Disposable Lawn Mowers: Sunjoe

[Tornadoman]

A few years ago, I bought a 28-volt Sunjoe mower for my wife to use for trimming and mowing around fruit trees. Got it at Home Depot. The day before yesterday, my grandson was trimming with it, and it just stopped. I began diagnostics with my multimeter, and it has 28v at the battery and 28v going into the motor controller. So I decided it needed a new motor controller. I searched and searched to no avail. Finally, I got in contact with the company and was told that they do not sell internal parts. Great! A truly disposable mower! They suggested I contact a repair shop, so does anyone know of a repair shop where I can get this part? The part# is SMV 879705, 28 VDC 25A. There is also another # 171009-0602.

 

[StarTech]

Welcome to the world of cheap electrical stuff that the OEM never intend us to repair just to fill up our landfills and keep their factories humming along.

 

[ILENGINE]

The only thing I can say is welcome to the world of battery operated tools where the companies have no intention of supplying parts past the warranty period, and if it fails under warranty we will just refund your purchase price, providing you still have the original receipt.

 

[MowerMike]

I chuckled when I read the OP's dilemma in finding repair parts for his electric lawn mower. I just bought a Honda electric lawn mower and I can purchase every little part from Honda to keep it running forever. Honda publishes a complete parts catalog for every one of their products as well as a detailed shop manual. So, the problem isn't that the OP's mower is electric, but that it's cheap and sold by a company that does not care about service after the sale.

 

[fbirch]

I chuckled when I read the OP's dilemma in finding repair parts for his electric lawn mower. I just bought a Honda electric lawn mower and I can purchase every little part from Honda to keep it running forever. Honda publishes a complete parts catalog for every one of their products as well as a detailed shop manual. So, the problem isn't that the OP's mower is electric, but that it's cheap and sold by a company that does not care about service after the sale.

Agreed. Not only can you buy every part on the Honda battery mower from the same extensive network of Honda parts dealers, but most of the mechanical parts on the battery Honda are the SAME PARTS that are used by the gas Hondas. So not only are they widely available, but they are well made, reliable and reasonably priced.

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

Agreed. Not only can you buy every part on the Honda battery mower from the same extensive network of Honda parts dealers, but most of the mechanical parts on the battery Honda are the SAME PARTS that are used by the gas Hondas. So not only are they widely available, but they are well made, reliable and reasonably priced.

The same dilemma with many off brand battery outdoor power equipment such as trimmers, blowers, and chainsaws. Try to get someone to work on battery Ryobi, Craftsman, Troy Bilt, etc. handheld stuff. Also try to get parts other than some basic items. It all ends up in the landfill.

 

[MowerMike]

The same dilemma with many off brand battery outdoor power equipment such as trimmers, blowers, and chainsaws. Try to get someone to work on battery Ryobi, Craftsman, Troy Bilt, etc. handheld stuff. Also try to get parts other than some basic items. It all ends up in the landfill.

You seem obsessed with the problem of getting service or parts for battery powered OPE, but the fact is that most repair and service is on the engine of gas powered OPE. Electric motors do not require repair or service and brushless motors last almost forever. Cheap equipment is problematic regardless of whether it is powered by gas or electricity. Although most of my OPE is electric, I do have some quality gas tools such as my Echo PB-2520 blower, which is 8-1/2 years old and has been totally problem free. OTOH, my next door neighbor bought a Craftsman B2000 blower with a half-crank design, and it fell apart within two years. Failure of cheap tools is mostly mechanical in nature and is the same regardless of power source. I try to avoid crappy brands like Ryobi, Kobalt, Black + Decker (Craftsman, DeWalt) and Sun Joe. I favor quality brands like Honda, Milwaukee, Makita and Echo.

 

[fbirch]

The same dilemma with many off brand battery outdoor power equipment such as trimmers, blowers, and chainsaws. Try to get someone to work on battery Ryobi, Craftsman, Troy Bilt, etc. handheld stuff. Also try to get parts other than some basic items. It all ends up in the landfill.

A few neighbors and acquaintances bought off brand power equipment assembled with overseas gas engines - mostly mowers, but also a couple home generators and a gokart. They experienced engine problems not long into their ownership. They were unable to get spare parts or aftersales support. Those low-quality gas-powered items ended up in landfills too. The problem you describe is certainly not unique to low-quality battery equipment.

 

[fbirch]

You seem obsessed with the problem of getting service or parts for battery powered OPE, but the fact is that most repair and service is on the engine of gas powered OPE. Electric motors do not require repair or service and brushless motors last almost forever. Cheap equipment is problematic regardless of whether it is powered by gas or electricity. Although most of my OPE is electric, I do have some quality gas tools such as my Echo PB-2520 blower, which is 8-1/2 years old and has been totally problem free. OTOH, my next door neighbor bought a Craftsman B2000 blower with a half-crank design, and it fell apart within two years. Failure of cheap tools is mostly mechanical in nature and is the same regardless of power source. I try to avoid crappy brands like Ryobi, Kobalt, Black + Decker (Craftsman, DeWalt) and Sun Joe. I favor quality brands like Honda, Milwaukee, Makita and Echo.

Agree 100%. A brushless DC motor has an MTBF measured in thousands of service hours. At 40 mows per year, typically less than 1 hour per mow, you can do the math - the DC motor will outlast everything else on the mower as well as most owners. That eliminates the problem of having to rebuild a gas engine. If other parts on the OPE are poorly designed and fabricated (e.g., brackets, cables, wheels, levers, bearings, pulleys, etc.) you will have a bad ownership experience no matter what kind of motor or engine powers the device.

The takeaway here is to buy well-designed equipment from companies that have established a good reputation for reliability and aftersales support.

 

[Tiger Small Engine]

You seem obsessed with the problem of getting service or parts for battery powered OPE, but the fact is that most repair and service is on the engine of gas powered OPE. Electric motors do not require repair or service and brushless motors last almost forever. Cheap equipment is problematic regardless of whether it is powered by gas or electricity. Although most of my OPE is electric, I do have some quality gas tools such as my Echo PB-2520 blower, which is 8-1/2 years old and has been totally problem free. OTOH, my next door neighbor bought a Craftsman B2000 blower with a half-crank design, and it fell apart within two years. Failure of cheap tools is mostly mechanical in nature and is the same regardless of power source. I try to avoid crappy brands like Ryobi, Kobalt, Black + Decker (Craftsman, DeWalt) and Sun Joe. I favor quality brands like Honda, Milwaukee, Makita and Echo.

I don’t like crappy off brand battery equipment, or crappy off brand gas powered equipment. There are lots of people that DO buy off brand crappy battery equipment and off brand crappy gas powered equipment. That is my point. The market is flooded with crappy equipment because products are so expensive in general these days, and people are looking for ways to save money.