Electric vs Gas lawn tools

[timjet]

I bought an E Go (brand name) electric blower with a 56 volt 2.5 AH battery a year ago. It works great. No more having to fiddle with the gas ones that seemingly always are breaking. I've replaced the priming bulbs and gas lines several times on various gas lawn tools. Take these to a repair facility and it will cost almost as much to repair them as to replace them. I decided from now on I will go all electric. So when I decided to replace my gas chain saw I got an electric one with the same battery as the blower. The claim on the box was it was equivalent to a 40 cc gas chain saw. Sadly it is not. It had trouble cutting through palmetto bushes which we have plenty of. Palmetto bushes are very wet and any saw can bog down but the electric one ran out of power after cutting two down. It takes about an hour to recharge. So I took it back to Lowes and got a 40.9 cc gas one. The gas saw bogged down some too but not near as much. It almost seemed the gas saw had a sharper chain than the electric but the reality was it was just much stronger.

However for tools that don't need a lot of power I think electric may be the way to go, like weed whackers, blowers and hedge trimmers. I've had my electric blower for a year and the battery still holds a good charge. How long that will be is anyone's guess. Those batteries are not cheap and in the long run gas may be cheaper than electric. But gas is being phased out in some states so we may not have a choice.

Just my experience.

[Camp CA]

I use battery-operated tools........leaf blower, handheld vacuum, drill, power saw.........avoids plugging in, uncoiling and coiling long extension cords and filling up gas tanks and refilling gas cans. I replaced my gasoline outboard with an electric outboard one on my sailboat dinghy...........significantly lighter weight, long run time, no oil leaks and avoids the mess assciated with handling gas.

[Nwcid]

This is another one of those situations that "It Depends" on the goals and your use. Right tool for the right job.

2 years ago I purchased the 60v Dewalt chainsaw with 16" or 18" bar (can't recall right now) and I have been very happy with it. I bought this for the purpose of keeping with the RV and taking on the SxS when we ride. I keep one spare battery with me and it has cut us out of everything we needed it to.

This will run equally as well as any comparable gas saw (we have several Sthil's). I was helping get some firewood this year so I thought I would give my saw a real test. My bother was using a O34 and I was running my Dewalt on the same log deck and I had 2 x 6 AH batteries (~$100 each) and 1 x 9 AH battery (~$150). My 9 AH ran for a sold 15 min followed by ~10 for each 6 AH battery. My brother was still cutting for about 5 min before he needed to refuel. He filled up the fuel tank and kept cutting. I would have had ~1hr charging for each battery, so I was OOS for an hour.

The point being is that with current technology and price the electric is not a good option for someone who needs lots of continuous cutting.

I have several of the 60v Dewalt tools like grinders and saws. For occasional or short duration use they are amazing and keep up with corded/gas tools. However if you need to run for long periods of time you will have a real challenge.

[SergioP]

After 12 years I replaced my gas weed eater with an electric one. So much better to use, less noise, no starting problems, plenty of power, no stinky exhaust. The battery lasts longer than it takes to do my yard. The only bad thing was the cost to buy it.

[NLOVNIT]

With the exception of my lawnmower, all my lawn tools (& hand tools too) are battery operated. I love them. They do what I want them to do, are so much easier to start & I don't smell like gasoline exhaust after using them.

There's only 2 things I've found a battery lawn tool doesn't do well: edge flower beds & shovel snow. For edging, that really takes the power of a a gas weed-wacker at the least & more like a gas-powered blade edger for a really crisp edge. I've got a battery snow shovel that does really well if it's less than 4" & dry snow. Over that &/or wet/heavy snow, I have to either hand shovel or get out my 30" snow blower.

[bigb56]

I love my Greenworks 80 volt blower, I've had it for about 4 years and still going strong. Maybe I'll get their string trimmer next. No lawn mower needed in the desert, or snow blower.

[Bamaman]

I have a bunch of battery powered powertools. I'm talking Black & Decker, Hitachi, Porter Cable, Milwaukee and a couple of others I cannot remember. I have 12 volts, 18 volts and 40 volts.

My problem is batteries. And chargers. When I can find my chargers, I cannot find the battery to that tool. And when I find the battery, my chargers are not in sight.

Another problem is the life of the battery. At $179 replacement cost on a Ryobi 40 volt, it's cheaper just to buy another tool. I finally gave up on the battery string trimmer and got a 2 cycle power head. I now have 2 string trimmer heads, a driveway trimmer and a brush cutter with some power behind it.

I'd be in great shape if my daughter didn't keep carrying off my 2 gallon gas can with the oil mixed in.

[Romer1]

I have the EGO mower, snow blower, weed eater and leaf blower. Also have 1 7.5ah battery and 2 5ah batteries. Mower with the 7.5 battery will do my 5,000 sq ft yard with power left over. Snow blower will clear double wide 35' driveway of 6" snow better than my old Toro blower. Leaf blower will also clear the drive of the same amount of snow if it is not the heavy wet snow.
Best purchases I've made for outdoor equipment. Had everything for 2 years.

[Sammicic]

I also swapped out all my gas powered garden tools to Electric. I suggest you not try cutting a 1 acre lawn with a 21 inch electric lawn mower. Took me over 7 hours because I need to go slow due to back and hip issues. So I had to buy a gas powered lawn tractor, which is still cheaper than paying a landscaper to do it over the course of a season.

Everything was fine till I need a new 4AH 58V battery from Echo. The supply chain issues this year caused me to wait over 10 months before there was one in stock and it ended up costing me $250. But I appreciate not having to deal with gas engine and oil mix.

[lonfu]

I have both, gas and electric. the trick to the gas is I have to dump the fuel each time I use the gas leaf blower or any other gas powered unit. the ethanol tends to clog the the tiny carbs. Since I live in the desert the electric just doesn't move the sand off the concrete like the gas blower. But, I like the batt dewalt unit for blowing out the vehicles and the inside of the garage and when the wife is away, the dust bunnies behind the furniture in the house... shhhhhhsh.... the electric doesn't leave any exhaust evidence... I have about 5 dozen various batt tools, and over the years keep coming back to the dewalt brand as the others fail.. I buy the aftermarket 20v batts online, usually get the 6 hour units as they deliver enough amps to do most work. I've rebuilt my little gas blower recently with a new carb once in the 13 years that I've owned it. Bought a 2nd use unit on ebay as they are going away...

[Big-Foot]

I found a brand new Snapper XD 82v mower at a damaged freight place for $400. I was so impressed by it that I bought the Convertible Weed Whip, Edger and the blower. I have 5 batteries now (two from Amazon from aftermarket - which work fine). I take care of about 1/4 acre of lawn and can do it all on less that two jugs of volts (batteries)…
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I have also bought a Lynx 40v 16” electric chainsaw from Horrible Freight and have used it for many hours in the woods on that back of my property and have not been disappointed. A little hint - if your saw is bogging down, you’re making too aggressive of a cut or your blade’s in need of sharpening..
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I’m not a total electric convert, but I’m getting there fast for all my hand tools…

[MtCamper]

The batteries are crazy expensive so pick a brand and stick with it. You can often pick up a new tool with batteries for the same price as just the batteries alone. I'm in the process of converting from DeWalt to Makita. Milwaukee is also a premium brand. The box store brands are OK for occasional use but have funky ergonomics for extended use IMO. Harbor Freight is making strong inroads in the cordless tool department. I still use Stihl gas for my gardening equipment because of the high torque and extended run time. Trick with gas is to use aviation gas to mix with the oil. Haven't had any gumming problems since I gave up on pump gas. At the very least use ethanol free fuel.

[carybosse]

I live in a neighborhood where the HOA cuts front lawn, my back lawn is fairly small, although a decent amount of fencing/flower beds, etc. to require weed eating.

I went battery powered on the lawn mower when I purchased 10 years ago to avoid storing gas. This is my first and strongest reason for going battery powered. Not some green, environmental concern, I just didn't want to store a flammable material in my garage. First mower used a traditional wet battery - was lousy. I purchased a 40 volt mower from Lowes (Kobalt) a few years ago. I can mow back yard twice, easily, with one charge. May not make that 3rd mowing, so I usually charge every other time. It actually is the best mulching mower I have ever owned. Not the greatest when trying to vacuum up leaves. After I weed eat, I can usually mow my lawn in 10-15 minutes. Not a review of the mower or the mowee (me) but rather a statement of how small my yard is.

I went with the 18 volt Ryobi setup many years ago. I loved my old DeWalt unit, but replacement batteries were expensive. I can often either buy a 2-pack of Ryobi batteries around Christmas for decent price, or I buy a new tool with 2 batteries cheaper than one Dewalt replacement battery. Have more batteries than I can keep track of.

I have multiple drills, actually gave one away to someone a couple of years ago. Keep one drill in the TT. I have a hammer drill, sawzall, weed eater, hedge trimmer, portable flashlight, small blower, a 150 Watt inverter, chain saw, circular saw, and the inflator. Inflator is my latest purchase, although I did purchase a glue gun for my wife to use. Probably missing something I have. I hung a shelf in my garage where I put many of the tools, with 2 chargers on the wall to charge up batteries.

The chain saw is junk. The sawzall is great. Hedge trimmers are pretty good. Love the air compressor. So much easier to use than hooking up my 12 volt unit to the cigarette lighter. Weed eater is fine for my use. Not heavy duty. Mine is probably about ready to be replaced after 10 or so years.

I think the main issue with battery powered tools - you need to standardize on one system, no matter who it is, and stick with it. Now, there may be a situation where you need 18-20 volt hand tools and smaller yard tools, and 40-60-80 volts for larger items like a mower. Main issue I see is for one voltage range, have all one manufacturer, for the other range, you can choose a different system.

I was critical of battery items for a long time. Wanted the power that 120 volts would provide. And I can tell you, many of the battery powered mowers and weed eaters do not have the power of their gas options. Back in the 90s, someone gave me a 9.6 volt Black & Decker drill that had quit working. It was the transformer for the charger that went out. More as a challenge to show I could fix it, I did, and started using it. Real quickly, I figured out that certain projects, whether it required a drill or a weed eater or a circular saw, if I could just grab a tool and walk out to the work site and do the work without having to string an extension cord, I was more likely to not procrastinate.

The other thing to consider is what tools are available. One of the things I really wanted in a battery powered tool was a circular saw. A DeWalt circular saw was expensive, and I am a DIY/handyman. I don't need the greatest quality tool to make a living. I could get a Ryobi kit, the one I got had a drill, flashlight, radio, and circular saw with 2 batteries for less than either the circular saw or 2 batteries from DeWalt. I have since discovered many other tools that operate off the 18 volt batteries that I have added to my tool collection.

As far as power, the 18 volt chain saw has none. The other tools seem at least adequate. I snapped the head off a 1/4" lag bolt while hanging a rack from the ceiling of my garage, so I figure the drill has plenty of power.

[BayRunner]

I use the EGO battery brand for the small tools such as leaf blower, weed eater and such but still use gas mower. My lawn is thick and a good size and I don’t think an electric can handle it. The problem with the battery tools is the battery life. I’ve had the EGO’s for about 3 years now and they don’t hold a charge for very long now. I use 2 batteries for my leaf blower and maybe get 5 minutes each. They cost $100 a piece as well. Usually end up pulling out the old plug in to get the job done.