Is electric the way to go now?

[smhardesty]

not what the average person is going to experience not right now in the very near future.

I think that pretty much sums up what my clientele would be. I'm not a big, well know repair shop. I'm just a guy trying to stay busy by refurbishing some equipment for resell and doing some minor servicing and repairs for a few customers. The people that I'd be dealing with are the ones that would be buying that cheap stuff sold at the big box stores. I really was just curious to know if there were any reasonably priced courses on how to repair this new, battery powered stuff. It seems that there is not anything like that and that the real repair to a battery powered mower would consist of replacing batteries and then taking the motor to an electric shop to have the motor repaired. I say that because I'm not an electrician by any means.

 

[chuckpen]

On a $600 dollar Kobalt Electric mower the blade adapter is made of plastic and the blade shearpins are plastic nubs. hit anything with the blade and that blade adapter is done. Oh, and Kobalt does not provide a replacement part. $600 mower on side of road... Lowes has an issue ....

 

[sgkent]

there is an inherent flaw in thinking EV mowers, cars, etc., have years of development left. The whole problem with any device is the power it needs to work. Whether you were a downed aviator in WWII who had a crank powered transmitter to call for help, or a modern smart phone user dialing 911, both calls required energy. The energy today is stored in batteries. Electric cars are well over 100 years old, older than aircraft. Battery technology is even older. You can make a car lighter and more aerodynamic to get more miles out of a charge. One can stuff more batteries into a pack and use computers to control charge and discharge to get more efficiency, but the technology is quite mature as to what minerals and chemicals will store energy. One cannot make their lawn grass require less energy to cut. Thinner sharper blades, wind tunnel testing of blade airflow have all been done. We are at diminishing returns on these devices. The low hanging fruit has been picked. And that is without discussing all the other things that go along with the mandated changes. There are things I won't post publicly but I will say that there are peer reviewed scientific papers out there showing ways the CO2 problem can be solved quite quickly, and with a lot less disruption to people. No one discusses it, why? Because it would interfere with investments and politics. I came here today to see what people think of the new Toro electric mower, or maybe the Makita. The ICE Toro I have is rear wheel drive, is a 2006 model and starts on the first pull each time. It has been flawless. If it gets replaced, what replaces it has to meet that. I have already replaced the Toro EV weedwacker once after about 10 hours use, and I've had to play with the head settings to get it to feed properly. Every electric yard device or tool I have every bought has either failed, or I've had to replace the battery many times over. It is also a pain to remember to charge them frequently when they are not being used. I have never had any battery last 7 - 10 years. That includes those in the hundreds of laptops I used to support for CalEPA & CalRecycle (which I have heard from friends there that neither has a plan yet what to do with all these batteries when they wear out). I do hope someone can tell me a little about their experience with the TORO EV mowers.

 

[smhardesty]

Well said, sgkent. I'd say that is a common opinion of battery powered equipment.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Actually battery technology is advancing on a second by second basis.
It has too because Li & Co are in short supply to the point there is not enough Co known to exist ( we might find more ) to convert every currently registered vehicle in the USA alone to EV's and that excludes trucks & trains let alone grid batteries.
SO there is a frantic search for new combinations to make batteries out of.
Now true all batteries are reversable redox reactions and we know just about every redox reaction for every element on the periodic table.
Supply shortfall drives up the raw materials price.
So to date we have been using the very cheap plentiful elements & compounds to make batteries from, there are a lot lot more that we could have been using
Even Tesla is looking at converting to a Mn battery and I will guess that is because the price of Li is skyrocketing
Capitalism is very wasteful because it is always cheapest ( most profitable ) to use up all of resource that is plentiful & cheap , then when you have consumed all of it move on to the next cheapest resource & use up all of it .
Very rarely is what is being consumed is being used in the most efficient manner because that costs money & reduces profit .
Perfect example is radiant wall coal fired power stations.
If the powdered coal burners were replaced with syngas burners then they would use around 1/3 to 2/3 the tons of coal that they do now plus there would be a host of valuable by products that are otherwise just burned and become pollutants , most of which go up the chimney & into the air we breathe
In most coal deposits there are enough radioactive isotopes to power a necular power station for a few seconds and while that does not sound like much, when you multiply that out by the hundreds of millions of tons of coal that is burned it becomes significant

 

[ctrlburn]

I've been seeing more and more battery powered mowers and trimmers in my neck of the woods. I just got a a Stihl chainsaw in to prep for sale by the owner. He told me he has switched his mower, trimmer, blower, and hedge trimmers to battery powered devices already and plans to buy a small, battery powered chainsaw as soon as he sells this Stihl.

So, is that something we should all be looking to add to our regular repairs? Should we be stocking a couple of battery powered mowers? And my big question is, should we be learning to repair these things? I'm just getting my little repair business going and I'm wondering what the near future holds. Then, if we should be considering learning how to repair this type of equipment, where do we find courses?

Actually, I have been referring to "we" and the truth us I really mean me. LOL! Are there any repair courses available now? I'd be interested in an online course or a good, old fashioned, book type course. If anybody knows of one, or more, I'd be grateful for the info.

I've got Cub Cadet RZT-S Zero electric riding mower since 2015 and mow an acre (plus a neighbor's) with Wisconsin's regularity.
The batteries are normal glasspack - and get recycled with regular car batteries.

For repairs - I swapped the 4 batteries in 2019. Replaced a motor bearing (but I think Cub Cadet would rather I swapped the motor) and replaced the front tires in 2022.
I probably swapped batteries prematurely - system has no Battery Management System for balancing and now I know that I should have jsut rebalanced them.

1,131 Miles, 317.4 Hr Runtime and 283.7 hours Deck time.

For charging I have 3 solar cells on the cargo trailer I park it in and it is ready to charge, just like the grass, in about a week.

Heavy grass takes two passes one high the over low in opposite direction. It is so much quieter I don't mind the longer mowing time, and neither do the neighbors.
Not for reclamation of anything that went wild - but certainly adequate for maintaining any well cropped yard.

Stihl electric for trimming, blowing.

 

[hertfordnc]

Interesting conversation. I think people are confusing the quality of certain products with the capability of the technology.

A properly built electric mower would be perfect for most home users. Walk-behind or riders, it's 40 minutes of use followed by a week of charge time.

Look at golf carts, they do their job and very few owners would opt for gas power.

Every spring millions of home owners can't get their mower started because they don't know about ethanol, and spark plugs and carbs.

THe industry is expecting electric mowers to be 65% of the market in 10 years.

 

[adam1991]

I think people are confusing the quality of certain products with the capability of the technology.

100% this.

If all you know is the cheap Chinese stuff, that's a problem. If you don't want to acknowledge anything better because "that costs more!!!", that's a problem.

The whole world doesn't suck.

 

[smears]

Interesting conversation. I think people are confusing the quality of certain products with the capability of the technology.

A properly built electric mower would be perfect for most home users. Walk-behind or riders, it's 40 minutes of use followed by a week of charge time.

Look at golf carts, they do their job and very few owners would opt for gas power.

Every spring millions of home owners can't get their mower started because they don't know about ethanol, and spark plugs and carbs.

THe industry is expecting electric mowers to be 65% of the market in 10 years.

Agreed. Not a popular stance but politics has nothing to do with this subject. Nothing is getting shoved down our throats. EVERYONE has the option to choose. At home, I mow with gas and I prefer electric (Ego) for trimming and for leaf blowing (Stihl). However, on my farm property, totally ICE. Electric *might* do the job but it would take much more time which, as a grandfather, can be occupied by more important things. Both worlds can (and DO) coexist. Businesses also can make the choice. There are plenty of markets to serve, we just have to be willing to pivot if it’s necessary. Blaming politicians is fruitless … none of them take care of their own property anyway. It’s just capitalism, that’s all.

 

[adam1991]

Every spring millions of home owners can't get their mower started because they don't know about ethanol, and spark plugs and carbs.

frankly, they don't know about cheap gas vs good gas (just run good gas, it won't kill you, around here it's Shell or Costco) and simply running it out at the end of the season.

The local mower repair place puts a huge sticker on every mower that goes out: don't use grocery store gas, use Shell.