Energy Matters Forums

[moemoke]

I had been interested in an Enviromower for a long time but wasn't prepared to spend the $500 or so
if it didn't do the job I needed it to, cut a normal suburban corner block.
The Enviromower is a cordless electric mower. http://www.enviromower.com/

I found one on ebay which I 'won', it cost the princely sum of $78 but it was in Ocean Grove, the other side of Melb from Moe, where I live. I convinced the family that we should make a weekend of it and go to the beach at Ocean Grove and pick up the mower while we were there
When I picked it up all was good, the battery was down a bit but a good charge shoul fix that.
When I got home I charged it overnight through the on board charger and the next morning I was set to mow the grass. Unfortunantly it didn't go after doing some checks I found that it only had 12volts and not 24volts so I pulled the battery pack apart only to find that one battery had a big split in it. This may of been
caused by me leaving the circuit breaker in while I was coming back from OG and while charging it.
After much cursing I went to my local Victa agent (Victa are Enviromower agents) and ordered another battery for $93 and slotted it in and fired it up .

I have had the mower for over 12 months now and I haven't had to wrestle with the old Rover petrol mower
The E-mower is so quite I can mower the grass after the kids have gone to bed.
It has enough battery life to mow the whole block in one charge although I usually do it in 2 stages with a charge in between, I don't have time to do it in one go.
The only complaint with the E-mower is that the blades don't go to the outside of the wheels as other mowers do but they are about 2-3 inches inside the wheel line, I'll get used to it but I do still miss bits because I usually use the outside of the wheels to line up my mowing strip, it can also make it tricky to mow along the kerb and channel along the nature strips. As it only has a 500 watt motor it can struggle with long thick grass but the height adjustments can cure this. I tend to mower the grass more often than when I had a petrol mower but as it is quite and I dont have to mess around with petrol or try to start a petrol mower
it doesn't seem to take any longer.

I am very pleased with the mower and wish more people would have them even if its just for the quiteness.
Now I just need to find a cordless wiper sniper

Does anyone else have a cordless elec mower

[MadMax]

Nice one Moemoke,

I like the idea of a quiet mower, and i find it pretty amusing that someone from Moe put up a post about mowing ...

I'd really like one of these:

http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.p ... cle_id=270

They had a pair roaming around at the Fronius factory in Wels, Austria when i went for a tour. They were pretty slow, but who cares ...they mow the lawn without any human interaction.

They're very expensive though, and I'd be worried about the someone grabbing and running away it.

max

[suziauto]

Just a thought I had as I also want to get a cordless mower was attaching a solar panel with charger to the handles.. maybe fit a small compass to align it right and a cover that clips around the solar panel so it can park in the open to charge between uses...

what you think??

[grmarks]

Moemoke

I have a enviro mower as well (had it about 2 1/2 years) and I also love it. Had only one problem with it and that was that dirt and grass got in under the top cover and stopped it from turning on. Quick fix was to remove the cover and blow all the dirt/grass out (I have an air compresser so very easy).
My victa agent siad that a lot of people ony get 2 years out of a battery pack but mine is still going strong.
The owners manual states to always keep the battery charged. So as soon as I finish mowing I charge it. And if its been sitting for a few weeks I charge it again before use.

As for a cordless wiper sniper - I have an electric "Ryobi grass timmer" 240 volts but I built a battery pack for it using a 50 amp/hr deep cycle car battery and an 800 w modified sine wave inverter (the Ryobi is 800w motor). Its a back pack type of arrangement using a wide wooden board as a frame. The car battery is heavy but it works well. I get about 20 to 30 minutes of use which is enough to do everything. The Ryobi has good power and can even handle 600 cm high grass. The motor is up on the handel end (like a petrol one), not down on the ground end, as many others. I have had some problems with its switch though so I ended up replacing it with another one.

[Nix65atsea@gmail.com]

I have owned an Enviromower for 6 years after seeing a demonstration at a local fair.
I have had one issue with it mechanically, having to replace the battery after the fourth year. It even has the original blades. Mowing the lawn (couch) around my home on average takes 30 minutes, the mower handles this with ease and is quite in doing so. When I first used the mower the next door neighbour came over to take a look as he was inquisitive about the strange swishing noise coming over his fence. He now has one.
If you buy one of these units I would suggest following the instructions to the letter. It is nothing to keep the mower clean and to put it on charge after using. Like anything that is new, it does take a little getting used to as it is much lighter than a conventional combustion powered mower. The catcher is somewhat smaller than other catchers. It will struggle with over grown grass however it will manage. I had an at home demonstration
before I purchased. I intentionally let the lawn overgrow for the demo. The Enviromower struggled but it got the job done.
Would I recommend buying one. If you like to hear the birds chirping whilst you mow and don't want the hassle of mixing fuels and oils, then yeah, I would recommend buying one. But then I would also get an at home demonstration as well.

[zzsstt]

My grandfather had a battery powered lawnmower in the late 60's and early 70's http://www.oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/moms/mom36-batt.htm

As I child I thought it was rather magnificent, but largely because it was self propelled and made a cool whirring noise!

In the UK I would say that electric lawnmowers (240V or 12V) easily have the majority of the market.

[Eepoonioo]

The E-mower is so quite

just for the quiteness

and is quite in doing so

The spelling is "quiet", not "quite". How do people end up getting that wrong?

[moemoke]

Thanks for bringing my thread back to the front page, I've been quiet on this forum for quite a while but today
I was quietly googling for 'enviro mower electrical' and this page came up quite quickly on google, well today my mower seems to have died, not sure what happened just that it stopped while quietly mowing, spoke to local Victa agent who had one in his shop for repair but has mine is over 14 years old he said may be quite hard to get bits for as he thinks it may be the circuit board.
Does anyone know much about the electrical circuit on these mowers. I have 24 + volts at the battery and the circuit breaker but after that it goes to a circuit board and that's where I get lost. I'm thinking I might be able to bypass the onboard charger as I don't use it but not sure what to do about the safety release and the motor brake!

Any electrical guru's in EM land?

[Gordon-Loomberah]

You really want a safety release to kill the power quickly, which could be done by wiring the battery directly to the motor with one wire, with the other wire connected via a momentary switch that is held closed when moving, so that letting go breaks power to the motor. I haven't seen one, but I would think it already has such a switch?
You need to make sure it can handle the switching current, otherwise you'll need a contactor or relay for the make and break.
Of course I am assuming it is either on or off, a DC motor with no fancy speed controller, or other electronics for self-driving etc.

[offgridQLD]

You could use a small 24v DC motor controller from ebay They have safety lockout input (usually for electric bikes ) it's just a wire that if shorted kills the power a small pot to adjust motor speed. DC motor controllers are very simple just two wires in from the battery and two out to the motor. (ignore most of the other wires they are just for horn, lights and things you don't need ....unless you want to to trick out your mower with them ) Using the controller gives you safety lock out + you get over current protection, undervoltage protection to .

Something like this below. $35 Au.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/500-W-24V-ki ... 233f46a181

We have about 3 patches of grass near the house and shed small acreage (each section about the size of a suburban block) I don't use the tractor-slasher on them as they are near the infrastructure and people. A stray stone can do a lot of damage.

We mow the 3 sections with the 8hp honda Hut push mower. It's a heavy mower for a push along with some grades to the areas to mow. I don't mind the exercise its nothing really but the sun and humidity are killers and I seem to always find myself doing it in the hottest part of the day. In QLD our grass grows so fast in summer.

The plan was to mount a swivel wheel to the front of the honda hut and rear drive to make it radio controlled. Stand back in the shade and mow the lawns close to the house . Idealy one day if it ever wears out (it's a honda could be a very long time) replace the honda ICE motor with electric.

One issue converting anything with a prop (a mower blade is a kind of prop to lift the grass) is there isn't much noise advantage in going electric. All the electric mowers, hover craft, swamp boats and aeroplanes I have seen are very noisy.

Though it sure is better than pollution, maintenance, pull starting and refueling - handling toxic chemicals.

Welcome to the forum (warning) the battery electric bug is very addictive. I started out with bikes and kayaks. Now it's cars and homes.

Kurt