ELECTRIC YARD CARE

[djkeev]

Ok,I'll admit, I am older and have for my entire life LAUGHED (literally) at people who cut their grass with electric mowers, trimmed their hedges with electric clippers and used an electric leaf blower.I live in a home with a large yard. To cut the majority of the grass I use an EXMARK mower with great results. Diesel, power, speed, fun.Near the house is another story. Bushes, flower beds and all manner of obstacles, the Exmark either can't get in or tears up the grass maneuvering around things. I had an old self propelled gas unit with a 20"" cut and a bag. Worked fine but after many years it said enough!!I shopped and looked and through that shopping process I ended up with a Black and Decker electric mower. Once I learned cord procedure and such I was hooked! I LOVE that mower!!!! Powerful, light, quiet, instant start, instant stop.Soon followed with an electric weed whacker and electric blower. I'm love them all (you've got to get used to the cord) The leaf blower is GREAT for sweeping the garage clean!Winter is coming I want a snow blower. Getting older, a family history of heart attacks, I don't want to shovel. I also don't want to wrestle a giant around. Once again I only need it for the sidewalks, in front of the garage and such, close to the house. The driveway I do with my 4x4 with plow.I ended up with a TORO Electric blower. Didn't even research it until after the fact. It was in the store, the only one they had and on sale. I bought it. http://www.toro.com/home/snowt....htmlWhat a wonderful machine. We just got a fairly substantial snow fall. The wind has varied the depth from a few inches here to over a foot there.This thing EATS snow, quietly, hassle free. squeeze the handle and off you go. You of course need to plot your path with the extension cord but this is 2nd nature by now and doesn't even bother me.Even the area the truck plow piled of packed snow and chunks. I nibbled away at it, 1/2 to 1/3 of the in chute width at a time but it took it and hurled it away effortlessly. It's easy to push and move, it only weighs about what a gas weed whacker weighs. It is so light, I pick it up with one hand and move it about as needed. It even has a handle built in to do so.IF you've got need for a modest snow blower, consider getting one of these. I've nothing but praise.I will caution if you have a stone drive or path this may not be for you. It has rubber paddles which sweep the snow to the pavement and leaves clean pavement in it's wake. Any stones would be swept in and tossed as well.Dave

[keithvibe]

I just had this convo with a friend of mine who is single and she wanted to know about an electric snowblower.IMO it's not a good combo. snow/water and electric, but thats just meI would much rather have http://www.deere.com/en_US/Pro...tM=HO#once my MTD dies I'll get the deere

[djkeev]

Quote, originally posted by keithvibe »I just had this convo with a friend of mine who is single and she wanted to know about an electric snowblower.IMO it's not a good combo. snow/water and electric, but thats just meI would much rather have http://www.deere.com/en_US/Pro...tM=HO#once my MTD dies I'll get the deereThat's what I thought too. Then I stepped over the edge and I'm not going back!! I am absolutely thrilled with this machine. Electric and water? that's why God invented circuit breakers. If you plug it in correctly on an outside outlet it should be GFI protected anyway.Believe me, this thing is great!! The electric motor is powerful and quickly gets rid of snow, even the later afternoon slush was effectively thrown out of the way.Tell your female neighbor that she should NOT listen to you.I'd highly recommend to the female population without reserve. Just watch your wires and you are good.DavePS educate me, how do you get that photo to show??? I just get the link you have to click on.

[keithvibe]

Quote, originally posted by djkeev »PS educate me, how do you get that photo to show??? I just get the link you have to click on.it's called hyperlinkingif you want an image to show up from another web page.you need to right click and copy the image location.then add on the [img][/img] tags around the locationAND poofparty time to see how i did it reply and quote me and you will see the [img] tags along with the place where the photo is hosted.

[PHXLavaVibe]

I must admit...I felt the same way about gas powered equipment. I always feared that if I used an electric lawn mower or weed eater that I would instantly distroy the extension cord.However, with the notion of going green...I have started using electric lawn care equipment. My wife and I just moved into our first house so lawn care is a must. Not to mention, I am now being controlled by an HOA. Shortly before moving in I decided to trim some bushes and trees in my yard. They hadn't been watered in quite some time and were looking horrible. There's nothing quite like overgrown dead looking things in your front yard. I went through the laborus task of manually trimming everything thus leaving a lot of trimmings strewn about my gravel. I did my very best to rake all the debris up but it still looked as if I had a ton of dead grass in the gravel. I hoped that over the course of a couple days some wind would pick up and blow it all away. The day we moved in I received a "Friendly Reminder" from my HOA that I have dead grass in my gravel. This past Saturday I decided to purchase an electric leaf blower / vacum. I figured that if I was going to use the blower/vac I should also bust out with my new electric weed eater and do some edging to make my lawn look better before I get a Reminder for that too. The weed eater worked like a charm. It has a swivel head that allows you to switch from a typical weed eater to an edger. I did hit the cord a couple times but luckily I didn't damage it. After tackling the edging I put my blower/vac together and set it up or vacumming. My goodness does that thing ever suck (in a good way too!). The fan thingy inside the motor has some nasty looking blades with teeth. It sucks up just about anything and chews it up producing a very nice multch. It even sucked up a couple rocks without damaging the blades. It has a zip up bag that attaches to it while in vacume mode that seems to hold quite a bit. Emptying that thing is a little nasty though with dust clowds spreading everywhere. The blower setup also works really well. It is very powerful and has two power levels on it. Either level fits my needs and will blow a handfull of gravel accross my driveway with little effort. It's gonna take some practice to learn how to control the leaves / grass with the blower though. After a few minutes I couldn't help but appreciate the landscape guys at my old apartment complex. They made it look so darn easy! So yeah...I too am now hooked on electric yard care! It's nice not having to throw out your back trying to start up a gas powered tool.

[keithvibe]

Quote, originally posted by PHXLavaVibe » It's nice not having to throw out your back trying to start up a gas powered tool.I don't think I could ever live in an HOA community. Too many soccer moms who want to tell me what my house should look like in their eyes. As for throwing our your back. Most new lawnmowers will have electronic ignition. If you go with an upper model. Also if the machine is well maintained it should start on the first or second pull. I love my John deere's. I change the oil every other year alone with the spark plug and the machines will start on the second pull every time sometimes even the first pull. Even my crappy mtd snow blower which I maintain will start on the second pull and sometimes the first and that even has an electric start. I don't know if it works because I have never used it.I'm happy you like your electric yard tools.... but honestly I will still giggle when I see people use them. Rock on brothers...

[Tubaryan12]

Quote, originally posted by keithvibe »I don't think I could ever live in an HOA community. Too many soccer moms who want to tell me what my house should look like in their eyes.I could not agree with you more.

[Whelan]

I have a Toro Personal Pace gas mower w/ Tecumseh engine. I have a Craftsman 28" two stage snowthrower with electric start. Also a Echo gas blower (Echo rates mph out of the end of the tube not the fan). Then my Echo curved shaft edger/trimmer. And the only electric items I use are B&D clippers, Edger, and a 10" chainsaw for small jobs. Other than that, you will hear nothing but internal combustion, and smell fresh cut clippings and small engine exhaust I'll soon be upgrading to the new Binford 6100 series though! Arrgh Arrghh Arrgh Arrgh!