Thread: Battery powered lawnmower

How big is your lawn? You need to ensure that you have sufficient battery capacity to do the whole lawn; this may involve purchasing more batteries and changing them on the go.

I have 58V AEG equipment; hedge trimmer, whipper-snipper and mower with two batteries. The mower is powerful enough to do what I want which is actually fairly little; I am on 1-1/2 acres and so use a ride-on for the majority. It really only gets used on one area about 20m square that I can’t access otherwise although sometimes it gets pulled out to mow around the Hills Hoist when it’s been too wet and boggy to drive out on the big boy.

My decision to go battery was because my POS Ryobi whipper snipper just couldn’t stay in tune; it was replaced at 6m old under warranty and the replacement lasted not much longer. Plus I hated having to keep storing two different pre-mix petrols… I bought the whipper snipper kit then added the others when I saw them in a clearance sale at Bunnies.

About 18 months ago I purchased a Makita mower & a few months later a whipper snipper.
Mower requirements were:
- self propelled (wife recons I am getting old)
- extra battery & rapid charger so don’t have to wait for recharge to finish mowing
I initially did not expecting Makita to end near the top of my list.

Reasons:
- it came with 4x 18v 5ah batteries & a dual rapid charger. Mower needs 2x batteries to run
- could buy an adaptor to use the 18v Makita batteries in my other battery tools
- 21” steel deck
Price worked out about the same as the Ryobi & a couple of other mowers once I added in extra battery & rapid charger.
Makita also had a deal where mower came with a $320 blower.

I can usually mow my 820m2 block without flattening the first 2 of the 4 batteries.
Must admit the whipper snipper struggled when I mowed my daughter lawn recently. She bought an ex rental house with plenty of big tough weeds. Also flattened all the mower batteries.

I have a STIHL RMA235 36V battery powered mower and it's my second battery powered mower.

My first battery powered mower was also a Stihl - it was quite narrow and under powered so mowing the 25m^2 back lawn and 25m^2 verge lawn lawns took longer than a standard mower, especially when the grass got a bit high as then two passes were required but the battery could usually cope with this without recharging. After about 5 years of ownership the small mower hit a large dog bone and the damaged the motor beyond repair and he cost of replacing the motor was about half the price of the new larger battery powered Stihl (sans battery). Even though the small mower was well out of warranty the dealer also knock $100 off the price of the new mower.

I've had the RMA235 (still using the original 36V battery from the smaller mower) for about 6 years and its going great - its wider and has a much higher grass catching capacity than the small mower so mowing lawns is quicker. The 11 year old battery is "getting on" so depending how high the grass is I sometimes have to top up the battery between doing the front and verge lawns.

I have both a short and longer hedge stihl trimmers that use the same battery as the mower. I had a Black and Decker battery powered whipper snipper but it was useless and gave that away. For edges I use a 2-stroke stihl petrol and a four stroke edger.

Originally Posted by Pete57

About 18 months ago I purchased a Makita mower & a few months later a whipper snipper.
Mower requirements were:
- self propelled (wife recons I am getting old)
- extra battery & rapid charger so don’t have to wait for recharge to finish mowing
I initially did not expecting Makita to end near the top of my list.

Reasons:
- it came with 4x 18v 5ah batteries & a dual rapid charger. Mower needs 2x batteries to run
- could buy an adaptor to use the 18v Makita batteries in my other battery tools
- 21” steel deck
Price worked out about the same as the Ryobi & a couple of other mowers once I added in extra battery & rapid charger.
Makita also had a deal where mower came with a $320 blower.

I can usually mow my 820m2 block without flattening the first 2 of the 4 batteries.
Must admit the whipper snipper struggled when I mowed my daughter lawn recently. She bought an ex rental house with plenty of big tough weeds. Also flattened all the mower batteries.

Does your makita trimmer take a single or two 18v batteries . Mine takes two and very happy with it’s performance for general use , I do also have a larger petrol bullhorn slasher with a metal blade for clearing heavy overgrown areas

Next door neighbour recently purchased a Milwaukee battery powered self-propelled mower. It has two battery ports, and can be run with either one or two batteries fitted. He only uses one battery (fairly small lawn), and can mow his lawn at least three times on a single battery without needing to re-charge. He already had other Milwaukee tools / batteries / chargers which was ideal, as the mower does not come with battery or charger when purchased. I've been pretty impressed by it and would definitely consider buying one if my old Kubota petrol mower ever gives up on me (the Kubota is a very good, strong mower but a bit heavy to push around as I do not have the self-propelled model).

I have other Husqvarna gear and have been impressed by the quality, so would have no hesitation in buying one of their mowers. In my case, choice of battery powered mower would not be dependent on which brand of batteries I already have, as all my battery tools are Ryobi and I wouldn't buy a Ryobi mower. Wouldn't buy Makita either as I have found their batteries to be short-lived crap and expensive to replace - I stopped using Makita battery tools some years ago because of this (still have a couple of Makita plug-in power tools though and these are excellent).

Where I live, battery mower choices (decent quality ones) would be dictated by suppliers / what is available. Can get Milwaukee, Husqvarna quite readily & don't know which of those two I'd choose. Can also get Stihl and I would normally consider this brand also - but the local Stihl dealership is one of the worst run businesses in town and I won't deal with them for anything, including parts / servicing for my current Stihl chainsaw and grass cutter. Other brands are available at the big green shed - but I don't buy lawn mowers etc from there. After sales service is non-existent and most of their products are rubbish anyway.

Originally Posted by Beardy

Does your makita trimmer take a single or two 18v batteries . Mine takes two and very happy with it’s performance for general use , I do also have a larger petrol bullhorn slasher with a metal blade for clearing heavy overgrown areas

No, single battery. It is fine on my yard but would go bigger if it was like my daughter place.

I went with Ego and have a couple of whipper snippers and an 18" chainsaw, they do a zero turn ride on mower which seems to get good reviews, now battery life is improving I do think they are the way forward for garden tools, you get instant start and much quieter.

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I bought a second hand but nearly new Stihl about a year ago when my old Victa died. It’s certainly not as powerful as the 2 stroke but it’s plenty good enough for normal mowing duties. You wouldn’t want to use it for really overgrown lawns or mowing down weeds.

I don’t miss starting the old 2 stroke one bit, overall I would say it’s a definite upgrade for me.

Cheers Andrew

Originally Posted by Pete57

No, single battery. It is fine on my yard but would go bigger if it was like my daughter place.

The twin battery version is a rippa. I got rid of my petrol trimmer and blower when I got the 36V versions

Originally Posted by Camelot

I went with Ego and have a couple of whipper snippers and an 18" chainsaw, they do a zero turn ride on mower which seems to get good reviews, now battery life is improving I do think they are the way forward for garden tools, you get instant start and much quieter.

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I also have an E-go mower. bought it 2nd hand and its great. tons of battery life, grunt and light weight.




but honestly I'm at the point where even now I just want to get a robot mower and just be done with it and never mow again other then the occasional wipper snip to tidy up the edges
Home – LUBA 2 - LUBA AI Robotic Lawn Mower
are they expensive... yes
are they top of the range... yes
do I want to be able to draw the occasional dick in my lawn via mowing... yes

the one I link use RTK and GPS rather then a physical wire barricade, so it drives around and learns the perimiter and the rest of the garden and it then mows to suit. Unlike ALOT of other ones which just randomly cut untill it hits the barricade. you can actually program it to do your front and back lawns if it has driveable access to both. but yeah $3500 is probably alot to part with, but never mow again.

Originally Posted by havabeer69

I also have an E-go mower. bought it 2nd hand and its great. tons of battery life, grunt and light weight.




but honestly I'm at the point where even now I just want to get a robot mower and just be done with it and never mow again other then the occasional wipper snip to tidy up the edges
Home – LUBA 2 - LUBA AI Robotic Lawn Mower
are they expensive... yes
are they top of the range... yes
do I want to be able to draw the occasional dick in my lawn via mowing... yes

the one I link use RTK and GPS rather then a physical wire barricade, so it drives around and learns the perimiter and the rest of the garden and it then mows to suit. Unlike ALOT of other ones which just randomly cut untill it hits the barricade. you can actually program it to do your front and back lawns if it has driveable access to both. but yeah $3500 is probably alot to part with, but never mow again.

That mower looks impressive, I have been thinking of getting a remite mower as I have some very steep areas that are dangerous to do

Originally Posted by Camelot

I went with Ego and have a couple of whipper snippers and an 18" chainsaw, they do a zero turn ride on mower which seems to get good reviews, now battery life is improving I do think they are the way forward for garden tools, you get instant start and much quieter.

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I ditched my Honda mower nearly two years ago and went with EGO. I was sick of servicing petrol powered gear. I have 700 m^2 of lawn to mow but it is all flat so I went without the self propelled option as the machine is so light by comparison to what I had. I can mow and still have power left with 7.5Ah battery.

I also bought the line trimmer package with hedge trimmer and got a regular hedge trimmer as part of the redemption deal. I have a need for both kinds of hedge trimmer and they are just amazing.

I recently bought the chainsaw package as it was a super deal at Total Tools with a battery and additional charger. This thing is also amazing and far superior to the Stihl chainsaw I had before it. So much power and no more problems getting the damned thing started!