The charge cord is really long, so the mower does not need to be near the power outlet, which are few and far between in a garage. I do not use the mulch bag and let everything compost, which is better for my area since the soil layer is thin. My yard, and most in my area, include natural rock outcroppings.
Let's talk performance, I use it on my back yard only and I have a pie-piece shaped yard that is nearly and acre, the bulk of the yard is the front. And, the back has garden areas, so not a giant space to cut, but oddly shaped and pieced out. Even with some back tracking, I can easily cut the yard on one change. I have even cut it once on a charge and half again a couple of weeks later on the same charge. If you are cutting thick or tall grass, it runs the battery down quicker. However, I found the solution after reading "the Grumpy Gardener" from Southern Living Magazine say on Facebook to cut your grass high to kill off weeds and encourage your grass without chemicals. I easily changed the wheel height, with one lever, and started cutting higher. Solved the problem of trying to cut the thick part of the yard, which was a foil for this mower... to be fair that part is a foil for every mower I have used. Still waiting on more grass and less weeds... But I trust you Steve (Grumpy Gardener), and I'll eventually get there.
So, two lawn season and still going strong. No gas, no lawn mower repair shop, no cord, no problems! No reason not to buy now and get an end of the season deal!
Post from April 2012:
I am in love... with my lawn mower! It's a new lawn season and I have a new mower. This year it is a cordless Black and Decker battery powered mower. It is so quiet, powerful, and can take on tall grass, um yeah, I put off cutting grass a while until I got the mower, and best of all no gas. It sounds like a big fan and I guess technically it is a big fan with very sharp blades.
Grass cutting always makes me think of summer at my grandmothers. She was a scheduled woman certain days were grocery days, then there was grass cutting days. The day before glass cutting days I was allowed to cut tracks into the grass with trimmers to play cars, runway, or whatever needs paths. Of course they were gone by the end of the next day. So, on grass cutting day, grandmother would put on capri length pants and her grasshopper shoes to head out to the lawn. To this day my sister and I refer to a certain length of pants-capris coming to mid-calf- as grass cutting length. Grass cutting length is not flattering, though functional, and the equivalent of shorts if you were born in the nineteen-teens!
Join me in the green revolution and try an electric lawn mower!
