Lawnmowing: manual and electric powered

veloman

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Sep 13, 2009
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Austin TX
Using dirty ICE to cut small-moderate size residential lawns.... seems like the least logical thing going these days when it comes to machinery.

First off, aren't those manual reel mowers adequate for small lawns, when you cut them regularly?

I'm home visiting my mom. This is absolutely boggling my mind. We have TWO problems, they are:

- She can't figure out how to get more exercise, she already walks for about an 30-60 min most evenings.

- ICE lawnmowers are noisy as hell, make you vibrate, pollute like crazy.

Gee, how could we solve both of those problems? I suggest she get a reel mower, at least for the small front lawn. yes, you'd have to cut the lawn 2-3 times as often. But so what. She needs the exercise, and it's a lot more pleasant to cut a lawn when you aren't going deaf from the noise and breathing in the exhaust of an ICE.

What am I missing here? I'm about to go get a reel mower with my own money and try it out myself before I leave next week. I think my mom is just stubborn and against change. My grandpa use to have an old reel mower that worked fine, with my 8 yr old self pushing it.

I JUST DON"T GET IT. What is wrong with this society? Do you really need a gas mower to cut 1000 sq feet or less?

okay, let's say it's too much work.

ENTER the electric bike geared for 5mph. Simply pull a larger reel mower with your electric bike for large lawns.

This seems way too logical, I must be missing something.

Or even if you used a normal electric lawn mower, at 300 cycles of SLA, you could cut your lawn for 10 YEARS on those batteries!!! 30 cuts a year seems about right, or maybe 40 cuts a year to be safe - still over 7 years of battery life. No noise, pollution and maintenance problems, and for less cost since it'd only take 10 cents to cut your lawn on electricity vs $1 of gas or so. :eek:
 
This Neuton mower seems just as effective as a typical gas push mower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRubSiB0bU&feature=related
 
92m2 can easily be done by hand with a reel mower. The next option would be an electric mower or other alternative but please no ICE mowers! :roll: Almost everything else on earth is driving on petroleum products.

What I think is that people would be much better off not having a lawn at all. They are much to energy intensive to maintain. Instead of a lawn one should make a permaculture designed garden that can provide food, flowers etc. It takes a lot of time to design and layout. But when you finally have it running it is much lighter to maintain. And you can provide yourself with it. :D

Please take 5 minutes to watch this video, I watched it several times and I am still amazed every time:

[youtube]4S6kTlz6Mk4[/youtube]
Link
 
Manual reel-mowers can be ok for small areas, if you get a quality mower. The AgriFab "silent-reel" is worth the higher price. I would not recommend a "Scotts" or similar found in many home-improvement stores.

If the lawn is dense thick grass (regularly watered), the electric is a good choice. A 24V Black&Decker bagger/mulcher is fine for up to ~.33 acre per charge. (I would rather cut twice as often than to bag clippings.) Keeping the blade sharp and the deck underside clean is more important on a cordless mulcher than a gasser.

I have tried a bike-powered reel with little success. :lol:
 
Matthis, you are right about now having a lawn at all. Around here in CT, I see maybe 2% of lawns actually being used during evenings/weekends. The rest are just there to project the image. What a waste, what a double negative, err triple negative.

With all that open area you could harvest a lot of food to live sustainably, while not using an ICE to maintain a lawn there.
I had to use our lawn tractor here to cut the large backyard lawn, which is half an acre. The grass grows so fast back there, we have to cut every 3 days. It makes me feel like crap, knowing how a$$backwards it is. I sit on the mower for 30-40 minutes, listening to the extremely loud noise, breathing in the exhaust, and getting swamp a$$. There's just so much wrong with that picture it makes my brain twist into a pretzel. My mom won't allow any other use of our backyard, it must be kept grass and always cut. At least she grows her own tomatoes in pots near the house.

I have quite the disgust for the "american dream" home - perfectly manicured (using toxic chemicals to make as green and weed free as possible) lawn behind a white picket fence, with an oversized energy expensive house in the middle of it, out in the suburbs away from things you actually need, thereby requiring large ICE vehicles to travel the unsafe roads to get anywhere.
 
Make sure to mention that if you buy a manual push-mower....you can quietly mow early in the morning when its cooler. I have used them, and most people never sharpen the blades or check the gear-lube in the gearbox. Also, if you spread some dirt on the low spots and drag a board across them, over time the lawn will become smoother to make the job easier.

And please don't forget that a small investment in ground-cloth and gravel will reduce the size of the mow-patch, and also reduce the water needed to keep the remaining grass as green as desired. A few "low-water" plants with a drip-irrigation system will be an up-front investment that will provide an attractive yard with reduced labor and irrigation costs for years. Go to Google-image for "xeriscape"

xeriscape_02.jpg
 
I'm liking my 24v black and decker, but it's a bit weak for my large backyard. Paralelling in 8 ah of nicads fixed that in a jiffy. It would be perfect though, for smaller lawns. Reel mowers are great, when kept sharp and adjusted. Most never are, and they need to be used regular. They cut some grass better than others too. I loved my reel push mower when I had a tiffgreen bermuda lawn. But the reel mower did poorly on the common bermuda lawn I have in the new place.

But I really really like my native rangegrass and wildflower front lawn. It barely uses any water, and gets mowed at most monthly. It looks a bit scruffy in summer and winter, but spring makes up for it.
 
Someone on craigslist says they have an older one..... will need the blades sharpened. Is it worth paying $25 for it, or should I definitely try to get a newer one?

My mom says she can't use a push mower because of carpal tunnel in her hand... and my brother will never use a non-motorized machine.... so it's kind of pointless I guess since I won't be here to use it.
 
I think the best bet would be to lobby for an electric mower. And in the meantime show your mother that she can extend her capabilities of growing her own food beyond tomatoes only. :D I personally think it would be better for mankind if be get back in touch with nature more. Everything is commercialized and we are getting more and more dependent everyday. People are willing to work very hard to earn money and than "waste" it by doing all kinds of activities that could be done differently. My "dream house" is even American! It is developed by an American architect called Mike Reynolds, he designs " earthships. I really like this concept. Maybe a bit more refined but it would be a very powerful idea to own one. I also like the movie "Garbage warrior" It shows that the "American dream" house is very well protected and anything that is a bit different will be excluded.
 
TylerDurden said:
I have tried a bike-powered reel with little success. :lol:

TD, what do you think was the fail point? Is it that they need to be pushed instead of pulled, so more downward pressure? I was going to try to snag one section of a multiple reel golf course rig designed for pulling, and make a kid size riding lawn tractor. Mine aren't big enough to push a lawnmower, I a f'ing hate it after so many hundreds of lawns as a kid, but they'd have fun doing it. During rainy season regular grass grows like bamboo here on the days we get sun in the am.

John
 
John in CR said:
TylerDurden said:
I have tried a bike-powered reel with little success. :lol:
TD, what do you think was the fail point? Is it that they need to be pushed instead of pulled, so more downward pressure? I was going to try to snag one section of a multiple reel golf course rig, and make a kid size riding lawn tractor. Mine aren't big enough to push a lawnmower, I a f'ing hate it after so many hundreds of lawns as a kid, but they'd have fun doing it. During rainy season regular grass grows like bamboo here on the days we get sun in the am.
Couple of issues for human power...
Keeping the reel optimally oriented/angled is tricky and can require added weight. Mostly, it takes a lot of energy to power the things through grass continuously without bogging down. When cutting by hand, unless the grass is only a few mm higher, cutting is often done with repeated/reciprocal strokes.

Ganging together three 18" reels (one front, two rear) is not bad if you have an ICE powered garden tractor, but the rotary mowing deck is much easier to maneuver, expecially if you need to back-up.
 
This would be something between a normal lawn tractor and a 4 wheel electric kids ride on toy. I've got some wheelchair motors and gear boxes. Lead batts down low would help with stability and traction. The idea is to have a 6 and 10 year old be of assistance and get the majority of the open area grass knocked out, and I follow up with a weed wacker with 80-90% of the work done by kids having fun learning to drive at the same time. Reel type is as dangerous as I'm willing to get with them involved.
 
I bought a reel mower and have been using it for a week.

The competition was:
$50 at 50% yardworks reel mower from Canadian tire
A plethora of used reel mowers on kijiji, some being brand name (e.g. Gardena)
Likewise selection of used mowers at second hand shops.

Yardworks mower had some bad reviews for breaking.
European import mowers are expensive new, but reasonable used. I tried an English one. Pros: all metal gears, cast construction. Disadvantage: bit heavy and only 14" cutting width.

Ended up buying a used $25. Didn't even see a brand name, but looks like one of those cheap boxed products.
Pros: Lightweight, easy rolling. Plastic gears look big enough that durability won't be an issue. 16" cut. Has lubrication holes.
Con: boxed product so handle assembled from small sections.

Use: I'm out a while everyday in the yard anyway, so I just do a 10min pass and a piece of the lawn every day instead of spending 1h every 1-2 weeks with the gas mower.
 
I guess I forgot the biggest pro: the reel mower is quiet!

Gas motors in home appliances are a plague. How often can one enjoy a quiet evening nowdays? Seems like everyday somebody will be mowing, running a weedeater, a pressure washer or whatnot. Some have lost the ability to walk and take their gas powered lawn tractor around the block.
 
Don't count out corded electric mowers. Yeah the cords a hassle, but I use mine to finish the lawn when the battery one won't quite do the whole thing. For a small lawn, the corded mowers work fine, and can be had cheap used. Either mower can be used at 530 am without disturbing the neighbors while it's still only 80F out there. Just a humming noise from either mower.

Back when I had the tiff green lawn, I really loved my reel mower. I'd just use it for 5-10 minuites every day while watching the sunset.
 
Yea, my next mower will be electric. My woman does the yard because she likes it. Lucky me! I just keep repairing the ice mower and some day when she dies for good (I mean the mower) time for electric. Living in the city there have been some recent studys that say having grass is good because having too much concrete, asphalt, stone, stucco, etc, cause the area to maintain too much heat. This results in air conditioners needing to run alot more. They have been trying for years to have people switch to gravel landscapes. Now they are finding that it may not be the best thing to do.
 
Give me gravel and lots of trees then. Screw cutting grass.

Oh and thanks for ruining my life. :cry: I thought I had the perfect wife. Now I gotta go find a new one that likes cutting the grass too. :twisted:
 
What about building your own electric rotary mower? Arrange a couple small rotary blades like on those trimmers, and hook them up together with a belt. Would a 750watt motor be enough if you walked slow? To me, an ICE mower seems really inefficient, especially when it runs all the time when you aren't actually cutting full grass. An electric motor would simply draw less current when you hit a bare spot or stop.

And yes, I can see how a corded one is still practical - if you are smart about how you cut your lawn and don't have too many obstacles. No batteries is a great leap for being 'green' and have higher power.


Oh this morning at 7-8am, someone was mowing their lawn with a lawn tractor a few houses down. I swear I smelled either cut grass or exhaust, couldn't distinguish the two.
 
Ah the sweet smell of exhaust in the morning! Isn't it wonderful?! :roll:

I remember someone on the forum (or maybe another forum not sure) had a converted gas mower. It ran on Headway cells. That would be a great way to reuse a stinking gas mower. Here in Holland 90% of the mowers is electric with a cord. But most people have small gardens. 20M2 or less. Only the county uses gas mowers and weed trimmers. I sometimes smell the exhaust in my home. :cry: A mower with a cord is easier to handle than most people think and you never run out of power.

I like the so-called hover mowers. I never had any experience with those but they promise a hovercraft effect mowing experience.

Here is an example:

21DYZGV6QPL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
 
Whhaaaattt? Is that for real? I have never seen anything like that. It must take alot of power to hover. For real :?:
 
Well it can't take that much more power to move a combination blade/propeller than a big, heavy, inefficient normal lawnmower blade, that is also moving lots of air.
 
Yeah, all you prob need to do is surround the perimeter with a sort of wind shield to build the high pressure under the mower. Of course I'm sure it weighs a lot less than a normal mower. Not a bad idea...
 
The catch I see with a hover-mower is that their blade's air would have a downward force, blowing the grass away from it, instead of an upward force sucking the grass into it, and so would not cut as well, I'd expect.

Unless they designed it to blow downward only at the edges for bouyancy and it sucks upwards in the center, but still the overall air movement must be to push downward against the grass and ground, which still has a net effect of cutting the grass at a taller length than otherwise.


Regarding battery vs corded mowers; I have only had a battery line trimmer (weedeater), the electric mowers are both corded. Unfortunately the B&D's PMDC motor exploded only months before I started attempting to make ebikes (or it would likely have been a first candidate for turning into an ebike motor ;)).

The other one I was given as junk, which it is...the blade is not secured with a small centered bolt, it has a large hole in it that a plastic grip handle screws into to secure it to the motor's plastic mounting shaft, virtually ensuring that it will NEVER be centered. Vibration then causes inefficiencies that shake things apart, heats the motor shaft and slowly melts the plastic fan and mountings, breaks the motor mounting tabs, etc. Large AC induction motor so it has practically zero starting torque, if practically a single blade of grass is touching the mower blade it won't start spinning up until I tilt it to lift it away from the grass. Bogs down really easy even when I manage to get the blade aligned to not shake the mower out of my hands. :roll: I would've made something on the lathe to hold the blade properly, but the motor already has stress cracks all thru it's casing, and I had to weld the mounting tabs back onto it when I got it just to use it. They are already breaking away at different points, with less than a hundred hours use on it since then.

I have an old B&D twin-blade mower using a single motor driving them with belts, but it was rusted in-place when I got it, and I have yet to have time to see if I can make it work again. It's a universal motor IIRC, but does not even use a bearing at the top end, rather a tapered brass bushing that is jammed and cannot spin. Has a bearing at the bottom but it's rusty.

Right now I just use a corded elecric weedeater to do the whole lawn, a bit at a time, so I don't melt it's motor. It's a really big yard on a corner house, and not enough of it is covered in junk to suppress the grass. :lol: And Nana, Fred, and Bonnie are not eating it fast enough, even though Nana thinks she is a cow. It grows much faster than she can keep up with. ;) Hachi would rather eat the trees than the grass; I guess the grass is not enough of a challenge. :roll:

I also have a gas mower given to me becuase it is missing the pull-cord assembly. It's former owner started it using a socket in a drill, I'd have to modify something to do that and havne't yet. So it probably works but can't be started by hand.

I have an old reel mower my dad had left outside to rust; I fixed it up at one time but it's been sitting so long in the shed it's probably rusted again. I don't use it because when the grass does grow here, it grows inches per day (well, probably at least a half inch per day) during the rainy season like now. Rest of the year it seems like it just stays the same, with an occasional trim needed in some spots, if I water it--if I didn't water it it'd all just die.
 
Yard care is different in the soutwest eh? I grow some grass only for the dogs pleasure, but only in a strip about 20' wide around the house, for the AC effect. the rest of the house, the garage side, and the remaining backyard is kept bare with roundup herbicide. Most of that space is kept less vegetated by old campers and trucks cut in half for trailers. I just got a B&D 24v string trimmer that uses nicads, but they have an 18v lithium version. By the time that battery goes dead, I'm quite ready to stop. But for a small enough lawn, the trimmer alone would actually work fine if used 15 miniutes every day.

Re lawns and AC, your houses are most likely like ours in NM in Phoenix. Lots of 50's through 90's R11 walls, and R16 ceilings. Since I have an attic, I was able to spend $200 for insulating my cieling to R30, which cut my cooling and heating bills by more than 50%. The other thing that is stupid in the SW, is we should have misters on the AC's condenser unit. On really dry afternoons I go and hose mine down and the difference is amazing. They like to mount those things in the sunniest hottest location they can find too, like a roof or the south side of a wall. :roll:
 
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