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I have all 3, for me electric seems best overall each has strengths and weaknesses, personally gas powered is at the bottom of the list, the hassle of going to get gas for it, changing oil, yanking on a cord to get it started, the tune-ups and the noise is not appealing, My reel mower is 2nd on the list, no fueling, no charging, just pull it out and start pushing, sharpen the blade once every few years and you are good to go. but the draw back is the fact that it only cuts grass, a twig will stop it in it's tracks so while it's great for my front yard 95% of the time since I have no trees in my front yard it's a nightmare in my backyard unless I want to spend the day raking before I cut back there. and sometimes I get twigs from my neighbors trees in the front.
Hands down my sunjoe electric cordless mower wins, cuts good enough, twigs and even sprouting trees are cut with ease, no walks to the gas station in the texas heat, no yanking a cord for 10-20 minutes I just push the button and it starts, plus it is quiet sounds like a box fan, so I can avoid the hot sun all together and cut my grass at night without waking the neighbors. in fact when I was cutting the grass on the side of my house my window unit AC was actually making more noise than my mower yes electric mowers have shorter run time mine only lasts 25-30 minutes(depending on length) but it only takes about 10 minutes to cut my front yard and 15-20 to cut the back. but if I had a large suburban yard I may feel differently.
You have a good system for your needs. It would not work on my five acres to mow. But that is what it is all about; getting the right equipment for the job. If you are happy with what you have; great!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I don't have 5 acres, but I still love my riding mower. Makes mowing fun, and about half the time of the old push gas mower. I had an electric at a past house but kept running over the cord. That was before they had cordless.
I don't have 5 acres, but I still love my riding mower. Makes mowing fun, and about half the time of the old push gas mower. I had an electric at a past house but kept running over the cord. That was before they had cordless.
Everybody is different. I have three riders so if one breaks on my rocks and roots; I jump on another one. Then I fix the broken one at my leisure.
I just bought a zero turn JD this year with bagging attachment. It's the dirtiest lawnmower I have ever used! I have to take a shower every time I cut the grass. It does a great job mulching and picking up; but it deposits lots of dirt on the operator. I would suspect it would do better without the bagging attachment; but my wife wants me to pick up all the leaves. So my newest mower is not my mower of choice!
I preferred the older Gravely 8123 that I had to retire. Maybe I just prefer old things because I am old?
As far as using riding tractors: It is hard to go back to pushing after you get use to riding. Many people simply do not have the time to 'exercise' on their lawns.
You have a good system for your needs. It would not work on my five acres to mow. But that is what it is all about; getting the right equipment for the job. If you are happy with what you have; great!
If I had over an acre I would go with this, it only does 2 acres per charge but who sais you have to cut your whole 5 acre lot in one day.
I have all 3, for me electric seems best overall each has strengths and weaknesses, personally gas powered is at the bottom of the list, the hassle of going to get gas for it, changing oil, yanking on a cord to get it started, the tune-ups and the noise is not appealing, My reel mower is 2nd on the list, no fueling, no charging, just pull it out and start pushing, sharpen the blade once every few years and you are good to go. but the draw back is the fact that it only cuts grass, a twig will stop it in it's tracks so while it's great for my front yard 95% of the time since I have no trees in my front yard it's a nightmare in my backyard unless I want to spend the day raking before I cut back there. and sometimes I get twigs from my neighbors trees in the front.
Hands down my sunjoe electric cordless mower wins, cuts good enough, twigs and even sprouting trees are cut with ease, no walks to the gas station in the texas heat, no yanking a cord for 10-20 minutes I just push the button and it starts, plus it is quiet sounds like a box fan, so I can avoid the hot sun all together and cut my grass at night without waking the neighbors. in fact when I was cutting the grass on the side of my house my window unit AC was actually making more noise than my mower yes electric mowers have shorter run time mine only lasts 25-30 minutes(depending on length) but it only takes about 10 minutes to cut my front yard and 15-20 to cut the back. but if I had a large suburban yard I may feel differently.
I have a fairly large yard, and it grows daily in spring especially. I have the smallest of the sunjoes and am quite satisfied. I don't do well with heat so I'm not going to be out mowing for a couple of hours anyway, so when it spudders, its time to go inside and cool off. But I was a bit sceptical of it cutting the prarie which is mixed in with the grass, but it mows down and chews up even the taller whatevers. I don't use the grass catcher at all, just let it work into the soil, and have noticed an overall increase in the grass over weeds/some mystery plant.
It's nice to see another review of this from someone who is satisfied. I still have my push reel to reel which grooms the grass very nicely but tangles on the prarie stuff. When I needed to finish and the motor had to charge, it sufficed but you could see the difference
One caution I'd say is take care with the charger. That wire is thin and not well protected. They replaced it on warrenty but I'm going to buy one as a backup so the yard won't get ahead of me.
I have a fairly large yard, and it grows daily in spring especially. I have the smallest of the sunjoes and am quite satisfied. I don't do well with heat so I'm not going to be out mowing for a couple of hours anyway, so when it spudders, its time to go inside and cool off. But I was a bit sceptical of it cutting the prarie which is mixed in with the grass, but it mows down and chews up even the taller whatevers. I don't use the grass catcher at all, just let it work into the soil, and have noticed an overall increase in the grass over weeds/some mystery plant.
It's nice to see another review of this from someone who is satisfied. I still have my push reel to reel which grooms the grass very nicely but tangles on the prarie stuff. When I needed to finish and the motor had to charge, it sufficed but you could see the difference
One caution I'd say is take care with the charger. That wire is thin and not well protected. They replaced it on warrenty but I'm going to buy one as a backup so the yard won't get ahead of me.
I do use my bag as it seems to extend the battery life, mulching make it work harder so the charge goes faster.
If someone made a decent aluminum, self propelled, corded electric mower of about 22" cut, I'd have one in a heart beat. But nobody makes anything like that and no, batteries suck. Batteries, if you're lucky, will last a couple of years tops. Then new batteries cost as much as the entire mower did. Nope, there won't be a battery operated POS at my house. So far, the old gas 1986 Honda HR214 I bought new is still working just fine. I've bought a few since 1986 only to return them for one reason or another. Nothing cuts a yard near as good as the old Honda, including a new Honda. BUT, if they made a self propelled corded mower, I'd have one real quick as long as it wasn't the usual plastic crap of the current electrics.
For me, the corded electric mower is the best. 100' extension cord allows me to reach (barely) the farthest corner of the lawn. It's very light, and no battery problems to worry about. I actually got bored of my previous corded electric mower, and replaced it for no good reason. It was a refurbished Black & Decker that was running great after 10 years! Bought a new 21" Greenworks corded mower that I hope will last 10+ years too.
My entire back yard is only 60' X 25' and the front yard has four different areas to cut the grass with the largest area being maybe 16' X 25'. No riding mower needed for me.
I have had to push reel mowers since we bought the house. Unless we cut every week the yard gets too hard to cut.
A couple years back I bought a gas mower that someone had returned to Lowe's. New it went for $180 and change. They sold it to me for $120. It still looked new. When I got it I also picked up a container of 2 cycle oil and a 3 gallon gas can. That thing starts on the first pull every time.
My favorite kind of mower is a gas reel mower. When I was a kid that was the kind my dad had and it mowed yards all over the neighborhood where I grew up. The thing was self powered, with a clutch mechanism. Kind of liked it because it had a throttle and clutch/ shift combo control. Picture a mower that you drive, except your following it. That thing was awesome.
It all depends on how much yard, how thick the grass, and what you are willing to do. The reel push mowers were taking too much of my time and the boys did not want to use them. Toss in a power mower and the boys are all over that.
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