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.
My dad gave me his electric mower a few years ago when he moved to an apartment. I felt weird about it at first because I like my gas mower, but it’s better in every way. I kind of miss the sounds and smells of the old mower sometimes, the electric is too easy I’m some ways LOL.
Don’t worry David, there will be several other ways get Delmar (NHRN) into cars, but let me say you something: don’t expect he to be a car enthusiast just because you are.
Really, just let the things flow naturally, as a father, I knwo that is easy to project that kids will follow some of our passions, and we work to get them into that.
It is really frustating when it does not work. I think nowadays things are different, there were way less things to entretain, so we would always be around our parents to see what they are doing, now they are instantly rewarded by something else, so, no need to wait hours/days/weeks to have something ready.
So, there is no problem to have a electric lawnmower instead of a gas one. Delmar (NHRN) probably won’t need one to become an enthusiast.
But don’t expect him to be one. It will be nice if he become an enthusiast, but way less frustating if he doesn’t become one.
Also, there is always the girl (name to be defined)…
I have a battery lawnmower. The original non-propelled DeWalt one. The fact that I can fold it and store it upright / inspect the blade was one benefit. But finding out the thing is so quiet I was able to have full phone conversation while running it was what sealed the deal!
It really is a box fan on wheels.
I love internal combustion engines, I work with them every day.
But my first experience of them was in my first car. As a kid our garden was small enough that a human powered mower was all we needed. TBH it’s all I really need now, but I have a plug in flymow that cost £50 secondhand and does the job.
So an ICE mower is not an essential part of becoming a car enthusiast or engineer. No guilt required.
I’ve had one of those Ryobi mowers for years, it’s so much better than the old petrol mower I was using. Not needing to think about garden equipment gives me more time to tinker on my cars and bikes.
Wait, that dead gas mower I need to get rid of is worth money?
My brother’s lawn mower died. I gave him an extra one i had, he got it home and couldn’t get it to fire. By now after the back and forth his grass was very deep and he had to go away for the weekend. I decided to be y the bullet, buy a cheap ryobi from the big orange store, and go cut his lawn as a surprise. I was the one who was surprised how cheap it was (MA has a $75 rebate) and how well it worked. Definitely the way to go
I just realized the other problem with gas equipment – bringing home the gas.
Unless you have a pickup truck, those gas cans are riding home in the cabin with you.
I strap my 5 gallon cans into the passenger seat of my Miata because once I brought them home in the forester and was almost overcome with fumes by the time I got home.
Now that battery technology makes it feasible to run a small lawnmower, why mess with gasoline?
I have a decent amount of ‘lawn’ (I do not seed. If it grows and it’s green, it’s ‘lawn’) to tend. I do that with a 22hp air-cooled v-twin riding mower that also gets a snowblower attached to the front and tire chains for winter duty. On the edge of the woods, my mowing sessions involve charging that thing into brush to keep it back (need to keep the ticks from the dogs). As of yet, I don’t think electric riding mowers are up to this task. The winter I moved here, I was working from home and literally burned more gasoline in my mower (set up for snow blowing) than I did in my car. It was an epic winter – I think we got 12 feet of snow.
I also had a cheap gasoline string trimmer and a cheap gasoline chainsaw.
Last fall, the chainsaw crapped out and my wife called me from home to tell me that a tree had fallen barely short of the house. My cheap gas chainsaw was out of commission so I went o Home Depot and grabbed a Milwaukee electric chainsaw. I got home, popped in a battery from my drill and in a few hours I could get my car in the driveway. It’s probably not up to a full day of lumberjacking, but my two relatively small (5 or 6ah) batteries were more than enough to clear the mess out of the way.
I still have the Ryobi gas string trimmer, but I am not a small engine guy. It has worked well enough for ten years, but I suspect it will die soon. I will replace that with a Milwaukee electric replacement (hopefully bundled with a hedge trimmer since I’m still using a manual trimmer for that).
At the moment I have four significant electric tools:
They all do the job I want them to for about as long as I need them to (I only really use the leaf blower to clear off the deck or dry grass clippings from the driveway). If we get to the point that I can replace my garden tractor with an electric willing to suffer the same abuse / misuse my present one has endured, I’ll get it. I suspect I’ll end up with a small diesel tractor before that’s a thing.
Most of my cars are still ICE, but I do have an Ioniq 5 that has been fantastic. I am open to electric when electric works. For a push mower or handheld garden tools for homeowners, it’s there. I don’t think it’s there yet for brush mowing and snow removal.
Don’t feel any guilt for going with the solution that works for you. If you were a landscaping company, electric may be a problem. Maybe not if you had a few spare batteries and customers with mostly hardscape. As a homeowner with a small patch of grass, go with the easiest solution.
Just go with what works for you. In this case, electric mower works.
“On the edge of the woods, my mowing sessions involve charging that thing into brush to keep it back (need to keep the ticks from the dogs). As of yet, I don’t think electric riding mowers are up to this task”
The Greenworks claims to have 10% more power compared to a 22 hp gas. I think the $4k price is pretty steep. That is probably more of the problem.
Mowing 6 acres would also be a pain. The first 3 batteries would only last for 1.25 acres so mow, swap, mow, swap, mow, swap, mow. Less of a pain for yards 2.5 acres or less so that you can charge both sets of batteries at the same time.
It’s not so much the power, as the tolerance for abuse. I guess it’s also the simplicity and availability of parts.
It might be more important to keep the blades sharp, but as long as the blades keep turning I do not see what about cutting brush would be abusive.
I blame Steve Jobs. During one of the i device keynotes he said…it just works. That is what I was looking for with the electric lawnmower. I wanted no carb, no bull crap. I wanted it to work, and if I was out of town I wanted my wife to have no issues using it.
I wanted a piece of equipment that would start each time. I had plenty of spare batteries ready to go. On top of that I did get a Ryobi, but I got the one that ran off of two 18v batteries…why? Well that battery system has been in use for 25-30 years, on top of that I can use it for other things like, impact guns, electric ratchets, grinders, cutoff tools, etc. That 18v battery can really do a lot.
So much this. There’s no reason to buy a mower that can mow all day long to cut a lawn that takes an hour.
When I bought my house I had this idea that I’d get a push mower, maybe even look at a battery one… and that quickly died my first time going out with it. It’s just too big, a riding mower does the job way better than a push can, and it’s easier to have the beer on the tractor too
I do some of my best thinking on the riding mower. It’s really the only time in the week I’m not distracted by anything else.
It’s male zen garden
I mowed nearly twenty neighborhood yards a week during summers with a couple of teenage friends, two push mowers, and a gas weed eater. I have not grown nostalgic for those terrible machines. A battery mower is the most glorious invention since the escalator.
DT give yourself a break. A push lawnmower isn’t a car. And quite frankly an EV lawnmower is better than an ICE mower. They are easier to start and frankly you are just cutting grass and protecting the environment. My guess is you haven’t spent hours pulling a ripcord to start a mower or rototiller or snow blower. That tires you put before you even use the equipment. Use the easy start yard stuff enjoy the ICE cars, unless crazy illegals burn down your your living quarters. But don’t worry it is a peaceful arson and killing protest
I generally like your posts, but you managed to make lawn mowers political. This isn’t the place.
You sir are correct and wise beyond your years. I would edit it out but apparently after a few days that is no longer an option. So I must just humbly apologize ask for everyones forgiveness and pledge to do better in the future.
The right tool for the job, however that tool works.
All the better if the tool is less damaging for the future world Delmar grows up in and is lower maintenance to boot.
I’ve never quite understood those who insist we must use gasoline forevermore for all the mundanity we use it for today. All the better for the world if we only use gasoline for the machines we need it for, or older machines we get enjoyment from.
There’s no joy had in using gasoline for sitting in traffic, or mowing the lawn. Might as well use cleaner sourced electrons for that, where we can.
As for Delmar, he’ll find his interests and passions on his own. Fretting about potential access to interests decades away that he may never pursue seems somewhat silly, no?
I have a riding lawn mower but its 10 years old at this point and it is ALWAYS down when i need it most. i am probably going to get a push mower as a backup mower soon. I was considering an electric mower but i don’t have a garage to store it in and just have a car port thing in my back yard and i would be worried exposure to the elements will destroy it.
Just get an electric mower and keep the charger and battery indoors.
you still have the motor and the other electronics exposed.
I think mowers are designed with the elements in mind. A corded mower shouldn’t be any more vulnerable than a gas mower.
If you’re talking about a battery mower maybe cover it with a tarp? I imagine there are custom covers for mowers as there are for cars, motorcycles,, bicycles, etc.
A few years back I bought an electric chainsaw and, honestly? The amount of things I can get done without having to tinker with it is nice.
eh, he’ll be fine. I learned how to fix my US lawnmower, by working on my cars..
😉
Growing up in South Africa part of the social contract meant employing at least a gardener and a house maid. So I didn’t touch a lawnmower much at all until I had a house of my own in the USA. But, could not afford auto mechanics, did most of my car work by puzzling out Haynes and Chiltons manuals..
Also, my father had a Flymo, an hovering electric mower which was practically science fiction in the 1970s. The only maintenance it needed was new brushes sometimes, and splicing the electric cord when it got run over.
My lawnmower was a 1992 Sears which I kept running until 2015, mostly as a point of mechanical pride – small engines with regular oil changes and decent care can run for a very long time. At that point we got a similar exchange cash for old gas mower, $150 for the old Sears, running a quiet efficient Black and Decker ever since. I don’t miss the spring maintenance service at all, just pull it out, sharpen the blade, and good for another year.
I don’t think the lawnmower is an essential gateway. I never did much with lawnmowers other than use them, and my son became a gearhead via my cars and motorcycles. Of course he has subsequently done a lot of tinkering on gas powered scooters which may be the modern gateway drug. Newer lawnmowers have pretty locked down carbs so apart from fluids, filters and blade sharpening they need very little work. I spend more time cleaning my gasoline mower than tweaking its engine.
Car enthusiasm and EVs/electric mowers are not mutually exclusive. Maybe I’m just getting soft as I get older, but I find myself increasingly wanting a soft, quiet car or an electric pressure washer and mower so that I don’t have a (comparatively speaking) loud car every day. I enjoy that loud car, but I would so much more if it only had to be a “when I want to” thing.
My future goal is to have the loud, screaming rotary for fun days every now and then and the nearly silent EV and appliances so I can enjoy the noise more. Plus… have you ever used a typical gas chainsaw and then an electric one? I’ve thrown my back out trying to start one of those damn things and just holding a button is infinitely nicer.
That’s why I got an electric chainsaw, and I’m glad I did.
I use a reel mower and battery powered trimmer, blower, and hedge trimmer. As far as your son goes, gas powered lawn equipment isn’t going to have any bearing on his love of cars, your love of them will. My son is 22 and loves cars because I do and he got the addiction from me not lawn care equipment.
My husband had a gas mower. It was fussy and then it died. So we got a Ryobi battery mower (looks like David’s), and it was great for a couple of years and it died. There doesn’t seem to be a repair shop anywhere around.
So I got a reel mower, and it will not die. There are places for the lowest of low tech.
I bought an electric ryobi mower, but I got the smallest one, cause I also have a small yard, and it’s f-ing useless. Dies in just like one or two passes. Don’t get the little one.
Lets let what small gas-powered engines need to be in: powering minibikes and go-karts.
I prefer to save the petrol/diesel for activities that are fun or necessary.
Lawns are a great waste of everyone’s time to try and pretend to be 19th century aristocracy. I’d shudder to think of the fuel wasted on this fetish every year, let alone the water in places that can’t really afford to waste it on these hungry introduced weeds.
I went all-electric with my garden equipment seven years ago and am now only replacing a battery here and there.
Small engines I’d wager created just as many anti-mechanical people as they made enthusiasts. Working on the family John Deere lawn tractor absolutely did not make me an enthusiast, and working on smaller Briggs and Stratton engined stuff is still not something I enjoy in the slightest.
I mow, but do no seed / fertilize or water. I am luckily in a kind of agricultural area where a non-manicured lawn doesn’t make you an outcast.
I am surrounded by towns where the lawns have been manicured for two centuries, so I’m pretty happy with where I landed.
“Lawns are a great waste of everyone’s time to try and pretend to be 19th century aristocracy”
If cosplay is the goal a flock of sheep is a better mower than a machine. Tastier too.
“Obviously, I’ve got plenty of old cars that my son Delmar (not his real name)”
Obviously his real name is Miller… partly due to Torch naming his son Otto… LOL.
Sure there were other engine types you could have named him, but I doubt you’d want to name your son Atkinson, Brayton-Joule, Diesel, Humphrey, Lenoir or Scudari.
The Miller Cycle makes for the best name.
And another reason electric mowers are great… less pollution/fumes which means less asthma for people like me with asthma.
Though having said that, my electric mower is a corded-electric mower… which is feasible because I too have a small yard… and appropriately placed outdoor power outlets.
Now having said that, the young ones can still learn relevant stuff with battery-electric mowers. As they age, I’m sure you’ll be able to get ones with dead batteries for free.
So then the project becomes sourcing and safely installing new batteries/battery cells… and rebuilding the existing battery pack with new cells for what would likely be a fraction of the cost compared to buying the pack from the OEM.
Don’t forget Budack!
How about Wankel?
“How about Wankel?”
Only if you hate your child. You just know that other kids are gonna turn ‘Wankel’ into ‘Wanker’.
Miller Tracy will always be reversed. It will create problems with airline tickets not matching the passport.
“Sure there were other engine types you could have named him, but I doubt you’d want to name your son Atkinson, Brayton-Joule, Diesel, Humphrey, Lenoir or Scudari”
Sterling OTOH…
What does being a car enthusiast have to do with gas mowers?
Cars are also electric these days. And besides, cars are cars, mowers are mowers.