My Neighbour Is Cutting Her Lawn
 

And all I can think of while listening to her lawnmower surge, sputter and nearly die, while huffing unburned fuel fumes is "It would only take a few minutes to rig up my wideband to that little muffler"...Is that wrong?

The thing is running crazy rich and then alternately lean, with the governor struggling to compensate. Probably needs a new air filter, spark plug and a thorough carb cleanout followed by necessary adjustments. And then the whole process will need to repeat next spring because you just know it will be stored all winter with fuel in the tank.

Now that I have my own place I had to the option of course to retrieve one of the 5 or so gas lawnmowers I have stashed in my parents garage. All work fine, and are leftovers from a misspent youth cutting lawns and repairing small engines. All stored with empty tanks, fogged carbs/cylinders, new oil. I'm sure each one would crank up within 3/4 of the first pull of the cord. Even my radically cammed, bored, stroked (yes, you CAN get upgraded cams for B & S engines!), ungoverned, over-carbureted modified Uber Mower.

Instead I made the sane choice and purchased a Black and Decker 40V Li-Ion cordless mower w/matching trimmer. The mower came with 2 40V 2.2AH li-ion batteries, and a third came with the trimmer. My lot is about 240 x 50, half of which is grass. The mower will cut all the lawns on one battery, and then I just grab another to run the trimmer. With two chargers both batteries are ready to go an hour after use. Still leaving the 3rd battery if necessary.

No gas. No oil. No fumes. No starter cords. No filters. No fogging, fuel stabilizer and prep for the winter. When winter comes, just make sure the batteries are fully charged and bring them into the house so they don't freeze.

It's so nice to just clip in a battery then press a button and hear only the soft hum of motor and the whir of the blade. I do not miss the smell, sound and ickyness of gas lawnmowers, that's for sure. And the trimmer! Dear diety two stroke trimmers are unpleasant. Fuel oil mix, farting around with priming bulbs and the choke, two hands to start the thing pulling that stupid cord on a flywheel with no leverage. And the reward for those efforts? Ear splitting scream from a "muffler" only a few feet from your head. Instead I clip the battery in place, hit the trigger and then pick my speed with the throttle dial. On speed "2" it will cut down grass, weeds and saplings. Speed "8" is way more power than most small 2 strokes and more than adequate for edging and weed removal down to the dirt/concrete.

Yep, electric things do have their upside. Have you driven a Tesla yet? :)

I have half an acre to cut. It takes me close to 90 minutes of cutting and 1 refill. Would an electric thingy work for that long?

Really interested as I hate all the crap around the gas one and one with a cord, nope, nope, nope....

Eric

I just Scored a Brand NEW gas lawnmower..lol!
In box for 60 bucks..

I got so tired of slinging a 100 foot extension cord half way to China and back just to cut some Freakin shit that you should be able to Smoke!
It's full of mosquitos and is a plain nuisance!
..so much for Mother nature,give me asphalt,that way it won't brown up when I park the Rx7 on it.

I thought rotary guys are suppose to support the oil industry??? That's what wankels do best.

I have a Fiskars mower. (human powered) One of the best purchases I've ever made. No gas, plugs, batteries, charging, cords, etc. cuts like a dream. Did a lot of research before though and the model I bought is probably the only push mower worth considering, but was still much less money @ $220 than a gas or most electrics.

I've driven an S (sadly not a P85), been in a roadster.

Yes, however that's quite a lot of yard, so you'd have to choose a cordless electric carefully.

It means buying at the top of the price range with something like this:
Echo | Echo 58V Cordless Lawn Mower | Home Depot Canada

It uses 58V 4AH batteries. I suspect one of those batteries would get you through 60% of your lawn, depending on grass length. Then just swap in the 2nd battery and finish up. It would make sense to have a 3rd battery around so you can rotate batteries, wear levelling them all during use and to have an extra in case you need to cut especially long grass or use another piece of equipment which runs on the same battery.

I wouldn't want you to spend a bunch of money and then be disappointed so it might be best to check some online recommendations for the 58V mower range and see what others say regarding lawn size.

I cut my lawn ONCE with my parents corded electric before I said "Nope, not again". Corded electrics are awesome, but only if the source of power is centrally located to the lawn and the lawns are more urban-squarish front to back. Starts to be a real pain with a long back lawn. Or my place that has a front lawn, then a lawn between the house and shop, then a long back lawn behind the shop. Too much cord swapping.

I still have a bridgeported RX-7, and shares in several oil companies!

A good manual mower is a joy to use when the blades are sharp and properly adjusted. Used one for years on my neighbour's lawn when I was young, as she insisted I only cut it with the manual mower. But for a lawn my size, that would become a chore. Not one to shy away from exercise but these days I just want the lawn cut, not to make a thing of it.