Happy endings!

[chezmax]

So, the previous story about the lawnmower has a happy ending.

On Monday, the charger arrived in the mail. It was the correct one! It had lights when we plugged it in! Finally!

So we plug it into the lawnmower, and a minute later, the charger says 'Fully charged'. WTF?

It seems mostly the batteries were so discharged the charger was confused (techie bit: we got the multimeter, the 24V batteries were down to 12V...). After some playing with it, eventually we just left the charger in, and overnight, the battery climbed up to 26V.

So, on Tuesday, we cut the lawn! FINALLY! Unfortunately, the battery was still in bad condition, so we managed to do about half the lawn before the motor started sounding a little tired. So we threw it on the charger again, over night, and Wednesday night, we cut the rest of the lawn, and it held up like a champ.

Which is good, cause those batteries would probably have been expensive to replace.

The moral of the story: charge the batteries occasionally over the winter. And hope your charger doesn't die. :)

Our lawn actually almost looks nice now!

Comments

[electroly.livejournal.com]

Think how much easier it would've been if you just had a gas-powered lawnmower like everyone else ;)

[chezmax]

Knowing my luck, the engine would have exploded.

But, eww, they're noisy, smelly, and you have to keep gas and oil around.

[snatchcarrie.livejournal.com]

You sound like a girl. Although, I can't wait to use my noisy, smelly gas lawn mower for the first time!!!

[chezmax]

*smirk*

Perhaps I sound like a girl, but it's not for my vanity. I dislike the things, and I dislike their environmental effects :)

So, when's your housewarming? :)

[snatchcarrie.livejournal.com]

Haven't decided yet, still unpacking. I'll need to get my BBQ put together first too. And then we will drink!

[chezmax]

If we had a smaller lawn, we would have. :)

[asmodeusb.livejournal.com]

I don't know what kind of torturous terrain you've got, but my push mower is slightly more exercise than walking around my lawn. Repeatedly. In concentric circles sometimes.

[chezmax]

You have a completely manual mower?

[asmodeusb.livejournal.com]

A reel mower, yes

[chezmax]

Cool. We looked at them when we were shopping, but it seemed like our lawn was a bit big for one of those. And they are useless if you accidentally let your lawn get a bit overgrown :)

[kraig.livejournal.com]

What's the environmental cost of manufacturing the batteries? Not asking to be a jerk, but I've always wondered that.

[chezmax]

That is a particularly good question, which unfortunately I don't know. In the meantime it's less smelly and noisy :)

[kraig.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess you win on that at least. I never minded the smell of our gas mower, particularly since cut grass overpowered it, but to each his own... certainly the noise was never pleasant. I daresay I'd rather smell my gas mower than somebody else's car that really ought to be e-tested (or condemned), but living on Erb Street still I don't get a choice about the latter. >:

[indigofire-net.livejournal.com]

The environmental cost of batteries can be contained by using appropriate manufacturing and disposal technologies. Though I suspect it's also much less than a gas mower, the uncaptured emissions alone are a good argument.

[kraig.livejournal.com]

*Can* be. Were they? (Well, obviously we don't yet know about disposal.)

[indigofire-net.livejournal.com]

Good question, and something we need to push for everywhere: environmental accountability for all things produced. Also agreed that the entire picture needs to be looked at and not just the the initial use case.

Until that happens, I'll settle for the option that enables containing the environmental footprint.

-iF

[taffer.livejournal.com]

In my experience, gas mowers are a serious pain in the ass to start, even if you ignore the noise/stink of using one.

If Max's yard is like mine, by the time you get the gas mower started, you could've mowed the whole lawn with an electric. ;-)

[electroly.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. I mowed our 5 acre lot every week for years with a gas mower. It never took more than 5-10 seconds to get it started.

Step 1: Insert key.
Step 2: Turn key.
Step 3: Begin mowing lawn.

If at step 2 you fuck it up and flood the engine, just wait 10 minutes and try it again. In all the years I mowed my parents' lawn, this happened once.

[chezmax]

You must've had a nice one. I'm thinking of the 'pull on the string trying to get it started' type.

[kraig.livejournal.com]

Never had any such trouble with our little Toro. Even a skinny 12 year old boy could work it. I know, I was the skinny 12 year old. :)

Our lawn was only 3 acres though. Dad got the ride-on *after* I moved out.

[taffer.livejournal.com]

LUXURY.

100% of the gas mowers I've used were the "pull repeatedly on this cable thing to start the engine" type, even the riding mower we had when I was a kid.

[electroly.livejournal.com]

I'll concede that one to you. We have a leaf-blower that is one of the pullstring starters. Fuck pullstrings; I hate those things.

[taffer.livejournal.com]

I had a battery-powered Yardworks piece of shit last year. It worked for approx 1 season, totally dead this year, plus no parts seemed to be available.

After swearing loudly at Canadian Tire, I went to Sears and bought a plug-in electric. These scare the hell out of me because I assume I'll be mowing over the cord several times a week... So far, so good. It's lighter and more powerful and won't need to be replaced next spring.

[chezmax]

Mine was just the charger. Although the odyssey above is long, it did work out quite well in the end, and it still mows wonderfully :)

Interstate Battery on Victoria

[indigofire-net.livejournal.com]

... can rebuild your old dead battery, and that way you'll have a spare.

And yes, store the battery discharged and not plugged in over the winter.

-iF

Re: Interstate Battery on Victoria

[chezmax]

The battery did not die. It just needed some reconditioning.

The manual specifically says I should charge it every 2 weeks over the winter (probably to prevent what happened: batteries don't like to be almost completely discharged)

[karazorel.livejournal.com]

They did a test on swedish TV.

OLD pull string or key gas lawnmowers? Health and enviroment unfriendly.

NEW pull string or key gas lawnmowers, as in last 5 years - pretty enviroment friendly and not nearly as unhealthy.

That said, how much DOES your grass grow that it'll be a considerable health hazard? If you were a gardener, sure, but your own lawn?

We have a 1 year old pull string push mower and it almost always start on the first try, or you need to do the pumping/waiting as electroly mentioned, but come on? How luxurious do you need to have it?

On a related note, our neighbour has one of those you sit on, with a smaller garden than ours. He spends 3x the time to mow his lawn, what with the 2" forward, 3" backward, turn wheel 1" etc etc. He has no room for it. He also has "Porsche 911" stickers on it and a fake exhaust pipe...