My new 'TESLA' lawnmower
 

My HONDA mower gave up the ghost after 29-years.
I took a chance on a SEARS CRAFTSMAN,Briggs & Stratton-powered mower.It broke an oil ring before it could make it to the first oil change.I considered dealing with it,then changed my mind.
I considered a 'corded' electric at much lower cost,but we've got 40-acres of park land where I live, and my 'adopt-a-spot' is all the walking/cycling trails,so a battery-powered mower was the better choice.
I brought home an 80-V,4Ah, brushless,Lithium ion,Kobalt mower from LOWES.($431.95 out the door).It's what I'd have paid for a HONDA-powered Husqvarna.
I charged one of the batteries while I completed the simple assembly and was mowing within 30-minutes.
We set an all-time record for September rainfall (over a foot) and basically wasn't dry enough to work outside the whole month.Which left grass as high as 30-inches.
The 80-volter cut through it as well as the HONDA had,and with the heat index,you didn't want to mow more than 30-minutes at a time anyway,so the battery 'range' wasn't an issue at all.
Since the house is on wind power-produced electricity,lawn mowing will be basically carbon-free from here on out.
So far ,so good.:)

The efficient use of space. When I was looking, gas powered wasn’t really on the radar for that reason. It uses about 2 sq feet of floor space, and the charger is on a shelf. Cutting wet grass was an unforeseen bonus, flip it on it’s side when I’m done and do a quick clean

Broke an oil ring on a briggs? Yikes. Usually those are known for being simple and resilient towards lack of maintenance. Was that one of their newer OHV engines?

When not used for the mower, you could use that battery in your car as a virtual alternator delete. With a stepdown voltage regulator.

Had one for years. Black & Decker (I think) with lead-acid batteries rather than lithium. Does a half-hour or so of mowing on a charge, no hassles with starting, keeping gas around, changing oil... I just have to figure out what to do about the plastic deck that's starting to crack.

Ohv
 

Yes,and I was guilty of presuming that the Briggs might perform as well as the 29-year-old HONDA OHV.
I read through the warranty and it was weasel-worded enough that I figured they wouldn't honor it.

delete
 

Yeah,there possibilities with the technology.

plastic
 

My friend's Ryobi is also plastic.She keeps it out of the sun and we'll see how it holds up.The hot-air plastic welding systems might be able to help.
The Kobalt is a steel deck which I could weld on if I had to over time.

Give it a couple quick layers of fiberglass. Use UV rated epoxy and it should last a few more years.
JJ

mower is kaput!
 

The 'Tesla' mower didn't let me down, but I sure let her down.
I've used it for bush-hogging and trail-blazing through our commie 80-acres of park land.
The good news is, that neighbors helped, chain-sawing small trees and invasive privit. The bad news is that some of the stumps were tall enough for the mower's blade to crash into at full-rpm.
After a few years of that, I managed to reduce the motor's lower bearing to dust. The shaft wanders around and it's no longer dynamically stable.
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LOWE'S does not supports parts nor service for the mower. And they no longer sell a 80-Volt mower.
Of all the places locally, which sell 80-V EV mowers, I'm down to Harbor Freight as the single source. They're sold out right now. For a week. I've never experienced a hand tool or power tool from them, so I'll do the gamble. Their Li-ion pack has a higher A-H rating than KOBALT. Price is comparable with what I have.
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Denton lost it's only motor repair shop over a decade ago. Dallas would be a minimum 200-miles in round-trips.
When things slow down, I'll pull the damaged motor, crack it open, and see if I can press out the remains of the zorched bearing and replace.
Worst-case, I'll attempt an auxiliary bearing outboard of the original location, and dedicate the motor to an EV bike project. My mad-scientist electronics wizard brother says adding a variable speed control is very easy. 555-chip, a pot., and a few other goodies on a breadboard. And sniff the solder fumes.:p

My advice is to research which product line will best deliver the tools you'll use at the price point you're comfortable with, and then stick with it for battery compatibility.

I'm invested in the Ryobi brand, and they have 2 battery form factors compatible with all of their products past and present, 12v and 40v.

Ryobi
 

It was a friend's Ryobi, 40-Volt mower that got me interested in an electric. They can switch the battery for the LED lamp, chainsaw, line-trimmer, and drill.
I looked at them at The Home Depot. Still 40-V.
I really liked the 80-V KOBALT.

I've been plenty satisfied with my Roybi products, especially my recent 18" chainsaw, but many of the other brands are regarded better, with Ego at the top and Greenworks a notch below.

One interesting thing to me is the Ego batteries have state change material to help absorb excess heat, and a fan to dissipate it. That must explain the extra expense.

state change
 

I'm continually impressed by all the clever thinking and innovation going on out in the world. People are coming up with solutions for problems I didn't even know existed! It's great. Thanks!:D

Interesting and informative PDF I found on the Ego power system.

https://egopowerplus.co.uk/sites/def...mpressed_0.pdf

I'll probably link this whenever someone needs to know battery/electricity basics.

I've taken apart a number of Ego batteries. The early ones had the extra material around the cells, but later ones did not...neither had a fan inside them. They did have quite a lot more (passive) vent holes than most batteries.

Have they changed again in the past couple of years?

Those ego batteries do look nice. Much like the power packs in sci-fi movies. I agree with redpoint, select a brand and stick to it, personally I went with the Ryobi cult. They seem good enough for hobby use. On youtube there are some professionals who use them daily, and they seem to be happy with them, but it is youtube so no idea if it is true.

I have seen adapters that can adapt your battery from makita to ryobi to whatever.

3D printing the charger docks so that you can power your car's battery would also be an interesting concept.

That was just what someone told me. I must have misunderstood, and the fans are only on the chargers. The Ego document says they are still using phase change material around the cells. They also design the pack with more surface area rather than packing the cells into the tightest block they can.

Don't really know how that plays out in longevity. I've got a Craftsman cordless drill about 10 years old now and the original small lithium ion battery is still going.

Egos rapid charger has a fan, the slower ones don’t. If you just drained it, it will go on the charger hotter than it comes off.
My egos had some problems too, the self propelled drive seemed to be getting hot, it would lose power after using for a while. Didn’t take it in until about a month ago, got an email from ego saying they sent out a part, but not sure what part, only had a part number, and haven’t heard from the shop it’s at yet

2.5ah battery next to a 7.5ah, both from Ego packs:

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1618767248

You can see the convex shape to the cells 2.5ah; same cells inside, just with a layer of something (presumably thermally conductive) over it inside a second layer of heat shrink. The 5ah versions look the same as the 7.5ah.

My thinking was they decided that it wasn't necessary to add the extra material with the larger packs, seeing as they have more cells in parallel, therefore there is less current per cell, less heat each cell has to shed. And the inverse is true, meaning if any of them need the extra heat dissipation/large thermal mass, it's the smallest version...in case you decide to stick you 2.5ah pack in to your mower that came with 7.5ah.

Of course, they might have gone the same way with all of them, 2.5ah included, once they realized they could withstand the heat build up; the 2.5ah is probably a year or two older than the 7.5ah. I won't know without getting my hands on a newer 2.5ah. Or even a newer 5 or 7.5ah, to see if they're doing it to those now.

The 5 & 7.5 had "ARC" as part of their pack's name, and, indeed, were arc shaped. The 2.5's still had the same kind of shape, but with fewer cells it was certainly less pronounced. I assume the whole point of that is to give it more surface area, a thinner pack so that the cells are closer to the surface....rather than stacked like cordwood.

And while we're on the topic of cordwood, they are more generously spaced than most. ~20mm on center, so there's a good 2mm between them, except for the "phase change material" ones, where they actually come in contact with eachother -- both styles have the same spacing. That's pretty generous; most power tool batteries are made as compact as possible, where there might only be half a milimeter between each cell. Worse, some have rubber shaped to the cells between layers, meaning good luck with the air flow.

You'll find these same Samsung 2.5ah, 25-amp continuous cells in most brand-name power tools that have multiple of 2.5ah in their capacity rating. You'll find them in Dewalt, Ryobi, Milwaukee, Ridgid, and even Toro's 60v line...the Toro ones are amusing, as there's like 5mm between each cell. Probably to make the 2.5ah pack look bigger, as that's stupidly generous for cooling purposes.

Anywho, YMMV. Maybe the 5 and 7.5ah ones are only like that in Canada. Maybe the originals were straight imports from the US, and the later ones were made specifically for our market. Either way, they make a nice battery pack. 14s, 1, 2 or 3p. (they usually use 13s for 48v battery packs, having one more gives a nice bit of extra power/range to an e-bike without changing anything else)

Well, I was surprised by egos warranty. I was hoping for a revised drive axle, hoping not to just get a new one of the old design. I got a revised drive axle, and it was attached to a new mower! I guess maybe it’s just as cheap to send out a replacement mower when a major component fails, and they’d have to be paying someone to install it. Definitely makes me feel better about drinking the kool aid and buying into their platform