Kiwification

photo credit: kevindooley

I borrowed a friend’s lawn mower over the weekend, to finally trim our increasingly shaggy lawn, but unfortunately, after 10 minutes the engine seized and died. (due to no fault of mine, I was relieved to discover)

My friend has since purchased another lawn mower to replace the dead one, but I’ve taken this as a sign that I need to buy my own lawn mower.

Considering that I want this investment into our garden beautification to last me years to come, I’ve been doing some thinking as to whether I want a traditional petrol mower, or a (battery powered) electric one.

Whereas I grew up with an electric lawnmower in South Africa, most Kiwis use petrol lawn mowers:

Petrol Lawn Mowers

Older petrol mowers are 2-stroke, meaning you have to mix your fuel and oil yourself. Newer models are 4-stroke, and take regular petrol and motor oil from your service station.

Reasons why Kiwis like petrol lawn mowers

• They can mow in bad weather.
• You can take ‘em anywhere.
• They’re “manly” (you smell like petrol, smoke, and dirt afterwards)

Reasons why this Kiwi doesn’t like petrol lawn mowers

• They’re dirty, noisy, and smelly.
• They’re eco-unfriendly.
• They’re expensive to feed. (95 petrol topped $2 today)

Electric lawnmowers

Electric lawn mowers are powered by the mains. In the old days, I used to mow my parents lawn with an old electric mower, and the biggest danger was running over the cable and chomping it. Also, if the cable wore down, it would become dangerous, and a replacement 20m extension lead is not cheap.

Reasons why Kiwis don’t like electric lawnmowers

• The cutting diameter is shorter, meaning mowing takes longer, because you have to cover more distance.
• They’re not as powerful as petrol lawnmowers, and can struggle with long, unkempt grass.
• Corded electric mowers need to be plugged in, and make obstacles tricky, and are able to “bite their own tail”.

What will I do?

I haven’t made a final decision yet, but I’m leaning towards buying an “Enviromower ECO500Y”. It’s a battery-operated electric mower, with a bunch of safety features and nice-to-haves.

It’s about as loud as a vacuum cleaner, and runs for about an hour on a charge. Just about long enough to mow the lawn, and finish listening to a TWIT podcast ;)

I’ll be redoing my lawn with a borrowed petrol mower to establish a time-commitment baseline, and then making the call. Thanks to @talios and @MiramarMike for their input! ;)

(Of course, I could always go with a human-powered lawn mower, but those are also expensive to feed!)