Mowing your own yard and do you use gas or electric lawn equipment?

[DRider]

How many of you mow you own yards? I bought all the lawn equipment and did mine for the first time yesterday and it took 2.75 hours. I had not mowed a lawn since 1980 and we have a large yard. We are on an acre lot and I used a Honda walk behind self-propelled mower. I decided to do it myself because my lawn guy went up to $60 a mow or $240 a month and I felt the exercise would be good. But it was a beating. I had purchased a Honda gas mower last year, a Stihl gas weed eater, Stihl gas edger, gas blower and also have some Ego batter powered lawn equipment. I had been doing the weed eating and trimming myself and they do the mowing, edging and blowing. In the summer in Texas this is going to be brutal. I found myself going with the battery powered edger, weed eater and blower on this pass. They are just less of a hassle to use and quieter. The Ego stuff is fantastic, but I think the Stihl weed eater, edge and blower are more powerful. The Honda mower worked fantastic - easy to use, easy to start and powerful. It will run off and leave you depending on the speed setting. I quickly got comfortable with the setting I selected after some experimenting with it. However, the problem is that it's only 22" wide and it takes a lot of passes in the big yard versus a riding mower or zero turn. And I could not complete the entire lawn on one tank of gas. It was close though.

My second question would be do you prefer gas or electric? I probably would have gone with an electric mower if I had a smaller yard, but there is no way a battery powered mower could do this yard. That is why I went with gas on the mower. The Stihl gas blower is one of those backpack ones and it definitely has more power than the Ego handheld, but the Ego worked well for blowing the sidewalks as it is the 765 CFM model. But for a lot of leaves the Stihl is better.

 

[CJM8515]

i have a small yard, takes maybe an hour. i have a self propelled toro i bought of a buddy for $100 and everything else is battery powered. makes sense as my lot is 100x100 and probably 1/2 of it is covered by house and garage.

if i were in your shoes, you need a real ride on mower..not that crapsman junk that falls apart in 3-5 years. if you dont mind walking get a 48 inch walk behind commercial job (used of course), a stihl, echo, husky or red max pro blower and weed wacker and call it a day

 

[Tdbo]

I have close to an acre.
I mow with an X series Deere.
My Trimmers are Stihl curved, and Echo straight shaft.
I have a Stihl blower.
I have a trim mower that I picked up for $20 on CL.
It takes me 45 min to an hour.
I'm too old.
Time is too valuable.
Life is too short to do it all with a push mower.

 

[mjdarg]

When I moved into my house with a corner lot, it took a little over 2 hours with my walk behind Honda mower. I picked up a well used Cub Cadet 38" deck rider and it now takes about 40 minutes to cut. I've got a little 4 stroke troy-bilt weed whacker and a Stihl hand held blower. I've only got a few trees with leaves that fall on my yard, so it does the job in the fall and is enough to clear the driveway the rest of the time.

 

[driftpin]

Smaller urban yard here about 1/4 of an acre. I use a gas powered walk-behind, but recently have been borrowing our adult son's electric powered walk-behind. It's NOT an EGO. It is something like 80 volts, I forget the brand. I can cut the entire yard on one battery charge. After using that, I'm ready to bin my Craftsman gas mower. I still have an ECHO split-boom w/attachments string trimmer/hedge trimmer, edger, 2 cycle, which works well, and a Hitachi 2 cycle blower, also still functional. I'm tired of having to putz with the gas powered mower to use it.

At another residential property about 1/3 acre w/a large open area, I have a Snapper rider, which does a good job.

 

[vavet]

I have about 20k square feet to mow. I bought a Cub Cadet V-twin 25 hp (??) with 50" deck about 6 years ago. It's been a fine mower. I would not want to try to mow my lawn with a battery powered rider. I have a Honda walk behind, an Echo 2 cycle string trimmer and a Husqvarna backpack blower. I would not mind any of those last 3 items being battery powered.
For my previous yard - total of 1/3 acre. I bought the Honda walk-behind when we lived there. Subtract the footage for the house, detached garage, and driveway, and it was maybe 10k SF if I'm really generous. I'd have been all over a battery powered walk behind mower for that.

Now that Ridgid has the battery powered trimmer and blower, I might make the switch this year since I'm already heavily into that battery platform. It just hasn't made sense for me to start with a new line of tools, plus batteries, just to throw away or have to sell off my ICE powered OPE. It's all perfectly good, but it doesn't make a lot of sense for most people to buy it.

 

[DRider]

i have a small yard, takes maybe an hour. i have a self propelled toro i bought of a buddy for $100 and everything else is battery powered. makes sense as my lot is 100x100 and probably 1/2 of it is covered by house and garage.

if i were in your shoes, you need a real ride on mower..not that crapsman junk that falls apart in 3-5 years. if you dont mind walking get a 48 inch walk behind commercial job (used of course), a stihl, echo, husky or red max pro blower and weed wacker and call it a day

Yes, that is what I need - the 48" walk behind. I have everything else.

 

[Blue Chips]

Many areas of our lawn here at our house in Brunswick are quickly being taken over by moss. I wish the moss would take over all of the lawn. I have a Toro Wheel Horse 522xi garden tractor with a mower deck, but I still find mowing to be rather boring, and there are other things I'd rather be doing. If it were up to me, I'd rip out the grass and put in low-growing juniper or other ground cover and never have to mow the lawn again. However, spousal unit prefers grass over juniper. At least we don't have to spend any time or money watering our lawns here, as we get enough rain to keep things green.

At the old house that we're gradually restoring in Alna, ME, we have about two acres of lawn around the house, plus about 20 acres of fields that need occasional mowing. I'm not concerned at this time about having a perfect lawn at that location, so I just mow the fields and the lawn around the house with our old 1953 Ford tractor and a 5-foot bush hog to keep the weeds under control.

For some reason, even though I don't like mowing the lawn around our house, I don't mind mowing the open fields with the bush hog. Perhaps it's partly because I only mow them two or three times per year, but I also think there's a kind of 'Zen' about riding the tractor around the field and watching the weeds disappear as the field develops a nice tidy pattern. It's one of those 'strangely satisfying' things.

 

[lolaetype]

Our yard is 240' X 120 feet, some slopes and mostly more or less flat. I use a Cub Cadet LTX 1042 for mowing. I have two gas trimmers, 1 straight, one curved shaft. A handheld Poulan gas blower for light duty and a Husqvarna backpack blower for heavier stuff. My edger is a curved shaft attachment for the gas string trimmers. I also have a Black and Decker 20v pole saw and 20v hedge trimmer.

 

[CoogarXR]

I have a small yard, but I still use a tractor, lol. It's a troy built that I got used. It's been great. I have a generic poulan push mower that I traded some hand tools for, that I use for right areas that the tractor won't fit. And I have a troy built 4 stroke weed eater for the trimming.

I still have my friendly robotics robomower too. It's kinda like a mowing roomba. I had it set up at my former residence and lt was perfect. But my new place has too many obstacles so I never set it up here. But I have kept it just in case I move to a smaller/simpler place some day.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

This topic surprised me a little. I’ve never considered hiring out mowing and don’t know anyone who does or would. I know of a lot of ‘rich’ people who have landscapers but these are truly ‘mansion’ type properties or strata. Is this a regional thing or am I just in a little pocket of cheap people?

The other comment that got me wondering was the knock against Craftsman mowers. We have close to 2 acres of grass broken up with retaining walls as we live on a hillside. We use the riding mower nearly daily for mowing and dragging a small 4x6 aluminum trailer up and down a pretty good slope with anything from clippings to dirt, it gets loaded until the mower runs out of traction. This mower is the generic craftsman/huskvarna/ytd 6.75hp Briggs, was here when we got the place 12 years ago and still going strong. Have these gone downhill (no pun intended) or did I just get a good one? I think this one is about a 2008.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I've got enough that the landscapers want $300 a mow, I forget how much for snow removal, and the price on general landscape maintenance is ridiculous. I did the math, and at that rate I can replace everything I own every year, with money left over. Most everything I use is gas. Noisy, but the up time, and power I need, at a price point I can stomach.

Cub Cadet 42" for the large surfaces.
22" push mower for the tight spots.
Stihl Kombi, with a herd of attachments for weedwhacking, sweeping, hedge trimming, small tree lopping, and tiny tiling.
TroyBilt horse for the bigger tilling.
Stihl chainsaws.
Stihl backpack weedblower.
Toro Dingo for excavating, grading, stump grinding, brushogging, snowblowing, and general physical labor.
I do have a plug in electric pole saw.

Judy has a battery powered Ryobi weedwhacker, that's still got most of its factory shine, and a dead battery. Owning it is her contribution to yardwork.

 

[Roert42]

I've got about 1ac, but there is a lot of "features" so I can't move a regular tractor around too good. little gas push mower with a 5hp B+S that I use from time to time and a little Honda rider with a 30" single blade. Honda is almost always broken so I use the pusher jobber more then I would like. Should have bought one of those Forrest Gump Snappers instead.

Gave up on the gas weed eaters last year when a friend let me borrow is Milwaukee trimmer, I will never go back. Threw my 4stroke craftsman trimmer in the trash and gave away my 2stroke Toro.

Electric blowers are 100% worthless. Cheap Echo blower, have never had an issue.


When I lived in the trailer park I used one of those reel mowers. Left a really nice finish, but you had to cut three times a week in the spring or it would just push the grass over instead of cutting it.

 

[P0234]

Anything over 1/4 of an acre grass (not lot) is too much work with a push mower.

 

[Dakotadadv8]

OP always did my own mowing and landscaping, good exercise and like buying tools. I prefer gas and enjoy the maintenance aspect, again I like tools. For others if you don't like exercise, getting your hands dirty, or buying tools hiring someone is not that bad, eat out less and drink cheaper beers.

 

[Rabid Badger]

I've gone all Makita electric with a mower, trimmer and blower. Hard to overstate how much nicer it is than gas/cords.

 

[VolvoRyan]

Buy a riding mower this fall when prices drop. I wish I would have thought of this. We bought a smaller house on at least an acre in the late fall during the Pandemic. I foolishly waited until the following spring to buy a mower suitable for the property. I could have gotten a much nicer unit during the "off-season" for not much more money.

I went with a 24hp, 48" Husqvarna riding mower/tractor. Basically an entry level machine. I can get the lawn mowed in under an hour. Gas is really the only way to fly out here for mowing. A zero turn would be kinda helpful in just a few places... but I do fine for the 99% with the tractor. The 48" is handy (vs the 54") for getting in between some areas here. My only niggles with the unit are with the B&S Intek engine. Most recent problem seems to be the oil level sensor.

I'm using Ryobi and B&D cordless hedge trimmers and weed whackers. I like the form factor of cordless for these, but I'm swapping batteries left and right. I trim much less often then I probably should. I'm not really a "yard" guy. I'd rather pull a transmission than do yard work.

-Ryan

 

[Bubba Fett]

I have a little less than an acre, but various types of grass. I use a Troybuilt walk-behind. Nothing special, but it has been a good mower. I recently changed the oild, cleaned out the intake, and put a new filter on it, and it starts with the first pull.

I've been thinking of switching to electric, but I don't think an electric mower can handle the grass and weed variety. Attempts to reseed haven't been successful, but I may try again, and go with something that doesn't grow so tall.

My trimmer is cordless electric, and gets the job done, but it isn't powerful enough for briars. Leaf blower is a 2-cycle Hitachi that has plenty of power. Eventually I may go cordless with that.

 

[Steve W.]

1/2 acre at my place. Bought a retired professional walk-behind in 1995. Found later that it was a 1982 model. Ransome's Bobcat 48" cut. Replaced the engine a couple of years ago, need to do the spindles some time soon. Trimming and other stuff is handled by a Craftsman 2-stroke power head with attachments, including: string trimmer, blower, hedge trimmer, cultivator, chain saw. Borrowed my brother-in-law's 4-stroke unit one time, could not stand the noise it made, prefer the noise of the 2-stroke.

Mowing takes about 35 minutes, using any of the other toys will fill up the rest of an hour.

.

 

[CoogarXR]

This topic surprised me a little. I’ve never considered hiring out mowing and don’t know anyone who does or would. I know of a lot of ‘rich’ people who have landscapers but these are truly ‘mansion’ type properties or strata. Is this a regional thing or am I just in a little pocket of cheap people?

My wife and her siblings just inherited her dads place with 3.5 acres of nearly ALL grass to mow. We hired it done while it goes through probate until we can sell it. The cheapest I could find was $400 a month, which according to another post I had on here, the consensus was, that was a good deal.

My wife (me), nor her siblings and their mates have time to mow it. It's a HUGE job. I don't know how the old man did it for the last 60+ years. He had a tiny zero turn that he only recently bought. One of the son-in-laws mowed it for him a couple times and told me took 4 hours to mow the place. Screw that. I would never maintain that much grass. I'd be doing something else with it. You know, like a 3 acre pole barn, lol.

 

[DRider]

Interesting feedback. One of the posters mentioned liken tools and that is partly why I wanted to do it myself - good excuse to get all the lawn power tools. I could have paid my lawn guys for a year or more on what I spent.

 

[jonesg]

we have an acre up in Maine, grass grows like...grass but trees spread like weeds, crapsman LT1000 42" cut ride on tractor mower makes quick work of grass, bought it for $650 from a local dealer who went through it. New blades, belts and fluids. Never a problem.


My summer neighbor bought a new troy built, looks nice but not built as heavy as my old machine, $2200 vs $650. Some features on the newer machines are good, I like the hose fitting to clean the blades and remove mulch from under the deck, thats what causes decks to rust out. It will last his lifetime and his son too if they keep up with it.

I have a remington 2 stroke weed eater, they **** to lug around but if you have to use it thats it.

Also bought a used craftsman bushwhacker type weed eater $45 , its heavy but comes with shoulder harness which helps a lot, I installed circular saw blade and it take down 2 inch saplings in one swing if you rev it up high before swinging.

Picked up a used husqvarna rancher 450 chainsaw for $250, seems pretty good as long as the chain is constantly sharpened.

A very heavy duty 1980's simplicity snow blower for $50, re-enginged with a $225 HF predator 9 hp, runs perfect, I give it a couple of runs during the summer to keep the catb from clogging, run it dry and never use ethanol ****.

I've never had a problem yet in 5 years up here.
Always use stabil, shut off fuel valve and run them out after every use, the tractor doesn't seem to care but the little 2 strokes can be trouble.
Always used ethanol free gas, they sell it especially for the snowmobile guys here so its not hard to find.

Speaking of , its about time to install the battery and get the tractor out of the shed, lots of branches to pick up and cart off to the pile. I'm retired, otherwise the electric stuff would be more appealing.

 

[CJM8515]

Yes, that is what I need - the 48" walk behind. I have everything else.

spend the money on the commercial ones and dont look back. ive used them profesionally and they just are that much better

 

[classic70]

I use my 1978 Cub Cadet 1450, 1972 lawn-boy. 2-stroke Echo for trimmer and blower.

 

[Spud McGee]

I have a 52" craftsman riding mower. It runs on gas. For the spats where the riding mower doesnt fit, I have a kobalt 80v electric one. All my smaller tools like weed whacker, pole saw, hedge trimmer are all milwaukee electric.

What I have noticed with the electric ones is they are build with inferior materials. Parts where you would see steel and multiple bolts in a gas model, they use plastic nubs on the electric mowers. The electric ones work well enough for a decent amount of time. They are not made up to hand down to your grandkids like gas ones.

Having said that, I'm not a professional. The electric ones hold up well enough for me and my use a couple times per month at most. If there was a battery powered riding mower that used my existing batteries and was built by the same people who made my existing tools, I wouldn't hesitate to swap over from my craftsman. The convenience of battery powered is where its at.

 

[Snapped-off]

60" deck on the 400 shaved off hours mowing 1.5 acres compared to the 36" Jacobsen it replaced.


Haven't mowed my own yard yet. House came with a cheesy S100 Deere. 42" I think. It will do. I've got a Toro push mower and Makita 36v string trimmer and 18v blower. I may check out the 40v XGT for those 2 though. This year will tell.

 

[Farmall450]

If it takes you that long, I would rec'd either a rider or a wider self propelled. DR, Cub Cadet, and the commercial brands for sure make 2 blade ~30+ some inch wide cuts. Not my cup of tea, but if you really want to walk that would be the way to speed it up.

 

[onsail]

We are on an acre. first mow, with the push mower took almost 3 hours. It was Phoenix hot that day.
Went on the hunt for a zero-turn mower. Wife found a Ryobi 48v 54" electric mower, one that was still on the pallet at a Home Depot Returns reseller.
Since then, she LOVES to mow - i won't argue with that
Could not be happier with this after 2 years. Wife loves driving this thing after some initial first use pains. She now can do the whole yard in under about 45 min. these things are quiet, no gas to worry about. Just keep it plugged in when not using.

 

[Tallpilot]

I have a 52" craftsman riding mower. It runs on gas. For the spats where the riding mower doesnt fit, I have a kobalt 80v electric one. All my smaller tools like weed whacker, pole saw, hedge trimmer are all milwaukee electric.

What I have noticed with the electric ones is they are build with inferior materials. Parts where you would see steel and multiple bolts in a gas model, they use plastic nubs on the electric mowers. The electric ones work well enough for a decent amount of time. They are not made up to hand down to your grandkids like gas ones.

Having said that, I'm not a professional. The electric ones hold up well enough for me and my use a couple times per month at most. If there was a battery powered riding mower that used my existing batteries and was built by the same people who made my existing tools, I wouldn't hesitate to swap over from my craftsman. The convenience of battery powered is where its at.

You can probably give the mower your grandpa gave you to your grandkids. I doubt that a new production homeowner grade mower would last a generation. The professional ones? Maybe.

I wish they didn't use so much plastic on the electric ones too and I feel the same way about my truck. The convenience of electric is fantastic for small yards.

 

[RickyPetite]

2 acres to mow including around an apple orchard. Forget a push mower, I would be there all day. My wife heads in one direction with a 20 year old JD LX255 (she calls it "putt-putt") and I go in the opposite direction with a Ferris 1500Z. We run into each other in the back yard after about 30 min. I finish things off with an Echo straight trimmer followed by a Stihl blower. Can't imagine how much money we have saved over the past 25 years.

 

[Retired dozer fixer]

I mow about 2 1/2 acres with a 2370 Kubota diesel tractor and 60” mower. Dose a really nice job. Takes about 4 beers to finish. Stihl weed trimmer finishes what Round -Up don’t get

 

[billconner]

My neighbor mows our (and other neighbor's) lawn - 1 acre lot probably half+ grass - just raised to $35 - 10 to 12 times a year. Seems hard to purchase and maintain our own gear for that.

 

[Rinspeed]

I probably only have a half an acre and use a JD LX188.

 

[woody 73]

True story I kid you not...

One day wife looks at me and says Woody we are moving

You could have knocked my socks off, so we ended up moving and now it takes me 5 hours on a zero-turn mower of death, (I almost rolled it twice so far) and no roll cage too boot.

Never mow over 2 degrees, my yard is more than 2 degrees. A battery powered mower would be dead in no time, although, we bought one for the enclosed dog space. It works just fine for small areas.

I told my wife the next move it better be under 6 feet of dirt.

 

[Bubba Fett]

My Dad gave me his old Murray lawn tractor a few years ago. It looks like a red version of the John Deere above, which I think were also made by (or parts were made by) John Deere. It's old, beat to hell, but it cut really well. I need to get it working again. Probably needs a fuel filter and tune up.

Edit:

I've been encouraging clover to grow, and I've heard of people doing their whole yard in clover, which doesn't need to be mowed often, if ever, and bees like it. This might be a good option for areas that are inclined and hard to mow safely.

 

[Sweetcorn]

I'm one of the few people i know who enjoy mowing, but I wouldn't enjoy push mowing an acre lot.

I have a 52" Scag zero turn and designed my landscaping around using a zero turn and never needing to break out a push mower.

Like someone else has mentioned, I'd look for a mower in the fall when the prices drop.

Lots of people complain about yard work, but with nice equipment and a nice yard layout, I personally find it to be relaxing and an enjoyable thing to do.

To each their own, though.

 

[Uofime]

Have a little over 1/3 acre, maybe 1/10 that gets mowed. Just bought the house and haven’t done yard work since I was living with my parents over a decade ago.
I went all electric with EGO, fooling around with gas didn’t make sense for this small a property. The mower works great with the 7.5Ah battery it uses around half a charge per mow. The unit is better than expected, it’s like a billy goat climbing ditches and chewing up everything. It only stalls if you run it aground.
The weed eater is a beast, chews up everything on low speed, high is only for unmaintained areas I want to clear. Maybe uses a third of a 5Ah if I do “edging” too
Blower blows and chews batteries. It’ll chew another third off the 5Ah just cleaning up the driveway, patio, ect I made a mess of.
The kits were cheap so I have 7.5, 5 and 2.5Ah batteries (have never used the 2.5) and also have 500, 300 and 200W chargers and I never use the 500 to be gentler on the packs. The 7.5 from the mower is still recharged off the 300w by the time I’m done trimming and blowing.
I over bought, but that should make it last longer and make it not matter as capacity degrades too

 

[will335i]

I have a 1/2 acre plus about another 1/4 acre of easement that I mow with a Hustler Raptor SDX zero turn. I have a Stihl FS 56 string trimmer and BR 200 blower. Personally 1/2 acre is about the max I would do with a push/walk behind mower. All my stuff is gas but I also bought it before there were more viable options for battery powered mowers, trimmers and blowers. I shouldn't have to replace any of my stuff for a really long time but I will go battery powered when I do.

 

[crewchief888]

mow ours 42" gas rider,
echo blower, chainsaw, and curved shaft trimmer all 2 stroke.
wife has a milwaukee 18V cordless blower and hacksaw for small jobs and trimming

 

[reader2580]

I have a 61” diesel zero turn rider for my lawn. My trimmer, blower, and chainsaw are Ego cordless.