Electric Lawn Care: The Challenge

Boobala

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Yeah, unlike all you guys with your electric start riding mowers who get plenty of exercise. :laughing:

We're fit and trim cause we HAVE to RUN to the frig for more beers when we get a pass close to house ... and we ALWAYS run for fuel can's and we run to catch the wifey, (once in a bue-moon) we run up & down the stairs in fact we run a lot, so I'm gonna quit runnin my mouth ...... :laughing:..:laughing:
 

willys55

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I thought we rode the riding mowers to save our energy for riding the little lady later
 

Boobala

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I thought we rode the riding mowers to save our energy for riding the little lady later

DON'T tell em EVERYTHING, Doc !! .. :laughing:..:laughing:
 

primerbulb120

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I have an electric start ZTR, and it cuts down the time I spend on each yard to the point that I spend longer trimming edging and blowing than I do mowing it.
 
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Nice to read your post about Robomow RS630 SwitcheDon Quixote . I'm considering buying one myself but wonder if it's the right one. It's not a cheap robot but it do sound to be a nice machine. You have a 0,8 acre lawn and according to reviews https://robot-lawnmowers.com/robomow-rs630-review the recommended size of lawn is 0.37 acre. My lawn is about 0,5 acre. With your 0.8 acre do you think my lawn is too big for this Robomow? What is your experience with Robomow RS 630?

I would say that I am pushing the edge of what this thing can do in terms of mowed area, and in hindsight I might have done better with two smaller units.

The key issue that troubled us last season was timing. Because it is a relatively small and slow device, it needs to spend most of its time mowing to keep up with my lawn. During the summer it is allowed to go out and mow whenever it wants to in the daytime hours, 7 days a week. Obviously it needs to spend time charging up at its base in between mows, and it's close to a 50/50 split of mow time vs. charge time. Therefore it spends half of every day actively mowing.

So far so good. Where this breaks down is wet weather. The mower (like many manned mowers) doesn't cut wet grass very well and it rapidly clogs with mulch paste. I have it programmed to stop mowing at night when the grass is full of dew, and it has a rain sensor to keep it from mowing during rain. Those factors keep the deck clean and reduce the need for cleaning.

The problem is that my climate simply has too many rainy hours per week, which limits the overall effectiveness of the mower. My neighbors with their large riding rigs have an advantage here- their machines have the speed to do their whole lawn in less than 2 hours, so they just hold for a good dry hour or two and get it done in one shot. I didn't account for this when planning, so I had to adapt elsewhere.

It's taken me a couple of paragraphs to describe this situation here, so this kind of limitation can't really get explained in the brochure/website/sales pitch. If I had known about it, I might have bought two smaller ones to let them work in parallel during dry hours. I may yet add a second machine in the future, but for now my solution is to occasionally mow some myself with my electric walk-behind mower. I use the app to program the robot to temporarily ignore one section of the yard and then mow that myself. It isn't total automation, but it is considerably easier than doing the whole yard myself. Once I get to the dry half of the summer, I let the robot do it all.

I realize you're already probably mentally juggling a lot while considering a device like this, and this is another degree of complication to throw in, but I would say that the lesson is to take note of how many "good mowing hours" there are in an average week where you live. That is a vague standard, but it's fine- just imagine yourself mowing it. If you wouldn't do it under current conditions, the robot shouldn't either. What time does the dew burn off? How often does it rain? Give it some thought.

Regarding the machine itself, it is fantastic hardware. The materials quality and engineering is really top-notch. Smart people built it to last outdoors. The software isn't wonderful by modern standards, but it works well enough and they are actively improving it. Support has been phenomenal, the few times I needed it.

tl;dr: This mower is 100% capable of keeping up with 0.8 acres in a drier climate than mine. I'm sure it would also be fine on a smaller yard in the mid-atlantic region.


Good luck!
 
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Just bumping with a seasonal update- 3rd summer season for this electric lawn.

The robot is doing well. It did not need any repairs coming out of last season.

A little bit of sod repair and soil remediation was required of the lawn itself- I had some damage from voles, and after getting rid of them I had to plug some holes before turning the robot loose.

As expected I had to hand-mow a bit right at the start of the season just to keep up with the crazy early growth, but now the robot seems to be keeping up with the whole thing.

The walk-behind Greenworks mower needed an adjustment in the safety switch cable tension and I sharpened the blade, but apart from that it started the season without drama. I can tell that this mower isn't aging as well as some of my other gear. I do wish there were sturdier options on the market.

My Dewalt string trimmer went straight into service as well. I've been using a thicker .080 line in it and I'm thinking about going back to .066. I don't seem to be using any less string with the thick stuff, but I can tell the speed dropped a bit with the heavier weight.
 

broo

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Interesting.

While I do not want an automatic mower since I do enjoy handling the mower myself, I really do see potential in electrification of these tools. When I bought my walk behind, there were a lot of electric mowers available. Back then, I still had my lawn tractor and I had a lot of ground to cover with my walk behind since the tractor couldn't reach easily, so I bought a gas powered one.

Then later, my tractor quit. I bought a Zero Turn riding mower (I love operating this machine !) and while bigger than my former tractor, its agility allows it to reach many places that were out of reach before. As a result, I use my walk behind a lot less. So much less that NOW it would make sense to get an electric one. That will happen, but not before I wear out my gas powered one. Since I try to care as best as possible for my stuff, I may have this mower for many years still, despite how cheaply built it feels.

Much like cars. My next commuter will be electric, but not before I wear out my current gas powered car. It's a small car so MPGs are great. It's now 13 years old. I won't buy electric unless this one is totaled or suffers catastrophic failure. While electric is perfectly logical for a commuter, it would take quite a while to earn back the buying price.
 
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Much like cars. My next commuter will be electric, but not before I wear out my current gas powered car. It's a small car so MPGs are great. It's now 13 years old. I won't buy electric unless this one is totaled or suffers catastrophic failure. While electric is perfectly logical for a commuter, it would take quite a while to earn back the buying price.

I think a lot of it is down to timing.

If we had bought the house just a few years earlier, I would have wound up with more gas powered gear.

If we were to buy it a few years into the future? I'd probably have different electric stuff than I have now.

In my case it's just that we switched from apartment living with nothing beyond a window box to a large suburban property with lawn, gardens, flower beds and other landscaping in 2016. By then, there were some useful electric outdoor power equipment options.
 
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