Electric Mowers—Are They Good Enough?

First, let’s be clear. An electric mower is not saving energy really—it’s just changing the source (and perhaps the type) of energy. Whereas conventional mowers get their energy from burning gasoline on the source, the GreenWorks 12 Amp Corded Mower gets its energy from the outlet, which in turn gets it from the energy company, which in turn gets it from burning fossil fuels (most likely). So, it’s not green unless you get you have solar panels and a Tesla battery for your home—which I would love (in case anyone wants to set me up)!

We have a small yard and hopefully it will be mainly taken up by productive plants and not grass, but for now, it’s mainly grass. I made the mistake of getting a 50-foot extension cord. The ampage (13) was enough—and this is important. I’ve spoken with a neighbor that has a battery-powered mower with presumably lower ampage and he said it just didn’t have enough power. So, that’s good, but the length was not and I spent much of the trial run changing outlets.

It took some time getting used to the cord but once I got a system down it wasn’t too bad. Still, I would recommend going with the battery model as the cord is annoying. Either way you go, it’s nice to not have to worry about getting gas and dealing with fumes.

The motor is capable and this puppy handled some pretty wild grass on its inaugural run. The assembly and startup were both easy and I was mowing in no time.

But really, the question after all of this is: why should you be mowing grass in the first place? Turn your land into an urban farm and make the most of nature!