Gas vs Electric lawn mower (lawnmower)

[titaniummd]

To the OP:

What are, if any, your physical limitations?
What is your budget?
What are your storage options?
What size is your lot in acres? Most are 0.25 to 0.3 acres. Anything bigger will obviate the gas option.

My experience with electric is the surface area and time could be limiting factors. Depending upon grass type, such as St Augustine, electric can be ineffective and impractical.

Look to Consumer Reports of Consumer Digest for a brand/model. They cover the Pros and Cons of models. I chose a Honda Self Propelled Lawn mover recommended by these magazines. These are very simple to operate, and depending upon the climate (I was in Florida where temperatures and humidity were closer to 100). Time outside can be a limitation if you're heat intolerant, like myself.

If you want great exercise, a Human Powered mower is a great option but it can be limited by your yard size.

[alsidw]

I had a very small urban yard and an electric mower was great, light, quiet. In fact I prided myself on being all electric. I had also an electric blower and weed eater. Then I moved and developed bad knees in the process.
Now the self propelled Honda mower is chore to use and bought a riding mower. My lot is 10 times the size and the St. Augustine is very thick and I have a sloping front yard.

[Coldjensens]

My brother is really into electric things. He even found an electric riding mower.

Corded mowers are stupid. Sooner or later you will have a blonde moment and hit the cord. It is not all that likely to kil you (it might, but not likely) but it is annoying. Plus it is just a PIA to mow while pulling a cord around.

Battery mowers do not have enough power. Sometimes they do OK in short thin grass at first. After a few minutes, they start getting weaker. If you live in a cold climate, you have to keep the battery charged always. If it goes dead and freezes, you cannot recharge it.

Gas mowers are cheaper, easier to repair, easier to use, more powerful, cut better, less dangerous, and last longer. Other than that electrics are just fine.

[hotzcatz]

We've had all sorts of mowers over the years and my favorites were the riding mowers, mostly because they had accessories such as trailers and tillers. However, for a residential lot, that's pretty much overkill. However, if you had a contract to mow your neighbor's lots, as well as your own, that might make the more expensive price of a riding lawn mower worthwhile.

IMHO, what propels it isn't as important as the width of the cut. If you have a larger lot and a narrow mower it takes a long time to mow the lot.

We just put a big photovoltaic system on the roof so now we are getting all things electric and I used an electric mower for the first time yesterday. It sounded a lot like a vacuum cleaner and it felt sort of similar to vacuuming the lawn in a weird way. It worked okay although dragging the cord around and having to be very aware of where it is was kinda odd. It was dead easy to start and would have been nicer with powered wheels.

I'd say for tougher mowing jobs, a gas mower would be best but for basic lawn care, either electric or gas would work. Get what you like, you can fix everything else.

[shinning]

Originally Posted by Mach50

I've heard these are a hassle to keep the blades sharp. What's your experience?

I'm learning toward electric but I have a very small yard.

I would recomend gas, and not necessary a powered wheel one. Because when grass is wet after rains, it can dig in, rip lawn out. This is the same problem with a hand push mower. Push mower makes the nicest looking cut lawn.

The electric, some are light, so you get a jagged cut when it raises up, another reason gas is best. Running over your cord.

Before removing a blade make sure it is unpluged if electric, or pull the gas spark plug, so there is no chance the mower can run.

[War Beagle]

Dead thread resurrection, but my question can be asked here without starting a new one:

I've got a smallish yard (about .10 acre) with St. Augustine grass. I'm trying to figure out which type of mower to buy. If possible, I'd prefer to avoid the hassle of a gas mower, but I am not sure it an electric would work for my lawn.

Also, I'm very interested in reel mowers, but I heard that they don't cut St. Augustine.

[need4speed2012]

Very Simple.

With that size don't get an electric one !!!!

[headingtoDenver]

Just get one of these and call it a day.


Randy Quaid lawn mower scene - YouTube

[SmartMoney]

I was this old thread thinking wow, things have really improved. I have a cordless electric (same size yard) and love it! I don't have to worry about a gas engine under roof, tune ups, gas cans around the home. I've had my grass get high and have managed fine. But my son used it to mow a knee-high field and it did stall out and it was a problem.

[mofford]

I have been using a reel mower for 3 years now, on a quarter acre lot. If you keep your lawn free of weeds and crabgrass, reel type mowers might be better. Many golf courses use reel mechanical cutters pulled behind a tractor, because they make the grass softer and more lush, by scissor cut action, not traumatic chop action like gas or electric mowers do. For this reason, you can cut the grass shorter than the 3 1/2 inch minimum you should go with gas mowers. The grass responds well to reel cut, recovers fast and grows nice seed tops and thickens up.

The bad thing about reel mowers is they don't cut tall grass and weeds very well, you must cut the lawn every 3 or 4 days if rain has been plentiful, if you wait any longer you will need to make a second pass for every row, coming back the opposite the direction of your first pass, to get a nice cut. Every little twig needs to be picked up before you start mowing or it will catch in the blade and make you stop to pull it out. Reel mowers are hard to push thru thick, over-fertilized grass, and patches of crab grass. One could have a heart attack really easy getting yourself in good enough shape to use one, and I'm just short of 50 years old, so my heart does thump when I plow the lawn with one of these suckers first time in the spring when I'm not used to it. It takes me twice as long to cut with my 18" reel mower than my push 22" gas mulching mower does, 2 hours vs 1 hour with gas mower. After a few mows, it gets easier, but that first one of the year is a killer, lol. Also later in the summer with dry weather, when the weeds grow fast, but the grass does not, it will not cut taller weeds, so I get out the gas mower and zig zag around the lawn to get the weeds, and use gas mower for mulching leaves in the fall, as the reel mower is worthless for that task.

I like electric for weed eaters and hedge trimmers, as they are low maintenance, lightweight and long lasting "appliances". The cord does not bother me, at least they always start !