Thinking of an electric lawn mower & weed wacker

[Mickey D]

I'm kind of getting sick of repairing gasoline mowers and weed wackers.

Is the technology (particularly the power) of the electric mowers & weed wackers yet up to what is needed to mow tall grass that has gone to seed?

I'm not so worried anymore about the distance from the outlet because I have a portable 3KWh battery inverter that can output up to 30 amps.

I'm more worried about whether the maintenance is easier or harder for an electric mower and weed wacker versus the gasoline powered tools.

The "lawn" isn't a lawn, per se, but patches of tall grass hundreds of feet apart, where each patch is about, oh, a hundred feet by fifty feet or so.

[invalid unparseable]

Mickey D wrote on 4/28/2024 10:24 AM:

I don't think you can mow that. You have to cut the tall grass/weed down with a sickle or a machete first. Maybe rent a goat regularly to eat them?

I believer you mean 3KW inverter. 3KWh battery will be too big for you to own and haul around.

A car battery is 12V. So 3KWh / 12V = 250 Ampere-hour.

A car battery is about 40 AH. Do you have 63 car batteries? Can you haul

63 car batteries around?

An electric lawn mower is about 1200-1600 Watt.

A 1200W will draw 10 ampere from a 120V AC, but will draw 100 ampere from a 12V battery (assuming 100% inversion efficiency). That means a 40 AH car battery will last 40/100 = 0.4 hour = 24 minutes.

Definitely a 40 AH car battery cannot sustain 100 ampere output. Instead of 24 minutes, you can expect the run-time to be 10 minutes at 100 ampere from a 40 AH car battery.

Do you own many acres of land? Can you post some photos?

[hubops]

Corded lawn mowers and weed whackers are made for / marketed to people with small city yards - for obvious reasons - and would not perform to the demands of a large lot full of long grass & weeds. I would recommend a battery weed whacker - I like mine - except for the _dumb_ irritating PITA auto-line-feed. John T.

[invalid unparseable]

Years ago I got a weed wacker, shrub trimmer set with 2 batteries and a charger for $100. They worked fine but after a few years both batteries gave out. New batteries were not available and I might have got a rebuilt battery for $50. I threw out the set which otherwise was fine.

I also had a corded shrub trimmer, at least 30 years old which still works fine and now a corded weed wacker. I have a 100 ft. cord which reaches most areas that need it. Got a gas powered wacker for remote areas.

[hubops]

My first battery powered weed whacker was a $ 10. B&D from a yard sale. 1 pretty good battery and a second not-so-good. It was fine for a few years for my purposes < 1/2 acre lot >

but it had the old style batteries < NiCad > .. the newer batteries are better. I can't imagine using one with a 100 ft. cord, after using cordless. John T.

[invalid unparseable]

They were most likely NiCad batteries. Actually about all I do today is trim shrubs around the house with the corded trimmer. I have a landscaper now to do the rest. Our lot is 0.82 acres on a hillside and terraced it is nearly two flights of steps to the back yard. I had a self propelled mower and was afraid to get a riding mower down the slopes. Nearly half my neighbors do the same and maybe half do not cut their back yards leaving them for the deer to take care of.

[Mickey D]

[Ken Blake]

[hubops]

correction - this model looks pretty useful :

John T.

[invalid unparseable]

Mickey D wrote on 4/28/2024 5:12 PM:

That is quite an impressive LiPo battery pack with inverter.

Spec: "LiFePO4 Battery with 3,500+ Life Cycles to 80%"

LiPo batteries recommend to charge up to 80% capacity, and do not discharge below 40% capacity. Therefore, your 2000WH battery pack has a useful capacity of 2000WH x (80% - 40%) = 800WH, if you expect to have

3,500+ Life Cycles.

I found this 110V 10A corded lawn mower (kind of low end in power):

The USA voltage is 110V, so 10A is 1100W lawn mower.

(Your LiPo battery pack's useful capacity of 800WH) / (1100W lawn mower power) = 0.727 hour = 43.6 minutes.

If you go for the gusto and want to drive your LiPo battery pack to its early grave, then use the maximum capacity (charge it to 100% and discharge it to 0%):

2000WH / 1100W = 1.818 hour = 1 hour 49 minutes. (Your LiPo battery pack will die prematurely) **

**

[rbowman]

It still has a long tail. I have a corded weed-whacker which has worked out well but with a 75' extension cord I have to move between three outlets to get the job done including the pedestal by the pump house.

Also, I'm progressively moving from area to area not doubling back for each pass. I can see myself wrapping the cord around the hydrant right before I ran over it.

[Clare Snyder]

Of it is a 12 amp mower on 120 volts that is 1400 watts so one hour of use would be 1400 watt hours - so THEORETICALLY yes it would run it for one hour. Not sure I would trust it to actually live up to it's rating at close to full load though. 140 watts for 10 hours would be a lot more likely - or even 14 watts for 100 hours.

[Dan Espen]

I bought one of those EGO self propelled mowers 5 or more years back. The best purchase I ever made.

Quiet, stores in a small space, starts with the touch of a finger. I've mowed tall grass many times, not a problem.

I also bought a set of battery powered tools, tiller, hedge trimmer, weed whacker, also great tools.

I wouldn't even think about corded.

So far, zero maintenance. A neighbor broke a wheel on his. He ordered a new part and installed it with no problem. Oh, yeah, I sharpen the blade once a year and store the battery indoors during the winter.

No gas, no oil change, the thing just works.

Not a problem, you really don't want cords.

[BillGill]

I have an EGO battery powered mower that is still working well after

10 years. The battery is getting a little weak, I can't do the whole back yard without stopping to charge it, but I don't really mind a break while it charges. The biggest problem with the battery is that the replacement battery was about $250 the last time I checked.

Other than the battery aging I have had no problems with this mower.

Bill