Just took the plunge in the future of lawn mowers

[BudAshes]

No more lawns here on the west coast. We live in a permanent drought apocalypse.

 

[Fritzo]

I *think* those robots have plastic "blades" and obstacle avoidance. Obstacles include pets and children.

Nope. Steel blades.

No more lawns here on the west coast. We live in a permanent drought apocalypse.

Mow your rocks?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Same. I have a whole collection of Ryobi lawn tools and power tools. My 18V drill is going on 5 years old now and I use it every week. Batteries seem to last 3-4 years. Their new 40V Expand-it lawn tool line is awesome!

I have a craftsman 12v? drill, or something like that. Bought something like 15 years ago, use periodically (i'd say at least once a week) and the battery is still fine as far as I can tell. I haven't had it die on me mid-job yet.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I have a craftsman 12v? drill, or something like that. Bought something like 15 years ago, use periodically (i'd say at least once a week) and the battery is still fine as far as I can tell. I haven't had it die on me mid-job yet.

What are you guys doing that you need a drill or screw driver once or twice a week?

 

[herm0016]

@Fanatical Meat

living? hell I bet i use my battery tools 3 or 4 x a week.

 

[Captante]

Obstacles TARGETS include pets and children

fixed.

 

[BoomerD]

My cordless tool use is sporadic. After killing two sets of Ryobi Ni-Cd tools, I bought a Ridgid 18 volt drill...then a 2pc set. I now have 2 drills and one "impact driver."...and 5 batteries With two chargers. On a good day, I'll go through ALL those batteries...and be charging as I go.
Then, those tools might sit unused for a month ir more...then another flurry of use.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

What are you guys doing that you need a drill or screw driver once or twice a week?

Like, everything? Today I put in some shelves into our closet, sometime in the coming days i'm going to be screwing in some wire clips for some LED strip lighting I installed but keeps falling off... Got a deck that needs some screws replaced, that'll be in a week or two. Got a towel rack to install. Got a closet door to build/install. Vanity repair (bracket fell out the back, some jackass probably stripped the wood when they installed it). Might go drill some holes into a stump so I can fill it with sugar. Still have a big honkin' bench I've been meaning to build out of some logs.

I have so many things to screw in I got a plug-in screwdriver for shit the ghetto craftsman can't handle easily (that'll be what I use on the deck).

EDIT: that doesn't even include other power tools, like my chainsaw for tree trimming/removal, dremel (used just yesterday to shorten aforementioned wire closet shelving), sawzall, circular saw, etc.

 

[Captante]

My cordless tool use is sporadic. After killing two sets of Ryobi Ni-Cd tools, I bought a Ridgid 18 volt drill...then a 2pc set. I now have 2 drills and one "impact driver."...and 5 batteries With two chargers. On a good day, I'll go through ALL those batteries...and be charging as I go.
Then, those tools might sit unused for a month ir more...then another flurry of use.

I've had the best luck with Milwaukee or DeWalt for recharged stuff.

I do however have a Ryobi cordless drill that's lasted over 10 years and was super-cheap on sale too so YMMV.

 

[nakedfrog]

I have a craftsman 12v? drill, or something like that. Bought something like 15 years ago, use periodically (i'd say at least once a week) and the battery is still fine as far as I can tell. I haven't had it die on me mid-job yet.

I've got a cheap Craftsman like that too, closer to 20 years old, came as part of a toolkit. I'm frankly surprised it still works as well as it does!

 

[Fritzo]

What are you guys doing that you need a drill or screw driver once or twice a week?

Manly husband stuff around the house. I'm always putting up shelves, screwing boards together, fixing a fence, putting something together, etc.

 

[sdifox]

Can't you just rent a goat from SunnyD?

 

[BudAshes]

Mow your rocks?

Mower would just melt into a deformed block of plastic and sizzling lithium.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Mower would just melt into a deformed block of plastic and sizzling lithium.

But what if you put it on a treadmill while it mowed your rocks?

 

[Fritzo]

Can't you just rent a goat from SunnyD?

What cleans up the goat poop?

 

[sdifox]

What cleans up the goat poop?

One solution per person.

Watch Clarkson's Farm on Prime Video to see funny bit about keeping sheep as lawnmower.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't have a big enough yard for a ride on but it is cool to see they are making electric ones now. Setup a solar canopy with a charger for the spare battery and you can pretty much mow for miles without stopping, and be in shade! If the solar does not keep up with charging you can also incorporate a beer cooling to have a beer while you wait for a charge.

My gas mower is working fine but I am tempted to look at an electric one like the EGO. Given my shed is solar powered it would be cool to know I'm using 100% renewable energy. EGO also makes electric snow blowers and that is tempting too. Though if price of lithium cells goes down I might just EV convert my Ariens at some point.

 

[rh71]

lol the future is having a roomba for your lawn, none of this do-it-yourself bullshit

Until then I'll take the outsourcing method. Fock being outside for 2 hours straight in weather that feels like 115.

2 hours? Do you have 2 acres or something? My 100x60 gets done with a self-propelled mower in less than 30 minutes, for free. I don't need to spend $100/mo. on grass, and worse... fucking ridiculous noise pollution that drives me up the wall around here. Every god damn fucking neighbor except 1 other uses a service. They don't need a fucking commercial-grade blower to do what they do for over 30 minutes on the front lawn if I can do it in 2 minutes. Fuck them.

I agree with the lawn Roomba though. They need to perfect that tech quick.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

2 hours? Do you have 2 acres or something? My 100x60 gets done with a self-propelled mower in less than 30 minutes, for free. I don't need to spend $100/mo. on grass, and worse... fucking ridiculous noise pollution that drives me up the wall around here. Every god damn fucking neighbor except 1 other uses a service. They don't need a fucking commercial-grade blower to do what they do for over 30 minutes on the front lawn if I can do it in 2 minutes. Fuck them.

I agree with the lawn Roomba though. They need to perfect that tech quick.

I think my lot size is a quarter of an acre.

2 hours might be an exaggeration - but between mowing, edging, trimming, blowing, etc.... Yeah, it does take a good chunk of time? Sure, mowing in rows I can probably do in a decent time of about 30m, but all the other shit takes time as well.

I just can't stand it - it's hot as balls outside as I stop to wipe the sweat out of my eyes every 3 minutes.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I don’t have a large lot and the grass area is even smaller.
The reason why it takes me 45 minutes is my terrain. I have plenty of small hills and steep inclines plus walkways and stone walls to cut around. I’m only cutting like 4,000 square feet but it takes forever.

Zero percent chance I’d ever be able to use a ride on and unlikely there will ever be a bot that can do it.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I picked up a 40v Kobalt push mower a few months back from Lowes. I think the MSRP was $249, regular price was $199 and I got it on clearance for $139...considering the battery pack is $80, I figured it was worth the gamble.

I have about 1/3 of an acre and use a riding mower for the sake of time, but can't fit the riding mower around bushes and in our back yard, so I push mow that. I have both, a Troybilt and Husqvarna push mower to fall back on, so if this is a $140 waste...I don't have to go drop another $200-300 on another push mower.

1. The battery pack hasn't died on the little patch I mow yet. It's rated for 1/4 acre. Even though it's lithium ion, I can tell a difference within 1-2 minutes of mowing as it discharges....peak voltage drops slightly and the motor spins ever so slightly less.

2. As a result of the slower cutting speed, grass needs to be mowed more frequently. Tall grass often lays down due tot he slower speed and it takes 1-2 passes to clean up the blades that are missed.

I can't speak for the Ryobi, but tall or wet grass may be a problem. The thing about gasoline engines vs battery-powered electric is that the governor does a lot to maintain better minimums within the horsepower ratings..without redlining. In other words, your RPMs on a gas engine are going to be a little more consistent because it's never running wide open and when you hit more resistance, the gov opens up more to compensate.

Hopefully you mow frequently enough to keep from having the electric motor bog down, but you can always cut higher and attack it a little at a time.


Now for Ryobi power tool battery packs. I had issues with a number of my battery packs that sunk below 6 volts. My 18v charger would not charge these packs. There are videos on Youtube that show how to remove the screws from your battery pack (voids warranty) and access the circuitry. There are 2 points where you can zap the battery with a 2amp charger for a few seconds to get the voltage to spike above 6v (that's all it takes), then the pack can be charged again...until it drops back below the allowed limit.

I assume all of their packs have those safety features on them. As long as the cells aren't bad and the battery's just been sitting over the winter, that may be something you run into down the road. Keep it in mind. Battery packs are way more expensive than I would have expected considering they have to be replaced eventually.

 

[nakedfrog]

1. The battery pack hasn't died on the little patch I mow yet. It's rated for 1/4 acre. Even though it's lithium ion, I can tell a difference within 1-2 minutes of mowing as it discharges....peak voltage drops slightly and the motor spins ever so slightly less.

2. As a result of the slower cutting speed, grass needs to be mowed more frequently. Tall grass often lays down due tot he slower speed and it takes 1-2 passes to clean up the blades that are missed.

I can't speak for the Ryobi, but tall or wet grass may be a problem. The thing about gasoline engines vs battery-powered electric is that the governor does a lot to maintain better minimums within the horsepower ratings..without redlining. In other words, your RPMs on a gas engine are going to be a little more consistent because it's never running wide open and when you hit more resistance, the gov opens up more to compensate.

Hopefully you mow frequently enough to keep from having the electric motor bog down, but you can always cut higher and attack it a little at a time.

On my Ryobi, it will vary the speed based on load, so if you're consistently cutting taller/thicker grass, it will be running harder that whole time. Damp grass hasn't presented too much of an issue that I can tell. Been using it just over 3 years now.

 

[Scarpozzi]

On my Ryobi, it will vary the speed based on load, so if you're consistently cutting taller/thicker grass, it will be running harder that whole time. Damp grass hasn't presented too much of an issue that I can tell. Been using it just over 3 years now.

I suppose if it's got enough available amperage, they can cut what it's putting out once it achieves the rpms they want and step it up when the rpms drop if they took the time to engineer it that way. My single 40v battery doesn't have that kind of juice. It seems to slowly spin up to its constant speed and doesn't have the battery bank available to even require that kind of logic. It's also not a riding mower either, so the battery pack is only a little bigger than a quart of motor oil.

I'm all about electric riding mowers if the battery tech and perhaps solar charging gets better. I think that would be an awesome example of a REAL use of solar energy....install a charger in your outbuilding to charge your electric mower for 5-7 days....then use it. Many other applications of solar power require buying batteries you already normally wouldn't need....thus driving up costs. I installed a $30 solar maintainer panel for my gas riding mower 3 weeks ago and haven't had any issues with my battery since...I'm a believer now that the costs are getting where it makes sense.

 

[nakedfrog]

I suppose if it's got enough available amperage, they can cut what it's putting out once it achieves the rpms they want and step it up when the rpms drop if they took the time to engineer it that way. My single 40v battery doesn't have that kind of juice. It seems to slowly spin up to its constant speed and doesn't have the battery bank available to even require that kind of logic. It's also not a riding mower either, so the battery pack is only a little bigger than a quart of motor oil.

I'm all about electric riding mowers if the battery tech and perhaps solar charging gets better. I think that would be an awesome example of a REAL use of solar energy....install a charger in your outbuilding to charge your electric mower for 5-7 days....then use it. Many other applications of solar power require buying batteries you already normally wouldn't need....thus driving up costs. I installed a $30 solar maintainer panel for my gas riding mower 3 weeks ago and haven't had any issues with my battery since...I'm a believer now that the costs are getting where it makes sense.

Yeah, it's possible the Kobalt is a lower quality unit, my Ryobi comes up to speed very near instantly (under a second?)

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yeah, it's possible the Kobalt is a lower quality unit, my Ryobi comes up to speed very near instantly (under a second?)

I never said lower quality. Greenworks is who makes the Kobalt mowers. https://www.greenworkstools.com/shop-by-tool/mowers?p=4 They get really good reviews.

I was just saying it's not having to drive power to the wheels and is only a 19" cut. It probably comes up to speed in under a second too, but it's not the same as a gas powered engine by any means. I'm not using the side discharge due to flower beds and instead and using the mulching option. That and the it being a 40v mower are likely the difference since most of them now have 48v-60-80v. More voltage likely makes the difference if you're going up against thicker grass, but I know it'd never be able to handle the zoysia grass that's out at my lake property. It's like mowing shag carpeting out there.