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.
Don’t feel weird.
It’s one thing to enjoy a nice gas-powered motor from afar.
It’s another thing to be 3 feet from its exhaust for an hour a week.
Now that you have a child, living long enough to enjoy him is paramount.
You know, I dealt with a manual push mower for years, helping my sister with her lawn, and at first I hated it, but it really grew on me.
It was old and never got sharpened, so she quickly got an electric mower, but I ended up enjoying going up and getting the exercise, while listening to music.
It honestly kinda made me disgusted over powered mowers, but I am an absurdly weird fellow, so whatever.
I have the battery weed whacker (Ego 56V), and my next mower will be battery. But my old Craftsman will…not…die.
I bought that beast 22 years ago for $289. It was made for Sears by Husqvarna and has a 6.75hp B&S motor. It is as heavy as a Buick, but it still starts every time and runs great.
Do I want a battery mower? Yes; I want quieter running, less chance of small engine foibles and lighter weight. I also love the idea of hanging the mower on the wall for storage. But until Big Red joins the choir invisible, it just doesn’t make sense.
I also want to go electric but I bought a honda double blade self propelled mower and run non-oxy and stabil in it and it may last many many more years.
I stabilizer the fuel as well, but it is getting harder and harder to find alcohol-free gas in Canada. That may end up being its downfall.
Good luck. I have a non-oxy pump less than a mile from me. I love it.
My parents had an electric mower in the 90’s (Black + Decker, I think, and corded), and it didn’t really stop me, at least less so than going to a high school that didn’t have an auto shop. I went one step further and only have a reel mower, although I also only have like a parking spot-sized front lawn to deal with.
Still, get Delmar (not his real name) an old 50cc bike or something in a few years. My kid’s 5, and I had him helping on changing plugs on the old bike I’m trying to resurrect now.
Those are light enough to be used as hedge trimmers! If I could figure out how to post an image I even have proof. 🙂
My only question is why go to facebook marketplace to buy a used one?
Otherwise I don’t see any problem with electric lawnmowers, if anything having to dick with an engine on a machine designed to do chores because it doesn’t want to run for whatever reason sucks. Electric is much better usually.
What’s the big deal? I have the Ryobi trio, push mower, blower and trimmer. They are excellent. I hated gas lawn equipment. At our old house it was too much to hand mow so I also had a gas riding mower. It so loud I had to wear hearing protection to mow. I sold it when we moved. Now at our new place I have 500 sq feet of lawn and I cut it in 5 mins with Ryobi and it’s quiet enough to not need to protect my hearing, no pulling cords, no stink. It’s better in every way. This is the right application for electric.
Think of electric lawn tools as green-credits for your ICE-capades.
Also, that Ryobi is crazy loud. I have a Greenworks 80V that is substantially quieter.
A Unimog with a six row gang mower is quite fun too.
Why do you feel weird about this as a car enthusiast? Did you buy the lawnmower to go canyon carving? Not really related, but my mom traded in the old mower for a new electric one a longgggg time ago when LA county were giving these out like 18 years ago. Battery tech sucked back then and the thing barely lasted one small front yard and had a hard time cutting bigger weeds in the grass. I think I was able to buy a new battery one time after the original stopped charging, but eventually I just tossed the thing into the trash.
Dude. Grow up.
There are three types of chores.
The ones you like doing. Do those yourself.
The ones you don’t like doing but cannot afford to have someone else do: Do those yourself (or avoid them — preferably).
The ones you don’t like doing but can afford to have someone else do: you pay someone else to do them.
You only have one life, and you have a wife and son to spend it with. Even if their names are not Elise and Delmar, respectively. Don’t waste it on things that are not fun and that you can afford to farm out. Even if you could to save a few bucks: don’t. It’s not worth it.
DT mentioned his lawn is small, probably a 10 minute job. LA is a city of small houses on postage-stamp lots, which is how it has a rep for endless suburban sprawl and the highest population density of any major American city at the same time.
This, my old Pittsburgh city house was 10 minutes to mow (I often just used a string trimmer). I’m now a solid 2 hours for a quality string trim, cut and cleanup.
Um, source?
Looks as if NYC and Miami are both more dense.
Helps to have a few mountain ranges.
You know who you’re talking to, right? This is a man who moved a king bed by himself to save a few bucks. I don’t even change the sheets without asking the wife for help.
I totally understand that, and that is why I am trying to talk some sense into him. He has landed an absolutely awesome person as his wife, and by his own account, he doesn’t really understand how he did it. (Nor do I understand why my wife of 30+ years still puts up with me, but that’s another story altogether.) That’s exactly why I am saying to listen to your wife at all times, especially when she’s right (which is almost always).
All home lawn appliances and tools should be electric, its just better.
Further, I’ll take this time to air my grievances about gas-powered Leaf Blowers, which are by far and away, the most useless tool ever created. A tool that vaguely moves some debris around for the exchange or huge amounts of exhaust fumes, and noise. All gas-powered leaf blowers should be thrown into a volcano for the benefit of all mankind. Being caught with one should be a fineable offense.
Speaking as the university instructor of a course on volcanoes, please don’t do that. For the vast majority of volcanoes this would not achieve the type of results that I suspect you have in mind.
okay fine, we’ll toss them in the ocean with our used car batteries.
/s
Not a problem; I don’t teach oceanography.
We’re completely electric, black and decker 20v for weed eater/hedge trimmer/polesaw/chainsaw/leaf blower(technically electric sweeper), and greenworks mower we’ve had almost 10 years now, has only needed 1 new battery. Only 1/4 acre but I have a 2nd battery for the summer when it gets thicker. Our neighbor has an old busted 2 stroke that needs a serious tune up so we still get plenty of gas fumes every couple weeks.
It is so nice not dealing with the gas/oil/plugs every year after the brief couple month hiatus. I do have to keep the underside cleaned up and sharpen the blade at least once a year to keep it’s range decent.
My mother in law once called me to ask if I could tell her why her mower would not start. I asked if she checked the oil and she said “OIL????” she used it for 11 years without knowing it had oil in it.
She now has a battery electric mower. Perfect for an older person.
I find it funny that the gas mowers we took care of with blade sharpening and oil changes never outlasted the ones that were neglected. We had an old Craftsman push mower in the 90’s and a 1 acre yard. That mower never had an oil change (or even a check) in 10+ years. I was lucky to get five years out of the mowers I tried to keep alive. It’s all electric for me now.
I grew up with my grandfathers walk behind snapper with a 5 horse Briggs and Stratton. Damn thing had 5 forward speeds and lasted decades.
The lawn mower is the last piece of gas powered lawn equipment I have. Whenever my current mower hits its expiration date, I will go electric. I won’t exactly shed a tear, but it will be a little weird at first. However, I won’t miss the times I thought I had gas and didn’t, so had to run to the station before I could mow.
perfect!
Same. When my mower is ready for replacement, I’ll go electric.
I’m sure Delmar will appreciate not being exposed to benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, etc from a silly lawn mower, there are plenty of other things out there to tinker with besides a carburetor
I have 3 acres of lawn to mow. I use a 48″ garden tractor for that, an echo gas weed wacker for trimming and an plug electric for the steep areas. I also have an echo chainsaw for tree felling. I’ve considered battery power for the mower, wacker and chainsaw but it’s a lot of lawn and trimming to cover. The machines I’ve looked into that can do the job are far too expensive for my Scottish purse. Possibly when either of the gas devices wear out I may replace them with electric, but there is still the age old range problem. I wear ear protection when using any of the devices. You can get serviceable ones at hobo freight or princess auto.
I am a car enthusiast, I have owned 5 old jeeps. I just put sway bar disconnects on my JKU just Saturday. I will totally replace my mower and snowblower with battery electric models when they die. I hate carburetors with a passion. I am not afraid of technology and technological change. I do not define my masculinity by working on ICE toys. I hate 2 stroke motors and switched to a battery weed wacker because the damn 2 stroke weed wacker took longer to get running that to trim the yard.
I got tired of replacing the fuel pump diaphragm every season. My only regret is that I don’t like the line feed system on the electric trimmer I picked up.
for sure I have to stop every few feet of my chain link fence to manually line pull.
I could never keep my two stroke equipment running well because I didn’t use them often enough. Sitting for weeks on end seemed to kill those things. Everything that was two stroke is now electric for me. So much easier.
I always hated gas powered lawn stuff, so I got one of those Ryobi weed whacker / edger / blower combo units, and it’s fine. Having to do all those tasks on a single battery is a major headache, but the easy of starting and quiet made me say I’d never buy a gas power tool ever again.
Well, my father gave me his old Echo weed whacker and that thing FUCKS. Starts on the first pull and will cut down a horse.
I think my problem was that I was always buying new junk or even-cheaper used junk. Not quality stuff.
I’m a little wary of battery-powered equipment. I was an early adopter years ago and got burned. It was an electric trimmer with proprietary tech from a smaller company (Core Power). I paid $350 or more for it and the motor goes kaput 2 years later. There was no support even though Cub Cadet bought them. After that I bought the cheapest 2-stroke trimmer I could find. I figured if I had to replace it every couple years it would still be waay cheaper. Another good route is a manual mower. Fiskar makes a really nice one that is surprisingly easy to push. I like the way it mows my front yard.
Yeah, I stopped looking at no name / new names a while ago because risk of ecosystem failure. I primarily have Ryobi and love that especially on their 18V line I can still use brand new batteries on the nearly 20 year tools I have.
I wish the electric lawn tractors weren’t so expensive because I would buy one.Other than my chainsaw I switched everything over to electric and other than cleaning and charging there is zero maintenance.
Those riding mowers are crazy expensive. On top of that, the batteries will cost an arm and leg to replace. I’m just not there yet on the bigger stuff.
Same. Plus my tractor lives in a shed, not the garage, so charging would be a PITA.
I was looking down the barrel of a riding mower by last fall because my backyard has been too much work to keep up with, but even the cheapest Ryobi riding mower was three grand. A friend wondered why I hadn’t looked at automatic mowers, and that turned out to be the right answer. $900 for a Worx Landroid, and while it was a big hassle to set up, it’s been fantastic. It just does its thing, runs on a regular Worx drill battery, it’s basically inaudible, and the backyard looks like a gawt dang golf course.
Several times a year, for the last several years, my buddy will post short POV videos of him walking behind his son, holding a whiskey, while his son cuts the grass. It was funny the first time, and every time after that.
Delmar might miss out on the internal combustion aspect of lawn care, but he could fall in love with the mechanical aspects of it; it will still need maintenance and care. Plus, there is still that satisfaction of
running over stuff with a spinning blade of death, … a job well done.Battery lawn equipment kicks ass! I made the switch 6-7 years ago, and I’ll never go back. They’re way quieter, plenty powerful, and so much easier to live with. No stinky ass small engine fumes.
As a kid, I’d always wanted to learn to work on cars. As the riding mower we had when I was growing up was newer and problem-free, I didn’t have much to tinker with. Ditto the family cars. After a whole lot of pestering my dad spent $825 and got me a ’72 Super Beetle when I was 11 (in part, I think, to shut me up). He worked too much for it to be a true father/son project, but I learned so much working on the Beetle, which really isn’t much more complicated than the average lawn mower.
I should note that I’m 32 and I still have the Beetle. It was the gateway to learning how to work on cars and into the automotive community as a whole. So maybe, when the time comes, get Delmar his own project car. Nothing that needs too much work, but something he can tinker with and that you two can take out for pizza or ice cream on the weekends. The Beetle was the official “get pizza/gas station snacks” car in our household.
Battery powered mowers are just so much more peaceful and quiet.