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The Rise of the Battery Powered MowerThese days it's hard to imagine a world without batteries, in fact they're the embodiment of the oldest form of electricity generation known to man, chemically generated electricity. The battery was developed in the late 18th century by Benjamin Franklin among others, but there are also claims that they existed among ancient civilisations, though the clay pots and rolled up bits of copper that supposedly constitute such artefacts remain a subject of debate. In any case it's fair to say that batteries have stood the test of time, but with the development of the internal combustion engine early in the 20th century, the use of the battery as a means of power for many applications was for the most part forgotten, especially in heavy duty machinery such as cars, aircraft, or in this case the humble lawn mower. The battery's fate has for the most part been sealed by two rather large factors that leave it unable to compete with good old gasoline as a source of power, these are: 1) Weight - batteries able to store enough charge to be of any real benefit or use have traditionally needed be bulky and heavy 2) Charge - Similarly, batteries are well known for making things work brilliantly one minute, to being about as useful as a dead fish the next when they suddenly run out of juice. Likewise of course, there are some applications where the sheer power output of the accompanying motor is unable to compete with it's gas burning engine equivalent, but when it comes to lawn mowers this is less of a deciding factor. The good news is that in the last 10 or 15 years battery technology has advanced leaps and bounds, to the point where we are seeing everything from Radio Controlled Helicopters becoming common consumer items (once a past time of the dedicated enthusiast only) , to companies developing flexible batteries to integrate with the next generation of mobile devices. All this development and hard work also means that new a generation of battery powered lawn mowers are now a confident competitor to traditional mains powered electric and gas mowers. Most of these machines are powered by 'Lithium Ion' batteries, which have a much higher energy to weight ratio than other rechargeable batteries, meaning that it's now not uncommon to be able to get an hour and a half of cutting time for a similar amount of charge time, which is not at all unreasonable. If you like the clean and quiet nature of electric mowers, but also want the freedom associated with gas mowers, then a battery mower is a very viable alternative. Clearly there are still downsides (no miracles have been worked just yet), for example you won't meet the demands of a large or overgrown lawn with the power output and mowing time offered by a battery mower, and unfortunately the technology is still rather expensive. All of this is ever improving though, and the popularity of emission and cord free mowing will only increase as time goes on. 
Battery Power: It's here and it's proud! ( photo / image / picture from lawnmowerwizard's Garden ) Last edited: Wed Dec 10, 2014 7:40 am This blog entry has been viewed 91 times
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