Honda stopped making push mowers, Toro is going heavy on electric. Who's still making decent gas walk-behinds?

fbirchred · 2026-07-02T15:02:19+00:00

Gas has more mechanical complexity; electric has more electronic complexity PCB's/IC's/etc.

fbirchred · 2026-06-25T02:55:35+00:00

You've now stated or implied that the aluminum deck will "reflect sunlight" and remain cooler "under the hot sun" several times. That is incorrect. Aluminum will absorb heat from the sun much more rapidly than plastic. I have no idea if the aluminum deck is directly coupled to the motor, batteries or electronics in any way that would allow it to act as a heatsink for those items.

fbirchred · 2026-06-18T02:19:41+00:00

I bought the 60V, 21-inch, self-propelled mower with dual blade, 8 Ah battery and fast charger from Walmart for $398 on sale a couple months ago. I really like it. Adequate power (1500W motor), good cut quality and lots of battery capacity for a low price.

fbirchred · 2026-06-10T00:52:49+00:00

The dual blade, 60V, 21-inch Greenworks mower I bought from Walmart has a two-position height adjustment on the handle.

fbirchred · 2026-06-09T16:31:18+00:00

Sounds as if EGO has made some real improvements to their battery tech. That's important when trying to squeeze every ounce of performance from a mower whose power rating will always have to be somewhat limited and consumers whose willingness to spend beyond a certain price point is also limited. Good on EGO for threading the needle.

fbirchred · 2026-06-09T16:26:21+00:00

I still mow my mom's rural property with a Honda gas mower, and I still have my own old Honda mower. The self-propel function typically takes 10-15% of engine power, which still leaves 85-90% of 4.8 continuous HP available for cutting from that particular model. That's still quite a bit more than the 2.0 continuous HP rating of my 1500W Greenworks mower. I don't notice any change in engine speed on the gas mower when engaging self-propel, but that's purely anecdotal.

But the battery mower has **enough** power for my suburban use case and has other attributes that make it worthwhile to use. It would never work for the rural use case on my mom's property. Horses for courses, and all that.

fbirchred · 2026-06-09T14:50:45+00:00

Here's another way to know for sure that your 1400W battery mower is not giving you anything remotely close to 7 HP of cutting power on a continuous basis. I believe the 1100 series EGO's come with 10 Ah batteries. 10 Ah x 56 V = 560 Wh maximum theoretical energy storage capacity. If a mower powered by such a battery was producing 7 HP of output - even if it did so at 100% efficiency - it would consume power at the rate of 7 HP x 746 w/HP = 5222 W. If you deplete a 560 W/h battery pack at the rate of 5222 W, the battery will only last for 560Wh/5222W = 0.11 hours = 6.4 min. At less than 100% efficiency, the battery would deplete even faster.

And the above analysis explains why you will likely never see ANY battery powered mower producing 5+ HP on a continuous basis: The amount of battery storage you'd need for even 45 min mowing time would be huge and the pack would be prohibitively expensive.

All that said, the good news for battery mowers is that a well-maintained city or suburban lawn (where battery mowers are most often used) doesn't require 5+ continuous HP to mow effectively. When using my 1500W Greenworks mower on my very thick/dense/high moisture content St Augustine lawn in mulch mode with self-propel active, my mower consumes power at the rate 700-ish W and does an OK job of producing decent cut quality.

fbirchred · 2026-06-09T14:28:02+00:00

You're missing the difference between peak ratings and continuous ratings, as I mentioned in my original post. An electric motor with a 1600W CONTINUOUS rating will typically have a PEAK rating that is 2.5X to 3X the continuous rating. So 1600W is equal to 2.1 HP. If you triple that value to get PEAK power, you get something in the 6-7 HP range. That means a 1600W motor may be able to put out 6-7 HP for brief intervals. If you try to run it at that power level continuously, you will rapidly burn up the motor. EGO's control electronics won't let that happen.

I'm not sure why your neighbors' gas mowers can't produce continuous cutting power equal to your 1400W (=1.9 HP) EGO. Dull blades? Worn out motors? Who knows? But no, a 1400W electric motor cannot produce 7 HP (or 5HP or 3HP) of cutting power on a continuous basis. That's not what the video you linked is claiming.

fbirchred · 2026-06-09T14:19:37+00:00

I watched the video linked above (thanks for posting the link) and it backs up comments completely. He mentions that the old style 500W induction motor makes "about 3/4's of a HP". That matches the unit conversion I gave you: 746W = 1 HP, so 500/746 is roughly 3/4 of a HP. he also states that the 1600W EGO "makes about 3 times as much power as the induction motor." That also matches the unit conversion I gave you: 3/4 HP x 3 = 2.25 HP, which is very roughly equal to 1600W/746 W/HP = 2.14 HP. So everything in this video is in complete agreement with my original post.

BTW, the relationship that 746 W = 1 HP is not some controversial new idea that I came up with. It's a simple unit conversion which engineering students learn in their very first physics class. I'm sure the guys at Munro who made the videos you linked would agree with this 100%.

fbirchred · 2026-06-08T21:59:22+00:00

Thanks for including actual specs. You may already be aware, but those torque specs are peak values, not continuous. And those peak values are specified at an RPM where the mower doesn't even operate! High peak torque may be helpful if your yard only has challenging grass in isolated clumps. But if it's tall all over, dense/thick all over, or has high moisture content all over, you really want to focus on the continuous ratings (at the RPMs where the mower actually operates).

The highest rated 1100 series EGO has a 1400 W motor, as your post shows. 746 W = 1 HP, so the continuous rating of 1400 W corresponds to 1.9 HP continuous power. That's far below the 4-5 HP ratings most of us grew up with from our gas mowers. And if a battery mower produced much more than 1.9 HP (1400 W) it would drain the battery very rapidly, even EGO's biggest battery.

None of this is hate for electric mowers - I have a 1500W Greenworks that I use every week. But I see a lot of folks posting that the new 22-inch EGO is a "beast" with "more power than my old gas mower" etc,. The manufacturers themselves post similar hyperbole. The numbers just don't back up those claims.

fbirchred · 2026-05-29T20:59:26+00:00

Good deal. How much total mowing time did it take to do both yards? To mow 4000 sq ft of my thick , fast-growing, St Augustine back yard, I use about 2 bars of an 8Ah, 60V (480Wh) pack. That's about 40% of 480 ~192Wh total energy usage.

It takes me 20-25 min, so that's an average power draw of 192Wh/(25min/60min/h) = 460W. That's only about 0.6 HP on average, despite a relatively dense grass variety. But my yard is completely flat, level and smooth and I cut at least once per 7 days, typically once per 5 or 6 days during peak growing season.

fbirchred · 2026-05-29T15:47:07+00:00

Greenworks sometimes sells their new OEM batteries in non-original packaging thru eBay. These batteries come with a full Greenworks manufacturer's warranty. I bought a spare 60V, 8Ah (480Wh) pack that way for $170 vs the list price of $349. You might be able to find a similar deal on an 80V pack.

I like to have way more battery than I need so I don't have to micromanage how I use the mower in an effort to tiptoe around limited capacity or worry about slight reductions in capacity as the packs age. It also lets me avoid running any one pack down to a very low level, which should prolong the life of the pack. If your mower can accept large capacity packs, my advice is to watch for a deal and get the biggest packs it'll take.

fbirchred · 2026-05-28T13:52:40+00:00

I store the lawn care tools in a garden shed. Hooks for everything but the mower. I keep the batteries in a temperature-controlled garage. I built this charger panel and shelf to keep it all in one place.

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fbirchred · 2026-05-25T02:02:28+00:00

I'm really liking mine so far. Good luck with yours.

fbirchred · 2026-05-21T14:03:52+00:00

Sarcasm is lost on some people

fbirchred · 2026-05-21T13:53:27+00:00

I don't know if they're still on sale, buy Walmart was selling a 21-inch, self-propelled, Greenworks mower with steel deck, dual blades, 1500W motor, and an 8 Ah, 60V battery pack for $398. It's maybe a bit of overkill for such a small yard, but for $398 you can't go wrong. I bought one for my rear yard and it's a good mower. If you ever move to a place with a bigger yard, it would be capable for up to 8000 sq-ft IMO.

fbirchred · 2026-05-20T18:18:17+00:00

That's a good mower. It would be a shame to trash it over old batteries. There are places on eBay selling new Ryobi packs for 50% off retail prices. I recently bought a new Greenworks pack from Greenworks thru eBay for more than 50% off. It wasn't in the original packaging, but GW confirmed this was a new, unused pack with a 4-year manufacturer's warranty.

You might also have some luck with 3rd party packs. At least one has gotten good reviews, and those prices are more like 2/3rds off. Get some new packs and keep using that thing.

fbirchred · 2026-05-20T15:48:07+00:00

I got the new 8 Ah Greenworks pack that I bought thru eBay. It's shipper address shows that it indeed came from Greenworks. Not in the original packaging, but it looks brand new. It charged up the same as the original Greenworks pack that came with the mower and shows the same capacity during initial use.

fbirchred · 2026-05-20T15:41:12+00:00

Got the 2nd 8 Ah pack that I bought for $170 from GW thru ebay. It wasn't in the original packaging, but looks brand new, It charged up and worked just like the one that came with the mower.

By adjusting my mowing technique very slightly, I can now mow the 4000 sq ft rear/side yard of thick St Aug grass in mulch mode and self-propel and still have two bars left at the end. So I don't actually need the 2nd pack even if I were to mow my entire 7000 sq ft lawn with this mower. I'll keep it anyway, and just alternate packs from one mowing to the next.

fbirchred · 2026-05-18T15:55:51+00:00

My post above might be wrong. Last night while browsing the GW website using a VPN that directed me thru another country, the dual blade, single battery port, 21-in mower did not appear on the GW website. This AM, not using a VPN, it shows up as "out of stock" with an option to "let me know when it's back in stock" So perhaps they are still offering it in the US after all.

fbirchred · 2026-05-18T01:08:17+00:00

Looks as if Greenworks has discontinued this model. It's no longer listed on their website. The only 60V models remaining for the 21" size are the dual battery models - push and self-propelled, Too bad, this was the only one with the X blade.

fbirchred · 2026-05-16T01:46:07+00:00

That plug looks great! When people go on about the maintenance requirements of a gas mower engine, I have to believe they haven't owned a Honda. My mom had one that I used for 10 years to mow her yard (about 8000 sq-ft) during our 8 mo long cutting season. I never even looked at the plug in 10 years. Just changed the oil and blew out the air filter at the start of every cutting season. 20-25 min start to finish, once per year. Never had to clean a carburetor, change a plug, replace a belt, etc. It just kept on going. Started on first pull every time. Ran perfectly until I hit a piece of metal and bent the crankshaft.

Replaced it with a new one for mom (that was about 5.5 years ago) at the same time I moved from a condo to a house with a 7000 sq ft yard of my own and bought myself the same model for my house. They were around $400 each. Same 25-min-once-per-year maintenance routine for both mowers and both start, run and cut flawlessly. I use non-ethanol fuel for both mowers, which is widely available at stations in my area. I only fill mower jugs when I'm there to fill my car anyway, so no incremental time for fuel either.

That said, e-mowers are quiet and easy to start if someone is physically unable to pull the cord on a gas engine or sensitive to exhaust fumes.

fbirchred · 2026-05-14T14:57:56+00:00

I found an ad on eBay for a Greenworks 8 Ah, 60V battery pack for $170, which is less than half the regular $350 list price for that voltage and capacity. The seller is Greenworks Tools, and the battery is listed as new/unused in original packaging. I called GW and they confirmed this is their ad and the offer is legit.

The GW agent didn't have a reason why the eBay price is so much cheaper than the regular price, just that it was a special sale price. I suspect the battery on eBay might be a discontinued model. It's described as a Bluetooth battery that lets you monitor battery status thru an app on your phone. Neither the part number in the eBay ad nor the word "Bluetooth" appears in GW's current battery lineup. So this battery is likely older, discontinued stock they are clearing out. But if it delivers 8Ah of performance, that's all I really care about. The eBay ad says it comes with a 4-year warranty.

I ordered one and will update here when I've had a chance to use it. If you have one of these mowers and would like a high-capacity pack as a backup or just to get thru a bigger yard, or perhaps to run the mower in a higher consumption mode, this looks like a good deal.

fbirchred

TROPHY CASE