As Ford Moves Forward With Electric F-150 Preparations, Online Chatter Leaves It in the Dust

For 4 hrs mowing maybe not in a walk behind, but for smaller yards a battery operated mower is great. Last fall I was at Lowes looking for something else and when I walked in the main isle was stacked high with Craftsman battery lawn mowers, marked down considerably since it was near the end of the season. I didn't bite, but then I made it over to the main yard equipment section and specifically where they put the units that have been returned. Low and behold there was one of the same model that looked like it mowed 10sq ft of grass for ~50% of the already significantly marked down price. So I bit and it works great for our yard where it doesn't even get discharged to 50% mowing the entire yard, and yes it is much quieter and is so much lighter that I don't miss the self propelled at all.

If you're talking about a self-propelled walk-behind lawnmower, they already exist. I have one (not self-propelled) in my garage (Lowes Kobalt 80V), and it makes do with about 0.5 kWh, which can go for about 2 hours. I love it; I finally got sick of stinking mowers that don't start in the spring. If you're talking about a riding mower, the battery would weigh about 100 lbs, which doesn't seems like a big adder when you're replacing a gas tank and a heavy engine with an electric motor and battery. Full-load towing kills the range of an EV by 50-60%, and probably worse if cold. So the mfrs are planning on enormous batteries to make up for it. It will be interesting to watch.

electric power tools seem hit-and-miss: 0. electric power washers are way weaker, to the point that they are pretty much just car washers, although in their defense they are rated at lower spec. 1. electric chain saws are weaker, but again they don't hide that. 2. electric blower is about the same. 3. electric string trimmer is weaker but can generally get the job done. 4. I can't quite do my entire yard (about .65 acre) in a single charge on an electric mower but the power is about equal to my mid-tier Husqvarna. The big appeal on electric tools is that they are much quieter and require less fuss.

I should add that on many walk behinds the battery is removeable, so it is possible to have more than one battery and keep going. I went to battery powered blower and string trimmer a couple of years ago and in that case went with Milwaukee M18 since I already had a number of other M18 tools and batteries. So while I do drain the batteries, I've always had another charged and ready to go and if I did make it through all of them, the first one to be drained would be ready to go again if it was put in the charger.

I have battery-powered electric lawnmower. I even replaced the SLA batteries with a (very carefully selected) lithium-ion e-bike battery. (I had to match volts, amps, amp-hours, and the physical dimensions.) This mower is much better for my particular yard-size than the gasoline mower I used to own.

@Scoutdude I have the 80v Kobalt blower and string trimmer. Those use a 2.5ah battery. The 80V Kobalt mower uses a 6.0ah battery, so I'm thinking I'd need to buy a second 6.0ah battery to make a mid-job swap out effective. The problem is that the price of a second mower battery (with any brand it seems) pushes the price of things up into Honda HRX territory, which is an extremely good gas powered machine. I don't particularly love my current Husqvarna but aside from fuel, a spark plug, and a new blade it was free. So that's hard to pass up.

@Luke42 My electric mower runs on about 500 watts sustained (36V with 15 amp wiring), but it bogs down less than the gas mower I used to have. It may be maintains its torque when it slows down, I guess.

@Luke42 The real appeal of electric yard tools is avoiding gummed carbs and/or 40:1 2 cycle fuel. My yard is too big to mow effectively with an electric but I've switched to battery chainsaw and trimmer and won't go back.

@Luke42 Actually on an electric motor the torque increases as the rpm drops. On the ICE they usually govern them around peak torque meaning that torque falls with RPM. So the electric gives you the boost when you need it most.

@jack4x What pushed me over to an electric mower was my then-pregnant-and-nauseous wife complaining about the exhaust smell when I went by a window. What keeps me with the electric mower is that the total lifecycle of yard maintenance is just easier. Gas mowers are the right tool for bigger lawns -- my dad had one of those when I was a kid, and it's a different job which requires a different tool. If everyone used the right tool for the right job, though, we'd save tons of gas -- and my neighborhood would be quieter!