Recent content by fbirch

I'm aware of that, but in cases like this there's almost always a compromise between engineering and product management. The engineers will want the pack to cool all the way down to ambient before allowing charging to commence, and the product manager will want the limit to be less conservative...

If you follow manufacturers' guidelines for battery use and recharging - usually spelled out in the owner's manual - you can get 7-10 years of life from a battery pack built with good quality cells. At that point the economics of pack replacement are very decent. A few simple guidelines that I...

Looks good!

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...

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...

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...

Agreed. But this thread is about a specific brand and model, not battery mowers in general.

There’s no reason for a battery pack to fail in three years, other than users not following manufacturer guidelines. Lots of people don’t, so that’s why premature failures happen and the false perception that a pack simply can’t last any longer than five years. As I posted upthread, I ran the...

Thanks for your feedback. I too wish that Honda could have continued to make gas engine mowers alongside new battery-powered offerings so customers who prefer one platform over the other could have a choice. But to put the battery cost issue into perspective, I think you can squeeze 10 years...

I'm well aware of leveraging existing subcomponents in new designs. It can bring new products to market faster and more cost effectively, while also giving customers well-proven design elements. I ran the engineering dept of a company that designed, manufactured, sold, and serviced battery...

I bought the same mower, also from Northern Tool, on sale. I’ve used Honda gas mowers for decades, including an HRN216 gas mower for the past six years. Earlier this summer I tried a Greenworks 60V battery mower, purely for noise reduction reasons. That mower had some nice attributes (quiet...

Hello, just found this forum. Like many here I suspect, I have an appreciation for high quality lawn power equipment. I hope to learn from others here.