Photos by Ken Sakamoto, Craig T. Kojima, Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Craftsman/Ryobi Mulcher goes for $299 at Sears.
The
BUZZ ON MOWERS
Cordless electric lawn mowers
are coming on to the scene as quiet alternatives,
and are more Earth friendly than
their gas-guzzling ancestorsBy Burl Burlingame
Star-BulletinYANK. Yank. Yank. Summertime, and the grass is growin'. And you're out there yanking on the lawn mower pull-start, trying to get the balky gas engine to splutter into life. If it does, you've got a powerful engine chopping at the grass, but you've also got pulled muscles, a face full of fumes and -- oh! -- the noise! The average summer weekend in most neighborhoods is filled with the thundering roar of lawn mowers, like dinosaurs in agony.
Thanks to recent advances in battery technology, there's a quiet alternative -- the cordless electric power mower. Unplug it from the extension cord, press a button, close the tension bar, and it springs into life, quieter even than a vacuum cleaner.
Electric mowers aren't new, but they required an electric umbilical. These models needed long, long extension cords, plus a helper to keep the mower operator from running over the power cord. Though these
electric mowers worked well, they were tethered to the wall socket. And not a good idea to use them in the rain.
The cordless electrics use 12, 24 or 36-volt rechargeable batteries. These make the mowers a bit heavier than the gasoline powered versions. Maintenance, however, is much simpler. They recharge overnight, and the batteries are good for five to seven years. Replacement batteries cost anywhere from $80 to $150. The cutting blades also need sharpening more often than gas-powered mowers -- sharper blades help overcome the electrics' relative lack of torque. They need to be sharpened about twice a year.
How long do they last? Depends. If your grass is thick and wet, that's a heavier chore for the mower, and the batteries drain faster. Generally, most 24-volt mowers are rated for 1 to 1-1/2 hours on average lawns and a 36-volt can run up to 3 hours.
Many electric mowers are "mulching" mowers, that is, the blades puree the cut grass back into nutrients. No bags to fill and dump.
By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
Craftsman electric lawn mower folds up for easy storing.
Cordless electric mowers generally cost about the same as a good-quality gas mower, approximately $400. Figured against that should be the cost of gasoline and maintenance for a gas mower, plus the hassle value of the noise and pollutants (see sidebar).Sunset magazine bought and tested several cordless electric mowers last summer, and there was no clear winner. The technology is so similar among them that it boiled down to features, weight and price. Manufacturers include Black and Decker, Ryobi, Makita, Toro and Lawn Boy. Most are available on Oahu except for Lawn Boy, which has some neighbor-island outlets.
Weight matters because these mowers are heavier than the traditional gas mower, and it's more difficult to horse a heavy mower around in a bumpy yard.
Being in the market for a new mower myself, I compared what was available locally and settled on a 24-volt Craftsman, which is a re-labeled Ryobi. I liked the ergonomic tilted handle, low profile and folding characteristics, but most of all I liked the Sears' sale price of $299.
The handle folds and locks in two places, and the mower can stand on end, making a very small storage footprint. There is a sliding door in the back, and a standard extension cord plugs into a receptacle there and into a 120-volt wall outlet. It charged overnight, and a glowing light changed from red to green.
Like most electric mowers, this model requires a safety "key" to start it, making it difficult for kids or neighbors to fire it up without your permission. The key is like a combination car fuse and circuit breaker -- inserting the two prongs completes a circuit. A shielded button on the back pops out if the mower stumbles into an overload condition, such as trying to trim a cinder block. Back off, reset the button, and the mower will start up again.
Once the key is in place, the Craftsman/Ryobi has the operator depress a red button on the handle and then close the tension release bars on the handle. It starts right up, and takes a second or so to get up to speed, like any electric fan. Release the bars, and it stops.
There is no speed control. It's full-tilt or nothing. The height adjustment uses one lever and is quite smooth. My only reservation is that the lowest setting is not REAL low. This mower won't be used on any putting greens.
The body is made of high-impact modern plastics. This incudes the cutting bowl that houses the blade, and shredded grass slips off like it's a Teflon skillet.
The body is also low enough to get under that abandoned car parked in the side yard, a standard fixture in Kailua.
Since this mower mulches instead of spits, there is no exhaust vent for the cut grass. This means the mower is not "handed," that is, you can get close to objects with either side of the mower.
How did it work on my normal-sized yard? Fine, even though the grass was still wet and heavy after a week's rain. There was plenty of juice left over when I finished, even though it ran constantly for 1 1//2 hours. There was no smell. It was also quiet enough to converse without raising your voice.
Otherwise, you get into the zen of the moment, that place where you become the task, and the tool is an extension of your being.
One of the standard names in yard care is Lawn Boy, whose 24-volt mulching mower was a favorite among Sunset magazine testers because of its light weight. Lawn Boy, however, is not easily found on Oahu. The Lawn Boy web site lists only Pullstart Power Tools (845-7855) as an Oahu dealer, but the sales staff there were unsure whether cordless electrics were carried. For Lawn Boy products on Kauai, call Kawamura Farm at 245-3524; on Maui, South Side Lawn Equipment at 879-3236; on Hawaii, Garden Exchange at 961-2875 or Hilo Mower and Saw at 935-6575. Lawn Boy popular
The pollutants from the traditional gas-powered lawn mower are considerable. Gas mowers fall into the category of "non-road" engines, whose exhaust emissions are generally not regulated. Lawn mowers don't even have mufflers, much less emission-control devices. 'Green' consciousness
pushing electric mowers to foreIt was estimated two years ago by the California Air Resources Board that in that state alone, non-road engines spit 70 tons of hydrocarbon pollutants into the air each day, almost 8 percent of the total.
The Electric Power Research Institute at Palo Alto,that there are about 1.3 gas-powered lawn mowers in the United States, and replacing these with electric or push mowers would have the same effect as taking 2 million cars off the road. In California, manufacturers must reduce the hydrocarbon load of non-road engines by 90 percent by the year 1999. Another test showed that the average lawn mower produced as much pollutants as 30 cars. No wonder electric mowers are entering the market.
A new air-quality law in Los Angeles allows companies to buy and scrap homeowners' gas lawn mowers in exchange for meeting minimum smog levels.
Mowers at a glance
Black and Decker CMM650
12-volt, 65 pounds, mulching mower, handle folds for storage, about $329 at Black and Decker.
24-volt, 70 pounds, mulching, bagging mower, handle folds for storage, about $489 one-day special order at Aloha Power Tools.
12-volt, 10-blade reel type for trimming home putting greens down to 3/16 of an inch, $1,275, $1,075 on sale at Garden House.
24-volt, 75 pounds, mulching mower, handle folds for storage, identical to Sears Craftsman model, $599 at Garden House (12-volt CMM1200 is $299), $433.23 at Kilgo's.
24-volt, 70 pounds, mulching, bagging mower, handle folds for storage, 16-inch blade width, not yet in stores but retails for about $400 on the mainland.
