Best battery operated mower for thicker lawn

mickman

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I recently purchased an EGO 21 self propelled battery operated mower. I really like the battery operated equipment. For the most part, I really like this mower. Two problems with this mower that I can't / do not want to deal with are that it does not cut evenly and does not have the suction power to pick up debris like my 20 year old gas powered Toro did for years.

Question; Does anyone have a recommendation for a better battery operated mower that the EGO that cuts more evenly and better. I do need self propelled because my St Augustine is thick, and would like to keep it that way.

Thanks
 

1 Lucky Texan

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I think most of the cordless electrics will cut the top 1/3 leaf-blade off of any lawn fairly well. But an overgrown lawn can 'stall' an electric just like a gasser can be stalled.

With my GW TwinForce, there have been times I've needed to lift the front to 'skim' some overgrown patch before making a normal run forwards over it. But, other than an issue with stragglers at higher cut settings, it maintained my St. A lawn as well as my old MTD gasser with a lot less noise/hassle/smell etc.


Gassers probably still have a coupla advantages when it comes to an overgrown patch of grass - probably more inertia in the spinning parts, and maybe more reserve power to get through it.

Your old Toro may have been running at higher tip speed than the Feds now allow.
 

nbpt100

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Your old Toro may have been running at higher tip speed than the Feds now allow.

What are you referring to here. Can you explain to those of us who are in the dark?
 

MowerMike

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What are you referring to here. Can you explain to those of us who are in the dark?

I think he was refering to a higher blade tip speed than is now permitted by law. The blade tip speed is proportional to the product of blade RPM and blade length, and the faster the blade speed the better it cuts. The FEDs are concerned with safety and not performance, and have limited the blade tip speed for that reason.
 

nbpt100

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MowerMike, thanks. I did not know there was a federal regulation on the Surface speed of a blade. I am familiar with the math to calculate it.

ON a 22" blade what is the max RPM or the max Surface Feet per minute on any blade as stated in this regulation?

How would anyone know about this stuff?
 

MowerMike

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MowerMike, thanks. I did not know there was a federal regulation on the Surface speed of a blade. I am familiar with the math to calculate it.

ON a 22" blade what is the max RPM or the max Surface Feet per minute on any blade as stated in this regulation?

How would anyone know about this stuff?

I don’t personally know this, I was just stating what @1LuckyTexan meant in his post. There are CPSC, CFR and ANSI regulations and standards for just about every consumer product that is capable of causing serious injury or death if it fails or malfunctions, and the FEDs tend to err very much on the conservative side. Also, with more and more unsafe junk being imported from China, it has been necessary to apply higher safety factors to these products. The specific concern with blade tip speed is metal fatigue of the blade, causing it to become shrapnel.
 

1 Lucky Texan

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Near as I can figure, most organizations like OSHA refer back to ANSI B71.1-1990 which seems tricky to actually read as it's behind paywalls.

The idea is to limit tip speed to about 215mph - supposedly to slow-down thrown debris? as to whether there is an actual Law, I'm not certain, it's a 'safety specification'. I think it's in the same document that makes it a 'requirement' for the blade to stop within 3-5 seconds.

Probably unlikely a company's Legal Team is gonna be happy about offering a product that violates a g'mint spec but ????

edit, it's been discussed here before; http://www.lawnmowerforum.com/showthread.php/2248-what-blade-tip-speed
 
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MowerMike

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By my calculation, that works out to about 3600 RPM for a 20” blade. This seems about right, as the maximum speed for my 60 volt Greenworks with a 20” blade is 3200 RPM.
 

1 Lucky Texan

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do a google image search, that spec is listed on equipment labels.

DE9080ZR.jpg

LGTD205.JPG

s-l1600.jpg
 

Lithium Man

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I recently purchased an EGO 21 self propelled battery operated mower. I really like the battery operated equipment. For the most part, I really like this mower. Two problems with this mower that I can't / do not want to deal with are that it does not cut evenly and does not have the suction power to pick up debris like my 20 year old gas powered Toro did for years.

Question; Does anyone have a recommendation for a better battery operated mower that the EGO that cuts more evenly and better. I do need self propelled because my St Augustine is thick, and would like to keep it that way.

Thanks

Try the 80v Kobalt self propelled mower. It works really good!
 
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