Battery Powered Lawn Tools

[scrublover]

ten year old 40v Greenworks " 19mower, 5-6 year old Greenworks 40v 12"bar saw, hedge trimmer/polesaw, and weedwacker. all work perfectly adequate for our needs. easy to sharpen the blade. picks up maybe half what it cuts - a good compromise between grabbing it all vs. letting it all sit there and mulch in. i use it in the fall with leaves as well. have a couple large batteries and one fast charger. no issues

on a .25 acre pretty flat lot. barberry shrubbery on two sides, treeline at the back. no worries with any. have a gas 18" bar saw when some of the bigger stuff comes down. every decent storm, we get lots of crap down.

the little electric saw is nice and quiet in the woods. between it an a large Silky saw i rarely go into the woods with the gas model.

mower is getting a bit fussy - when i replace it, plan to go with a wider 80v model and pick up one of 80v snow blowers to go with.

we started with a reel mower 13 years ago, but a few too many times of "mowing" after letting things get too long changed my mind.

[Flounder]

The revolution is real. Had to trim the article to fit post limits but you get the idea.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2021/06/30/electric-lawn-care/

Lawn care is going electric. And the revolution is here to stay.
From conservative Alabama to crunchy California, electric lawn equipment is quietly sweeping the nation.

By Tik Root
June 30 at 8:00 AM ET
MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — It was a few minutes past 6 a.m., and the sun had already started to boil the muggy Alabama air. Matt Harrison, 38, watched as his colleague backed the public works pickup truck into a parking spot alongside city hall. The two tipped the tailgate and slowly lowered a shiny orange push mower onto the pavement.
Harrison popped open the top of the mower, where a pull cord might normally be, and instead snapped two battery packs into place. Click. Click. A moment later, the low whoosh of mower blades filled the air. A slight whine from his co-worker’s electric leaf blower soon joined the din.
Passing joggers hardly noticed.
“I was kind of skeptical at first,” Harrison said after cutting the grass. Until April, he had spent his 20-year career using gas-powered lawn maintenance equipment. He worried that the electric versions wouldn’t be powerful enough, or would die too quickly. “It proved me wrong.”
From the mower and blower to weed whips and chain saws, Harrison said nothing on his truck is gas anymore. “You ain’t got to wear ear protection,” he said of the battery-powered equipment. And “you don’t have to worry about coming home smelling like gas”.
An affluent hamlet of about 21,000 on the outskirts of Birmingham, Mountain Brook is a set of three small village centers, each complete with boutiques, mini-mansions and neatly kept lawns. The city voted for former president Donald Trump by a 50-point margin in the last election.
Mountain Brook is also among the latest converts to America’s rapidly growing electric lawn care movement. Over the last year, the city has spent about $18,000 transitioning Harrison’s truck, along with the majority of maintenance of one of its parks, off gas.


“My hope is that in five years we can be 90 percent electric,” said Mayor Stewart Welch, the driving force behind the effort. “If we could get people to do this across the country, it could make a big difference.”
Experts say the shift is already well underway. “The transition to electric products is gaining momentum,” said John Wyatt, senior vice president of outdoor at manufacturer Stanley Black and Decker. The company estimates that the volume of electric-powered lawn equipment that North American manufacturers shipped jumped from about 9 million units in 2015 to over 16 million in 2020 — a leap of more than 75 percent in only five years. And during that time electric went from roughly 32 percent to 44 percent of the overall lawn equipment market.
“We’re just responding to customer demands,” said Wayne Hart, a spokesperson for another manufacturer, Makita, which he said has gone from having about 30 battery-powered offerings last year to 47. “And there’s more on the way.”
According to the Freedonia Group, a division of MarketResearch.com, the battery-powered lawn equipment sector is growing at a rate three times faster than gas. “It’s just exploding,” said Daniel Mabe, the founder of the American Green Zone Alliance (AGZA). The company runs workshops and trainings, as well as certification and monitoring programs, aimed at helping people transition to lower-impact landscaping. “We’re on the precipice of a revolution.”
The move to electric is particularly pronounced among residential consumers. A 2019 California Air Resources Board (CARB) survey found that more than half of household lawn and garden equipment in the state was already zero emissions. While that number is much lower (around 5 percent) for commercial landscapers, there are a number of all-electric companies across the country. Chris Regis, founder of the Florida-based lawn-care company Suntek, said he’s able to charge a premium for electric because his customers value the quiet, especially with more people at home during the pandemic.


Gas equipment is also dirty. According to CARB, operating a gas leaf blower for an hour can create as much smog-forming pollution as driving a Toyota Camry 1,100 miles. Department of Transportation data shows that in 2018 Americans consumed nearly 3 billion gallons of gasoline running lawn and garden equipment. That’s equivalent to the annual energy use of more than 3 million homes.
As is often the case, though, it was decibels, not carbon dioxide, that initially prompted Mountain Brook’s interest in electric equipment.
The city gets about a dozen noise complaints a year about its lawn equipment, and many more informally, Welch said. In 2014, the city limited the use of the commercial lawn equipment to daytime hours, joining the some 170 communities around the country that a 2018 study in the Journal of Environmental and Toxicological Studies found have some leaf blower restrictions.
Mountain Brook’s electric awakening came five years later, in 2019, when Welch found himself on a tennis court surrounded by a caterwaul of gas leaf blower engines. The mayor’s playing partner, who was among those who had complained to the city in the past, suggested looking into electric as an alternative.


Tyler Nelson, right, and Kevin Howard clear a tennis court with electric leaf blowers at Overton Park in Mountain Brook. (Cameron Carnes for The Washington Post)
Of course, going electric isn’t always the obvious choice. Runtime, cutting power and costs are all reasons for reluctance. And, environmentally, electric equipment is only part of the equation. A sustainable yard also requires reducing water, fertilizer and pesticide use.
And, experts say, how we care for our lawns is secondary to the amount of lawn we have in the first place. Having less grass and growing more plants, they advise, are among the most important factors in keeping a yard eco-friendly.


But such cultural shifts take time. Meanwhile, lawns will still need mowing, blowing and trimming.
After the tennis court experience, Welch hired Mabe at AGZA and the nonprofit Quiet Communities, which comes at lawn care from a noise and health perspective, as consultants. Going electric for him became about how the noise and emissions savings could better protect the health of city employees, who have to hear, handle and inhale gas engines for hours on end.
The electric Husqvarna blower that Harrison’s colleague was using, for instance, is rated at 94 decibels, whereas a similarly priced gas model hits 111. That’s the difference between a loud conversation and a snowmobile.
“I know these guys,” said Welch. “If I’m going to run a blower for the next 20 years, and it’s a gas blower … what effect is that going to have on my health?”
Between the two Mountain Brook crews going electric — the city villages that Harrison works on and Overton Park across town — the only major piece of gas equipment left is a riding mower for the park. More powerful gas blowers also reappear during leaf season, and gas chain saws are sometimes needed for larger trees or during storms.
AGZA estimated that these pilot projects could avoid as much as 26 tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions each year, as well as hundreds of pounds of fine particulate matter and exhaust. And both have eliminated two-stroke gas engines (the most pollutant variety) from routine maintenance. That meets the minimum requirement for being certified as an AGZA “Green Zone,” and Welch held a ceremony in June at city hall to mark the achievement.


“Mountain Brook is a model for the region and the nation,” Jamie Banks, the founder of Quiet Communities, told the crowd at the event. While perhaps not the most flashy, she said, Mountain Brook’s approach is certainly replicable, and she’d like to see it catch on elsewhere. “It becomes dramatic when it scales.”

The transition to electric lawn equipment has been particularly swift in California, say Mabe and Banks.
South Pasadena converted all of its machines to electric and became the first AGZA “Green Zone” city in 2016. Subsequently, a local golf course did the same. Ojai also went “cold turkey,” said Mabe, adding that school districts and others in the state are making the move as well.
But interest in electric is growing elsewhere, too. Yale University, for example, is aiming to move away from gas equipment, as is North Carolina State University. The private sector is also taking note.
“We took it a step further,” said Regis, with Suntek. In addition to all of the company’s lawn equipment going electric, its landscaping vans are outfitted with solar panels to recharge the batteries on the go. “Every three months we’re building a new van.”
The company, which launched last year, now has four vans in the Orlando area and one in California. The plan is to organize as a franchise, with different van owners all operating under the same name.
It’s not cheap. Even with a manufacturer sponsoring them with discounted equipment, each van costs $100,000 to outfit. But Regis said he’s able to charge 10 to 20 percent more than his competitors. “There are people who don’t care and say, ‘I just don’t want the noise,’ ” he said.


Suntek now has more than 700 customers, said Regis, who sees enormous potential not only for his company, but also electric lawn care more broadly. “All the big [manufacturers] now are investing big time,” he said. “This thing is going to grow like a wildfire.”
But until professionals more fully embrace the equipment, the electric lawn care revolution may not progress as quickly as advocates hope. “We think battery is going to be the future,” said Britt Wood, CEO of the National Association….

[jackstraw]

Take a lap bro. You're normally not a shithead on here, and now's not a great time to start being one. Who gives a shit if he uses a gas mower.

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

Yeah, well since this is a thread about battery stuff trying to be more efficient, granted it's still burning carbon, just less, if you're a douchebag posting here about all the gas you just burned, then you can just take the shit and realize your post was truly douchey. I certainly don't claim not to burn gas because I do, but I'm trying to reduce it whenever possible is all. This thread is not one to come in and gloat post about your fuel burning unless you're trolling looking for a fight.

[riser4]

Yeah, well since this is a thread about battery stuff trying to be more efficient, granted it's still burning carbon, just less, if you're a douchebag posting here about all the gas you just burned, then you can just take the shit and realize your post was truly douchey. I certainly don't claim not to burn gas because I do, but I'm trying to reduce it whenever possible is all. This thread is not one to come in and gloat post about your fuel burning unless you're trolling looking for a fight.

This.

[Falcon3]

My existing tinnitus really appreciates not having a full-bore 2-stroke blaring right behind my ear with my electric weed eater.

[XXX-er]

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/s...-0550153p.html

After running a planner for a couple of days straight I got a set of these ^^ then you can go deaf however you chose

[evasive_MT]

Have the mower, snow blower, weed whacker, air blower and now added edger. We really like them. The power is great for our quarter acre and love the interchangeable batteries. Have two large and two small batteries and two chargers. Only issue was initially snow blower had catastrophic failure of control board but they replaced it quick. I have no luck with loading string trimmer but that is operator error since mrs whyturn only has issues after I use it. Three years going on 4 and solid for sure. Happy campers here in Utah


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

About the same. I lived in a condo for 12 year so I had dumped all my lawn tools. I didn’t see much point in gas tools when starting fresh. After buying a house, I bought the Ego+ mower, then a trimmer, and the bigger leaf blower. I didn’t think we needed the snow blower, but the fiancée did, so we have that, too. They’re all 2019 purchases, so it’s the single bladed mower and the single stage blower. The blower works well enough in dry snow. I love the mower- it’s quiet and cuts well enough for me. The newer two-blade model probably cuts and mulches better but it’s not worth the upgrade. I can get about two cuts out of the battery.

[Wapow]

I bought this years Ego mower, blower, and string trimmer. Mower works great. Plenty of power and single battery works well for my average size yard. Blower works great too. String trimmer is a beast! I actually need to keep my old crappy little battery op trimmer for lawn edging. I butchered some shit trying to do it with the new Ego. It's perfect for weed cutting and brushing though. I don't miss the gas powered stuff.

[Falcon3]

This thread inspired me to get an Ego mower. Got the push 21” with 5ah battery. Acme Tools has refurbished models and a $50 instant off sale right now.

Thing is a beast. Mulches my long grass better than any gas mower I’ve ever had. Mowed my whole lawn and the battery is not even down to 50% charge.

[rideit]

Pulled the trigger on the 2 stage snowblower, seems pretty damn stout/a real piece of machinery.
I’m rarely ever quite ready for the first snowstorm, but I’m prepared!

[jmedslc]

Pulled the trigger on the 2 stage snowblower, seems pretty damn stout/a real piece of machinery.
I’m rarely ever quite ready for the first snowstorm, but I’m prepared!

Can you link up the one you bought?

[rideit]

https://egopowerplus.com/two-stage-snow-blower-snt2400/

I got one that had been used less than ten minutes for $800.00.
Couldn’t turn that down.
Dude was moving to New Orleans…

[jmedslc]

https://egopowerplus.com/two-stage-snow-blower-snt2400/

I got one that had been used less than ten minutes for $800.00.
Couldn’t turn that down.
Dude was moving to New Orleans…

Wow impressive and at that price I see why you snatched it up. I’ll stay tuned for a report on performance. While the driveway and parking area would prolly be a bit much for this one to Handle, I could use a rippin battery powered deck blower for sure.

[Flounder]

Looking forward to the full trip report RideIt. I’d be interested in replacing our 20 year old gasser if it works well. We have a narrow drive but have to throw the snow to the front of the house so I need some power. Love to have a quieter and non smelly solution.

[MontuckyFried]

Pulled the trigger on the 2 stage snowblower, seems pretty damn stout/a real piece of machinery.
I’m rarely ever quite ready for the first snowstorm, but I’m prepared!

It's gonna be like me. After a record season, I was so over shoveling, that I saved up and shelled out the $$$ for a nice blower that fall. ...then the following season was totally weak. Barely warranted even needing the machine. Just my luck. Haha. Had snowblower blue balls.