petrol lawnmowers in 2020

[alan_m]

Possibly only if you have a bowling green quality lawn!

[T i m]

<snip>

Yup, they can be pretty reliable and you may not need service parts if you don't use it often / hard enough. Hold a spare for it and the chances are you will never need it [1]. ;-)

And was a generic part in any case. ;-)

The point is, many people *do* consider things like access to spares and customer support when buying new (especially) and when spending any sort of real money.

<snip>

Electric certainly is and has been the case for domestic garden gear for a long time now (mowers, hedge trimmers etc). Now many are going battery-electric as people like to cut the cord (literally and figuratively <g>), including professional climbing saws etc.

At the other end of the picture ... a mate gave me a couple of open frame 3kW 4/ generators (where Honda or Honda clone engines seem to be the default) because he does a lot of work for schools and they are cutting down the noise levels that are acceptable during school hours (so he had the get the quieter 'suitcase' type).

Many traditionally 2/ hand held tools (like strimmers) are going over the 4/ style [2] engines because of noise and emissions.

Most RC models are electric now days.

Cheers, T i m

[1] I have a spare engine for my CB250 motorcycle for that reason. ;-) [2] They have valves like a 4/ but use lubrication like a 2/.

[T i m]

People 'hope'.

Sure, but many won't buy something knowing that the people who made and would support the engine don't exist as they did or are there to offer warranty or customer support.

Of course, if 'clone' / Far East engines are fitted (with or without the B&S badge) and the price reflects that, then fewer people may care as they just become a disposable commodity.

However, if you were as company or business looking to equip a mobile gardening workforce, such things might steer you to something Honda powered?

Cheers, T i m

[Theo]

I've been pretty impressed by the corded MacAllister that we've inherited from a landlord who only bought the cheapest everything.

The main issue was the cutting width - on a big lawn, petrol mowers go up to about 55cm while the electric was 35cm. It still handled 'meadow' quality grass, you just had to overlap cuts.

If I were a contract gardener without ready access to power and the need to get the job done rapidly I'd still want a petrol (or a ride-on).

Theo

[NY]

Petrol will still prevail for cutting larger areas of grass where battery capacity is nowhere near enough to cut the whole lot in one day without a long recharge, and where you can't trail a very long mains cable that is probably 100 metres or more.

Our garden is about an acre, though some of that is pond, flower beds, greenhouse area etc. But it would need a battery the size of a car (maybe I exaggerate!) to cut the whole area of grass in one charge, and trailing a long mains cable would be horrendous.

I cut it with a self-propelled walk-behind mower and can do the whole lot in about 2 1/2 hours. The previous people had a ride-on mower and a self-propelled walk-behind mower for the bits that the ride-on couldn't get to, but they wanted to sell them to us for an extortionate amount, so we went for the walk-behind as a stop-gap while we decide whether to get a robotic mower.

[T i m]

<snip>

When daughter was doing that for a living they had a couple of Qualcast branded self propelled rotary petrol mowers, the smaller one of which she 'loved' for it's portability and general ease of use, especially in the smaller gardens.

They would always start first pull (hot or cold), had a reasonably sized collection box and she was very efficient with it.

I think they had B&S engines.

The ride on hydraulic driven 'gang mowers' at her current work are too big for most peoples side gates. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[charles]

We've 2/3 acre and for the best part of 40 years, I used a self propelled petrol beast which took the best part of 3 hours. Then I bought a sit on - main job done in under an hour with another 20 minutes for the edges.

[Tim+]

Not so! My sister?s lawn is on quite a slope

Tim

[Andrew]

And someone else will post another reply in 2032 :-)

[Andrew]

Convert it to a wild flower meadow. Just cut diagonal or curved paths through it. Then cut the main part once a year after the seeds have fallen.

[Paul]

One of the problems with all the Lithium batteries in the house, is charge management. Not putting too much charge in them. Putting too little charge in them (due to self-discharge over time).

It's not particularly good, to leave them on the charger for 9 months, until the next grass mowing season. That keeps the battery at 100% too much of the time.

Depending on the quality of the battery, you might want to check it every three months or so, to see what kind of self-discharge rate it has. That's if it has a fuel gauge. That's how often I check the laptop pack. I charge it back up to 70-80% if it needs a charge.

If a multi-cell pack "goes below 0% charge", a charger is not allowed to charge it. It "won't take a charge" when that happens.

Multi-cell packs, one of the cells can become reverse-biased when run below the limit and any kind of load is applied. (Even running a LED would be enough.) The reverse-biased cell plates out metal, ruining the cell. Packs work best if all the cells match and they all "go downhill" at the same moment.

Paul

[blabbydog]

[blabbydog]

I bought my son a Hyundai self propelled petrol mower last year, and it will tackle long wet grass without any problems. It was easily assembled after watching YouTube video and easy to start. It cost £200 from Amazon. David

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

I'm inclined to disagree, I picked up a battery lawnmower from one of the Teutonic twins along with four batteries for it. Each battery only lasts about 20-30 minutes of use so when it beeps pull the battery and put in a fresh one. Of course this was only feasible because the batteries were sensibly priced (90wh for ?35) a lot of manufacturers seem to think that batteries are razor blades.

It's also less effort to use and does a better job than the self-propelled petrol lawnmower it replaces.

[Muddymike]

Buy a decent petrol one. The Hayter I bought 25 years ago is still easy to start and does a good job.

Mike

[Andrew]

But if you bought the same one now, would it still be as good ?.

I was browsing fans in the local electrical shop, and was amazed at how light they were now. All flimsy plastic bits and pieces now it seems, compared to ones I bought in 2003 for the last heatwave.

[Stephen]

Hello, I have an electric mower but it's not very good: it gets clogged up with wet grass and long grass will stall the motor. I keep thinking I should treat myself to a petrol one but a honda is £400 and I think is it worth it for the few weekends it will get used each year.

Every now and then I look on web sites to see the prices and when I was looking today, I saw that there are many rechargeable mowers now. Thinking about the recent thread about electric cars, it seems mowers are heading that way too. It might be my last chance to buy a petrol one!

I wonder how long the batteries last before they need replacing and how powerful these battery powered mowers are?

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[Jimk]

Well said :-D:-D:-D

[Jimk]

I think he meant the engines...