Whoops wrong thread lol
Electric Lawn Mower?
- Thread starter 48Connor
- Start date
The consensus from what I've been able to google is that cheap chinese batteries are crap. They start out fine but start to lose their capacity soon, and after a while you'd be better off if you'd just paid full price for a genuine battery.
Does anyone make them here? We have to differentiate from cheap and good Chinese batteries.
I was laughing when I saw the Toro battery blowers. They made them look like V4's. I think they are running three concurrent batteries. I'm a little surprised the two-stage blowers aren't going with a large fixed battery instead of handfuls of lighter removable batteries. Most people aren't going to spring for more than one set when you need three or four to power it. It does allow you to share batteries between snow and lawn care though.
EDIT:
Pic looks like a big single stage. I didn't pay attention whether toro makes two stage with the "V4" or just bigger singles.
EDIT:
Pic looks like a big single stage. I didn't pay attention whether toro makes two stage with the "V4" or just bigger singles.
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I've been impressed with Ego blower now that I've had a few runs with it.
Quiet. Light and easy to operate. I'll never go back to a gasser.
Takes 2x batteries and they last a lot longer than I expected even under heavy use They charge fast too.
There is a reason why they are #1 rated.
Quiet. Light and easy to operate. I'll never go back to a gasser.
Takes 2x batteries and they last a lot longer than I expected even under heavy use They charge fast too.
There is a reason why they are #1 rated.
Mad Mike
Well-known member
Tell us what it's like to have your Ego blown?
Is there some type of guarantee that you'll be able to get replacement batteries in 5yrs when the originals die? Genuinely curious on that.
I see the attraction of electric for city lawns/driveway but a good quality gas unit (on-par pricing of what electric units costs)is pretty darn bulletproof for many years with very little maintenance. Sold our 15yr old Cub blower for $1,000 and over that span it only needed oil changes and two belts/sparkplugs. Same for the last JD lawn tractor we sold.
My latest Ariens 30" blower was on sale for $3,000 and has a 414cc motor. Big driveway so being able to throw snow 70' comes in really handy to keep piles low and spread out (or sent across the road into the forest. I expect it'll be with me with minimal repairs for a very long time.
I see the attraction of electric for city lawns/driveway but a good quality gas unit (on-par pricing of what electric units costs)is pretty darn bulletproof for many years with very little maintenance. Sold our 15yr old Cub blower for $1,000 and over that span it only needed oil changes and two belts/sparkplugs. Same for the last JD lawn tractor we sold.
My latest Ariens 30" blower was on sale for $3,000 and has a 414cc motor. Big driveway so being able to throw snow 70' comes in really handy to keep piles low and spread out (or sent across the road into the forest. I expect it'll be with me with minimal repairs for a very long time.
Great northern battery in Hamilton has rebuilt power tool batteries for decades. You bring them the dead ones and they replace the cells inside for far less than new oem batteries. I have even used them for some technical equipment that no longer had batteries available.
If you have a popular battery system, knock offs are normally available but you are rolling the dice with real capacity matching advertised capacity.
I need something to take care of B's driveway. All the snow has to be pushed down between the houses about 50' to the front lawn. She doesn't want a blower, so I'm going to get a fold down one.
Thoughts on this?
Thoughts on this?
That looks similar to my neighbours although theirs is a couple years old. Getting much snow 50' away would be painful for them. Theirs works great in <3" but doesn't throw more than 15'. By the time you blew the same snow three times, it would be really struggling with the load.
I think @PrivatePilot has a single stage ryobi that has some guts. Maybe it's even the one you linked. His input would be helpful.
If you want a 3.5hp Honda (hs35), I have one you can have. A kind soul gave it to me so it seems right to pass it on.
@PrivatePilot What model ryobi snowblower do you have?
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I saw someone using a Ryobi that looked very similar to that last week and they looked like they were struggling with it and not happy at all. The snow wasn't hard to blow by any means but that thing was only moving it maybe 12-15'.
That's the one I have. I'm super happy with it. I'd say it'll probably throw 15-20 feet if you have the chute set full up and the power set to full, but honestly, for most applications where you'd use a blower this size (urban 2 or 4 car driveway) 15 feet is perfectly functional though - more than enough to blow from the driveway into a lawn/whatever.
I mean, you wouldn't buy this sort of blower if you lived in a snowbelt and were trying to deal with 4 foot drifts, but for most other situations I've yet to find anything it doesn't move. I've used it once already today (we had a strong blast come through that dropped a few cm, and I want to stay ahead of it) and it's charging up again now.
And stores are unlikely to be ordering any more this time of year as in another 4-6 weeks they'd just have to store them for the summer.
It's the older version of that one you pictured. The early models had a horrible handle design that wouldn't stay extended when you were pushing it into the snow, so they suffered massive returns. The handle was designed to be telescopic for easy storage, but the mechanism that was supposed to hold it in the extended position was a horrible design.
Those returns went into the liquidation market where they were resold. I got mine for something like $350 IIRC with the 6ah battery.
The problem can't really be fixed as the new style handle doesn't fit on the old styled base, but the "Fix" is as easy as putting a pipe clamp on the handle where it would slide down into the other part to stop it from sliding. Problem solved, and it works perfect. In the spring when I need to store it I just loosen the clamp.
Looks like everyones snowblowers are going to get a workout tomorrow.
Probably going to dig mine out tomorrow to clear out the snow banks Everytime I plow the driveway gets narrowed.
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Agreed, the place close to me cleaned out its inventory in the week prior to family day weekend.
Spray some car wax inside your snow blower, it'll help with sticky snow. Or even cooking spray.
Btw what do you guys think of the battery powered snow shovels, are they worth it for when the snow isn't deep and you don't want to bust out the snow blower? I mean this: https://www.amazon.ca/Cordless-Compatible-Brushless-Adjustable-Deflector/dp/B0DF7GYBT8/
Btw what do you guys think of the battery powered snow shovels, are they worth it for when the snow isn't deep and you don't want to bust out the snow blower? I mean this: https://www.amazon.ca/Cordless-Compatible-Brushless-Adjustable-Deflector/dp/B0DF7GYBT8/
