For a homeowner, a 2 or 4 stroke gas engine has no compelling benefit these days over a cordless electric string trimmer. The price of the electrics seems to be low enough now and carry enough energy to handle pretty much any single family home. But for a lawn care crew who may cut 20+ lawns a day, they will need a heck of a battery solution for string trimmers or leaf blowers, either in terms of battery capacity or in mobile recharging ability (which surely would end up being a gasoline or propane generator on the trailer with the lawn equipment).
Personally - I think electric is still a fews years off being usable for yard equipment.
I live in a metro, but my property is about an acre. I bought an electric lawnmower/weed eater when I bought the house. I used them for a year, then donated them and bought gas (4 stroke for both).
The problems I encountered: Batteries are expensive and they just don't last nearly long enough (both charge and life). To do a real pass on my yard without waiting for a charge cycle, I would have needed about 4 batteries for the trimmer, and 8 for the mower. I do live in a heavily wooded area with a large number of vines (and kudzu...) but still - that's nearly 1000 dollars in batteries alone. I opted to wait, and stick with 4, but it means what was previously 4 hours in the yard is now 4 hours split into several sections - an all day affair.
Even with the above, I would have probably stuck with the trimmer (the mower was just garbage), except I had two batteries fail in the first year. That's just an unacceptable extra cost for yard work, and FAR eclipses the entire amount I've spent on gas for the mower/trimmer combined over the last 3 years I've had them.
So... No. Frankly I don't think they're there yet. It's very close, but it's slower, and frankly - outrageously more expensive.
So I'm going to wait for cost to come down, and regulation to address battery interoperability in this equipment (hah... as if our government would actually do something useful).
>For a homeowner, a 2 or 4 stroke gas engine has no compelling benefit these days over a cordless electric string trimmer
Cost.
I would have gone electric if I could but seeing as I don't obsess over my lawn (i.e. I let it grow out enough before cutting it back that most HNers would be hand wringing if I were their neighbor) there's no amount of mental gymnastics that makes it a sane tradeoff. I'm not gonna double the cost on something I run maybe 20min/mo. If I were one of those people who bought overpriced premium equipment I didn't need then it might make sense.
Do y'all not have corded electric mowers in America?
Here in the UK, an entry-level petrol mower is £150+ while an entry-level corded electric mower is only £50. They're also much lighter, which is great for ladies and kids. And they start really reliably, even if they've sat in a shed all winter.
Corded electric mowers are very rare in the USA. I live in a suburban neighborhood in the North East and have never seen one in my life. I see some battery powered ones though.
I wonder if it’s due to our outlets being 120V? We’d be limited to less than 2.5 HP with a normal outlet, whereas gas push mowers typically have engines in the 5-7 HP range.
We certainly have corded electric mowers. I cut about half an acre with one and it's great. I find it performs better than a gas mower in higher grass (I generally cut once every two weeks).
If you have it already, I understand. But if you started from scratch, or if your existing mower died? It might be a slightly different decision. Electric costs more indeed but your own ears, nose and lungs are important as well.
I was starting from scratch at one point. Cheapo mower was $115 and weed whacker was $100. The greenworks combo that would have done the equivalent job was $~200 more for a smaller mower. This is comparing new vs new. I would up watching the internet classifieds and getting a free gas push mower making the cost discrepancy even more. I have yet to have starting issues with any of it and I don't do anything special other than do my last mow in October and first in April/May
I could do without the noise but I own fancy Bluetooth hearing protection for other reasons so that's really a non-issue. A little bit of exhaust every 3-5 weeks in the summer is just a non-issue in practice. I'm sure if I had some ideological reason to care a lot I'd find it more annoying but I don't so...
I have a friend who has the whole 40v kit. In retrospect I definitely made the right decision because his stuff doesn't have the requisite power/duty cycle for my "it's been a month and I have company this weekend, time to mow the lawn" use case and the noise of the gas stuff is less of an issue when it's a monthly thing and not a weekly thing.
