Is battery power better than gas in the garden?
Battery-powered lawn mower makes grass cutting a joy
I figured it was time to give nature and my neighbours a break from the noise and fumes that have dominated our neighbourhood for too many years. I only wish more of them would do the same for me.
The time has come to replace gas-powered garden tools with the more eco-friendly battery-powered models. I have been purchasing battery-powered garden equipment for a number of years now and could not be happier with the results.
Battery power is the way to go. Get rid of the gas lawn mower, leaf blower and even the chainsaw and adopt the more eco-friendly and neighbourly battery-powered equivalents. For those looking to cut costs, The battery option will even prove more budget friendly for average gardeners over the long term. It will certainly make the tasks more enjoyable.
The sound of chainsaws hacking away at neighbourhood trees has always made me uncomfortable. Despite that, one of my most recent purchases is one of the new battery-powered chainsaws and I love it.
But it’s a chainsaw my neighbours have probably never heard, and, unless they are standing beside me watching me trim dead branches, they probably never will.
They certainly won’t be forced into their homes just to escape the noise of the chainsaw like so many of us are forced into when neighbours fire up their gas-powered machines.
The new battery-powered chainsaw barely disturbs the silence of the neighbourhood.
If you have decided to buy a chainsaw for garden chores, do yourself, your neighbours and most importantly the environment a favour and consider one of the newer battery-powered, eco-friendly models. They have more power than you will likely ever need, startup is a mere click of a button and they are quiet and environmental friendly.
My Ryobi battery-powered chainsaw cut through this large branch in seconds.
The days of the gas-powered behemoths are long gone. Not only are they loud and obnoxious, their two-stroke engines kick out more pollution than most of today’s cars.
For more suggestions and some of my favourite garden things, be sure to check out my Favourite Things post.
If you have not checked out the latest battery-powered garden tools you owe it to yourself (and your neighbours) to give them a chance. Over the past few years, I have said goodbye to every gas-powered garden tool in the shed and replaced them with battery-powered models.
And I have never looked back.
Tucked away in the basement is a charging station for the batteries and I have to say I feel a lot better about a charging station in the basement than I do about a couple tanks of gas in my shed.
The new electric tools have never let me down and I’m sure the neighbours appreciate them almost as much as I do. In fact, my immediate neighbour has joined me in the conversion from gas- to battery-powered garden equipment.
I think I sold him on it when I said I could cut my grass at 5 a.m. and the mower is so quiet that not a single neighbour would know I was cutting the grass. (Not that I would ever do that.) He asked to borrow my Ryobi battery-powered mower to cut his grass and then immediately went out and purchased one of his own. And, unlike me, he is very particular about his tools and his lawn.
The basement battery charging station (a small Ikea work desk) for our growing number of battery-powered garden tools.
Battery-powered lawn mower convinced me to go gasless
My first battery-powered purchase was a lawnmower. After years of battling with gas lawnmowers that required mixing oil and gas every time I wanted to cut the grass, or ones that wouldn’t start after a winter of storage, I began researching the pros and cons of battery-powered machines.
It didn’t take long to realize the benefits of battery-powered mowers.
• They are quieter than traditional mowers
• Better for the environment
• They are extremely light, easy to manipulate
• No gasoline to store in the shed
• No sparkplugs to change
• No fuel filters to change regularly
• Much cheaper to operate over the long term
There are a few drawbacks to battery-operated models
• Batteries may have to be replaced over the years, although I have used ours for four years without a problem.
• In high, damp grass the mower can bog down and throw a circuit switch which shuts it down. A simple click of a button puts it back into production, much like flipping the circuit breaker in your home.
Depending on the brand of mower you purchase, you can expect about 10 years of service out of it and about five years life on the removable batteries. The average battery should give you about one hour’s worth of power or enough juice to cut half an acre of grass.
Ryobi, STIHL offer complete lines of battery-powered tools
We purchased a battery-powered Ryobi model that has worked flawlessly. It came with two rechargeable batteries that have always been enough to cut the turf on our half-acre lot. Since we removed most of the grass on the property, a single battery is more than enough to get the job done.
Ryobi is just one of many respected companies that are offering entire lines of battery-operated garden products. Many of the tools conveniently share the same batteries.
In the Ryobi line, for example, they offer a hedge trimmer, string trimmer, chain saw, pole saw, several mowers and a snow blower just to name a few.
My neighbour chose to go with the excellent-quality STIHL line of battery-operated cordless tools.
STIHL says their “36 V cordless machines combine innovative motor and battery technology with first-class mechanical engineering to produce a brushless, electronically controlled electric motor.” STIHL explains that their “motor is extremely energy efficient … and the power from the lithium-ion battery packs is optimized to achieve a high degree of efficiency and enhance the performance of the machine.
And, like many other systems, STIHL’s powerful lithium-ion battery pack is compatible with all their cordless machines.
The success of the lawnmower resulted in the purchase of a Ryobi grass trimmer and leaf blower that operate on the same battery.
I have never been a huge fan of noisey leaf blowers. Unfortunately, leaf blowers have earned their bad reputations from the lawn companies that come into neighbourhoods armed with massive machines, so large and loud that they are forced to carry them on their backs.
Battery-powered models are much quieter and, if we all started using them, peace might return to our subdivisions.
So, when I decided it was time to make the jump to a chainsaw, the Ryobi model was a natural choice.
The battery-powered chainsaw shares the same benefits that the battery-powered lawn mower enjoys: Push button start, quiet, environmentally friendly, no gas\oil mixing. (Did I say no rip chord to exhaust you before you even begin your task.)
Our battery-powered chainsaw has made many difficult jobs around the garden much easier. This week I used it to remove a massive branch from our Linden tree that was crowding out one of our Cornus Kousa dogwoods. It also made quick work of pruning some lower branches in a maple and tulip tree as well as some wild grape vines as thick as my arm.
The chainsaw, although not used that often, has easily proven its worth around the garden.
I also use it to create brush piles on the property. Everything that gets cut stays on the property to become habitat for birds, mammals and reptiles.
The chainsaw also comes in handy to cut branches to be used as suet feeders around the property.
Obviously any chainsaw can be dangerous so proper cutting techniques and precautions need to be followed.
Oh, I should add that the success of the lawn mower, chainsaw and other power tools resulted in our purchase of a battery-powered snow blower that may lack the power of today’s huge gas-powered blowers that come out once or twice a year, but it gets the job done and doesn’t wake the neighbours.
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