Cordless lawnmowers, anyone had one?

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Richard_C

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Has anyone any experience of cordless mowers? Are they OK or disappointingly underpowered?

My lawn is c. 500 SqM, not roller-perfect by any means. I have a Hayter 53cm petrol rotary mower which I have been happy with for years, but its needs replacing - I've rivetted plates over the rust holes in the steel deck, but there is preciuos little left to rivet into. Plus the governor is now wedged open with a stick as its all a bit broken. "Beyond economic repair".

Happy to pay decent money for a decent machine, and I've been looking at 46cm cut - a bit lighter, I'm getting older, and they will do the job. I've come across the Alko cordless, 40v, 46 cm cut and it says the 5 ah battery has capacity for 500 sq M. That would simplify life - no more petrol cans, no recoil start hassle, a few Kg lighter, etc. The petrol electric start version is similar £££ to the cordless - I can't decide.
 
I'm told they are good, I don't have direct experience BUT you have to keep on top of the lawn, if like me you are prone to letting it get a bit long the area you can cut on a charge drops quickly and the upper limit to what it will cut is considerably less than a petrol mower. But that said a bit of diligence and a second battery might make it work for you. My friend has a Makita that takes two of the same batteries that his cordless tools take and said that two 18V 5Ah batteries cut his grass without issue given the provisos above. I think you have a bit more grass I'm guessing about time and a half.
 
We had a Bosch Rotack 43 LI for must be 20 years, mind you we also have 4 batteries! Funnily enough it's just died.

However, I have upgraded to an Ego 54V lawnmower. We've got about 400 square metres and the one 4ah battery does it just fine.
 
We have a Bosch power-4-all 18 (city?) mower. Feels a little plastic, but it is light and does our small lawn well. I would be happy to use it on any of the lawns I have had in the past - including some larger ones. It's narrow width and three height settings may deter you, but I like ours. I only chose it because we have other power-4-all tools so could reuse the batteries, but I am happy that I did.
 
The 'boss" insisted on a cordless and bought a STIHL RMA 235. I have to admit it's quite good, and much quieter than our old corded Bosch Rotak.
 
I think that much depends upon the shape of the lawn and anything within the boundary. A square shape is quick and easy, shapes are less so.

I had a Hayter Harrier 41 which lasted about 20 years and has gradually become unreliable. I bought a replacement Harrier 48 with every feature except electric start. It's steel roller makes it pretty heavy but the stripes are beautiful. Our lawns are expansive and shaped and its pretty hard work getting around the beds and paths. I can't imagine how much work a 53 must be!

My dad passed on to me his Atco. It's a much lighter machine with steel decking and a plastic rear roller. Size wise, about 41 but with a fixed speed.

Having both I can wiz around the edges with the Atco and use the 48 for the expansive central areas.

I was dismissive of the Atco when dad bought it but, if I wasn't as bothered about the stripes, it would have been perfectly fine. Yes, it will rust at some stage but, for now....

My dad now has a Bosch mains powered machine (I can't remember the model number). It cuts the grass nicely but the cable drives me nuts.

I have no idea if a battery powered machine will cut a lawn of your size but my point is that a lighter petrol mower, which does have a narrower cut and will need more passes, is probably a lot easier to manoeuvre than you think, especially if you don't have a steel roller and you have powered drive. I think a roller of some description is definitely worth having as it makes it easier to get around edges and retain some degree of striping. Just make sure you buy one with powered drive.
 
Hello, ive had my makita for a while now, twin 18v 460mm cut i think.
At first it was fantastic, loved it. I had new turf after a bit of landscaping and the mower was perfect. Quick, light and ive already got 10 or 11 batteries!

As said above, you have to do it regularly. Ive found if my grass grets to 4" the mower really struggles. Its still a good mower but if it broke tomorrow i would be picking up a petrol one again
 
I bought an Aldi special (Samsung battery) and it performed absolutely flawlessly for 2 years. I recently moved to a far larger plot and swapped the Aldi mower for his Hayter petrol mower and he continues to enjoy it. One charge for both front and back lawns and only uses one of the 5 bars of indicated charge.
 
Odd circumstances, I acquired a 'robot' lawnmower. For smaller lawn than yours, cost new is 500, less than a petrol (Honda with plastic 'shroud' is really good) and needed control wire burying (couple of hours on hands and knees).
Result? Easy to cut the lawn. Better finish. With age becoming a problem, I find it an optimum solution.
Mines a Worx, but lots to choose from.
 
We bought a MOUNTFIELD Princess 34Li Freedom Cordless Lawn Mower for our about 250m3 lawn - superb, battery lasts for 2 cuts+ - I expected to buy a second battery but haven't bothered. Charging is fast. Purchased from a main Mountfield dealer, Garden Machinery Direct in Worcester - ordered at 1500, delivered next day.
 
I have a Ryobi one+ hybrid mower (so you can plug into the mains if ever needed). I dont have masses of lawn but due to odd shape takes be about 30-45 mins to cut it.
Would never go back to Petrol, battery is powerful enough for me, its light, no mess, if you ever need to clean it you can tip it on its side or upside down without the petrol and oil draining out.
Both my neighbours either side have petrol mowers and as im now working from home in an office shed its annoyingly loud when they start theirs up if im on a call.....mine is nice and quiet.
 
I have a Stihl RMA2RT mulching mower. Now on its third season and I am very pleased with it. Expensive but uses same batteries as my other Stihl tools. I use the large AP300 batteries and it takes two charges to do about 500m2. Light, quick and easy to use. Gives a neat, functional finish - I don’t do posh grass.
Dave
 
I am not sure why you would need a battery powered one at all. They are not exactly eco friendly, the batteries will die, they will be difficult to recycle and it will likely be made of mostly plastic.

Get a nice petrol one.
I have an old Atco from the 70s, its totally metal and sips tiny amounts of petrol also it drives itself along, very little effort required. You can get electric start ones too.
You can get them for much cheaper than a new battery powered one and they can be serviced easily, pretty sure a battery one will be e-waste when it has a problem.


Ollie
 
As above we have the same model Makita. We find it very good for our two large lawns.
The Pros are Quiet, we can mow the lawn even when the neighbours are having their never ending barbeques and light, we have a praticular problem with our back lawn which is waterlogged for 2-3 months a year. We can cut the lawn about a month earlier than with the old petrol one which sank (literally)

The conn as noted above is it won't power through really long grass.
To be fair if you look at the Makita website the plastic model we have is intended for domestic use. There are much heavier duty all metal machines that by all accounts will tackle the long grass. I think the problem is comparing apples to bannanas. If you choose a model that matches your petrol one then I don't think you will want to go back to a rotting dinasaur burner.
 
GMIL had one (now in assisted living). It was an ego brand, about $500. She liked it but mentioned the battery didn't last through her lawn (which is probably a quarter acre at most, but can be dense grass in spring). At her age, she didn't mind splitting the mowing into two sessions when it was long, though. When she was on the decline, her son did mind. Battery capacity should be cheaper now than it was 5-6 years ago when they got that given the lower cost of lithium capacity by a wide margin, but given that the batteries are probably the profit center for the device, maybe that's not the case. They seem to be the same nominal price for my cordless set as they were 10 years ago.

I mow with a scotts reel (called "scotts classic" here). Made by "american lawn mower" in china. It's a legitimate option if you are already going to need to not skip a session mowing with a battery mower. The real trick with a ground driven reel is your ability to set and hone (which is easy, you just have to do it and get a feel for it and not be lazy with the cognitive trap of thinking that putting off honing and setting once in a while is more work - it's far less, like sharpening hand tools. Probably less even in the session that you do it as the whole process to sharpen and set takes about 10 minutes, and periodic setting in between is a minute or two).

The only thing a reel doesn't do is mulch, so if you have yard debris that you like to mulch in, it won't do that. Otherwise, I would take the reel over a battery mower 10 times a day every day.
 
Just bought a Karcher, which is OK, but I wish I'd trusted my gut and gone with Bosch. Karcher were doing a promotion where you get a free battery and a spare 18V 5Ah can be expensive so it kinda swung it for me. The mower struggles with wet grass and clogs easily. I get about 1/2 an hour on one charge. I just bought their hedge trimmer too as it utilises the same battery.
I've got the G-Tech strimmer as well which is very good, long battery time, and "free for life blades" (£2.95 postage!)
 
same for me with the Karcher - it's light and easy to use but don't let the grass get too long and don't cut it when damp, as it stalls the mower.
 
Im guessing DW is talking about a “cylinder” push along mower? Sounds like a heart attack to me!
Anyway, Ive got a Makita cordless hedgecutter which Im very happy with and would definitely consider one of the mowers. However our neighbour has for very many years used a mains powered electric rotary with a collection box and swears by it, its a Wolf I think, plastic deck so no rusting out and light and reliable, its made me wonder if I couldn't manage with one myself.
Btw Ive seen a video where the guy has fitted a hose connector to the steel deck, after mowing and before switching off he plugs in the hosepipe, a few seconds of water whooshing around has removed all the wet grass that rust the deck out,,a very clever idea I thought.
 

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