Re: (ET) Electric Push Mowers

["MR23=Christopher Meier \(Mtka, MN, USA\)" <mr23 worldspy net>]

My family has used a Black & Decker model CMM600 cordless
electric mower.  18" deck, mulching design, bag available (we
haven't bothered to get one), one handle adjustment of all wheels,
12v 26ah Hawker.  Of the 6 grass depth settings, we use 5 (5th
tallest), we like the grass longer, makes it more heat/drought
tolerant. We have a 1/2 acre lot that is about half grass.  When
the grass is mowed about once a week, it had no trouble mowing
the complete yard.  If the grass was left to grow longer, due to
vacation/whatever, sometimes it would have to be cut in two
sessions.  When discharged to near 100%, it takes 16-18
hours to recharge *completely* using the 'stock' charger module.
The mower battery doesn't have to be at 100% charge to start
using it, though.  Since the charger is essentially a taper charger,
a significant amount of the charge gets back into the battery in
a matter of hours.

I've had only one complaint about the mower.  The wheels are
plastic. They run on plastic bushings.  The bushings and the
wheels wear.  I had to replaced the bushings after 3 mowing
seasons, and due to wear on the wheel, etc, the wheels are
still a bit wobbly.  I plan to replace the whole wheel assembly
with some steel wheels with integral ball bearings (like ones
Home Depot carries in their mower section) when the next
(2nd) failure occurs.

One note: don't plan to 100% discharge the battery every
time you use it.  The AGM batteries are said to get their
best life when discharged to about 50%.  Since I have an
E16 Electrak (picked it up after 2 years of having the B&D),
we use the E16 to cut the big areas, and use the B&D to
do the tedious trimming, and around the 'tight' garden areas.
My wife and I have been busy converting much of our grassy
areas to gardens, and at our current rate, we won't have any
grass left in a few years :-( and will probably have to sell the
electrak :-(, unless I convince her to keep a few large areas
for my toy.  Of course, I can always cut the neigboring yards! :-)
I've been known to do that to give the batteries a good work out.

I don't know of any self-propelled cordless electric mowers, but
I haven't been looking for 5 years either.  Seems unlikely, since
the manufacturers are probably sensitive to drains on the run
time.  I haven't weighed my mower, but it doesn't feel as heavy
as a gas mower.  I've picked it up a few times.

Don't cut wet grass with the electric mowers.  There isn't a
shock hazard -- too low of voltage, and probably no way one
could get a shock even if it was higher voltage.  The concern
is that wet grass doesn't mulch as well as dry -- it clumps.
And the wet grass is a bigger load on the mower, and will
reduce the run time.

Use it as it was designed and you should be happy.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brenda Harrison & Tim Krokowski" <krowharr bcpl net>
To: <snaugler earthlink net>; <Elec-Trak cosmos5 phy tufts edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: (ET) Electric Push Mowers


> Hi Steve,
> I haven't upgraded from my corded electric pushmower yet but I am lloking
> forward to hearing what the list has to say.  I did check out some of the
> features of Black & Deckers cordless and I really liked the one handle
> height adjustment of all 4 wheels.  I can't remember if it was
> self-propelled but I hope so because it had more weight than was
> comfortable for any extended pushing.  Honda made a gas-powered pushmower
> that was a dream to operate (for an ice).  It had an electric start,
> self-propelled, quiet compared to normal mowers, good cornering.  I know
> this because my 70+ year-old neighbor let me borrow it one time.  I hope
> you can find an electric equivalent but this would be perfect if that
> fails.  Good luck!
>
> Tim Krokowski
>
> "It all started with compact fluorescent lights.  Before you know it 
> there
> was a corded electric pushmower, an active/passive solar house and then 
> an
> electric tractor.  Who knows what's next!  Oh yeah, I just got that
> Inverter/battery backup for the house."
>
> At 09:40 PM 5/7/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >To GE fans,
> > This query is not related to GE, but concerns electric mowers, so I
> >thought somewhere in the GE community I might find the right info.  My
> >folks have asked that I purchase a self propelled, electric start push
> >mower for my 72 year old mother who wants to mow their lawn but is
> >intimidated by riding lawn mowers and lawn tractors.  She used to use
their
> >now defunct gas push mower.  (They have a functional Snapper riding lawn
> >mower, but she won't use it and my Dad cannot use it for the foreseeable
> >future.)  A couple of years ago there were a number of companies making
> >cordless electric lawn mowers, at least one of which was self propelled.
> >Here are my questions:
> >1.  Does anyone in the GE tractor community have experience with any of
> >these electric cordless push mowers?
> >2.  How well did they work?
> >3.  How much lawn could they mow?  (Their lawn is about 1/4 acre at
most.)
> >4.  Which ones were (are) self propelled?
> >5.  Here is the question I almost hate to ask, but if the suitable
electric
> >product is not out there, what (gasp) gasoline product might have the
> >electric start and easy maneuvering a 72 year old women could deal with?
> > Thanks in advance for your help.
> >
> >
> >--- Steven Naugler
> >--- snaugler earthlink net
> >
> >
> >
> >
>