Pros and Cons of Electric vs Petrol Mowers

BostonB

Whats your Pros and Cons of Electric vs Petrol Mowers for a medium size garden? say 200ftx 80ft.

mobby

I can see no pros to electric mowers to be honest had two over the years purchased new and they were all pieces of S***e' . fell apart after a few weeks never gave a good cut etc etc. Get yourself a good Petrol Mower, look after it, and it should last years.

bmaxi

In a "summer" like this with almost permanently wet grass, you'd probably go through one electric mower a month on an area that size. No brainer really.

ircoha

BostonB wrote:

Whats your Pros and Cons of Electric vs Petrol Mowers for a medium size garden? say 200ftx 80ft.

medium: at 200 by 80:D

go petrol self start self drive

eg google for stiga

BostonB

I should have qualified what I was asking about. We've a electric Qualcast mower its about 5 yrs old. 1700 watt, 40cm blade. Still perfect. Garden roughly that area and its been fine. Only problem is like you say if you don't get to do it 4 to 6 weeks, like this summer, and the grass is a little damp, it will struggle on the really long stuff. You'll have to take two cuts. Just takes longer. I got an electric because sometimes I end up cutting some other gardens and the electric was much smaller and lighter to throw in the back of the car.

However I want to leave a mower at the other house now, and I don't think it will get cut as often as I do, and thus an electric similar to mine isn't going to cut it (literally) if its let grow long. Thus I was looking for a better electric than mine, so they wouln't have the hassle of getting petrol etc. But I can't find any decent electric mowers now. They are all lightweight crud, and smaller than what I have. I can't see them lasting at all. The cheap petrol mowers at 150~200 seem pretty poor too. I can see most of the plastic fitting breaking quickly on them too.

So I guess what I should have asked whats a good robust lawnmover thats cheap. After finding nothing much in the shops, no decent electric mowers. I'm tempted to buy the cheapest petrol mower in Argos €150 and pay the €30 3yr cover. I have another petrol mower I could use but the exhaust is broken and I need to make up a new one for it. Its over 20yrs old but other than the exhaust still going strong.

bushy...

Pick up a new exhaust for it , if its survived this long it'll probably live on for a few more years no problem

BostonB

bushy... wrote:

Pick up a new exhaust for it , if its survived this long it'll probably live on for a few more years no problem

Where, I don't even know what make it is. I was going to try make one up with some scrap metal I have in the workstop. I guess all it really needs is to be is a heat shield so it doesn't damage anything else including the operator! Its not gone completely so its not too loud.

bushy...

A lawnmower repair place should have something , only real difference might be the flange that bolts to the engine, if so just cut the one off the old exhaust and weld it on.

BostonB

bushy... wrote:

A lawnmower repair place should have something , only real difference might be the flange that bolts to the engine, if so just cut the one off the old exhaust and weld it on.

Doh. I Never thought of that. I try some places during the week.

dubtom

There is a old guy in inchicore village who fixes petrol lawnmowers. He has loads of them out the back for parts. He's not too expensive either.

Lex Luthor

Electric:
Pro: Cheap
Con: Useless

Petrol:
Pro: Better than electric
Con: More expensive than Electric

10-10-20

Electric:
Plug it in.
Cut grass.
Plug it out. JOB DONE.

Petrol:
Pickup jerry-can.
Put in car.
Drive car to petrol station.
Fill with flammable petrol...

(you see where I'm going with this...?)

bmaxi

Electric;

Scene 1.
Plug it in
Cut long wet grass
Produce lots of smoke
Plug it out.

Scene 2.
Plug in mower no 2
Cut long wet grass
Lose sight of 300ft trailing flex in long wet grass
Accidentally cut trailing flex
Paramedic plugs it out.

Scene 3.
Widow employs local handyman
Handyman cuts long wet grass with petrol mower which he refills from
safety can
Handyman comforts grieving widow
Job well and truly done.;)

10-10-20

If Bmaxi's electric lawn mower user is that thick, then so can the petrol mower user...

Scene 1:
Fill with petrol.
Cut long wet grass.
Light a fag.
Refill tank because it's empty (again!).
Fireball engulfs mower, grass area.
Firebrigade quenches flames.

Scene 2:
Widow tarmacs the garden.

magicbastarder

the most tame statistic i've heard about petrol mowers is that one mower produces 40 times the pollutants (CO2 not included) that a modern car would.

another statistic was that one petrol mower will produce the same pollutants as driving 16,000 miles in a modern car.

10-10-20

You're correct. They are two-stroke engines, so don't properly convert all the available energy to power.

Eh - well, they don't do as good a job as a 4-stroke anyhow.

magicbastarder

10-10-20 wrote:

You're correct. They are two-stroke engines, so don't properly convert all the available energy to power.

Eh - well, they don't do as good a job as a 4-stroke anyhow.

exactly - here's more unburned petrol in the exhaust, and no catalytic converter either to catch what's unburned.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

But you get that lovely two-stroke smell, combined with that lovely smell of freshly cut grass.

No doubt one of life's greatest pleasures. It's the reason i like cutting grass

10-10-20

..and oil fumes in the exhaust too. They burn a mix of petrol and oil, not just petrol.

Avns1s

I have never seen a 2 stroke lawnmower. I'm sure they existed way back, but I doubt there's any of them still around except maybe in museums.

All modern petrol mowers are 4 stroke.

barryfitz

10-10-20 wrote:

..and oil fumes in the exhaust too. They burn a mix of petrol and oil, not just petrol.

There are 4 stroke mowers aswell you know! :rolleyes:

10-10-20

Never heard of em... Must be a new thing as of last week...

(Whoops, I'm off)

daingeanrob

buy a petrol mower with a mulcher, saves having to lift the grass every time.:D

Avns1s

Only problem with the mulcher is that if you have kids that play in the garden, they'll have the short clippings in the house on their feet AND they say that you'll have more moss and dead stuff at the base of the grass that'll need scarifying much more frequently.

BTW 10 10 20, can we take if from your last post that you admit you really didn't know what you were talking about when you made references to 2 stroke mowers???:D

10-10-20

Avns1s wrote:

BTW 10 10 20, can we take if from your last post that you admit you really didn't know what you were talking about when you made references to 2 stroke mowers???:D

Yes!

squire1

One of the joys of boards is avoiding reading a thread for days because you think it might be boring only to find it is probably the funniest threads in months.:D

Thanks guys, brightened up my afternoon.

By the way, petrol ftw.

BostonB

10-10-20 wrote:

Electric:
Plug it in.
Cut grass.
Plug it out. JOB DONE.

Petrol:
Pickup jerry-can.
Put in car.
Drive car to petrol station.
Fill with flammable petrol...

(you see where I'm going with this...?)

That was my thinking especially when the occupants might not have a car. But then if the electric struggles and is too much hassle they won't bother cutting it, or burn out the motor trying to cut it in one go when its too long.

I don't think its cut and dried (sorry) that petrol > electric.

Someone commented to me that 2 stokes are better for hills terrain, I assume because of oil problems. When I went looking for a oil for the mower, I was asked was it for 2 stoke or 4 so I guess they are still popular enough,.

bushy...

Had a 2stroke mower years ago , they are lighter ( only 3 moving parts ) and powerful for its size. Use nice ( more expensive ) oil , smells much better.

BostonB

Its kinda hard to find a decent lawnmower store with people who know something about them.

Avns1s

10-10-20 wrote:

Yes!

LOL:D

GreeBo

32cm manual cylinder for extreme, hardcore lawn mowing.

Mailman

GreeBo wrote:

32cm manual cylinder for extreme, hardcore lawn mowing.

Not so ridiculous if you get a model like a Husqvarna 40cm Diamant or Novolette cylinder hand mower which could easily handle that sort of area if you were disciplined enough to cut every week. It would easily last longer than an electric or cheap petrol mower too and give a better finish but you'd really need to be disciplined about cutting the lawn regularly.

As for the OP's exhaust. If it is a Briggs & Stratton and most are you should be able to get a screw in exhaust for less than 10 euro from a lawnmower service agent. Perhaps it has a bolt on exhaust at the moment but if you remove it you will probably see a thread on the exhaust port.

galwaytt

10-10-20 wrote:

You're correct. They are two-stroke engines, so don't properly convert all the available energy to power.

incorrect - cc for cc, two-strokes are more powerful. True, not as efficient, but still more powerfull. That's why there are no two-stroke chainsaws/consaws/strimmers etc.......

squire1

galwaytt wrote:

That's why there are no two-stroke chainsaws/consaws/strimmers etc.......

Presume you mean there are no 4 stroke chainsaws etc.

Another reason is that a 2 stroke engine will still run safely when turned on it's side which would be an essential element of any of these type of small tools. It wouldn't be necessary for lawnmowers (in most cases )

Mailman

galwaytt wrote:

incorrect - cc for cc, two-strokes are more powerful. True, not as efficient, but still more powerfull. That's why there are no two-stroke chainsaws/consaws/strimmers etc.......

Honda have a range of four stroke strimmers with main selling points of high(er) torque, no mixing, low fuel consumption and low emmissions.

Two stroke engine may be more powerful but lack of torque counts against them when used on a lawnmower when it is launched in to a lawn that hasn't been cut in a month. Emmissions and the fact that people are terminally stupid and don't understand that they need to mix the petrol with Oil means they don't get used much except by professionel landscapers for specific applications.