My first ever battery powered lawn mower

[pfarber]

My trusty Craftsman gas lawn mower finally died. It was over 15 years old (I take good care of my shit) and while I could have spent the time to fix it (it was a carb issue) I really don't want to fuck with it and daddy wants a new toy.

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It was a little cheaper (Labor day sale and Military discount) but still in line with the cost of a mid range gas mower.

My lawn is not complicated and about .3 acres... a perfect fit for this puppy. Since I was in Jinhua for a week (that's a city, not a girl lol) my grass was not cut (brother flaked out on me) so I get back to a nice thick mess of weeds/grass for a yard.. on top of that while the battery was charging it rained for about 30 minutes.. and it was 9pm at night. Since I had to take everything to the garage I figured I'd test run the mower and see how it went.... on thick ass wet grass, at night. I was happy to learn that the mower had absolutely NO ISSUES with the grass I cut. I did about 1/3rd of my lawn.. at 9pm.

The mower is quiet and sounds like my garage fan on high speed. The motor actually has two speed settings and uses some sort of load sensing to jump up to high power mode. Its slightly more noisy in high power but still very quiet. I really like the one hand height adjustment (not having to adjust all 4 wheels) and the mower is light to push. I'm pretty sure the single battery I got will do my whole hard... if not a second battery is only $80. They are not quick charge but I have things like weed wacking to do if I need to wait for the battery to charge.

One thing I noticed is the grass clippings are MUCH FINER than the old gas mower... the motor spins much faster and in mulching mode the grass is finely cut... maybe 1/4in long. While the mower comes with a grass catcher and a side chute they are pretty flimsy and I would rather have a second battery than these accessories.

Today after work I will try and finish the lawn. I did not put the battery back on the charger so I should get a good idea if one charge will be enough.

[pfarber]

Saturday I finally got to mow my whole yard with the new mower. I didn't charge the battery after I cut the small 'test patch' and even after 11+ days of unchecked grass growth the mower did fine. The battery never got down to less the 2 LEDs (there is a 4 LED charge bar) and even though it ran most of the time on the 'high' RPM setting (due to the load of the tall grass) everything was fine.

I did charge the battery after the full mowing and it took about 2 hours to charge... normal time.

Next week I'll need to lower the deck high from 3 to maybe 2.5in and mow at that high (longer grass during the winter helps it survive.. or so I read).

Not happy about having to buy a $300 mower, but it lasted the first week with no issues.

Some things I don't like:

The handle has a weird 45deg bend in it (its not flat) and that kinda makes my wrists tired. I may may need to adjust the handle angle to lower it a bit.
The mower could benefit from a little more weight. It really bounces a lot when pushing over non-flat areas.
The wheels are a hard plastic... I don't see them lasting the life of mower. Maybe they will.