How Much Is An Electric Lawn Mower

Cr Weighs The Environmental Costs And Benefits Of Battery

The performance of electric mowers has improved dramatically over the course of the decade that Consumer Reports has been testing them. And this year is no different.

From the $500 Ego LM2101 push mower to the $4,000 Cub Cadet RZT S Zero zero-turn-radius model, electric models occupy top slots in almost every category in Consumer Reports lawn mower tests.

Electric mowers can now run 20 to 40 minutes on a single charge, says Frank Spinelli, who oversees CRs lawn mower tests. Thats enough to cut anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of an acre, depending on the terrain, the height of your grass, and how fast you mow.

Typically powered by lithium-ion batteries, electric mowers start effortlessly, run quietly, and eliminate the need for messy engine maintenance. And while they might appeal to anyone with a lawn, the biggest winner could be the environment.

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How High Should You Cut Your Grass

Although it might seem simple at first, choosing a cutting height for your lawn actually depends on the type of grass you have. If you live in northern parts of the US, your grass will typically be cool-season grass. Select a cutting height of between two and three inches high.

If youâre based in the southern regions, aim for a cutting height of two inches. Wherever youâre based, donât be tempted to cut the grass shorter than two inches as this can damage it and youâll end up with a sad looking lawn.

Do Electric Lawn Mowers Need Maintenance

Although a lot less than gas mowers, electric lawn mowers still require some maintenance to keep them running as efficiently as possible.

Your electric mower will require the following maintenance:

• Check batteries to ensure they are charged, undamaged, and not leaking, or deformed.
• Check for frayed wires.
• Ensure attachments like bags and chutes are undamaged and secured to your mower.
• Check that your mowers blades are sharp, in good condition, and not bent or cracked.

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Solar + Electric Equipment = Savings

Depending on gas and electricity prices, electric lawn equipment may save you money. If you have solar panels installed, the savings are almost guaranteed. If you time it right, your lawn mower and other pieces of equipment can be charged by the excess energy your panels are producing. Youll save money on gas and your lawn tools will be purely powered by the sun.

Maintaining Your Electric Mower

Electric mowers are becoming more popular because they dont require as much maintenance as gas mowers. That being said, they do still require regular care. In order for your electric lawn mower to last for up to ten years, it must receive proper maintenance. Not only should it be cleaned regularly, but you should be checking the mower daily to ensure its running smoothly.

Below are a few ways to properly maintain your electric lawn mower to prolong its use.

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How To Choose An Electric Lawn Mower

Electric lawn mowers are eco-friendly, convenient , relatively quiet compared to traditional models and simple to store vertically, saving you precious storage space. Simply charge the battery or batteries , which, in our testing, ranged from two 18-volt batteries to one 80-volt battery, taking about 30 minutes to two hours, and youre in business.

The models we tested either arrived ready to go out of the box or needed just a bit of assembly to put together, no tools required. All included grass bag catchers, and most of those needed to be assembled, but again with no tools necessary. This makes convenience one of the electric mowers best features. They cut grass as well as their gas counterparts, but feature high-efficiency, long-lasting brushless motors which are quieter and, because theres no gas or oil to worry about, can be stored upright.

All the models we tested featured standard 21-inch decks , mulch, bag and side discharge and adjustable cutting heights and required at least one brand-specific rechargeable lithium-ion battery. These can be quite pricey: A 56-volt Ego battery is $229 at Lowes, but many mowers include them in their price and, if you are loyal to a certain brand, the batteries are often interchangeable with the lines other cordless tools.

The Environment And Noise

While power and run time certainly favor gas-powered mowers, noise and environmental considerations support electric. Battery-powered mowers have zero carbon emissions, so running one wont contribute to climate change.

Noise is also a factor worth considering. Many municipalities regulate the acceptable amount of yard noise. Big, beefy gas-powered mowers can easily exceed these guidelines, but battery-powered mowers almost certainly wont.

Note: Some users find vibration is more severe and bothersome with gas burning mowers than electric.

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Which Mower Is Better Gas Or Electric

Gas-powered mowers have a few advantages over electric mowers. Theyre generally more powerful, so they can handle longer grass and tougher weeds. Theyre also less expensive and easier to maintain than electric mowers. However, gas mowers have a few downsides. Theyre louder and produce more emissions than electric mowers. They also require you to keep gas and oil on hand, which can be messy and dangerous.

Can Electric Mowers Cut Wet Grass

It is not recommended that you use an electric mower with wet grass. Aside from the possibility of getting a jolt if any of the insulative layers around the electric array are damaged, electric mowers are not as powerful as gas mowers and so you will likely end up with a lot of clumping if you try to mow it.

Some models may be fine for wet grass, but with most its not a good idea check with your mowers manufacturer.

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Why Trust The Spruce

This article was written by Camryn Rabideau, a freelance contributor for The Spruce. As someone who grew up on a 70-acre farm and owns a 5-acre parcel herself, shes no stranger to lawn mowers, and shes written extensively on them. Shes also personally tested both the RYOBI 38 in. 75 Ah Battery Electric Rear Engine Riding Lawn Mower and the RYOBI 42 in. 75 Ah Battery Electric Riding Zero Turn Mower.

While selecting other battery-powered mowers for this list, she considered factors such as their power source, run- and charge-time , deck size, and beneficial features such as self-propelled transmissions. She also spoke with Jeremy Yamaguchi, CEO of Lawn Love, for insights on selecting the best electric lawn mower for your home.

What Should I Look For In An Electric Lawn Mower Before Buying

The best electric lawn mower for you is highly dependent on the size of your yard and whether or not you need it to perform other functions, such as mulching.

“There are several factors that consumers should consider when choosing a lawnmower,” Swanson says. “These include cost, deck height adjustment, available storage space, and convertible options. Finding a mower with convertible options, such as push style, self-propelled wheels, built-in side discharging, mulching, and bagging, will save you from having to spend extra money on additional equipment later down the line.”

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How Do You Clean And Maintain An Electric Mower

Electric lawn mowers don’t need more than a wipe down after use. Top mower brand Ryobi, for instance, strongly recommends against using water to clean an electric mower and suggests using a blower or air compressor instead. You’ll also want to take care of the blades on your electric lawn mower.

“Blunt lawn mower blades will pull the grass instead of cut it,” Spilsbury says. “This can lead to bald and yellow patches on the lawn. A yearly check to make sure the blades are still sharp or to see whether they need to be replaced can help extend the tool’s life and protect the health of your lawn.”

How Much Electricity Does An Electric Lawn Mower Use

Electric mowers use anywhere from 600 to 1800 watts of electricity per hour.

Most homeowners in the US wont see much of an increase in their bills from charging their electric lawn mowers.

Even those who still own the older models which rely on the cord to operate dont seem to notice a difference in cost.

However, this might not mean anything to you, so lets explain it in dollars.

In most US homes it costs an average of 13.19 cents per kilowatt each hour.

To determine the number of kilowatts used simply divide the watts by 1000.

Therefore, if you are using an electric mower that uses 1800 watts of electricity and charged it for one hour, then the equation would go like this:

• 1800/ 1000= 1.8 kilowatts
• 1 hour of charging: 1.8 X 13.19 = 23.74

You could round that up to 24 cents a charge.

And a typical electric mower will mow roughly one-third of an acre on a single charge.

However, that is for one of the models that use the most electricity.

If you have a more modern electric lawn mower it will likely cost even less.

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Benefits Of Electric Riding Lawn Mowers

You might be familiar with driving a car, so it will not be hard to do an electric lawn mower riding. Otherwise, electric ride on mower offers some different driving ways. You normally have options for zero turn handling, rear drive or front drive.

Speed is also an important factor. You might want to slow down the machine to get a perfect cut for a winning garden or speed up to mow faster for a big and open yard. Some battery operated riding lawn mowers do not have the ability to change the speed, which probably can affect your mowing result.

To run the electric ride on mower smoothly, you should check the engine first. Looking for reserving tips will also help lengthening its lifetime. As it is stated, a battery operated riding lawn machine does not need much cost in maintaining the machine, you only have to change the battery after a period of time. Best riding lawn mower battery can last its quality around 5 years or based on what the manufacturer recommended.

Other things to do are cleaning your battery riding lawn mower regularly, checking blades and tires then following the safety instruction for a safe and sound mow.

What Were Comparing: Push Mower Vs Push Mower

Electric mowers have come a long way in just a short few years and there is quite a variety of them on the market. You can find everything from petite and inexpensive 13 push mowers all the way up to 54 zero-turn riding mowers suitable for mowing multiple acres.

As much as wed love to compare everything across the whole range of the electric lawn mower market, that would make this article a wee bit long to read in a sitting. Instead, were going to focus on comparing the most common kind of lawn mower when used on an average lawn. For American readers, the most common mower type is the push mower, and the average lawn size is around a quarter of an acre.

On top of that, were also limiting our comparison to battery-powered electric mowers and excluding corded electric mowers. Even in small yards, corded mowers are an unbelievable hassle and battery-powered mowers are now so cheap and efficient that theres just no reason to bother with the nonsense of being tethered to the wall of your garage.

If youre curious about larger mowers and larger lawns, dont worry. The way were comparing gasoline-powered push mowers to electric push mowers can be easily adapted to other sizes. The general concepts are the same.

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The Electric Lawn Mower Marketing Weasel Words

Total BS on display.

I love all of these claims about “gas-like power” and “torque of gas” for electric mowers, and how even the lower end gas mower manufacturers are playing stupid games by only advertising the peak “gross torque” of their gas engines. None of this tells you a damned thing, and since since when did the lawn mower market become so ridiculous with such deceptive marketing? Really? You can’t just be straightforward with freaking lawn mowers? What on earth??

Hey, I have “torque of gas“! If I apply my entire 260 pound weight to a bicycle pedal with a 1 foot long crank, I’m making 260 ft-lbs of torque. Sweet! So I can power a car, right? Ha! No, because how quickly can I spin that pedal while applying that force to get actual work done? Not that fast. Just like electric motors, human beings make “peak torque” at 0 RPM, and then our torque curves rapidly fall off from there. How much “power” can I really produce?

This isn’t rocket science. There’s a very simple formula for this.

Types Of Electric Lawn Mowers

There are three types of electric lawn mowers Push, Riding and Robot.

• Electric Push Lawn Mower electric push lawn mowers or walk behinds are the largest category of mowers on the market, which we can further refine to corded or cordless as well as self-propelled or manual push operated.
• Electric Riding Lawn Mower electric riding lawn mowers or ride on mowers are categorized as either classic lawn tractors or zero turn mowers.
• Robot Lawn Mower also known as smart lawn mowers, this class of mower is relatively new to the world of yard maintenance, but there are nearly a dozen models to choose from already

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Whats The Difference Between An Electric Mower And A Robotic Mower

Electric lawnmowers are human-controlled, unlike robotic mowers. A robotic mower is battery operated and it will have its very own power station to recharge. The robotic mower drives itself, it mows your lawn for you, and will drive back to its charge station all on its own. The robotic lawn mower will mow your lawn on a set schedule without you having to do any work, they are quite interesting.

Electric Mowers Are Easy To Maneuver

The quieter motor on an electric lawn mower makes it easier to maneuver. You can also hear the motor running, so you know when to turn it off. The engine noise often drowns out other sounds with a gas lawn mower.

This can make it difficult to tell how hard you work on the mower. As a result, you may find yourself going too fast and making too much noise.

With an electric lawn mower, you can better control your speed. This is because you can hear the motor running. If its getting too loud, you can slow down. This makes it easier to find a balance between power and noise.

Additionally, electric mowers are lighter than gas models since they dont have engines. The lack of an engine makes them more compact and easier to store. This makes them easier to push and turn. An electric lawn mower will be much easier to maneuver if you have a small yard than a gas model.

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Whats The Difference Between An Electric And A Reel Mower

Even if theyre both lawnmowers, electric and reel cutters could not be more different. Since I talked several times about what you can expect from a lawnmower, lets talk about a reel mower.

Powered by the users strength and dexterity, a reel mower is a manual push mower. A cylindrical blade assembly rotates against a fixed blade while the operator pushes the mower, cutting the grass in a scissor-like manner.

Reel mowers produce a very tidy finishing product. Smaller, flatter lawns are most suited for manual push mowers, although larger ones can be handled if the grass is in good condition. Rough weeds and sticks prematurely dull blades and may prevent blade rotation. The cutting width of reel mowers ranges from 15 to 20 inches.

Operating And Maintenance Costs

Although its tempting to believe battery-powered mowers will always cost less than gas-burning mowers long-term, this isnt necessarily the case. Although youll almost certainly spend less on electricity charging your batteries or running your corded mower then on gas and oil for your fuel-burning machine, theres more to the equation.

Lithium ion batteries dont last forever and eventually need replacement. Theyre not cheap, either. If your electric mower comes with a generous warranty, you might be lucky enough to get a replacement battery for free when yours bites the dust. Otherwise, you could be looking at a $200 to $400 expense.

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Commercial: Mean Green 74

Mean Green is pushing the envelope further with a 74-inch deck on its flagship EVO ZTR. It delivers an impressive cutting width and day-long 8-hour max runtime. Combined with a 13 MPH top speed and 37 HP equivalent power, this is the electric riding mower to get when you have a lot of property to cut.

There are a lot of accessories to choose fromincluding a solar canopy! Mean Green certainly lets you customize the mower to suit your particular commercial needs.

All of this electric innovation comes at a cost, though. Youre looking at a minimum of $28,500 to get in and closing in on $35,000 if you want the most runtime. Thats before you add accessories.

Price: $28,500 $34,499

Best Budget: Greenworks 25022 12

• Cord lock keeps plug connected

For those with smaller yards, the Greenworks 20-Inch Corded Lawn Mower is a great value. This budget-friendly model is corded, meaning youll have to navigate around an extension cord, but in our testing, we found it to be surprisingly powerful and extremely easy to operate. It has a 20-inch cutting deck that can be set to seven different heights, and it offers mulching, bagging, and side-discharge options for your grass clippings.

This mower needs to be plugged in with a 14-gauge 50-foot extension cord or a 12-gauge 100-foot extension cord, which isnt included with the purchase. The good news, however, is that youll have unlimited runtime as long as the mower is plugged in, and it has an integrated cord retention system that prevents it from coming unplugged if jostled. We found that the mower was lightweight enough to push around without much effort, and the included grass collection bag is easy to detach and empty.

Cutting Width: 20 inches | Weight: 56 pounds | Power Source: Corded | Cutting Options: Bag, mulch, side-discharge | Size of Yard: 0.25 acre

The Spruce / Sarah Vanbuskirk

“I appreciated having so many debris removal options and thought it was simple enough to shift settings, say from mulching to bagging, for different parts of the lawn. I didnt experience any issues with debris spilling in any of the modes.” Sarah Vanbuskirk, Product Tester

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