Many of the most prolific auto executives, journalists, technicians, and salespeople throughout the decades have built their passion the same way: As a child, they tinkered with the carburetor on their parents’ gas lawnmower. It is the classic car-enthusiast tale that you’ll read about in all sorts of autobiographies and company-history pages and the like, but it will not be the tale for my son, because there will be no gas lawnmower carburetor for him to tinker with. And I feel a bit bad about that.
Before folks hop into the comments and tell me about California and all of its various restrictions, yes, I know new gasoline mowers are banned from California. Back in 2021, Assembly Bill 1346 — Air Pollution: Small Off-Road Engines — decreed that “by July 1, 2022, the state board shall, consistent with federal law, adopt cost-effective and technologically feasible regulations to prohibit engine exhaust and evaporative emissions from new small off-road engines, as defined by the state board. Those regulations shall apply to engines produced on or after January 1, 2024…”
Lawnmowers are among those “off-road engines,” and California features quite a few substantial rebate programs, with LA’s being run by the regional pollution agency called the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Look at these massive rebates, which require buying new electric mowers and having an old gas mower dismantled:
It’s basically Cash 4 Clunkers, but for mowers.
I myself did not take advantage of this because I don’t have an old gas mower, and if I did, I certainly wouldn’t trash it unless it were truly junk. No, I just found a cheap Ryobi mower on Facebook Marketplace for $150 with battery and charger. There were plenty of gas mowers out there for under $50, but I wanted to try an electric mower, primarily because my yard is small.
And let me just say: This thing cranks.
It is better than a gas mower in every conceivable way. It’s lighter, it’s mower powerful, and it’s quieter. (But not that much quieter, to be honest; I never realized just how much of a lawnmower’s noise comes from that spinning blade — it’s substantial). Listen to how loud this thing is:
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Anyway, this mower is fantastic, it requires no maintenance, and I can charge it up overnight and mow my entire modestly-sized lawn easily, even if the grass is far too tall because I haven’t gotten around to it in a few weeks. (All of my neighbors have gardeners and keep telling me to get one, too, but on principle I just can’t).
But there’s still part of me that feels some guilt, because the gasoline lawnmower has since the dawn of time been a gateway into car culture. You’d often hear stories like this Reddit thread titled “My 10yo decided he wanted to start fixing small engines for cash. Snagged this mower free. Two hours later, he (by himself) has it starting on the first pull. I’m no mechanic – he just has the touch.”
The carburetor in a gas mower is just simple enough to be rebuild by a child, and yet it’s mechanically complex enough to demonstrate some important automotive principles, while offering a satisfying payoff when the job is done: The mower works like a dream, cutting grass with ease. This experience — and just the overall maintenance required like oil changes and spark plug swaps, as well as just the mechanical nature of wielding such a machine — is often a kid’s introduction to semi-complex mechanical systems.
Obviously, I’ve got plenty of old cars that my son Delmar (not his real name) could tinker with later should he choose to go that route, but the classic American car enthusiast-training wheels — the gasoline lawnmower — will not be an option. And I feel a bit weird about that.
He’ll probably appreciate it, though, when he’s pushing this smooth-revving Ryobi up and down our lawn with ease. I’ll just have to find another way to brainwa — err, inspire — him.
If it makes you feel any better David, I grew up with all of the yard tools being gas or hand powered. However, the push mower didn’t get used that much, on the rare occasion that the Stihl tools needed something, they usually got dropped off at the local dealer, and the garden tractors were fuel injected, so they didn’t need that much work. Genuinely, I think I worked on cars long before I ever had to tear into a lawn implement, or bicycle, or anything else like that.
All my lawn equipment is electric now with the exception of a riding mower that I’ve had for nearly 10 years. I dumped all my gas equipment after getting frustrated with a gas trimmer that just would not start. Ever since that moment everything has been electric. When my riding mower finally cut’s it last blade of grass I’ll look to replace it with an electric one!
I’m 100% with you, David. Modern electric mowers, blowers, etc are mostly on par with the performance of their gas counterparts and maintenance is a dream.
That being said, tinkering with my family’s gas mower and other small engines as a child fomented a strong desire to be around all things mechanical. I wouldn’t replace that experience for the world.
Perhaps you can get baby Delmar to tinker with some small nitro RC motors instead!
I grew up with a corded electric lawnmower, so perhaps that explains why I inherited my dad’s dislike of working small gas motors. I had a gas lawnmower for a few decades and I will give it credit for long it lasted with my absolute minimal maintenance and severe abuse of it. I think over the 30 years I had it I changed the oil a handful of times and the spark plug when it started to go wonky. Just a couple of days ago my corded blower died. I have fixed it a few times, but this time it was internal wiring in the motor. I got a battery blower two days ago and it is very powerful! I have to be careful to not get my shirt sucked into the intake!
I bought a SCAG SFC-30 last year. I’m nearly spent every time after using it.
I haven’t owned a lawnmower since I moved to CA. Our gardeners come once a week and the price is well worth it. They don’t just mow the grass either, they keep all the plants and beds neat and trimmed.
Plastic chassis and electric motor? It’s the i3 of lawnmowers. And a little secret, a go kart can still be made out of this thing. That does not need constant carb rebuilds because of ethanol gas.
All my lawn equipment is electric and on a shared battery system. Even my snowblower is electric (though it’s the one thing that takes different batteries.)
I’m happy with all of it. The leaf blower sounds like a hair dryer. The mower starts up first try every time. I don’t keep gas around in cans. I don’t worry about winterizing or whatever has to be done when something isn’t going to be used in a long time.
If I’m unhappy with anything, it’s the lawnmower blades, and it’s a fault that has nothing to do with it being electric.
There used to be a transitional phase where homeowners who were fed up with small gasoline motors* had to switch to corded yard equipment. What I learned was to budget for TWO high-capacity extension cords because you will inevitably run over your first one as you learn the sweep pattern for your lawn. The results are terrifying and spectacular, and you only ever make that mistake once.
It’s kind of a shame that people can skip that step and go straight to battery these days. You miss out on so much.
*(it was the can of gas in my garage that did it for me. Being a firefighter at the time, I just could not stop worrying about all that flammability, just. Sitting. There.)
For some basic debris clearing I bought an electric chainsaw last year. Based on the results from a Project Farm test I bought the EGO brand 16″ saw. It’s good enough to get the job done but not more than I needed to spend. I now have the leaf blower as well. It’s the right tool for the job and one less motor to maintain, oil to store and gas can to fill.
The Ego line trimmer is a weapon. Plus, it has a powered windup feature so restringing it is ridiculously easy.
Nice! I don’t need a weed whacker at the moment but when I do it’ll be on my short list. What I need is a more reasonably priced, battery operated hedge trimmer.
I ended up getting the Ego multi tool so I can change out the heads from a weed whacker to a hedge trimmer. I needed a lot of reach to get the height of the plants that grow on my neighbour’s side of the fence.
Gee, David, you didn’t go full Californian by getting rid of your grass in favor of some alternative landscaping? Pool in the backyard?