Law Mower

Review by John G. Thomas : Self-propelled 19" cordless electric lawn mower

PROS: No cord, gas or smoke, easy to adjust cutting height, only minor assembly required, seems well-built and designed, quiet, 36 volts. CONS: Heavy at 75 lbs., flimsy charger plug and wire, more difficult to turn because of length, made mainly out of plastic - although this may not be so bad in the long run if you live in a humid area. I would recommend the self-propelled version mainly because of the mower's heavy weight. The rear drive wheels are great for going up an incline, but take a bit of getting used to. You can't just push down on the handle bar and raise the front wheels slightly off the ground to make a quick turn. After you learn to quickly connect and disconnect the drive wheels as you mow and turn, it becomes much easier. You just have to learn to work with it, rather than force it to go your way. I like how the drive wheels slip gradually into gear, (nice!) but the slowest forward speed is not slow enough for cutting through tall grass unless you mow the lawn twice at different cutting heights - which the manual recommends. With a mower like this, (or any electric mower I suppose) you cannot directly compare it with gas-powered mowers with 3-4 times the horse power. But this is a great alternative and most probably the trend all mowers will eventually follow. The manual states that it takes 12 hours to charge, but for me it charged in half that time. The charging times will probably increase as the years go by until the battery needs to be replaced. They also recommend that it remain plugged-in all the time - I assume to prolong battery life. Because of its weight, turning the mower on to its side to clear an obstruction may take some doing. Again, that's to be expected. Please don't assume this to be a negative review. This is a different kind of mower which can't be directly compared with a gasoline-powered machine. So far, I am quite pleased with this purchase.

Review by Daniel G. Lebryk : The Toro Is For Sale

The Toro gas powered lawn mower is for sale, I have found the perfect replacement. Black and Decker took a real live mower deck, added the right sized electric motor with a big beefy battery, and made a really good grass cutting machine. What's not to love about this lawn mower? There is virtually no vibration from the mower. It makes about half as much noise as a gasoline engine mower. It starts up with the push of a button and pull of a lever. It moves itself around my yard with the flip of another lever. It mulches, bags, or rear discharges with the twist of a knob. It will never rust. It recharges in about an hour. It costs pennies to run. It costs nothing per year in maintenance. I never have to carry around a gas can ever again. So far, the only thing I can find wrong with this mower, it takes a few seconds to get moving and you have to kind of anticipate stopping or backing up - the drive wheels lock if you pull back too quickly. Yes this is a very heavy lawn mower at ninety pounds, most of that weight is the battery, (around twenty pounds); except it doesn't feel that heavy in use or storage. The handle is long enough that leverage makes it easy to lift the front wheels to turn the mower. The vertical storage shown in the pictures looks like a joke, but in fact is really sweet. The mower takes up about two feet by three feet on the floor. Folding the handle over is fast and easy, pull two levers and fold the handle. The mower is now very easy to tip up vertically on the handle mount. Assembly was really simple; attach the handle with two 1/2 inch bolts. If using the grass catcher, the metal frame has to be clipped to the nylon bag. It might be a good idea to download the owner's manual at Black and Decker's website - the unboxing instructions are handy to read before getting this big old box. The instructions recommend fully charging the battery for twelve hours before using the mower. My battery had just about 2/3 of a charge in it, so I decided to just mow the lawn right a way. That was more than enough charge for my postage stamp yard (fifteen minutes maximum mowing time). The AC adapter looks like a laptop power adapter - a small box in the middle of an AC cord and a fairly long 36V cord. While charging the pilot light on the box is red. Once the battery if fully charged the lamp turns green. On the battery itself there are three green lights indicating 1/3 charge increments. Press the I button and the state of the charge shows up. My big concern about this was charging the 36V battery; would it take a dedicated circuit and tons of electricity to charge this beast? Not at all, the charger is 45 Watts - less than a light bulb. I connected the first charge to a Kill-A-Watt meter. It took and hour and 0.13 Kilowatts of electricity to go from zero charge to all three lights. At ten cents a Kilowatt, this is one cheap lawn mower to run. Of course a twelve hour charge will use more electricity, but we're still talking about pennies of electricity. I've used a lot of lawn mowers in my lifetime from silly corded eclectic to monster two bladed walk behind mowers. This mower has the good solid feel of the Hondas from fifteen or twenty years ago and the current mid range Toro's. The problem with the old electric mowers, they had silly light small decks that couldn't really cut grass. Black and Decker has designed a mower deck that is deep with a blade that spins fast enough to suck the grass up and cut it cleanly. All this without any engine noise, vibration, and smell. The deck is a plastic material. This might seem like a bad idea, why not make it out of steel like all other lawn mowers. Well the good news with an eclectic, there's no intense vibration from the motor, so steel is not necessary. The wheels are much wider than my Toro. The weakest point is probably the front axle which looks a bit thin. The self propulsion is a completely separate motor driving a differential at the rear. The drive mechanism looks sufficiently solid. With the blade turned off, the drive motor sounds like an electric R/C car - a noise I like. Cut height is adjusted with a single squeeze bar at the right rear of the mower. It's pretty darn quick and easy to squeeze that handle, lift up or push down to change the mower height. A lot of higher end new mowers have the same system. I really like the lever to change from mulching to rear discharge. There are no plugs or accessories to mess with. The knob flips a door inside the mower deck. In the mulch direction the door closes off the rear discharge chute. When the knob is turned to rear discharge, the door opens the chute. The other cool thing about this mower, to just leave the clippings on the ground, there is a slot at the bottom of the rear door where the grass clippings come out. It's a slick neat trick that avoids the need for a side chute. To bag the grass clippings, flip the rear door up, and then hook the bad on the rear of the mower. There are a few odd moments at first with this thing. In order to start the blade spinning, the safety key has to be inserted, an orange flush button on the right side of the handle has to be pressed in, and the inner handle needs to be pulled back. The first few times I missed that orange button on the side - it's hard to find at first. To engage the self propulsion, push the outer lever forward. It is very easy to mow one handed. The speed is infinitely variable from turtle to rabbit. Turtle is a moderate walk. Rabbit is a very fast walk. I like to push my mower around really fast, and rabbit is just about right on this mower. The other odd moment is the start time for the self propulsion. It takes a one or two count before the mower starts moving. I'm used to turning the mower around, hitting the move lever, and the mower taking off right away. My rhythm was messed up at first. The only other odd moment is something strange with the drive differential. For some reason, if you try to pull the mower back just after releasing the self propulsion lever, the rear wheels will lock. The instructions say to push the mower forward a little bit and the wheels will roll freely. My solution is to just anticipate stop points and release the lever a little bit earlier. The battery is easy to remove. Flip the lever in the front, push a shorter lever back, and lift out the battery. It's funny how they have designed the battery to look a little like a Briggs and Stratton piston motor. There's really no reason to remove the battery. The safety key receptacle is also the charge connector. This mower is ideal for a city or urban lot. I would predict that if it takes around forty five minutes to an hour to mow your lawn with a gas powered mower, this mower will work out perfectly. A bigger lawn would probably require a spare battery. Fortunately they are available from Amazon and are not terribly expensive. It is true, a gas powered mower will cut through two or three foot high grass. But how often have I ever had to mow grass that tall? Once in my life. If you keep on top of mowing your lawn, not cutting much more than 1/3 or 1/2 the height of a grass blade, this mower has more than enough power to cut grass. I did mow through a two inch pile of old leaves from last season. The leaves were pulverized exactly the same as my Toro. The mower slowed down, but never stalled. A rough guess, it seemed to act exactly like my Toro in this situation. The advantages to me are huge. I'll never pay a hundred dollars to have this mower tuned up and oil changed. I might have to replace a battery one day. Maybe the drive motor will break - but I'll still be able to mow the lawn by pushing the mower (it does move easily even though it is pretty heavy). I'll never have to visit a gas station again with a gas can. And my carbon footprint just got a lot smaller. In fact, I might just have fun mowing my lawn because this lawn mower makes so little noise and is vibration free. The Toro is for sale. I'll never go back to a gasoline engine lawn mower.

Review by M. Harris "Woodust" : Very Nice Mower

I've just had this mower for a few uses and I really like it. My biggest concern was the "range" of the mower. ie, would 1 battery charge hold out for the entire lawn? Answer - yes! With a little power to spare. I'd estimate the area I mow to be about 7500 sq ft. The front has a 6' slope down to the road, which is easy enough to mow side to side. Back is fairly level. When I'm done, the batt indicator is on the lowest level, but enough juice to self propel up the hill into the garage for recharge. I have St Augustine grass, a fairly heavy body grass to mow. Since I mow my grass 1x per week, I haven't checked to see how long it takes to charge the battery. I just plug it in and it's ready the next time. The battery can be charged in or out of the mower. So if you had a 2nd battery, it could be charged while using the mower. Battery technology is sealed lead acid. I'm guessing an AGM type maintenance free. Pros - Single point height adjustment is VERY simple to use - Mower is pretty quiet, I won't feel like I'm disturbing my neighbors if I mow early in the morning or late in the evening when its cooler (in Texas). - Mulches well, I haven't bagged any grass yet - Worked out of the box, just had to attach the handle and charge. - I like the plastic body. It does flex slightly, but does not feel flimsy at all. Leaves no concern about rust over the long haul and hasn't shown any staining from the fresh cut grass. - No Gas / oil to buy, store nor smell. - No pull "starting" the mower, just press the handle and it goes. - Seperate actuation handles for blade rotation and self propelled wheel movement. - Mower handle is curved up, makes it easy on the wrists while mowing. - Variable self propelled speeds are nice. The control to change the speed is easy to access. Going up the hill the slowest speed is too slow, but its easy to to just slide to control to faster. The fastest is great for transporting it back to the garage. I don't mow at that speed. When the self propel starts, it has a gradual start up so the mower does not jerk into motion. - Battery installation was very easy, goes in from the top. Cons - - The charger connection interface should be simpler and it would be nice if it used a standard molex connector of some sort. The one that comes with it is custom and was tricky to get in the socket. - There is a safety key that enables the mower to run, and it also plugs into the charger socket (so you can't charge and run at the same time). It was tricky to insert as well. - There is only 1 safety key. Lose it and .... I wish it came with a 2nd key. I tied the one I have to the mower handle so I don't lose it. The key does have a place to put a lanyard.