Which lawn mower is better: petrol or electric?

The fashion to mow the lawns near your home came from Western countries. In Russia, this phenomenon took root only with the arrival of lawn mowers on the domestic landscape design market. Not every person would waste time on mowing a plot, wielding a scythe.

Lawn care is one of the advantages of a neat and diligent owner. Ideally, mowing your lawn should take a maximum of an hour or two, rather than half a day or an entire day. Any, most fully functional, model meets the requirements of the most discerning owner of the site. A lawn mower is not a toy: a universal and fully functional device costs not even 10 thousand rubles, but much more. Lawn mowers fall into two categories: gasoline powered and purely electric.

Expensive options are high performance. Low-budget models do not tolerate violations of the rules for use: you risk quickly, in a matter of days, damage the mechanisms. A summer resident or a mower working on the road selects the device that is optimal for the price and his needs.

Before visiting a supermarket selling cleaning equipment, it is advisable to clarify in advance what the area of ​​the "squares" to be cut is and how the device itself is controlled. Specific questions about the operation of the unit, which should be decided in advance:

• what is the total area of ​​the site where the grass is mowed;
• on what type of soil does the grass grow and what is the structure of the soil itself;
• whether the site has a slope along the horizon;
• whether trees are planted, whether paths pass through the site, whether flower beds are broken;
• Which family member (or service staff) mows the grass more often - and what physical characteristics does this person have?

First of all, the gasoline engine type does not require an external power supply. The benzokos makes much more noise than an electric one. Headphones are often required for long-term work with the mower. It produces exhaust - no matter how high-quality gasoline is, it will not burn 100 percent, but, say, 98 percent.

The petrol engine is autonomous: it does not use an outlet as a source of energy, from which tens of meters of power cord stretch with a large plot size. Here the energy carrier is gasoline, which is poured into the tank.

The performance of a petrol cutter is several times higher than that of an electric cutter, which allows mowing grass in city parks and alleys with a large area. Unlike brushed electric motors, fuel motors are more adapted to continuous operation for several hours in a row.

The electric scythe, although it does not use more than 1.8 kW of power, is generally able to maintain a normal rotor speed with a knife. The smallest electric scythe consumes only 0.9 kW. If the buyer still settled on an electric braid, then an important criterion is the presence of a thermostat - it will turn off the motor due to overheating when the session exceeds 15 minutes. The electric motor needs, at best, to replace the brushes - if it is a collector motor, and not, for example, a stepper motor (with a driver) or a regular variable.

Gas mowers use three motor levels.

• Domestic. Its service life, or engine time between failures, for gas engines is 700 hours. After that, the engine itself needs flushing, oil change, adjustment (and possible replacement of some) valves, replacement of part (or all) of the spark plugs. The size of the serviced lawn is 8 acres.
• Semi-professional. The total area of ​​lawns is up to 20 acres. The resource before the first failure is 1200 hours.
• Advanced - 20-60 acres of lawns at a time, 2500 hours of active work before the first service or repair of the motor.

By the type of drive, two types of units are distinguished:

• non-self-propelled - needs to be driven by the mower himself;
• self-propelled - only the direction of the mower to uncut places is required.

In the direction of movement, the devices are rear-, front- and all-wheel drive. In this way, they resemble car drives. Rear- and all-wheel drive is more convenient - when moving forward, the mower turns away from the intended trajectory. Engine power - from 3 to 16 horsepower. Bevel width - up to 1 m.

If the lawn as a whole is flat, then a smooth and even cutting of the grass will provide exactly the brushcutter. It cuts weeds and weed bushes in a split second. Powerful brushcutters are used for cutting weeds in unoccupied summer cottages served by a winch driven by tractor mechanisms.

If the soil is hilly (the site has not been cultivated for a long time), then the trimmer will cope with this task better: he cuts the grass with fishing line, not knives. This eliminates deep cuts to the tree, sometimes incompatible with the life of the latter.

Having decided what power and dimensions are right for you, find a device with a sliding handle. How you display it will depend on your height. If you ignore these criteria, then it turns out that one and the same device turned out to be too high, others - low, hands are in limbo, and the like. The excessive weight of the unit - for example, the Hyundai L5500S with its 40 kilograms of mass - will not please every user. But the electric unit AL-KO Classic 3.82 SE weighs only 13 kg.

Without regard to the slope and bumpiness of the lawn, you will most likely choose the wrong machine that you would like to purchase. Mowing grass along the line of paths, under trees, along the perimeter of the site or on a bumpy lawn is easier with a petrol engine. On a level lawn, work will go easier on any machine equipped with wheels. The width of a mechanical scythe, powered by a gasoline engine, is suitable for mowing grass in any area. For rectangular areas that do not have zones with fancy borders, an electric unit with a mowed strip width of 45-60 cm is suitable.

The larger the wheel diameter, the better the passability over bumps and bumps. The rear wheels should be significantly larger than the front. Piano wheels, or swivel wheels, allow the mower to easily get out of the way when you get to the edge of your property or past trees or flower beds.

Bearing wheels are durable - a wheelbase on ball bearings will travel hundreds of kilometers. Ball bearings are easy to adjust - if the wheel dangles, "plays" when rotating, then it is easy to adjust.

The material from which the case is made significantly affects the cost of the device. The steel case will significantly better protect the mechanisms and modules of the unit. In need of protection:

• the motor itself;
• rotating winch (except for knives);
• self-propelled drives (if any);
• gas tank, starter and battery (if the mower is petrol), "pusher" (in devices with manual cord start);
• ECU of the engine (with motors equipped with electronic control);
• wheelbase (partially, but not on all models).

The case, entirely made of stainless steel, is rarely used. Mostly they use stainless steel spraying on black steel. Such a case should be carefully monitored: when scraping, the base steel will rust in a few days.

Compartment for collecting (optional - tamping and chopping) cut grass, like a vacuum cleaner reservoir, is made in the form of a plastic container or a synthetic bag. The design of the grass catcher can also be combined. A rigid container, like a bucket or flask, is easy to clean. The capacity of the container at the electric mower is 27-75 liters, the gasoline unit also boasts a compartment of 90 dm3.

Mulching, or shredding, is an additional feature that not every lawn mower model has. It is able to save the owner from the need to dispose of the cut grass - being crushed, the latter will quickly rot and give additional humus to the soil.

The retrofit models of lawn mowers have the ability to attach an additional blade and temporarily close the grass catcher with a separate plug. Then the grass will not just be cut, but crumble into a kind of grass meal.

Best Selling Electric Models (2019).

• MTD Smart 32 E. Mows with a track width of 30 cm. Engine power - only 1 kilowatt. Collection for cut grass - 28 dm3. Weight - less than 11 kg. Each of the wheels is manually adjustable.
• Honda HRE 330 A2PLE. Branded motor. 27 liter grass catcher, weight less than 10 kg for the entire device.
• Gardena PowerMax 37 E - suitable for tall, 50 cm and more grass. Transparent grass catcher, easy to clean. Shreds the grass. Foldable handle.
• Viking ME 443.1 - the model does not move independently, but is easy to operate, has a folding grass catcher for 20 dm3.
• MTD 48 ESP HW - outwardly stylish model, has a steel case. The noise level is significantly reduced.

The width of the bevel for all electric mowers is up to 0.6 m. The cost is from 8 to 70 thousand rubles.

• Champion LM512 - 4-stroke 3.5 HP motor sec., cutting width 51 cm, weight - 25 kg, adjustable cutting height (28-74 mm), adjustable handle, tread on wheels for better maneuverability.
• Hammer KMT145SB - 74 mm cutting height, 3.5 l. with. on a 4-stroke engine, 35 kg device weight, 60 liters in the grass catcher tank.
• Daewoo DLM5100SP - 4-stroke 6 hp engine pp., 35 kg weight of the entire unit, chopping grass, 70-liter grass catcher, cutting height from 26 mm.

The price of petrol mowers varies from 10 to 250 thousand rubles.

For information on which lawn mower is better - gasoline or electric, see the next video.