I've had mulching mowers and some with optional bag. 99% of time I don't use the bag, but finish some piles of mulch with a rake. The grass has to be dry and not too long!
My tractor has rarely gone below 50% charge even after mowing for an hour. Given that I have 48V * 50AH of battery (so ~2500WH of power) it looks like I use about 1KW in an hour. This is why I think the tractor has a 1KW motor.
Epoxy potting of automotive electronics is not expensive. It would add less than a dollar or two to the cost of a controller.
The tractors controller is pretty smart. It doesn't allow charging when very cold (bad for lead acid batteries) and it you discharge it below 20% charge it turns off the blades only letting you drive the tractor back to its charging place. The discharge rate appears to be no more than ~40%, so I doubt that the batteries could be harmed by overly high discharge rates (unless, of course, there is some defect). I have about 80 hours of run time on the tractor so far and have not noticed any degradation at all.
I usually bag the grass. But that's because I am "blessed" with several big pine trees. The tractor sucks up the pine needles along with the grass clippings. If I simply mulched it all I would end up with pine barons due to the decomposing pine needles making the soil so acidic. As it is my yard gets >500lbs of lime yearly just to keep its PH reasonable. I can't imagine how much soil ammendation I would need if I didn't pick up the needeles.
And yes, the tractor pulls the spreader for the lime (and an aerator too).
That discharge rate is very high in my opinion.
Traction or deep cycle batteries might be comfortable, but car batteries are 20 hour rated here, so your discharge rate should be only about 5%.
That said, the controller might have some tweaks to allow this to happen, and we do not get small deep cycle batteries with high discharge rates.
Epoxy potting causes heat dissipation issues, so the entire build has to be beefier, and sometimes fins are not allowed.
So it becomes expensive.
Traction or deep cycle batteries might be comfortable, but car batteries are 20 hour rated here, so your discharge rate should be only about 5%.
That said, the controller might have some tweaks to allow this to happen, and we do not get small deep cycle batteries with high discharge rates.
Epoxy potting causes heat dissipation issues, so the entire build has to be beefier, and sometimes fins are not allowed.
So it becomes expensive.
The battery in my car is 95 amp hours... I don't even think a Honda Fit uses such a small battery as 20AH. I had a 600VA UPS with two 18AH batteries in it 🙂
With all due respect, you have no idea what you are talking about.
I own said electric tractor. I have for a couple of years. It is in every measure better than the gas powered tractors I had that were in similar size class (42" deck). I would bet you have never even sat upon an electric tractor let alone used it to haul things or pull things out of the ground as I have.
Likewise you assertion about the cost of epoxy potting power electronics is totally wrong. How do I know? >25 years in the automotive electronics domain.
You are certainly entitled to your opinions, but in this case they are contradicted by fact.
I haven’t used the lime for ten years until just the other day, spread some under the big fir tree, but thought about it and will be doing the rest of the yard. I recall it made a big difference.
The bagger is awesome for sucking up all the clippings left on the sidewalk after using the weedeater, and that first mow of the year is good for picking up pinecones.
Electric mowers might be worth the extra expense, but the Lithium-Ion batteries aboard are just as likely to be prone to thermal runaway & the resulting exothermic, chain-reaction oxygen producing fires will certainly burn your house down, if you have an attached garage....Fire recue departments are trying to engineer a car-sized "bathtub" to literally dunk an electric car that is on fire.
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Firefighter buddy was telling me about how they can spend many hours just managing a car fire in those cases. Not something I want anywhere near my house!
You have robot vacuum cleaners, how come nobody has come out with a robot lawn mower?
Turn it loose, and relax, it will come back to the dock after it is done.
Turn it loose, and relax, it will come back to the dock after it is done.
Have you seen that top-of-the-line Husqvarna?, it's tiny, maybe a twenty-inch cutting diameter...it looks & sounds like a toy....AND, it's $3000 US dollars!
For five-hundred dollars less you can get a full-boat V-twin 22 HP riding tractor with a forty-two inch mower deck...and your cousins flatbed trailer you always liked you can hitch up to the back & haul that stuff that you've been meaning to haul away...or are you THAT LAZY?
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For five-hundred dollars less you can get a full-boat V-twin 22 HP riding tractor with a forty-two inch mower deck...and your cousins flatbed trailer you always liked you can hitch up to the back & haul that stuff that you've been meaning to haul away...or are you THAT LAZY?
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It's Swedish, what do you expect? 🙂 It seems that the Worx robot is preferred, and it's much less expensive.
One thing surprising (to me) is that the robots cut often, but not much length. So regular trims instead of cuts.
One thing surprising (to me) is that the robots cut often, but not much length. So regular trims instead of cuts.
You cant expect a little robot mower to take more than just “a little off the top”. Try cutting off 4” with a Honda self propel and it will clog the chute - gonna be worse with a Roomba. Hell, the Roomba in the house can’t get through a day’s worth of dog hair before stopping and beeping due to a clog that requires manual intervention.