good non-gas mowers

Well I got my Toro 20360 e-cycler today. I bought it after checking out the Consumer Reports ratings. The Toro is the highest rated cordless electric on consumerreports.org. I plugged it in after I got it this morning (bought it from amazon, can't beat no tax and no shipping charges with my amazon prime!) and by the time the kids were in bed, it was charged up and ready to go. I set it up to 4" of course, and headed out back. It's definitely a tank of a mower. It is very sturdy, much more sturdy than any other mower I've ever used. It felt good. I turned it on and it reminded me more of the sound of an electric weed eater than a lawn mower. As I was mowing, it occurred to me that I could hear myself think. Then I realized that I could smell what I was cutting and not the nasty exhaust of the mower! I fell into a zen-like mowing-induce trance and loved doing the job. I helped that I didn't have to stop every few feet to let the mower chew up the massive mound of grass that had gotten clogged underneath like my previous mowing experiences (back in my mow low days  ).

Anyhow, it was a very pleasant experience and a truly outstanding mower. I highly recommend it!

Link on amazon: http://amzn.to/bmhJdJ

Ha! I just noticed that Amazon has pulled the mower. Reading the reviews it looks like it is easily damaged during shipping so they decided not to offer it for the time being. I'm sure you can find it at some kind of big box hardware store or something, though. Mine made it to me without a scratch and is in perfect working order. Lucky for me I ordered it when I did and lucky for me it wasn't damaged during shipping! Phew!

Well, I've mowed with my Neuton CE 6 twice and it is the worst purchase I have ever made. This thing is a piece of junk! It is not very well built and it has a light blade that cuts very uneven. It is very hard to push and is actually noisier than my gas Honda mower. Also the mulching is terrible. I am cutting on the highest level and it was bogging down and leaving clumps of grass. The mowing time is shorter than advertised as well. It says that it will last 1 hour and I could only get 35 minutes when it started to slow down and lose cutting power. I've had to wait and recharge to battery and finish mowing the next day. The worst part is the customer service. The mower is supposed to have a 60 day satisfaction return policy but because I bought through a clean air program (which they sponsored ) the sale is final with no returns. When I called to find out about returning it, they instantly got very rude on the phone.

I bought a DR cordless mower through Country Home about 10 years ago that I didn't like because it had the same issues as the Neuton and I  realized that this is the same company and they just renamed it Neuton. There is nothing new about these Neuton mowers except the CE 6 is 19 inches instead of 14 inches and it is exactly like the mower I tried 10 years ago. If I knew it was the same company and mower, I would have never bought it.

I bought an American reel mower back in 04.  So far It has not used a drop of gas or oil, I've changed no spark plugs or air filters.  I've had some things stolen from the yard: generator, gas mower, chipper-shredder, rototiller, along with the chain holding these to a tree.  The reel mower was not locked up, just sitting there beside the fence in plain view.  They left it.

In 08 I bought an electric mower to replace the stolen gas mower, along with a much thicker chain.  I still have both mowers and the chain.

The electric machine is a 24 volt Homelite, about an 18 inch cut.  I lower it down as far as it will go, can't be an inch off the ground.  There are cottonmouth snakes around so the grass needs to be cut short in order to see the snakes easily.

The only problem I've had with the mower is the on/off switch rusting and failing as a result of being kept outdoors in the Florida rain and humidity.  I cut out the factory switch,  wired in a household wall switch and lots of electrical tape.  Its not pretty, but it works just fine.

garyd wrote:
I was asking how well it mulches.

What I meant is an inch of growth. I've never mowed short. Before I first read your article a few years ago, I never mowed shorter than 2 1/2 inches. After reading your article, I've been mowing at the highest setting which is about 4 inches for about 5 years. When I tried the cordless electric, it didn't mulch very well on the highest setting if there was more than 1 inch of growth. It was a DR electric mower which looks like the Neuton. I think it is the same mower since they now sell the Neuton on the DR website.

In what way was the mulching not working well.  Can you upload a pic?

garyd wrote:
Well, I've mowed with my Neuton CE 6 twice and it is the worst purchase I have ever made. This thing is a piece of junk! It is not very well built and it has a light blade that cuts very uneven. It is very hard to push and is actually noisier than my gas Honda mower. Also the mulching is terrible. I am cutting on the highest level and it was bogging down and leaving clumps of grass. The mowing time is shorter than advertised as well. It says that it will last 1 hour and I could only get 35 minutes when it started to slow down and lose cutting power. I've had to wait and recharge to battery and finish mowing the next day. The worst part is the customer service. The mower is supposed to have a 60 day satisfaction return policy but because I bought through a clean air program (which they sponsored ) the sale is final with no returns. When I called to find out about returning it, they instantly got very rude on the phone.

I bought a DR cordless mower through Country Home about 10 years ago that I didn't like because it had the same issues as the Neuton and I  realized that this is the same company and they just renamed it Neuton. There is nothing new about these Neuton mowers except the CE 6 is 19 inches instead of 14 inches and it is exactly like the mower I tried 10 years ago. If I knew it was the same company and mower, I would have never bought it.

Wow! 

The neuton i tried was a 14 inch.  I wonder if the whole cordless thing does a better job with a smaller blade.

Can you send pics of the "uneven" and grass clumps?

Ken Peavey wrote:
I lower it down as far as it will go, can't be an inch off the ground.  There are cottonmouth snakes around so the grass needs to be cut short in order to see the snakes easily.

This is the first legit reason I have heard for mowing low!

I mow my tiny patch with a Scott's, but since we don't have an off-season, and I don't like to mow through our winter/rainy season, I borrowed my Dad's new Nueton, and I loved it. It was great for cutting the longer grass that we get after a few months of neglect.  I could never justify the space or electricity, for my postage stamp, but it was sure nice to mow with.

I do have a question though for other Scott's/Reel owners what do you do for maintenance? How often do you sharpen the blades? Do you do it yourself?

About once every year or two I would sharpen it myself with one of these kits.

paul wheaton wrote:
In what way was the mulching not working well.  Can you upload a pic?

I have since mowed with my Honda mower 2 times so I don't have any pictures. The way the mulching wasn't working well is, it was leaving clumps of cut grass about every 5 feet instead of mulching it down into the lawn. It is what you would see if you tried to mulch a lawn that was really long and wet. My lawn had only about an inch of growth (from 4" to 5") and it was dry so there shouldn't have been a problem with mulching.

paul wheaton wrote:
Wow! 

The neuton i tried was a 14 inch.  I wonder if the whole cordless thing does a better job with a smaller blade.

Can you send pics of the "uneven" and grass clumps?

I don't think it matters what size it is since I had the 14 inch, 24 volt DR, Country Home mower 8 or 9 years ago which was the same mower as the current Neuton CE 5 and I had the same problems with mulching and uneven cutting. Like I said, I already "repaired" my lawn by mowing over it with my Honda but the uneven cutting was spots of lawn that looked like it was just pushed over instead of being cut which was probably caused by the blade being bogged down, which you could hear. I would expect this if I was mowing an extra long. wet lawn but not from a dry lawn and cutting an inch or less off the top.

Fortunately, I put the mower on Craigslist and sold it yesterday for $75 more than I paid for it. I may still look into the Fiskars reel mower.

I am about to buy a mower for the lawn I seeded about a month ago (https://permies.com/permaculture-forums/3854_0/lawn-care/tall-fescue-when-to-seed-new-lawn). Some of you may remember  - starting from scratch, tall fescue, Paul called the lawn fugly (rightly so). I am happy to say that it is actually coming in pretty well in most areas. The back is still bad because the soil stinks, but I am taking all the right steps to make it better. I'll put new pics up on that thread soon.

So the grass is getting high enough that it will need it's first mowing soon. I have researched the cordless electric and reel mowers and have decided that the new Fiskars Reel mower Gary mentioned is what I'll get. Most reviews from users look good, the price ($199) is reasonable, and I can have it shipped to me from Lowes for free (my local store does not stock it).

It may be a couple more weeks before I receive it and mow for the the first time, but I will report back with results.

Ryan

The Fiskar Momentum reel mower arrived in a smallish box yesterday. It took 15 minutes to assemble it - super easy. I was done mowing my lawn (for the first time ever) about 20 mintues later. Though my lawn is smaller as we have plenty of landscaped beds, it took the guy across the street at least an hour to mow his on a riding mower.

Some observations...

This mower is made well. It pushed easily, turned easily, and cut my tall fescue easily. Paul will love this - it can cut at 4"! When I was done, a 4" tall lawn looked really tall...don't see many people cutting their lawn at that height. I think this will go a long way in helping my lawn fill in and soil continue to get better.

The one thing it did not do well was cut taller weeds and grasses, some of which have grown in faster than the fescue over the last month, when I first seeded the lawn. The front part of the mower pushes the really tall stuff over and doesn't give the blades a chance to cut it. I knew this would probably happen when doing research before buying. No biggie - I expect the fescue to continue to fill in and the weeds to slowly get choked out. I'll just trim those areas with the battery powered weed wacker in the meantime.

Hopefully the Fiskars continues to perform well. I'll give another report down the road.

Ryan

Very cool; a reel mower that does 4"! I have been looking for such a beast...

Yeah I kinda expected that  last bit myself, but RC is right, we can work around it.

Nice find; thanks for the info!

S

Wow - a reel mower that cuts at four inches.  That is wild. 

The reel mowers tend to just push over the taller stuff.  That's why I like the cordeless electric mowers these days.  They cut at four inches too. 

I have yet to find that cordless electric that does four inches and gets good reviews; found one that did the heigh but then got very mixed reviews on charging and downright crappy reviews of reliability (reports of wheels breaking and falling off were disturbingly redundant, and warranty repairs seemed to be a pleasant notion rather than a firm reality). I know follks that like their Neutrons and B&D units, but they won't do the 4"...

The idea of a push mower that is me-powered seems to be the most sustainable thought here; and while the engine is aging and breaking down more and more, fueling it is not a big deal and needs to be done anyway...

S

I've got a 1964 gravely two wheeled tractor with the 30" brush hog
the motor is dead simple and the main jet is adjustable enough to run real nice on e-85 though I have yet to try feul grade moonshine I know that if it comes down too the point where I'll never have to tweek it back to gas I can drill it out
I also have the 28" reel mower attachment but putting five hp on sharp blades just sounds like an invitation to lose a leg
still looking for a good sickle bar attachment for the machine or the parts to fix the one I've got so I can sneak over the hill and steal some hay from the vacant property next to mine

Since April, I've been using an Earthwise corded electric mower with a 20" cut path.    I'm quite happy with the mower, even with the acrobatics needed to deal with the cords.

It has a 4" cut height, and the blade is super-easy to take off/put back on when it needs sharpening.

I'm in Indiana - zone 5b.

I made the mistake of killing the lawn at the next to lowest setting this spring.  The end result was a rapid infestation of crab grass and clover. 

However, for the last 2 weeks, I've been mowing at 4".  The grass is already looking much healthier.    Hope things greatly improve come late Sept and Oct when the weather cools and the crab grass dies off.

Tom

I got a ryobi rechargeable mower about 15 years ago for $400, which lasted two years before it had to be fixed.  Fortunately I found a fellow who replaced a fuse for $25.  Six months later it went out again, the first fellow was gone, and someone else wanted $150 just to look at the thing.  I went back to using the old rotary mower, which was very hard work.

Finally I got a black & decker 18" corded mower from walmart for $130.  Meanwhile the grass in the back yard had gotten a foot high and I expected a tough time.  Surprisingly, I was able to very easily push the mower through the grass with one hand, while flipping the cord side to side with the other.  It was the first time in my life that I had ever enjoyed cutting the grass!  That was about 10 years ago and the mower is still doing great.  I leave it outside on the walkway when it's not being used.  A friend had recommended one long before and I should have listened to him at the start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6VSoL2_GeY

If I lived in the country and had tall fields of weeds then I would most definitely use a scythe.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F927BD40B07145F9

Seems like a high-mowin', electric mower would be a fun DIY project.

What about scythe??? I had this idea yesterday and i'm really curious what you guys think about it. Length of scythed grass really doesn't matter here as we mostly have moist humid weather and grass grows well even if it is totally cut down, which with scythe is easy to do..

I also have a Black & Decker corded mower. I don't have a problem dealing with the cord (two heavy-duty extension cords tied together) because I have "mowed" a lot of conference centers and ballrooms in my time. I've had it for four years now. It's quiet and easy to shift around. It cuts good, and I even used it to cut down my peas last year before I tilled them in. You hardly have to clean it, because nothing sticks to the underneath.

Bought the big  neuton push mover 2 years ago ,worked great untill the board went bad.
they sent me a new one , the back wheels started to wobble ,found that the centers are just pushed in ,call and they sent 2 rear wheels .
  I must have been the first in town to buy one ,everone wanted to check it out.
i asked about a solar charger? i may have to make one.

Actually, the solution to dealing with weeds too tall for a reel mower to deal with is pretty simple: pick up a cheap grass whip, and keep it clipped to your mower.  A quick walk around/knock'em down before you start mowing takes care of the problem right quick.  Of course, you could always DIY a hedge trimmer blade onto the front of it, powered by the mower's gearing, or just find/build one of these.

Have been mighty impressed with Gardena products and wonder if anyone has any thoughts on this push mower:
http://www.amazon.com/Gardena-4023-15-Inch-Silent-Mower/dp/B002VED4JC/ref=sr_1_42?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1303506589&sr=1-42



The colors are pretty, don't you think? 

Have been using a Fiskars momentum push reel mower for a few years and am happy with it.

After mowing, I plug in my electric weed eater and do the tricky spots that the mower misses.  This consists mostly of planting bed edges and the extra-long grass blades that the mower just rolls over without cutting.

But now I want to retire my weed eater.  I'm thinking about using a scythe for the edges and long grasses.  All the advice websites I've found so far are saying that you should use a scythe to mow the entire lawn. This sounds like a good idea, but I don't expect to give up my push reel any time soon.

Anyone have experience with using a non-power tool for edges and long grass blades?

Home Depot sells these: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202688657/h_d2/ProductDisplay?selectedCatgry=SEARCH+ALL&jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&navFlow=3&keyword=wg781&Ntpc=1&langId=-1&Nu=P_PARENT_ID&storeId=10051&Ntpr=1&ddkey=Search

They just got marked down to $250, and the easy-to-get lowes 10% coupon knocks it down to 225. I haven't found a bad review of it yet online, I think I'm going to get one. I need to replace my reel mower that only goes to about 2.75". This one goes to 3.5". Could be overkill for some of your yards, but right now I have about .3 acres of grass in a residential neighborhood that will take a while to turn into garden. The 14" mowers aren't enough for my yard.

paul wheaton wrote:
THAT is soooooo cool!

How does a scythe do if the grass is five inches and you want it to be three inches?  My impression has always been that a scythe does well with cutting, say, foot tall stuff an inch off the ground, but cutting shorter stuff further up - not so good.    But I haven't really tried.  Hav eyou?

Paul, I cut our grass with a scythe, about an acre or more. Usually I cut when it is about 3 to 4 inches high (just starting to seed), and it ends up somewhere between two to two and half inches. I can cut very smooth when I am in rhythm and probably as fast as anyone with a mower.

Since we have sheep who love the clippings, the bonus is all the food for them. I have a morning and afternoon ritual of cutting grass - and the ewes with lambs are just over the fence, so they get the treat of cut grass from the lawn, and waste from the garden, etc. Makes for some very round sheep, if you know what I mean.

I have a push reel mower too, for areas that I want to look like a putting green right next to the house. I wish it would collect clippings, but I can probably make something for that.

Our grass tends to be pretty tight, and you can scalp the ground and it will come right back - I have to mow everything no less than every two weeks, all year round.

My vote is for the scythe as well.  I mow about 20 acres a year and keep 2-3 acres quite lawnish (3-5 cuttings).  After 8+ years of intensive study I can mow an acre in 6-10 hours depending on conditions.

Chad wrote:
My vote is for the scythe as well.  I mow about 20 acres a year and keep 2-3 acres quite lawnish (3-5 cuttings).  After 8+ years of intensive study I can mow an acre in 6-10 hours depending on conditions.

Not sure what you mean by intensive study... I figured out how to use one in a few weekends. They say you need about a thousand swings to get good, a lot less if you work with someone who can help you understand it.

One thing that has made it hard here to get people to use it right is a lifetime of swinging a machete. A scythe cuts, a machete, whacks. Speed is critical for a machete, the angle and sharpness is everything for a scythe. I know of Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) who can keep up with me with a machete. 

Fred Morgan wrote:
Not sure what you mean by intensive study... I figured out how to use one in a few weekends. They say you need about a thousand swings to get good, a lot less if you work with someone who can help you understand it.

One thing that has made it hard here to get people to use it right is a lifetime of swinging a machete. A scythe cuts, a machete, whacks. Speed is critical for a machete, the angle and sharpness is everything for a scythe. I know of Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) who can keep up with me with a machete. 

One can learn to swing the scythe and field *stone* more or less effectively in a few hours.  It takes considerably longer to be able to properly attach/adjust a blade to a snath... even longer to make snath better than can be purchased... even longer to peen with consistent quality.  I'd say maintaining good to great edge condition [on any edge tool] takes a lot of study and practice.  Do some timed mowing.  100 years ago expert mowers could mow 2+ acres in a day.  Tell me how much practice it takes you to mow an 8 hour acre.

I have not had to mow our lawn since we got our Toulouse Geese.
I have to manage them a little better so I can get some more growth out of the lawn, but they are incredible mowers.
They have also intensively grazed the non-preferred plants more than the preferred ones. I could not have planned it better if I tried.

Kip wrote:
Of course, after bragging about my Scott's Classic 20" reel mower, it broke!  The metal handle snapped clean in half!  Fortunately, the folks at Scott's were very gracious about it, and they are sending out a new handle.  They said that it is a known issue, so if you have one, be forewarned!

I had the same thing happen to mine, the thin gauge metal used for the handle is too light in my opinion.
In any case, I recycled the handle off my old broken gas mower to fix it. Some slight modifications and it fit perfectly. The "new" handle is much more heavy duty than the old one.

Well, I can tell you one brand of cordless electric mower NOT to buy: Homelite.

I bought one from Home Depot a couple of years ago and within two months the battery charger had died.  I've looked high and low for a replacement, and they just don't seem to be available, not even on the company's support website.

The mower's not much use with a dead battery.

(Oh yeah, one of the wheels fell off on the first day too, due to a crappy weld.  I'd forgotten how I had to fix that with a stove bolt.)

I want one of these!

Well, after three years of trials with non-gas mowers since this thread was updated; is everyone still happy with their product? Have their been any breakthroughs or newcomers to the market that would make you change your recommendation today from what it was then?

Paul the one you list in the link to Amazon is no longer available? What electric lawnmower would you suggest today?

Lawn mower pollution is the same as any traditional two stroke engine. They do not burn efficiently and all the unburned gases and fuel get spit right out the tail pipe. It is so inefficient you cannot even really use a catalytic converter with it... the converter would probably explode from all the flammables. The problem is that two strokes are very powerful and only the most expensive EPA approved 4 strokes can get close to their power.

Why they are still legal, and why change is so difficult, was covered pretty well in a documentary called 'A Snowmobile for George'.

We use a push mower in conjunction with a grass whip to subdue the radius around our home.

I just started learning to scythe, with an austrian scythe (very lightweight, hammered blade). I came straight home from the course and mowed the 'lawn' - it was a manicured, short-mown lawn when we moved in almost a year ago, but we don't have a lawn mower or a desire for a manicured lawn, so it's been briefly grazed by sheep, buzzed with a string trimmer twice, and then left alone. It was almost knee-high with grass (dont know what kind) and mixed flowers (self-heal, dandelion, clover, etc) It's maybe 4 x 8 meters or so.
I cut it with the scythe in a very short time - maybe 15-20 minutes? - faster than the strimmer anyway, and much more pleasant. It's not the most even finish since I'm a rank beginner, and the smoothest parts are shorter than 4 inches. But since I'm planning to cut it infrequently anyway I don't think this is going to be a problem.

My bigger challenge is the 1.5 acres of meadow I'm hoping to mow by hand, but i'm hoping slow and steady wins the race!

Jamie Heaney wrote:Lawn mower pollution is the same as any traditional two stroke engine.

Most lawnmowers use 4-stroke engines. 2-stroke engines get used mostly (now-a-days) in situations where the engine is being tilted to all sorts of angles-- e.g. string trimmers and chainsaws. The two-stroke engine is lubricated by oil added to the gasoline, so lubrication in any position is not a problem, whereas a 4 stroke engine (same principal as automotive gas engine) has the lubrication system separate but is more limited in the orientation that the oil pump will suck oil from the bottom of the engine-- well, where ever the manufacturer designs the "bottom" (where the oil falls down) to be, needs to stay at the bottom. Though even this is no longer universal and quieter, less polluting string-trimmers using innovative 4-stroke engines that have overcome the lubrication issues.

I just got a walk-behind tractor with a 5HP Honda 4-stroke motor. I find it quite quiet and without any smellable pollution anyway.

Of course, even better are those Li-ion chainsaws and string trimmers!