Electric Lawn Mowers? No! Unplug With Battery Power! [PHOTOS, AUDIO, INTERVIEW]

I have been waiting with baited breath on a strong battery powered movement. I have a very small yard in Old Town, Fort Collins, so my lawn care needs are pretty simple. I don’t need that much weekly power to keep things trimmed. Our neighborhood is a better place to be when it is quiet. So, battery power is what I want.

I’ve been with the old, reel style mower for a few years, and my opinion of them is that they are not good. Well, mine was not good. My yard is lumpy. The mower, even after sharpened, seemed to cut some, but often ended up doing a lot of flattening. It wasn’t good. After I personally created the commercials for the city of Fort Collins ground level ozone effort, and heard them ask point blank that you don’t mow when it’s over 80 and sunny, or, in other words, summer, I decided that I needed battery power. They want us to mow only in the early morning or later evening, if you are burning gas. Battery power can be used all day, according to what the city says.  I think they’ve created a wonderful Fort Collins and I’m just lucky to be a part of it, so when they ask me to make an effort like this, I am in.

This is the commercial I made for the City of Fort Collins.

So, reel mowers stink and I don’t want a gas mower. But I like a clean cut on the grass! I’m a golfer from Pennsylvania, with rolling fields of lush, thick grass. I need the even manicure only machinery can manifest.

I hadn’t looked for a few years, and was pleased to find that both Home Depot and Sears carried a model for $300. In the end the Blue Crew earned my business by being available and helpful.

I had investigated in years past. I can’t remember precisely when but a laborious internet search and a few phone calls around town yielded almost nothing. There was one battery powered mower available, but it was far beyond cost prohibitive, like $600 for a lawn mower for my 1/8 acre of grass.

I’m glad to see that we are now being given the sustainable, affordable option in lawn mowers. So, when your mower isn’t working or you get sick of buying and storing gas, you can consider what it would be like if you’re mower were as cordless as your drill. You don’t long for the days with a drill tied to the end of a cord, do you? Maybe you won’t miss gas.

We have to be careful, just because something is not gas doesn’t inherently make it good. Batteries have to be disposed of. I hope to reward great design from conception to completion with present and future purchases. Whoever makes the best, most sustainable product should earn our money. And this isn’t a new idea. Thinking of the Earth before every move we make is an old idea whose time has again come.

This is a big issue because it’s not like comparing something like pedaling your bike vs. driving. That’s apples and oranges. The process is different, with differing amounts of time, different fuel sources, etc. The only thing that is the same is that you arrive at the same destination. With lawn mowers, it is apples to apples. It’s the same process, effort, and outcome. I start up my mower, push it over the grass, it does the cutting, the grass is evenly cut, except I’m running a rechargeable battery instead of burning gas. Very exciting.

Lucinda Smith, the Senior Environmental Planner at the Natural Resources Department of the City of Fort Collins joined me for a fun and informative interview.

Ozone in the upper atmosphere is good because it helps block out  UV/B radiation that would otherwise come in and be harmful, but at the ground level ozone is definitely considered an air pollutant because it causes respiratory problems, it can exacerbate asthma, and it also harms things in the environment, at high levels, it can be damaging to crops and even to buildings