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.
Solution: buy Delmar a gas powered go kart and let that inspire him. Way more fun than a mower.
I switched to electric not long after I got my MINI because that car wanted premium and as my only vehicle at the time, I didn’t like the idea of running my lawnmower on premium nor activating the pump and switching to regular. The electric was such an improvement. It was so much quieter than what I had and I didn’t feel bad about mowing earlier in the day. I upgraded later to a Ego and it’s still going strong for my friend who I sold it to when I moved to the desert and no longer have grass in my yard.
Guess I’m an oddball, but I’d replace my Golf GTI with an electric car before I’d replace any of my gas lawn equipment with electric versions. I acknowledge that battery equipment is a more sensible choice for many, especially those with smaller yards and limited mechanical aptitude, but most of my gas equipment is 20+ years old and just works. Unlike batteries, most replacement parts are standardized and dirt cheap. Small-engine-specific maintenance (ie oil changes, spark plugs, air filters) amounts to maybe 10 minutes of work per year per engine. If you’re taking care of your equipment, it will start in 1-2 pulls. Yes, it’s noisy, but I’d be wearing my noise canceling headphones whether I’m using gas or electric gear. Neighbors can’t complain because literally every professional lawn crew on our street uses strictly gas equipment.
While I like my electric mower in some ways, there are days I want my reliable Honda powered self-propelled back. Let me explain.
I have the higher end Ryobi 21″ walk behind. Actually it is the second of two mowers, but I’ll get to that. It is nicely quieter, lighter and doesn’t stink up my garage. Downside is that it cannot hold a flame to the cutting power, reliability or repair costs of my 12 year old Honda gasser.
The first Ryobi (also sold as a Holms) lasted less than one year. The start button stuck ‘on’ in the first 3 months and the safety switch broke shortly after. Took Ryobi all Summer to decide they couldn’t get parts and to replace the whole thing. The second one is going on its 2nd year, but is developing some electrical issue where batteries are going into safety mode claiming over voltage draw (mower is asking for too much power). These are genuine 6Ah and 12Ah batteries that should provide plenty of juice. One 6Ah permanently bricked itself cutting tall grass. Some less expensive 6Ah batteries from Amazon don’t show over voltage draw errors, but I suspect that’s because they don’t have the same safety circuitry.
If I had to pay for all the batteries and repairs (would have been a replacement bc I couldn’t get the switches either), I’d be well over $1300 in lawn mower outlays at this 3rd year point. So far my out of pocket for purchase and additional batteries is ~$550. My Honda cost around $400, but only needed one gas filter, one wheel and less than a gallon of gas per year.
Batteries need to come down in price because if you are spending the same amount for the gas mower vs a set of batteries every 5 years (assuming batteries last that long), I’d go with the gasser because they’d last at least 10 years.
I may still stick with electric, but go with an EGO or some more commercial level unit if it can be had for less than $600. No more Ryobi.
My gateway to mechanical things was bicycles and not just mechanics that are still relevant for the future, but customization. If you really felt the need to teach him ancient tech, after he masters flintknapping, you could always buy one of those $50 junkers and hang onto it or find one in the trash. EV for lawn equipment is hands down a winner and it makes leaf blowers almost tolerable. For residential use, even with a large enough lawn to need to swap batteries, they’re almost a joy. Plus, the newer gas stuff sucks with the fuel today. Every damn year, the carbs would have to be taken apart and cleaned out after sitting over winter. I thought of trying marine fogger to winterize, but that’s a smoky mess, so I chose to do spring carb work, instead. Well, not anymore, we went electric. And for things like hedge trimming where it can be an off/on process, it’s so much nicer to not be pull starting it every few minutes. About the only potentially annoying thing is that you kind of get stuck with a single manufacturer if you want to be able to swap batteries between the different tools, but it’s not like I was really going to get that hardcore into it that I’d pick out the best individual tools from different manufacturers.
Lawn mowers are the only residential yard tool that I accept being gas-powered, but really there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be electric, or heck, even manual. Noise pollution is a real thing, and it sucks, so quieter is better.
I actually think I might switch to electric. Our first family mower as a kid was one of those plug in ones, and then we switched to gas. But I might go to one of the battery ones, because where I live, the mower sits for over 5 months of the year, and I don’t see the need in having a gas one.
When I was 11yo and about 78lbs my dad bought a 2nd hand Snapper with all the features. Bagged, self-propelled, and even electric start! It was great for about a year but quickly a few things became apparent to me.
Dad refused to pay to fix any of this but after I graduated and moved off to college my dad used it exactly once and went and bought an electric mower that weekend. I was a little bit disappointed.
Battery-powered mowers are great. No fluids, no spark plugs, no gas, no mystery about why it won’t start. It takes what should be a mundane slchore and keeps it that way with less hassle.
I’ve had an EGO self-propelled one for a few years and recently bought their zero-turn model as the lawn was getting ahead of me and what time I had to dedicate to it. I also have a bunch of other EGO products, so I’m definitely bought into their system, and I don’t mind.
I bought an Ego leaf blower last year and also bought their chainsaw at the beginning of this year. Those thing rip with the 56V and charging is surprisingly fast. I have a Honda gas self propelled mower at the moment but once that starts giving me issues, I likely will upgrade to an electric mower as my yard isn’t exactly huge and I can usually get it done within an hour and half with trimming and cutting.
Yeah they have a good system, and critically they’ve kept batteries and tools interchangeable AFAIK. I got a new carbon fiber (oooh!) shaft brush cutter attachment for my multi-head and it fits just like any other part of the system, despite being a few years old. A pleasant departure from my prior experiences with Battery-powered tools where the manufacturers seemed to change battery designs every couple of generations just for fun.
Yeah that was always annoying. I had basically the Ryobi catalog but then stuff all started failing at the same time whether I had really put it through its paces or not. So I “upgraded” to Ridgid drills but those are now failing too. In laws had a second Makita drill kit that I snagged so probably will switch the hand tools to them as my stuff keeps dying off.
Thing I hate about Ego is the price. It’s a tough pill to swallow but so far things seem to be good so fingers crossed they last as long as people say they do.
Cannot speak to Ridgid, but Ryobi power tools are only okay. They are the entry level that I would consider. My sister has had good luck with them, but she is not asking much of the tools. My brother in-law wore his out in a few years of remodeling his house and moved on to DeWalt.
I’ve had an ever increasing number of Makita power tools for the past 18 years. Their batteries will last if you take care of them. The only downside to Makita is that they don’t have as full of a catalog as Milwaukee, but then again “Red” has a tool for every job and I suspect for some jobs that don’t exist.
My Ridgid 18v drill just randomly started to decrease speed. Threw a fresh battery in and it would be turning so slow that I could hardly drill a screw into sheetrock.
The Makita I inherited is a bit older but has never had any problems so fingers crossed it’ll last longer. Their catalog is definitely limited compared to Ryobi who seems to have everything under the sun that you might need and even more that you don’t.
I hear good things about the EGO and these days they are more in line with other electric offerings, price wise. That will be my next mower after my current craptastic Ryobi dies (or I get tired of replacing batteries).
I’m quite pleased with mine. Project Farm (YouTube channel) also generally finds them quite favorable.
Because small gas engines pollute so much the difference that’s made by going to an electric mower is huge relative to gas versus electric cars. That being said I would recommend getting rid of any turfgrass you don’t need and replacing it with native plants.
Agreed! A mowed lawn is a giant waste of space and resources, on top of being boring to look at.
I went with electric for my first mower since buying my house too, I have a whole suit of tools that run off the same (60v) batteries, no regrets at all, it’s so much more convenient than when I had to use all the gas tools at my parents.
Electric lawnkeeping equipment is a blessing. I recently bought my first home, and while I already had a number of small things like weed eaters and leaf blowers I finally pulled the trigger on a nice 21″ Whisper series brushless Ryobi. Came with dual blades, selectable AWD/RWD, 2 batteries and a charger. It was normally $750 but I got it open box for $479. I absolutely love it. It goes through the grass easily for my half acre or so and is so quiet I can carry on a conversation while it is running. I have five cars plus my wife’s currently, so anywhere else in my life I can cut down on maintenance I will do so.
When we lived on a smaller block in Dubbo, Bek and I would talk as I mowed with a Ryobi and she did the edge trimming with the a Ryobi whipper-snipper.
Just don’t get it wet. Ryobi does a crap job of protecting the electronics. The “brushless” stuff has a lot of electronic circuits easily damaged by being left out in the rain. I learned the hard way.
Is not mowing in the rain an option?
Maybe small electric pushmower for small yards are more affordable, but electric lawn tractors are very expensive.
Not to mention heavier-duty garden tractors.
I picked up an old 80s Cub Cadet garden tractor 3 years ago for $600 on marketplace.
I cleaned the carb once, greased all points, gave it a tune-up and the thing just keeps on mowing. It can even tow the utility trailer around the yard with ease.
Same goes for the weedwhacker, I need to maintain a long drainage ditch and electric stuff just doesn’t have the range. It takes me an hour to do. So 2-stroke Stihl it is.
Pffft. I did a full analog mower. Fiskars Interia Reel.
Could do 0.3 acres in about 20 minutes.
And since it made no real noise, I could do it at 5AM and no one would care.
No fuel. No engine or motor. No charging.
Just me, a giant reel of blades, and a flywheel.
Lubrication and sharpening all it’ll ever need. I also just leave the blades there to feed the rest of the lawn. No, it’s not an issue.
Had all the old codgers in the neighborhood come over, watch, and want to “test drive” it themselves. Even at their age, surprised with how easy it was. They absolutely loved the fact that I could mow a lawn and they’d never hear it.
I wish my neighbors thought like you. I’ll never forget watching my next door neighbor pushing like five leaves around with a gas-powered leaf blower. Is it because he loves to make noise, I wondered, or is he just extremely lazy?
We tried one of those and it was great on specific grass within a certain length. With a large lawn of mixed stuff, it was ineffective. If I had the right lawn, I’d definitely be using it still.
It must be pretty startling for you to own something that starts without a pull cord and on the first try. Well, I guess the i3 does count too.
There will be plenty of things for the prodigy to learn. Kids have small hands and can be very helpful reaching in there to clear blade jams. /s
Mmm, nice. I see what you did there.
It wasn’t working on the mower itself, but using a mower engine to attach to a go-kart my dad built that piqued my interest.
I think that in the future, repurposing the motor and batteries from an old electric mower to power a bike or go-cart will be easier to DIY compared to an old gas lawnmower engine.
This is the key. Ryobi 40v are actually 36v batteries, but they do have an integrated BMS. For $5.00 you can buy a battery connector to wire it up to anything. 36v ebile you build by yourself, not a problem. DIY go cart also possible. Hell get a buck converter to dial it down to 18v and use it to overpower a power wheels jeep up to 15mph(or use 18v tool batteries). It may be different than the tinkering David grew up with, but it will still be useful knowledge.
Yes! Much better to use the batteries from the chainsaw than use the chainsaw on the batteries.
A group of us misfits did this about 10 years ago with some of the first generation 40+V chainsaws.
Don’t worry. I hated mowing the lawn and hated the lawnmower when I was a kid. I didn’t touch a lawnmower carburetor until I was in my 30s. Wrenching isn’t something you catch from touching a mower… it’s genetic. You’ll be fine.
And I am super relieved to see that cheap electric mowers are better. I got one when I had a small lawn and it could almost mow half of it on a charge. Until it wouldn’t even charge. Now I have a corner lot and for what it would cost to get a riding mower, it’s worth it to pay someone.
I bought an electric mower last year instead of fixing my old junker gas one and it was a great decision. For a normal sized urban lot they’re really a no brainer.
Dad bought an electric lawn mower and an electric weed whacker for our new house when we moved to CA in 1977.
Of course they had very, very, very long cords – which I never once ran over.
Sprinkler heads, on the other hand, were a regular replacement item.
I’ll be honest, rebuilding a mower carb isn’t a super useful life skill at this point, and parts are becoming harder to come by anyway.
I “rebuilt” my little Mantis tiller carb, but the rebuild kit just came with a brand new carb and some fresh gaskets. I had to tune it a tiny bit, but it was like 30min total.
I switched from gas to an electric mower ages ago. I have a sizable yard, but I can get at least two full mows done on my yard in a single battery charge. Couple that with the fact I don’t have to store gas that always goes bad before I can consume it (yes, I use stabilizers and I get ethanol-free fuel), the mower is ready to go right off the bat after winter, and I can use the (admitted very expensive) batteries across all my other yard tools, and it’s a winner.
We’re already at the point today where electric mowers have equivalent power to gas, and we’re rapidly approaching the point where they’ll have much more power for their size than gas. My electric mower today already has nearly double the peak torque of a similar size gas mower, and the prices aren’t even that far apart.
The torque is so much nicer. With thick patches in places, the gas would bog considerably or I’d have to tilt it and make a few passes. With the electric, just maybe slow down slightly.
Electric lawn power tools are transformative. I started with a weedeater (Strimmer for you Brits). No more cranking like made when it was overheated. No more dreading to fix the strings because you would have to restart it, no more ringing ears and realizing you should have worn earplugs.
Then I switched to a battery mower. Wasn’t very powerful, but go the job done cheaply.
Then I switched to hiring a guy that can do the entire lawn in 10 minutes with professional equipment and do a nicer job than me.
Do you still need to occasionally sharpen the blade on an E-mower? Also, you really should wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes when mowing. You wouldn’t want to slip and end up with a foot under the mower.
They just use standard blades, so they would still need sharpening/replacement like gas mowers. And agreed on the shoes, I knew a kid when I was in school who was missing the front section of one foot from a mower accident.
Yep, my electric mower has steel blades that look just like gas mower parts. If you only look underneath a gas and electric mower, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.