No matter who you are, everybody needs to mow their lawn. As of late, more and more people are choosing to switch to electric self-propelled mowers to do the job. Why is that? In this article, we will talk all about the benefits of battery-powered lawn mowers, why getting one that is self-propelled makes it even better, and finish off with our top pick.
Why Battery Powered Mowers Are The Future
For the longest time, when it came to choosing your lawn mower, you were quite limited in terms of options. You really only had gasoline motors with some minor exceptions that never took off that well. It isn’t hard to understand why this is the case. Gasoline mowers just work well enough that most people simply weren’t asking for an alternative. When the first battery-powered mower was first invented all the way back in 1930, it had battery limitations that prevented it from being useful for anything but very small lawns. This combined with the aforementioned lack of public interest led to them being only used for speciality purposes for many decades.
Like any emerging technology though, battery technology eventually began to catch up. Nowadays, battery mowers are very competitive with their gasoline counterparts. The first nice advantage of these mowers is the noise levels they emit. Due to not needing a loud and rickety combustion engine, the average electric mower runs at about 75 decibels, a full 20 decibels less than a gas mower. This noise difference means that you can safely mow the lawn in the early hours without worrying about disturbing your neighbors.
The next advantage is lower maintenance. The lack of an engine again means that there are simply fewer parts to worry about maintaining and replacing. Ideally, you service and replace certain parts yearly in a gas mower, like the spark plugs, oil, air filters, and even the blades if you aren’t regularly sharpening them. In an electric mower, there’s nothing you really need to replace as long as you take care of the blades.
Costs actually come out to be even cheaper when you realize that you aren’t needing to buy gasoline anymore since you’re just plugging the mower in at night. With battery capacities continuing to increase year after year, you can be assured that you will be able to cover the entirety of your lawn just like you were able to with your old gas mower. For those with larger lawns that might exceed a full battery’s charge, you can easily get a second battery and have it ready to snap right into place the moment the first one goes. This means that there is next to no downtime and you can get right back to work.
Lastly, It’s true that cheap two-stroke engines may be convenient even now, but this comes at a cost. The environmental impact that gas mowers have on the planet can not be easily ignored. They produce many different types of harmful pollutants that not only are not safe to breathe but over time contaminate and harm the very grass that the owner of the mower wants to keep healthy. Even if concern for the environment isn’t a concern of the operator, they should still have concern for their own lawn.
Why Self-Propelled Mowers Are Even Better
After hearing all these great perks of having an electric mower, you might be wondering if they could get any better. As it turns out, they can! Self-propelled battery-powered mowers might sound really fancy and unnecessary, but once you try one out, you will never want to go back.
They require next to no effort to move, as the mower actually propels itself similar to riding mowers, allowing you to simply guide it in the direction you want to go in and walk along with it. Unlike riding mowers, however, they’re typically cheaper thanks to less overall complexity and more precision since you’re directly maneuvering it.
Now the part you’ve all been waiting for. Let’s get into our favorite models, what purposes they’re best for, and end off with our overall favorite pick.
Three Battery-Powered Mowers We Recommend
EGO POWER+ 56-Volt 21-in Self-propelled Cordless Electric Lawn Mower
Starting off our recommendations with a bang, we have the electric mower from EGO, the POWER+. With a battery life of up to an hour, it is able to cover most average size lawns. The easy blade adjustment controls combined with the self-propelled wheels mean that you won’t be hurting your back needing to go over the same difficult section of grass over and over. From the lightest of patches to the thickest of tangles, you will find that it can handle anything you could possibly throw in front of it. You’ll get the cut you need every time, the first time.
The star of the show here is easily the battery life of the unit. Normally there is a trade-off between the strength of the mower and the life of the battery. Many people will actually buy a second battery, keeping it charged and ready to swap in when the first one dies, but this model has such good battery life that you likely won’t even need to consider it. At $549 dollars, it’s hard to think of a better value.
Kobalt 40-Volt Max Brushless 20-in Self-propelled Cordless Electric Lawn Mower
The Kobalt mower is perfect for people with small lawns that need a precise touch. Able to easily handle sharp inclines and tough terrain, this little guy has no trouble handling the day-to-day chores of mowing. The battery life sits at 30 about 30 minutes, so it isn’t the best choice for big lawns, but at $349 dollars at the time of writing, it is certainly the most affordable. The great thing about electric mowers is that if you decide you need more capacity, you can just buy a larger battery. Good luck doing that with a gas mower!
Greenworks Pro 80V 21-Inch Brushless Self-Propelled Lawn Mower
For our last entry on the list, the Greenworks Pro sits solidly in the middle for battery life at 45 minutes and just barely at the top for price at $599. For that, you get a very durable mower that can stand the test of time. What makes it so durable, you may ask? It has to do with how the motor works. This mower uses a brushless motor, which in layman’s terms means that it uses special magnets to turn the rotors that won’t wear down over time like regular brushes.
Top Pick
Despite all the great things the rest of the mowers have here, Greenworks Pro edges out as the winner here. The others certainly have merit, and all of them are excellent lawn mowers in their own right. That said, durability is something that is often the deciding factor in people’s purchasing decisions, and this mower will take you quite far that way. A high-capacity mower that breaks down in a week just doesn’t have the same value as one that sits in the middle but will still be fully functional 20 years from now.
Conclusion
Now that you understand all there is to know about electric mowers and have seen our top picks, It may be time for you to consider replacing that old mower you’ve got sitting in the shed and upgrade to a brand new, more efficient, and easier to use than an electric one. These days, there are simply no significant downsides, you’re just saving money!
