A little over nine years ago I reported on the purchase of a new lawn mower. Well, I'm back again.
Nine years ago, as Sears was heading into a steep decline, I bought a new mower. I moved up and bought a red one to replace my "bottom of the line" grey one. Well, about a month ago, I was mowing the lawn and my mower started sounding weak and slowly just stopped. I pulled the cord and it roared back to life for about 6 seconds. Hmm! I tried again. It roared to life for about 6 seconds. I tried a couple more times and quickly realized that this was no way to mow a lawn.
So I looked online for a lawn mower repairman. I found a guy down in Chatham County who did the kind of repair job I was looking for. So I sent him an email and he replied and asked me to bring it to his house and leave it with a note saying who it belonged to. So I did that. I took the lawn mower down to his house in a housing development in near Cole Park Plaza and left it near his garage. There were about six lawnmowers that looked a lot like mine ready to be picked up along the driveway. I never saw the guy. It turns out to be almost as hour round trip down there from my house.
That evening I got an email that said he might be able to fix it that evening and sure enough, before I went to bed, he sent another email saying it was fixed and ready for pickup. I went and got it the next morning. It was sitting out front along with some six or so similar looking lawnmowers. I picked it up and left payment in an envelop which I put in a little box on the porch post. Never saw the guy. Another hour round trip and a bit of a twinge in my back from dead-lifting that thing to put it in the car.
I cranked it up that night and mowed the lawn. It ran like a top. Maybe it will last another 9 years. Nope! The next time I mowed the lawn, I got the front yard finished and was doing the back when the mower stopped again. Just like before. Cranked back up and ran well for a few seconds and then died again. Not excited about another 2 round trips to Chatham County.
The next day I went to work and discussed my dilemma with coworkers. The boss said I should quit mowing the lawn and hire someone to do it for me. Not a bad idea. Then another guy suggested that I buy an electric lawn mower. Being a recent Tesla owner, I was intrigued.
So I did a little research and found a model that sort of fit my idea of a no frills, small yard lawnmower. I bought a Greenworks Pro 60V 19" Brushless Lawn Mower. I ordered it through Home Depot and got it delivered by FedEx to my driveway. It came with some assembly issues, but I figured them out and fixed them and then mowed the lawn. So far, so good. going 21" to 19 " is worse than it seems since you have the same overlap. But the lawn mower is a bit lighter and quieter, so maybe that makes up for it.
The picture above shows the old Sears 21" with a Briggs and Stratton motor on the right and the new Greenworks mower on the left. Now I just have to get rid of the old mower. Maybe I'll drain the fluids and take it to the dump. I see lawn mowers in the metal bin all the time. They're all probably still filled with gas.
