Battery Powered Electric Lawn Mower

[larryh]

I recently purchased a battery powered lawn mower.  It uses the same type of Lithium-ion cells that Tesla uses.  The battery pack has 3 parallel series of 14 cells for a total of 42 cells.  The total energy capacity of the battery is about 0.36 kWh.  I was able to mow my lawn today using about 0.29 kWh of energy from the battery--it still had 15-25% SOC left.  The last time I mowed my lawn with a gas powered lawn mower (10+ years old), it required 0.27 gallons of gas.  The energy released by 0.27 gallons of gas is 0.27*33.705 = 9.1 kWh.  The gas powered mower required 9.1/0.29 = 32 times the energy of the electric mower to mow my lawn.  Gas powered mowers are extremely inefficient!

 

 

[murphy]

I assume this is not a riding mower.  There is no way that I could do my lawn with a walk behind mower.  I did it once with a 19" rotary mower right after I bought the house and immediately bought a rider for the next weeks mowing.

[Russael]

I have a black and decker battery powered mower myself.  Bought it new in 2008.  However, mine runs on two large and heavy sealed lead acid batteries for 24V.

 

I'm still running on the original batteries with no problem.  However, the reliability of said mower isn't all that great.  I've had to replace a handle mount, a pin for the contact switch, the internal circuit breaker, and one or two other items that aren't coming to mind.

 

My mother picked up an EGO lithium mower a couple years ago because she couldn't pullstart her gas one anymore.  She totally loves it.

 

As far as battery riding mowers... they DO exist, but they're wildly expensive since they're designed for commercial duty.  Mean Green Products has a dixie cutter option with up to a 60" deck, but it costs as much as a small car, something around 17k.  It can do up to something like 8 or 9 acres on a charge.  BUT... if I had a home with a lot of land, that'd be the first mower I'd go to.  No more gas for me as much as possible.

 

http://www.meangreenproducts.com/

[larryh]

My lot is 0.3 acres, so it only takes 45 minutes to mow the lawn.  I have the EGO lawn mower.  They have a novel way to keep the battery cool:

 

To cool the battery, EGO uses a special material wrapped around the batteries.  When the battery is a cold, the material is a solid.  When the battery heats up, it turns to a liquid.  The transition from sold to liquid absorbs a great deal of energy, similar to ice transitioning to water.  That keeps the battery cool.  

Edited July 13, 2016 at 09:37 PM by larryh

[murphy]

My lot is 3/4 acre.  I have an EGO hedge trimmer  and two EGO leaf blowers.  The first one died so they sent me another one.  When I asked where to send the bad one they said to discard it locally.  I discarded it in the basement.  That's a complete set of spare parts except for the encapsulated control electronics which is what failed.

[flyingcheesehead]

As far as battery riding mowers... they DO exist, but they're wildly expensive since they're designed for commercial duty.  Mean Green Products has a dixie cutter option with up to a 60" deck, but it costs as much as a small car, something around 17k.  It can do up to something like 8 or 9 acres on a charge.  BUT... if I had a home with a lot of land, that'd be the first mower I'd go to.  No more gas for me as much as possible.

 

http://www.meangreenproducts.com/

 

 

Wow... How long have those been out? I have 2 acres, so I picked up a used Simplicity Legacy (the biggest one they make) for under $3K. 25hp, 60" mower deck, 48" snowblower, and turbo-assist triple-bagger leaf vacuum. It's great, but it is really freaking loud (Kohler 25hp gasser).

 

I really wish I had something electric. A friend of mine has one of the old GE Elec-Trak ones, and another acquaintance has rebuilt an old Simplicity to use an old forklift motor instead of an engine, but I haven't seen anything that really meets my needs yet - Big deck, and probably 2 hours worth of juice at a shot, and a snowblower.

[Russael]

They've been around for a while... been following them on and off.  It's been interesting how they've expanded their offerings.

 

The Mean Green mower has battery packs that they call LEMs (Lithium Energy Modules) that provide something like 3 acres per pack.  So, you wouldn't NEED 9 acres worth of charge, so that'd reduce the price of the mower right there.  Those battery packs are expensive.  The mower is also supposedly rated at 36HP.  They don't exactly say how much they charge per battery pack, but I'm guessing they're 5600 per LEM.  5600 + 6199 mower chassis would run you about 11,799.  They speak of federal tax credits too.

 

Cub Cadet also makes an electric riding mower.  http://cubcadetrztszero.com/ Unfortunately, this one only goes for an hour before it needs to be charged.  The Mean Green mower can go literally all day long if you provide it with 3 LEMs, and even MORE if you get the solar canopy.

 

As far as an electric rider that offers a snowblower...  I don't know of any and a quick google search doesn't return much for electric riding mower products in general.  I do remember there was a prototype rider that offered a front mounted deck, was able to tow a lot of weight... can't remember if it offered a snowblower or not but I think it did.  As far as I know, it never saw production.  And unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the dang thing either.

 

My father used to sell Simplicity products many, many years ago.  That was around the time of the Simplicity Sunstar, a 20HP 2 cylinder gas tractor.  Loved that thing. :)  I have a simplicity snowblower - my last gas product for home maintenance.  I was looking at the Ariens AMP-24, but that apparently failed pretty hard.

[Russael]

Found it... they called it the Electric OX.

 

http://electrictractor.com/ 

 

Their product page indicates that it can throw snow.

[meyersnole]

I also bought the EGO mower last Summer. In the past I have tried the Black & Decker battery and corded model with little luck. The battery version of the B&D charging system failed after 2 charges, also was heavy and did not cut well during the heavy growth seasons (Spring/Fall) and would stall. The corded version did not really have the power either, and the heavy cord necessary for the length required double the time to mow the lawn and the end result was an uneven cut.

 

The EGO was a game changer. The mower has the power to cut the yard and is light so I don't miss the self propelled too much. Ended up buying the EGO blower too. Recently sold my chain saw... don't use it much, but if I get another one it will be the EGO. Seem to be great tools.