Corded, cordless or gas-powered mower?

[slbnoob]

Originally Posted by Augiec

I have 5k sqft yard between the front and the back and use a black & decker cordless electric. Thing basically runs on a battery similar in size & shape to a car battery. When it's time to mow, I unplug it, drop it in the mower, push a button & hold down a bar & go. It's not self propelled, but I'm fine with that since I need some exercise. I also have a corded weedeater, edger & blower.

Thank you for your response.
My concerns are regarding the 1) st. augustine's grass, 2) lead acid battery, since this mower is already two years old. How long have you used your B&D?

[PedroMartinez]

Robomower. If you're yard will accommodate it, it's fantastic.

I used one at my old house for 3 years.

My current yard just won't accommodate it, or I'd still be all over it.

I really need to put it on craigslist.

[War Beagle]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

Reel mower. You push it. Good exercise, no fuel, no noise. It's the green revolution man, get on board.

I don't care about the environment, but I am cheap and have a childhood full of memories fighting with gas powered mowers. Will the reel mowers cut St. Augustine? My yard is only about .17 acres so I think it would be ideally suited for a reel mower, assuming it could deal with the SA grass. Most likely I would alternate weeks between a lawn service and cutting myself.

Originally Posted by PedroMartinez

Robomower. If you're yard will accommodate it, it's fantastic.

What are the requirements?

[Augiec]

Oh, I forgot to mention I have St. Augustine's grass. I've had my mower for almost 3 years. The first year I lived in the house I paid someone else to mow it. Then got annoyed as they would come & mow every two weeks even when the grass wasn't very high. That's what pushed me over to mowing my own.

Now that I have two kids, I'm thinking about switching back to having someone else mow just because I'd rather spend my time playing with my kids while they're young & actually enjoy my company.

[Augiec]

Amazon.com : Black & Decker CM1936 19-Inch 36-Volt Cordless Electric Lawn Mower With Removable Battery : Walk Behind Lawn Mowers : Patio, Lawn & Garden

Here's the mower I bought. Super easy, mows even moderately tall grass. My wife's dog uses our backyard as a potty & she never picks up after him, so that grass tends to grow quickly.

[PedroMartinez]

Originally Posted by War Beagle

What are the requirements?

You can't have too many "zones" (lots of separated grass areas) or too large of a yard.

You have to stake in a little wire that goes around each zone and wire off any garden areas. The mower has sensors all around it, so it can bump into trees, fountains, etc without issue.

You essentially "drive", via corded remote, the mower to the zone you want to mow, press a button to indicate which zone it's in, and then hit the mow button. The mower makes two rounds around the perimeter and then starts driving randomly inside the perimeter.

The first time I used mine, I thought it would never finish the yard, because the "random" mowing would mean it missed spots. I was wrong. It learns the yard by electronically mapping the perimeter, trees, etc and knows which areas it has missed remains in that area. It never missed anywhere for me.

Since it mows in the dark, I'd just run it in a zone when I'd get home from work. All you do it plug in the battery operated device that energizes the wire marking the perimeter, drive it to the zone, tell it to go, and an hour or so later, drive it back to the garage and plug in the charger.

For me, the weird part was not having any tire marks in the grass. Nothing was better than going out on a hot August afternoon, turning on the mower while sitting in a lawn chair drinking a beer while the neighbors were mowing.

The funniest thing happened one afternoon. I was laying on the couch taking a little nap when somebody knocks on my front door. There is a woman there asking if I knew there was "something" in my front yard. I swear to you, this is no lie, she was concerned it might be a UFO. No, I'm not full of crap, and she wasn't making a joke. She was sincerely afraid there was an "alien robot" in my front yard and I might not know about it.

I paid about $1,000 for mine, but now they are a lot more. The battery lasted a couple of years, and I changed out the blades once. It does allow you to enter a lockout code if you want. If the mower is lifted at all, the blades stop and an alarm goes off. It's fairly heavy. They are water resistant, but not water proof.

Like I said, if you have a relatively basic yard that is common to most suburban neighborhoods, it would probably work well. Keep in mind that you still have to edge and weed wack, but it was always the mowing that was the part I didn't like the most.

Just a video I Googled:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2_AIWFO77s