 Do you have doubts about an "electric" lawn mower? |
| Review Date: July 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Wayne Scott, Atlantic Beach, Florida |
Maybe you think it's no more than a kitchen appliance with delusions of grandeur. Well, electricity is not just for kitchen appliances and vacuum cleaners anymore ... I was tired of repeated trips to the repair shop with my gas mower, so I kicked it to the curb. Literally. I don't need a Cadillac mower for my Mini-Cooper lawn. In addition to the ease of plug in, turn on, and go ...
What I like:
- Light weight. Light enough to manuever with one hand while the other hand tends the cord on turns. ALSO, this holds easily going across an incline, rather than up, which is hard on the lower back, or down, which is hazardous.
- Height adjustment is spring-loaded, and counter-balanced just right. Raising and lowering cutting height is quick and easy. It lowers in a snap from preferred lawn cutting height to its lowest setting for grass or leaves on the drive or street, which quickly turn to near dust for ease of blow-off.
- It mulches great across the lawn; much, much better than the last 2 gas mowers I've owned. That's probably more due to design than power source -- but the mulching is the point. The clippings from one week's growth just disappear. And the St. Augustine grass common here in Florida doesn't mulch as easily as the bluegrass of Kentucky, as memory serves.
- A metal cutting deck, rather than the plastic offerings from a couple of competitors.
I can't speak to how well the bag works; haven't tried it. Bagging is a waste of time, effort, and fertilizer, imho ...
Drawbacks:
- uhhh ... It doesn't make enough noise to wake the neighbors. (Long story ...)
The padding on the handle is not durable. Not at all. But I see some padded bicycle handlebar tape in its future.
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new adventure
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| Review Date: July 4, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Thomas Etzel, memphis |
I always looked kinda funny at people with electric lawn mowers but,the joke was on me! This mower does a fantastic job on my 1/4 acre lot!
I was concerned about the grass catcher after reading the prior reviews but as it turned out,it holds just about as much as my Toro but is harder to empty due to small intake size of bag.No big deal.
Took all of 5 min to set up..if that long.Single lever height adjustment is the"best thing since sliced bread".
The ball bearing wheels make this mower so easy to push its like walking back and forth around my yard(good exercise)even with a full bag.
I used the catcher on front yard but mulched the back.Perfect cut!
I would recommend buying a good quality extension cord since you need to provide adequate power to the motor when you are running a 100 ft cord.
as to the gripe about having a cord to mess with,no problem at all,I mean it!Its much easier to deal with than my electric trimmer(go figure??)and as long as you start closest to plug and work your way out,you hardly notice it.
I am not some "tree huger' just an old guy who hates blowing money on 'quality' lawn mowers that after three years are junk!
I hope this one lasts longer and I will no it hasn't without pulling my a_ _ off trying to get it running! |
I love this mower
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| Review Date: November 13, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Ian Tybolt, |
My family and I moved into a new home and I wanted to get away from a gas lawn mower. I did some research and this mower's reviews were all good. So I ordered one. I have not been disappointed at all. I use it to mow about an acre of land (we have a shed with electricity in the middle of of the back). When we first moved in I ignored the already long grass in the front for about 2 weeks and it worked its way up to between 6"-8" inches. I started up the mower and zoomed right over it. The next week I did half of the back yard and discovered that it had a lot of hidden rocks in it. It dinged up the blade some but I hadn't noticed at that point. The following week I went for the last half of the back yard which worked its way up to 8"-10" inches. I ended up with some slowdown but when I moved from mulching to a side discharge that took care of most of the slowdowns. It did end up with grass building up underneath and along the side discharge which I feel was to be expected since the grass was long and full of moisture. That's when I noticed the dinged up blade edge from the rocks. I finished up the back, cleaned up the mower, and sharpened the blade. The next time that I had it out the wife and kids(7 and 3) wanted to try it. I walk along side of the 7 year old who can push it and assisted the 3 year old who can push it short distances. Our yard is slightly sloped front to back but pushing the mower is not tiring.
It is now fall and I use the mower to mulch up the leaves in the yard vs raking and burning them.
I have recommended this mower to family and friends. |
Completely Satisfied
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| Review Date: April 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. Thomas, Way out West |
My mower is the same design as this one, sold under the Homelite brand. I have owned it just under a year now. I love it. While it doesn't exactly make mowing the lawn fun, it's much less of a chore than with my old gas machines. I just broke it out for the year, and all a had to do was plug in and go! No gas, no mess, no fuss, no fumes. And no battery issues. Sure, you have to deal with cord management, but it's just not a big deal. If you start near the outlet and work away from it the cord doesn't get in your way.
It's very lightweight and easy to maneuver--do not let the fact that it's not self-propelled stop you from buying it. It has never gotten seriously bogged down or lacked power. Mulch and bag settings both work great. I haven't tried the side discharge.
I like the design of the handle; it feels good in my hands. The foam or neoprene padding shows no signs of wear. Handle height settings offer a nice range, I'm a tall guy and I found one that works great. The on/off lever is easy to hold with a nice little safety feature that prevents accidental power-ups. And adjusting the cutting length is super easy --one quick lever controls all four wheels.
My only criticism is the crappy one-page instruction manual, but you don't actually need one. It's not exactly rocket science to get this thing up and going. It's pretty much plug and play.
I can't emphasize enough how nice it is to have one less internal combustion engine in the garage to maintain. I don't care how big my future yards may be, I'll always go electric.
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Once you go electric...
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| Review Date: September 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Swiftek, Tampa Bay, USA |
THE NEWER MODEL ISN'T NEWER...
This mower is IDENTICAL to the newer 50120 model. The only difference is the higher price. You will see that the descriptions list all the same features, and Amazon is actually using the same exact image for both listings!
THE CORD PROBLEM THAT NEVER WAS...
The question on everyone's mind is "What about that cord?" Well, it's just NOT an issue. You start up close to the outlet and go back and forth as you move away from it, SIMPLE. Once you learn the technique, you'll forget about it.
SIMPLICITY ITSELF...
1, flip the switch and off you go.
2, no gas, oil, filters etc.
3, NO MAINTENANCE, and they never break down.
4, lighter weight.
5, much quieter.
TORQUE vs. HORSEPOWER...
Gas engines have lots of HP, but only at the perfect RPM/speed (called the "power band"). Electric motors have HUGE amounts of torque, even when spinning very slowly, so they don't lose power and NEVER STALL when you hit the heavy stuff. Horsepower is fun and exciting, but torque is what really gets the job done.
12 Amps (this mower) at 115 Volts (house power) equals just under 2 horsepower.
PERFORMANCE IS EVERYTHING...
I usually let my grass get over a foot tall or more before I mow it ('cuz I'm lazy). This mower not only gets through it BETTER than my old 4 HP gas mower, but I'm able to use mulching mode which chops all the clippings down to nothing. Doing this every other week in the Florida heat quite literally destroyed my gas mower, but this one eats it up like candy!
As you can see, I can't say enough. My extensive research and hands-on testing says that electric mowers are just plain better, and this unit seems to be the best one at any price. It's well designed from quality materials, built to last, has all the good features, is a snap to operate, does the job better than ANY mower I've ever owned, is made in America, and keeps the air clean; what more could you want?
The only down side that I can think of is that the company, "American Lawn Mower Company" [...] , is a little hard to track down. They seem to have either discontinued the Earthwise line or sold it, because their site no longer has info on the brand, and most searches just point back here to Amazon. I think Earthwise is owned by Homelite because the mowers are identical, but I'm not worried about it because I suspect this mower will last a very long time, and besides I bought it directly from Amazon and they take good care of us.
I'm expecting my Earthwise ST00011 11-Inch 3.75 Amp Electric String Trimmer to arrive in the next few days. I'll let you know how it goes. |
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