http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/video-hub/home--garden/outdoor/tesla-of-lawn-mowers-meet-cub-cadets-rzt-s-42/16935268001/3419292564001/
If they come out with a comparable electric snow thrower, I will be all over it. The deer do our lawn mowing for us (seriously).
If they do make one, it should last you forever if you just keep the batteries at about 75%. That's because you'll probably use it about 10 times on Salt Spring in the next 20 years!
Actually it is more like 30-40 times in ten years, based on the last five. We typically get a few dumps of 20-30 cm or more at our house, which is at 350 m elevation, and frequently in the "snow belt." :wink: Since we have a 180 m long driveway, it costs us over $250 to get it ploughed ONCE. So our current ICE snow thrower has already paid for it self several times over!
And its a steep driveway too... My in-laws are also on SSI -- and also in the snow belt. They send some amazing and unexpected snow pics almost every winter. 20-30 cm is pretty common with elevation on SSI.
Beautiful! And I stand corrected. I spent time on Salt Spring as a kid in the 70's and 80's when it was mostly hippies but it was all at the lower elevations. Growing up, we barely got any snow on the lower elevations compared to what we have seen in the past 5 years. We even got snow this year in March in South Surrey which is highly unusual. It seems something strange is happening with the climate these days...
Too bad it's not really the "Tesla" of lawnmowers---a good start however. It appears (although they don't say) that it is powered with SLA batteries. 95 amp hours at 48 volts sounds like 4 SLA batteries in series. It's sooooo last century!
True, they still need to do a long term test but at least there is no belts to change since the electric motor is a direct drive.
My electric lawn mower is the Ego. It has a lithium battery so it's lightweight and runs about 30 min. on a charge. http://egopowerplus.com/products/mower
How do you like the Ego, thinking about getting one but worried that it is not self-propelled. Is it easy to push, my wife does the mowing.
I do miss the self propelled feature that my old Toro had. It is quite a workout mowing on a hill, harder than I thought it would be, but it's easy on a flat section of lawn.
I've been using a Black & Decker battery operated lawn mower for 15 years, trouble free. I sharpen the blades once a year to say I did something for it. Front and back yard, I get 5-6 mows per charge.
Anybody tried this Greenworks one? Amazon.com: Greenworks 25302 Twin Force G-MAX 40-volt Lithium-Ion Cordless Mower, 20-Inch: Patio, Lawn Garden
check out the electric lawnmower thread to see other's opinions on this and more ... http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/2144-Electric-Lawnmowers
I have a 4 year old Ariens Amp riding lawn mower. Other that the "smart charger" not working properly and killing one or two of the packs due to overcharge, it has been pretty good. This cub cadet one looks much better though. Any idea if they use lithium batteries?
Robot mowers guys. It's the future. I run a Husqvarna automower - Works increadibly well. Mine uses 20W continuosly while mowing (more uphill, less downhill so on average). The battery capacity is a whopping 1.6Ah at 18V which makes for 28,8 Wh (0,0288 kWh or about 1/3000th of my car) but that's no problem since it just finds it way back to the charging station (via guide wire in the lawn) when SOC gets low, charges up, then goes again. It's a LiIon battery. http://www.husqvarna.com/us/products/robotic-mowers/husqvarna-robotic-mowers-for-homeowners/ There are models that will handle lawns up to 6000 m2 (that's 65000 sq. ft.)