to me, so I don't store any gas on the property (except for the cars, they are always parked outside).

Anyway, he liked electric mowers and I learned how to use one.

Now that's what I use. Granted, my entire lot is only a tenth of an acre, but that's what I use. And with proper technique, I can mow without having to adjust the cord position often. I have a hundred-foot cord, and it reaches every part of the yard. I haven't run over the cord yet.

My edger and leaf blower are also electric.

If I bust my butt and do a thorough job, it takes about 90 minutes to do the entire front and back yards, and I don't have to change because my clothing reeks of gasoline.

[auraslip]

Thinking more about trimmers since I have the 6s lipo packs now.

I'd really like the high end B&D trimmer. Of course it's 36v nicd.....so it probably wouldn't do so great at 22v or 44v.



It sure looks well made though. And uses the double line system.



Look how tiny the motor is on the 18v B&D unit. And the little plastic gears too! Yikes that looks cheap.

Seems to me the battery is the only thing that's expensive on the unit. Hopefully I can find used ones sans batteries for $20.

[TylerDurden]

Ryobi had a knockoff of the 120V Stihl corded trimmer.

http://www.stihl.com/isapi/default.asp? ... tters.html

http://www.classicfarmequipment.com/handheld_stihl.htm (bottom)

They take the typical attachments: blower, pole-saw, etc.

Maybe they can be found... I got a couple at BigLots.
http://skagit.craigslist.org/grd/2429776611.html

[swbluto]

http://www.mowermagic.co.uk/acatalog/RY ... watt_.html

I want one of the 1000 watt models (Stihl or Ryobi, doesn't matter), and then I could plug in my 120 volt lipo batteries and whack away. 1.5 horse power = insane trimming power (Better than gas models).

[amberwolf]

Look how tiny the motor is on the 18v B&D unit. And the little plastic gears too! Yikes that looks cheap.

My Ryobi 12V cordless uses a very similar-sized/type of motor, by Johnson Controls, which will overheat if used longer than the typical 15-20 minutes that the 7Ah SLA battery will run for. I didn't find that out (when running it off external batteries on a cart) until it melted out the plastic ribs inside the housing, that hold it in place, and it began vibrating during use, causing more heat than before, and eventually also softening the motorshaft's connection point to the spool, making the whole thing off-center just a bit, and making it vibrate even worse, and also rub on the plastic housing sometimes, which increased heat yet again by greatly increasing motor loading. I have been using other corded ones from freecycle since then, so I can't remember now if I ended up burning out the motor or not.

I now have another of it's big brother, corded, the Ryobi 150r I think it is, but I have to find a way to get the spool off the old one to put it on the new one and be able to refill it. I just don't have the strength to undo the rusted-on nut, and I'm afraid to cut it off for fear of destroying the spool around it (it's embedded into it).

My original 150r lasted for years of abuse before I finally damaged the motor windings from overheating. I expect the replacement (which might be newer than the other one; both came from Goodwill, at different times) will last at least as long, probably longer since now I know what not to do to it.

[dogman]

I hadn't seen the 36v B&D. Does look like da kine. At most, I use the 24v ones I have for work for about 2 hrs at a time continuous. Other than the string issue, they seem to be working ok, without melting in 90F weather. We'll see this week, when it's closer to 100. No problems all last summer, but then we only had enough battery to run about 30 min at a whack.

BTW, if you did get a 36v trimmer, it would be pretty simple to add a second wire to the packs you have, allowing running and charging as a 5s pack when you wanted a 36v, 10s pack.

You'd have to be carefull, of course, not to hook up to charge as 6s, when you had only run 5 cells down.

[MikeFairbanks]

Plugging in isn't that bad.

I suppose if you had a huge property, sure.

Growing up we had an acre and did all of it electrically.

[stanz]

Thinking more about trimmers since I have the 6s lipo packs now.
Look how tiny the motor is on the 18v B&D unit. And the little plastic gears too! Yikes that looks cheap.

I'm on my second year using the cheap B&D 18V trimmer, not a single problem. I rotate the batteries which now work better than when they were new.

[amberwolf]

I saw a cordless Ryobi 140r at 35th Ave & Bell at Savers today for only $15. If anyone in the Phoenix area is interested in it, it'll probably still be there a few days at least. (it's out of my price range) It did not have either it's wall-hanger/charger or a battery (7Ah SLA, based on size/shape of the casing and opening, I'd guess, but I didn't open it to check), but it was otherwise in very good condition, and probably works fine.

Also saw a Homelite electric mower exactly like the one I have here that shook itself apart (actually broke the metal motor casing mounts off the casing!), for $55, which is about a third or so of it's new price. It looked nearly unused, but I would never recommend getting it even at $5, as I think they're dangerously crappily made.

[veloman]

Thinking more about trimmers since I have the 6s lipo packs now.

I'd really like the high end B&D trimmer. Of course it's 36v nicd.....so it probably wouldn't do so great at 22v or 44v.



It sure looks well made though. And uses the double line system.

I have this. I got it used for $20 locally. Yeah, great deal. The ni-cad battery has enough run time to trim a normal size yard, but I feel it is losing capacity. The battery drains itself just sitting there (out of the trimmer), so I have to put it back on the charger the day before I cut. Oh, the trimmer ROCKS, has TONS of power. B&D were not lying when they say it competes with gas trimmers. It has a sick power-band if you really grab the throttle, sounds awesome too. I've used a little Worx-gt trimmer and that is crap in comparison.

This is the trimmer to get if you want electric cordless. The problem is the battery, I feel. I will prob have to try wiring up my 36v 5ah lipo at some point. But I'm not sure how, because there are 4 contact points on the battery, two male and two female tabs. It may not be hard, maybe it's just that way to parallel the cells at the point of contact. Make sure the trimmer line is at full length, otherwise it's drastically less effective (as with any trimmer).

[veloman]

I've decided to go to a CORDED electric rotary mower, like the B&D mm875 or mm575. The 875 has a lot of good reviews and was best rated in it's category. I can get a mower and extension cord for under $100 used. For a battery mower, it will cost me over $500 for enough battery to cut the lawn I do. Tomorrow I'm looking at a MM575 that doesn't run. I'm hoping it's just a fuse, but it's $10, so not much risk either.


Is there any way to swap a brushless beastly motor into one of these corded mowers? It only needs to maintain 15-20amps at 120volts. Anything more than that would require an odd, huge cord.

But even still, I've used a corded B&D small mower, and it cut awesome, and was SUPER light at 40lbs. Ripped right through that foot tall grass. No worries about batteries.

I think most normal residential lawns should be cut on corded electric power. I don't see why you can't use say 150ft of heavy cord (10 or 12g). I mean, the electricity flows through miles of wires before it hits the house. Why is 100 feet the limit? Perhaps you just go easy when you have that much cord and not draw 15amps, lol.

[amberwolf]

Tomorrow I'm looking at a MM575 that doesn't run. I'm hoping it's just a fuse, but it's $10, so not much risk either.

If it's a PM motor like the old B&D I blew up a few years ago, also check for a rectifier bridge. That could fail, too. Cheap and easy to fix, if it's bad, but they just used spade quick-connectors on it, and it's not in an area sealed against wet, so they can corrode. Reseating them fixed that problem on mine more than once after mowing really wet grass, and/or after hosing the bottom of the mower out because so much grass stuck in there during mulching that it bound up the blade.

[veloman]

The seller says that it just didn't work one day, after working fine before. Likely some easy fix.

[amberwolf]

THat's one thing the corroding connectors can cause, so if it has any in there, unplug and plug all the connectors in it a couple of times, then retest it, before anything else.

[Tommy]

Caution: New Member with limited typing skills.

For my DIY electric lawn tractor project my first idea was to use friction drive reel mowers, but after testing
I found them to be unreliable except in ideal conditions(no trees). I'm now testing standard rotary electric
mowers(so far, so good).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9qfBXX8_Rg

Tommy

[dogman]

Cool. Just keep it away from your girlfreind. ( reference to the horror comedy, Frankenhooker)

[Tommy]

Just keep it away from your girlfreind. ( reference to the horror comedy, Frankenhooker)

for pure entertainment value the reel mowers wins, they do look cool slicing tall grass.

plowing snow can have an ominous look to it also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylph_YJkCoc

Tommy

[swbluto]

Does anyone know if there's a diference in the motor between the lawn hog MM875 ($219) and MM1800 ($175)?

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-MM87 ... B00005AKZI

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-MM18 ... tle_garden

I was mowing a customers overgrown lawn with the MM1800 (It was growing for 3 weeks and it was thick) and I had to do double passes with the MM1800 I owned, whereas I was able to cut it in a single pass with the gas lawn mower I own. So, I'm wondering if the MM875 is any powerful. I have my doubts since the motor has the same amp rating, but I'm hoping it might be wound differently in a more powerful way.

I'm really looking for a powerful electric lawn mower that can tackle "Almost All situations" (Except for the ridiculously long types), not just weekly maintenance types of lawns.

[veloman]

I've been using a Homelite corded 12amp mower. Homelite is a good name for it, it is not very powerful. It has trouble at 3mph through just 6 inches width of thick 8" tall Bermuda grass. It was embarrassing it took just as much time or longer than the reel mower I used last time on the same grass.

I started researching gas mowers. I wonder if the new models coming out are as polluting as I keep reading when I read about gas mower pollution. I know the old mowers are bad, but new standards have been in since '07. Does a new gas mower pollute the same as a modern car, time for time? I read that the old mowers 1 hour = 55 miles in a car.

I think reel mowers are great, for individual homeowners with small, clean lawns that they like to keep cut on a regular basis. They are just fun.

The lady I am cutting grass for still wants me to come, doesn't mind me plugging in..... surprisingly.

I too would like to know the most powerful electric mower out there, something to cut that thick tall stuff.