PeterC wrote:
Chap next door bought a Mac Allister from B&Q, corded mains, about £70 3
years ago. Much to my annoyance it cut his fair-sized lawn very well. The
grass was about 6" long for the first cut and I though that there was no
chance - no problem, more like.

I've been pretty impressed by the corded MacAllister that we've inherited
from a landlord who only bought the cheapest everything.

The main issue was the cutting width - on a big lawn, petrol mowers go
up to about 55cm while the electric was 35cm. It still handled 'meadow'
quality grass, you just had to overlap cuts.

If I were a contract gardener without ready access to power and the need to
get the job done rapidly I'd still want a petrol (or a ride-on).

Theo

"Theo" wrote in message
...
PeterC wrote:
Chap next door bought a Mac Allister from B&Q, corded mains, about £70 3
years ago. Much to my annoyance it cut his fair-sized lawn very well. The
grass was about 6" long for the first cut and I though that there was no
chance - no problem, more like.

I've been pretty impressed by the corded MacAllister that we've inherited
from a landlord who only bought the cheapest everything.

The main issue was the cutting width - on a big lawn, petrol mowers go
up to about 55cm while the electric was 35cm. It still handled 'meadow'
quality grass, you just had to overlap cuts.

If I were a contract gardener without ready access to power and the need
to
get the job done rapidly I'd still want a petrol (or a ride-on).

Petrol will still prevail for cutting larger areas of grass where battery
capacity is nowhere near enough to cut the whole lot in one day without a
long recharge, and where you can't trail a very long mains cable that is
probably 100 metres or more.

Our garden is about an acre, though some of that is pond, flower beds,
greenhouse area etc. But it would need a battery the size of a car (maybe I
exaggerate!) to cut the whole area of grass in one charge, and trailing a
long mains cable would be horrendous.

I cut it with a self-propelled walk-behind mower and can do the whole lot in
about 2 1/2 hours. The previous people had a ride-on mower and a
self-propelled walk-behind mower for the bits that the ride-on couldn't get
to, but they wanted to sell them to us for an extortionate amount, so we
went for the walk-behind as a stop-gap while we decide whether to get a
robotic mower.

On 28 Aug 2020 10:52:10 +0100 (BST), Theo
wrote:

snip

If I were a contract gardener without ready access to power and the need to
get the job done rapidly I'd still want a petrol (or a ride-on).

When daughter was doing that for a living they had a couple of
Qualcast branded self propelled rotary petrol mowers, the smaller one
of which she 'loved' for it's portability and general ease of use,
especially in the smaller gardens.

They would always start first pull (hot or cold), had a reasonably
sized collection box and she was very efficient with it.

I think they had B&S engines.

The ride on hydraulic driven 'gang mowers' at her current work are too
big for most peoples side gates. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

In article , NY wrote:
"Theo" wrote in message
...
PeterC wrote:
Chap next door bought a Mac Allister from B&Q, corded mains, about £70
3 years ago. Much to my annoyance it cut his fair-sized lawn very
well. The grass was about 6" long for the first cut and I though that
there was no chance - no problem, more like.

I've been pretty impressed by the corded MacAllister that we've
inherited from a landlord who only bought the cheapest everything.

The main issue was the cutting width - on a big lawn, petrol mowers go
up to about 55cm while the electric was 35cm. It still handled
'meadow' quality grass, you just had to overlap cuts.

If I were a contract gardener without ready access to power and the
need to get the job done rapidly I'd still want a petrol (or a
ride-on).

Petrol will still prevail for cutting larger areas of grass where battery
capacity is nowhere near enough to cut the whole lot in one day without
a long recharge, and where you can't trail a very long mains cable that
is probably 100 metres or more.

Our garden is about an acre, though some of that is pond, flower beds,
greenhouse area etc. But it would need a battery the size of a car (maybe
I exaggerate!) to cut the whole area of grass in one charge, and
trailing a long mains cable would be horrendous.

I cut it with a self-propelled walk-behind mower and can do the whole lot
in about 2 1/2 hours. The previous people had a ride-on mower and a
self-propelled walk-behind mower for the bits that the ride-on couldn't
get to, but they wanted to sell them to us for an extortionate amount,
so we went for the walk-behind as a stop-gap while we decide whether to
get a robotic mower.

We've 2/3 acre and for the best part of 40 years, I used a self propelled
petrol beast which took the best part of 3 hours. Then I bought a sit on -
main job done in under an hour with another 20 minutes for the edges.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

alan_m wrote:
On 27/08/2020 23:41, Tim+ wrote:

Robotic battery powered mowers seem to be the future.

Possibly only if you have a bowling green quality lawn!


Not so! My sisters lawn is on quite a slope

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 27/08/2020 17:58, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 27/08/2020 17:17, JohnP wrote:


But what will the performance be like in 2 years time? Poor enought to
warrant a new battery - or will you put up with deminished performance.

If I remember I'll post a reply in August 2022.

And someone else will post another reply in 2032 :-)

On 28/08/2020 12:29, charles wrote:
In article , NY wrote:
"Theo" wrote in message
...
PeterC wrote:
Chap next door bought a Mac Allister from B&Q, corded mains, about £70
3 years ago. Much to my annoyance it cut his fair-sized lawn very
well. The grass was about 6" long for the first cut and I though that
there was no chance - no problem, more like.

I've been pretty impressed by the corded MacAllister that we've
inherited from a landlord who only bought the cheapest everything.

The main issue was the cutting width - on a big lawn, petrol mowers go
up to about 55cm while the electric was 35cm. It still handled
'meadow' quality grass, you just had to overlap cuts.

If I were a contract gardener without ready access to power and the
need to get the job done rapidly I'd still want a petrol (or a
ride-on).

Petrol will still prevail for cutting larger areas of grass where battery
capacity is nowhere near enough to cut the whole lot in one day without
a long recharge, and where you can't trail a very long mains cable that
is probably 100 metres or more.

Our garden is about an acre, though some of that is pond, flower beds,
greenhouse area etc. But it would need a battery the size of a car (maybe
I exaggerate!) to cut the whole area of grass in one charge, and
trailing a long mains cable would be horrendous.

I cut it with a self-propelled walk-behind mower and can do the whole lot
in about 2 1/2 hours. The previous people had a ride-on mower and a
self-propelled walk-behind mower for the bits that the ride-on couldn't
get to, but they wanted to sell them to us for an extortionate amount,
so we went for the walk-behind as a stop-gap while we decide whether to
get a robotic mower.

We've 2/3 acre and for the best part of 40 years, I used a self propelled
petrol beast which took the best part of 3 hours. Then I bought a sit on -
main job done in under an hour with another 20 minutes for the edges.

Convert it to a wild flower meadow. Just cut diagonal or curved paths
through it. Then cut the main part once a year after the seeds have
fallen.

Jeff Layman wrote:
On 27/08/2020 17:17, JohnP wrote:


But what will the performance be like in 2 years time? Poor enought to
warrant a new battery - or will you put up with deminished performance.

If I remember I'll post a reply in August 2022.


One of the problems with all the Lithium batteries
in the house, is charge management. Not putting
too much charge in them. Putting too little charge
in them (due to self-discharge over time).

It's not particularly good, to leave them on the
charger for 9 months, until the next grass mowing season.
That keeps the battery at 100% too much of the time.

Depending on the quality of the battery, you might want
to check it every three months or so, to see what kind
of self-discharge rate it has. That's if it has a
fuel gauge. That's how often I check the laptop pack.
I charge it back up to 70-80% if it needs a charge.

If a multi-cell pack "goes below 0% charge", a
charger is not allowed to charge it. It "won't
take a charge" when that happens.

Multi-cell packs, one of the cells can become
reverse-biased when run below the limit and
any kind of load is applied. (Even running a LED
would be enough.) The reverse-biased cell plates
out metal, ruining the cell. Packs work best if
all the cells match and they all "go downhill"
at the same moment.

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...ased_batteries

Paul

On Thursday, 27 August 2020 at 14:22:05 UTC+1, Stephen wrote:
Hello, I have an electric mower but it's not very good: it gets
clogged up with wet grass and long grass will stall the motor. I
keep thinking I should treat myself to a petrol one but a honda
is £400 and I think is it worth it for the few weekends it will
get used each year.

Every now and then I look on web sites to see the prices and when
I was looking today, I saw that there are many rechargeable
mowers now. Thinking about the recent thread about electric cars,
it seems mowers are heading that way too. It might be my last
chance to buy a petrol one!

I wonder how long the batteries last before they need replacing
and how powerful these battery powered mowers are?


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
https://piaohong.s3-us-west-2.amazon...net/index.html

On Thursday, 27 August 2020 at 14:42:51 UTC+1, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 14:21:50 +0100 (GMT+01:00), Stephen
wrote:

Hello, I have an electric mower but it's not very good: it gets
clogged up with wet grass
Not sure you are advised to mow 'wet grass' with any domestic mower?
and long grass will stall the motor.
Quite?

keep thinking I should treat myself to a petrol one but a honda
is £400 and I think is it worth it for the few weekends it will
get used each year.
Cable electric are probably simpler (maintenance wise) in the long
term over petrol engine models.

Every now and then I look on web sites to see the prices and when
I was looking today, I saw that there are many rechargeable
mowers now.
And have been for a while now. ;-)
Thinking about the recent thread about electric cars,
it seems mowers are heading that way too.
And all sorts of garden / power tools.
It might be my last
chance to buy a petrol one!
;-)

I wonder how long the batteries last before they need replacing
This will depend on all sorts of variables, including how often you
use them, how hard you use them, how you charge them and how you store
them.
and how powerful these battery powered mowers are?
That one is a 'piece of string' question. You can get cheap mowers
that are trying to do too much with low spec motors and batteries up
to 'quality' / branded kit that you have to pay handsomely for.

You might start by considering how long it typically takes you when
the mower isn't struggling then check to see how that compares with
the advertised run time of a battery mower that fits you budget
(allowing some leeway for marketing and battery aging).

Cheers, T i m
I bought my son a Hyundai self propelled petrol mower last year, and it will tackle long wet grass without any problems. It was easily assembled after watching YouTube video and easy to start. It cost £200 from Amazon.
David

On Fri, 28 Aug 2020 11:18:47 +0100
"NY" wrote:

Petrol will still prevail for cutting larger areas of grass where battery
capacity is nowhere near enough to cut the whole lot in one day without a
long recharge, and where you can't trail a very long mains cable that is
probably 100 metres or more.

I'm inclined to disagree, I picked up a battery lawnmower from one
of the Teutonic twins along with four batteries for it. Each battery only
lasts about 20-30 minutes of use so when it beeps pull the battery and put
in a fresh one. Of course this was only feasible because the batteries were
sensibly priced (90wh for ‚¬35) a lot of manufacturers seem to think that
batteries are razor blades.

It's also less effort to use and does a better job than the
self-propelled petrol lawnmower it replaces.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith | Directable Mirror Arrays
C:\WIN | A better way to focus the sun
The computer obeys and wins. | licences available see
You lose and Bill collects. | http://www.sohara.org/

On 27/08/2020 14:21, Stephen wrote:
Hello, I have an electric mower but it's not very good: it gets
clogged up with wet grass and long grass will stall the motor. I
keep thinking I should treat myself to a petrol one but a honda
is £400 and I think is it worth it for the few weekends it will
get used each year.

Every now and then I look on web sites to see the prices and when
I was looking today, I saw that there are many rechargeable
mowers now. Thinking about the recent thread about electric cars,
it seems mowers are heading that way too. It might be my last
chance to buy a petrol one!

I wonder how long the batteries last before they need replacing
and how powerful these battery powered mowers are?


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
https://piaohong.s3-us-west-2.amazon...net/index.html

Buy a decent petrol one. The Hayter I bought 25 years ago is still easy
to start and does a good job.

Mike

On 31/08/2020 13:12, Muddymike wrote:
On 27/08/2020 14:21, Stephen wrote:
Hello, I have an electric mower but it's not very good: it gets
Â* clogged up with wet grass and long grass will stall the motor. I
Â* keep thinking I should treat myself to a petrol one but a honda
Â* is £400 and I think is it worth it for the few weekends it will
Â* get used each year.

Every now and then I look on web sites to see the prices and when
Â* I was looking today, I saw that there are many rechargeable
Â* mowers now. Thinking about the recent thread about electric cars,
Â* it seems mowers are heading that way too. It might be my last
Â* chance to buy a petrol one!

I wonder how long the batteries last before they need replacing
Â* and how powerful these battery powered mowers are?


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
https://piaohong.s3-us-west-2.amazon...net/index.html

Buy a decent petrol one. The Hayter I bought 25 years ago is still easy
to start and does a good job.

Mike
But if you bought the same one now, would it still be as good ?.

I was browsing fans in the local electrical shop, and was amazed
at how light they were now. All flimsy plastic bits and pieces now
it seems, compared to ones I bought in 2003 for the last heatwave.