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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Electric mower

I have a Ryobi cordless electric mower that has served me well for the past eight years and is still going strong. Unfortunately, they don't make it anymore, but here's another option: the Neuton. It provides only a 14" cut rather than the 18" that my mower has, but it has several desirable features that my mower doesn't have, such as an available extra lift-out battery.

Either mower (as well as a corded electric mower) will pollute significantly less than a gas mower does. Mowing with a gas mower for an hour produces the same amount of pollution as driving a car 50 miles.

2 comments:

spacegrrl said...

when i moved into my house, my stepfather gave me a black & decker corded electric mower that he had had for a good 20 years or so, i think. anyway, everyone hated that mower, but a lot of people wound up borrowing it over the years because it was totally reliable. electric mowers can just be stored all winter and then start up again immediately. i guess one is supposed to get the blade sharpened, but that really only matters if what you have is actual grass.

anyway, it finally died last summer and i went out and bought the 2006 version of the same mower. i really hate gas powered lawn equipment of any kind. in addition to the exhaust, they're just harder to care for and use. i'm all about electric.

Stephanie said...

I used Elizabeth's corded electric mower once, and it worked well (but was a little impractical -- this was at my old house). I agree about ease of use and care. My electric mower has needed a few repairs over the years and I've replaced the battery twice, but it's been worth it not to have the difficulty of starting a gas mower. (Full disclosure: I did use Steph's gas lawn mower at my house last year when we were mowing three lawns. My lawn was by far the largest, and my mower wasn't able to finish it on one charge.)

Re: blade sharpening, I've noticed that a sharp blade makes a huge difference in the amount of energy it takes to mow the lawn. I bought an extra blade and my dad has a sharpening tool, so about once a year we replace the blade and send the dull one home with my dad for sharpening.