Electric lawn mowers etc

WAY more important and MUCH better than I thought...

I’ve been mowing our lawn for 45 years now, because I lost a bet (but that’s a story for another day). I actually like lawn work because it stays done for at least a week, instead of the cooking and dishes that look like you haven’t touched them after a few hours.

I was absolutely horrified to learn how polluting 2-cycle engines (used in most lawn equipment) are - much more so than a car.

From an EPA Study:

Results: In 2011, approximately 26.7 million tons of pollutants were emitted by GLGE (VOC=461,800; CO=5,793,200; NOx=68,500, PM10=20,700; CO2=20,382,400), accounting for 24%−45% of all nonroad gasoline emissions. Gasoline-powered landscape maintenance equipment (GLME; leaf blowers/vacuums, and trimmers, edgers, brush cutters) accounted for 43% of VOCs and around 50% of fine PM. Two-stroke engines were responsible for the vast majority of fine PM from GLME.

Doing something about replacing your gasoline-powered lawn mower, leaf-blower, weedwhacker is tremendously important!

I set out to do this, and found a battery-powered lawn mower so that I didn’t need a cord. It has a rechargeable battery and the same battery can be moved to their leaf-blower and weedwhacker. Here’s the Ryobi machine I have, as shown in a Home Depot ad.

I did this because I thought I should. I was really surprised at how much easier and better my yard work became! The battery is enough for my 1/3 of an acre lot, to both mow and weed. You can also get a second on-board battery for the lawn mower if you have a bigger lawn. The battery recharges very quickly. The mower is LIGHT and easy to handle, compared to my old gas mower. It’s super-easy to start - just push a button! No more tugging on a starting cord and trying to prime the mower. And it’s not dirty or smelly. I don’t have to store gasoline in my shed. It FOLDS UP easily and stands on its front wheels, so I can store it in about 25% of the space of the gas mower. I can’t believe I didn’t do this years ago.