Cordless lawn mowers?

[watercooled]

WRT the cost I just mean the cost of battery packs is vastly higher than the raw cells used inside them. I know they need to add a bit on top of BoM to turn a profit, but you're often paying many times the raw cost of the cells.

But yeah I agree about pack standardisation - it really is a bit silly you need a separate expensive battery pack for that cordless angle grinder you use once in a blue moon when you already have a load of batteries lying around. The only real way you can do that now is by getting locked in to one brand. If they're worried about excess current draw or something, they only need to set a current limit on the Li-ion protection circuitry.

[hb904460]

Maybe this will help:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...rdless-mowers/

[Zak33]

Maybe this will help:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...rdless-mowers/

that top Qualcast IS good value

and the link does go to Homebase and it IS that price £175

that's a good deal

[DanceswithUnix]

that top Qualcast IS good value

and the link does go to Homebase and it IS that price £175

that's a good deal

Did anyone try getting the Qualcast then? Still more than a bit tempted.

[Hoonigan]

Astroturf.

[Ferral]

We decided to get a new mower last week, primarily down to not being able to get in the garage with it raining the night before and water getting into the electrics.

We do have a decent petrol mower but it is HEAVY, it can also be funny to restart if you let go of the grip and the motor stops when emptying it, mind you a lot of the time even when the grass is dry it doesn't pick up into the box properly. So we decided to get an electric Flymo Easimo, £65 delivered from Amazon and I was in mowing nirvana, lightweight and picks up every bit of grass even if slightly wet, I did look at cordless but until they come down in price a bit going to hold off.

I should imagine in the next few year when it comes to replacing what I have just bought cordless mowers will be the norm and prices will reflect that.

[directhex]

so I still don't quite see the appeal when a petrol engine works. And if the lawn and then something else needs doing you just put more petrol in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPRvfNW-Qs

[DanceswithUnix]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPRvfNW-Qs

That was rather funny, though possibly not completely fair.

More to the point, seeing that mower chew through the grass of that meadow was pretty impressive, and shows the zero rpm full torque characteristic of electric motors is very well suited.

Anyway, I cracked. Had to drive a few miles to get to a homebase that had the £175 Qualcast, but after doing the front lawn trailing the cable around (there is a tree in the middle which is a complete arse with that cable) I decided I wasn't going through the same tedium with the back lawn.

Had a look around Homebase while I was there, the petrol mowers looked too big and wouldn't fit my current storage. There was a 37cm Bosch there which made me wonder for a moment whether that would be a better bet despite the £330 price tag, but figured I don't think I need it and the smaller Qualcast should do.

I charged the battery pack up while I assembled the mower and basket, and by the time I wheeled it outside the charger said it was done. The back lawn was pretty long, and it coped better I think than my mains powered one would have. Bring only 34cm the grass box seemed to need a lot of emptying, but it got the job done. Charge meter was in the red so it was into the last quarter of charge (crude meter) but my hope is that it now isn't as much of a faff to mow the lawns I won't let it get quite so long next time and the whole thing should be done in no time.

[watercooled]

Thanks for posting! Roughly how big is your lawn? And did it seem reasonably powerful e.g. you didn't have to keep stopping on long bits due to the motor slowing?

[Moby-Dick]

I went robotic - "Colin" is in the garden at the moment

[Zak33]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFPRvfNW-Qs

that's such a sad link Hex... it's just rubbish

it's a shagged out petrol lawnmower vs a £1350 thing.
https://www.lawnmowersdirect.co.uk/p...ered-lawnmower

and it comes with no charger... OR batteries

The batteries are £325 EACH (needs two..) and the charger is £185...total... WAAAY over £2000!!!!

Lets see what that buys in petrol lawnmowers.....

ah.. a Honda sit on
https://www.lawnmowersdirect.co.uk/p...n-mower-28-cut


it's even got a hose attachment position to wash out under the cutting deck.

£2,199

joking aside though....

https://www.lawnmowersdirect.co.uk/p...trol-lawnmower
£340 buys a proper Husqvarna that does nearly 4kph for extended periods.

electric schmectric

[Ttaskmaster]

Does anyone have experience with cordless mowers?

A little... Worked fine with minimal running costs, but the Welsh neighbour borrowed it for a weekend and the condition he returned the poor thing in ended up costing us a fortune in vet bills!!

TBH, I can't believe a mower battery wouldn't last long enough for one full cut on a 12x12m area.
Supposedly the average UK garden is 90m², though... Each of ours (front and back) is maybe 130m² and our gardener easily does both front and back in one charge - I'll try and remember to see what he uses next time.

[DanceswithUnix]

Thanks for posting! Roughly how big is your lawn? And did it seem reasonably powerful e.g. you didn't have to keep stopping on long bits due to the motor slowing?

Sorry, only just saw this.

I think it cut easier than the 2 year old mains powered mower, but then that has 2 years of bluntness hammered into the blade so not a fair comparison. It makes a funny noise on startup, which I am guessing is some protection system to avoid full starting torque being applied to a stalled motor if you go well into the weeds as it seems to take a few seconds to get going. Still, the lawn was well overdue a cut and it coped just fine.

House is 4 bed detached, lawn is quite wide but an odd shape so hard to say what the area is. Not done front and back on a single go yet as my garden refuse bin has been full of bits of hedge, but it should do it on one charge if I haven't let the lawn go too long. Last cut out the back after two weeks growth said on the meter it used half the charge.

Someone at work has the Rotak 37 Li-ion, he says after a couple of years the batteries don't hold as much charge so I won't look forward to that.

Edit: Battery charge time is supposed to be 1 hour from flat. You aren't supposed to charge the battery straight after use you are supposed to let it cool down, but still that seems workable if I have to eg recharge over lunchtime. I suspect if the grass is so long that it takes two charges then my wheelie bin might not be big enough for the clippings anyway

[Zak33]

as everyone is getting keen on them, lets at least try to help them

Li Ion batteries HATE the cold long term.. most builders with rechargable drills in vans overnight will tell you.. the life is rubbish once winter hits. It's why so many Nican still sell. They need charging regularly anyway and the frost doesnt harm them as badly. So.. keep those batteries indoors over winter while the mower is in the shed

[watercooled]

Li-ion are ideally stored cold (although freezing can destroy them) but like a lot of battery chemistries they don't perform as well when cold. They age rapidly when kept warm and fully charged, hence why laptop batteries die so quickly. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/a...tore_batteries

It's wise to keep them indoors though - freezing is bad and extreme shed heat in the summer is bad too.

Anyway I ended up getting a petrol mower as the guy in the shop knocked a fair bit off a 46cm Honda Izy. Still a bit more than I was aiming to spend but I always hear good things and I'll take care of it so it should last!

[DanceswithUnix]

The Qualcast chordless is no longer listed on the Homebase website.

Interestingly, it looks like www.qualcast.co.uk goes straight to homebase. They own the brand now?

Edit: To answer my own question: Bosch own the brand, they licensed it to Home Retail Group for 8 years according to http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/lawn-...ould-i-buy-one