I’ve been trying to mow my yard with the new 21.5″ deck Dewalt 2x20V brushless push mower (DCMWP233) since April, but Mother Nature hasn’t been cooperating. Up until a month ago, I had only been able to use it 4 or 5 times because of the drought. It has only been the last few weeks that I’ve really been able to test it under relatively normal circumstances.
I reviewed the previous version of Dewalt’s cordless mower back in 2018, and I’ll refer to some of the differences later in this post, but first let’s start with the relevant specs of this mower.
Dewalt Cordless Mower Features & Specs
- Push mower
- 21.5″ metal deck
- 21″ cutting width
- 1-1/4″ to 3-3/4″ cutting height
- Brushless direct drive motor
- Requires (2) 20V Max batteries
- Kit comes with (2) 10Ah batteries
- 75 minutes runtime (2x 10Ah at max cutting height)
- Mulching, bagging, and side discharge
- 2 position handle
- Folds for compact storage
- Two lever 6-position deck height adjustment
- 3 year warranty
One interesting feature is the auto sensing technology Dewalt uses for the blade speed. The mower senses when the grass is thicker and increases the blade RPM. As far as I can tell, there are only two speeds: low and high. This is presumably done to eke out more battery life. The mower stays in low speed when you are positioning it for the next row, or are in an area with sparser grass and high speed only when needed in thicker grass.
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This push mower is regularly sold for $399, but I’ve see it marked down several times this summer. It comes with (2) 10.0Ah 20V Max batteries (DCB210), (2) 20V Max 1.25 amp chargers (DCB107), a collection bag, side discharge chute, safety key, and instruction manual.
Buy Now via Home Depot
Buy Now via Acme Tools
Cable Management Issues
Right off the bat, I had issues with the handle pinching the cable as it’s being folded open from its storage position.
I later discovered a second way that I could pinch the cable in the handle when folding it down for storage. On Dewalt’s previous 2x20V Max mower, they had a similar cable pinching problem, so you’d think they would have found a better way to run the cable.
Safety Features
This mower has a new safety feature in addition to the safety key and strict starting sequence — a switch that doesn’t let you start the mower when the handle is folded closed. Above you can see the actuation lever that the handle presses into the switch body when it folds down.
I’m not sure if there’s a new safety regulation that covers this type of switch, but it seems redundant. It is pretty unlikely that you are going to accidentally press down the button on the handle and push down the bail accidentally when the handle is folded. And if you are worried about it, just remove the safety key.
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Blade and Deck Size
Dewalt is calling this a 21.5″ mower. The mower deck measures slightly over 22″ on the outside and slightly under 21.5″ inside because there is a folded lip. The actual blade itself measures 20.75″.
I’m still not pleased about companies using deck size to sell their electric mowers while they use cutting width to measure their gas mowers, but Dewalt seems like they are meeting us halfway with this mower. They easily could have called this a 22″ deck, but yet they choose 21.5″ and put in a blade very close to 21″.
Stuart’s Note: We inquired about this, and apparently it has become the industry’s de-facto standard for cordless mowers to be advertised by their deck size. So, when comparing cordless mowers, you have to look up the blade size in order to make apples-to-apples comparisons between different models’ cutting widths.
As you can see in the above photo, the blade is made by MTD — which is no surprise because that’s who makes this mower for Dewalt (which is now owned by Stanley Black and Decker).
The blade has a very curious design. Only 1-1/2″ at the tips of the blade actually cut at the set height. The rest of the cutting edge leaves the grass 1/2″ longer.
What’s more is that the blade has a proprietary connection to the mower shaft. It does prevent you from installing the mower blade upside down (which I have in fact done on another mower), but at the same time I can’t find any local sources for compatible MTD or aftermarket replacement blades. I can only find a replacement blade on the MTD part website. This could be an issue if you damage you blade and can’t mow you lawn for a few days minimum.
Update: Home Depot also carries the replacement blade (online only so far), with part number DWO1DT233. The same replacement blade fits this mower (DCMWP233) and the new self-propelled mower as well (DCMWSP244).
Noise
As I mentioned before, the mower runs at two different speeds. I measured the noise at each speed level and found sound pressure levels to be 73.5 dBA for low speed and 77.3 dBA for high speed. It has been pointed out to me that dBC might be more appropriate for a lawn mower than creates noise on the low end of the audio spectrum, but this is the sound level meter I have and used for other reviews.
Further supporting that this is probably the wrong scale, even though the SPL meter says it is quieter than the Ego LM2101, I cannot comfortably listen to music using over-the-ear headphones using the Dewalt mower, while I can with the “louder” Ego.
Still, this is quieter than any gas mower. People have walked by and commented that they are amazed at how quiet this mower it, just about every time I used it.
Charging and Battery Runtime
Dewalt supplies two 1.25A chargers with this mower to charge the two included 10Ah batteries. If you do the math, 10Ah / 1.25A = 8h charge time if the batteries are fully drained. So if for some reason you can’t fully mow your “up to 1/2 acre” property on one charge, you’ll have to wait 8 hours to finish mowing.
There is no external battery gauge on this mower to tell you the charge state of the batteries, there is only a warning light that is supposed to come on when the batteries are low. I only saw the battery warning light come on after I stopped the mower, which I did because I noticed the mower speed audibly slowing.
The lack of a battery gauge is kind of annoying, but on the previous Dewalt mower I found the mower battery gauge and the gauge on the batteries did not match anyway.
The battery compartment is large enough to fit the 9Ah FlexVolt batteries I have, which means the 12Ah ones should also fit. I’m not sure if the larger 15Ah FlexVolt batteries will fit though.
I found that my yard (a little less than 1/4 acre) isn’t large enough to fully exhaust the batteries. In a span of a few weeks I ran the battery down after 82 minutes. I mowed my entire yard in 44 minutes one time, and spot mowed 38 minutes over a period of 3 weeks because my grass wasn’t growing consistently in the drought. Now that we have been getting consistent rain, I have found that I can mow my entire yard twice using the included batteries. This actually meshes with Dewalt’s claim that the mower is “perfect for properties up to 1/2 acre.”
I have also tried mowing with 9Ah FlexVolt batteries and I really can’t tell any difference between the two sets of batteries.
Side Discharge, Bagging
The mower comes with a detachable side discharge chute. To attach it, you lift up on the spring-loaded plastic cover on the right side of the mower and hook the tabs of the chute under the hinge bar. When you let the spring-loaded cover back down it holds the chute in place.
Once I discovered that the mower performed better using the side chute than mulching, I started using the side chute more. Unfortunately because of the drought this summer, I don’t have any really thick wet grass to test how well the mower throws or if it spreads the grass evenly.
To install the bag, you lift the spring-loaded rear lid of the mower. There’s no plug to remove, because the plug is built right into the lid. With the door open, the bag drops into place on a nice curved “track.” Then the rear lid swings down and seals over the bag to keep it in place.
Once again the cable likes to get in the way. I had to move it many times to get the bag to drop into place.
Even when the mower is running in low speed, it throws the clippings into the bag pretty well. It’s impossible to see, but there is only a small area in the back that where the grass isn’t filled as high. It’s not perfect, but more acceptable than some other mowers I’ve owned that filled the front of the bag first and prematurely blocked the clippings from entering the rear of the bag.
I like the new bag design. It has a single-piece plastic bottom. The previous Dewalt mower had a fabric-over-plastic bottom. With the old design, dust would accumulate between the layers, and so the empty bag gets heavier and heavier over time with no easy way to remove the dust.
Cut Quality
First off, it is really hard to photograph grass, but I think I was able to capture it well enough to get my point across.
This is the worst mulching cut quality, at the lowest blade height, I’ve seen from any mower. Above is a section of my lawn after cutting at height 2. It may look like I didn’t overlap the rows enough, but I assure you I overlapped the cuts by several inches at least. After discovering this, I pulled out my Ego mower, set it to the same height, and mulched — while it wasn’t perfect it was way better.
Most of my yard is thin bladed fescue, and I’ve always had issue with my grass flopping over. Even with a prosumer Toro, once I raised the deck to the upper 50% of cut height, it would leave some grass uncut. I noticed this somewhat with the previous Dewalt mower and my Ego when I started raising the deck, just like the gas mower. But this Dewalt mower, in default mulching mode on height 2, is leaving significantly more of my lawn uncut.
After further testing I discovered that cutting with the side discharge chute or with the bag attached, the mower cut the grass significantly better. So it is just the mulching performance on thin grass that is terrible.
Mulching Mode
We’re going to need to step back here and discuss mulching. I’ve been mulching my lawn ever since I bought a mower with no side discharge chute. Several mowers now don’t even have the option of not mulching if you are not bagging. This mower is set up out of the box to operate in mulching mode, with no instructions on why you’d want to use each mode. Most people don’t think about how they are going to set up their mower, they pick a setting and use it like that every week.
Mulching recirculates the grass under the mower so it gets cut up into tiny little pieces, hopefully small enough so they don’t clump. In a mulching mower, the blade is designed so that air flows up around the outer perimeter of the deck to pull grass to the top of the deck. Then the grass falls back down in the middle to get cut again. When you use side discharge or bagging, the grass gets pulled up and then directed towards the outlet, getting cut only once.
I believe the reason I’m seeing better performance is that when you have an outlet, there is stronger/more directed air flow that helps pick up the grass, vs the more turbulent airflow when mulching that doesn’t lift the grass as well.
I think there are two issues: the cutting speed and the blade design. The mower is hardly ever kicking into the high speed cutting mode, which would generate a little more lift and more cuts at the same walking speed. Second, looking at the blade design, very little of the blade is actually cutting at the finished height. It is getting cut at an intermediate height first and then this shorter grass may be getting knocked over easier, missing the final cutting height.
When I mulch cut a section of my grass that is mostly thicker grass and weeds, but still a little sparse and I get a pretty consistent cut. Meaning, users with thicker lawns will probably see better results.
I understand that the blade design and dual cutting speeds are done to extend the battery life, but I think they over-emphasized the battery economy in this case. The problem is that this mower has been so optimized for battery life, the mulching just doesn’t have a strong enough lift for thinner grasses. But then again, if the grass is so thin that mulching doesn’t work well, you probably don’t need to be mulching in the first place.
Why is this an issue? People are going to get upset when the mower doesn’t perform equally well on all parts of their lawn or under changing conditions. Most users are going to set the cutting height and the mowing mode one time (except maybe for bagging). Once they get the mower set to where it performs to their liking, they’ll never think about it again. Who is going to waste precious cognitive power trying to figure out what the proper settings are for each time they mow the same lawn, when they could be daydreaming about new tools instead?
Additional Thoughts
I did not actually measure the temperature of the batteries because I never had an issue with them overheating. At their worst, the 10Ah batteries were barely warm to the touch.
I did stall the mower a few times, not that it was really the mower’s fault. I don’t always clean up the sticks in my yard and a few times one would get jammed and stop the blade. When this happens, I just let go of the mower, restart it, and keep on mowing.
I do not understand why Dewalt got rid of the single lever height adjustment in favor of the two lever height adjustment: one for the front and one for the rear. While this is still better than having adjustment levers for each wheel, the single lever is very nice for people who mow their backyard on a lower setting than the rest of their yard, such as for dog poop to be more visible.
I wish Dewalt would have made the running speed adjustable — after all, most gas mowers have a throttle speed. Hypothetically, such a lever could offer several speed settings between the mower’s out-of-box low and high running speeds. The mower could still sense the cutting resistance and automatically boost the running speed, but you would still be able to speed it all the way up to mow problem areas or slow it down when you wanted to maximize battery life.
Summary
Before I summarize my observations and thoughts about Dewalt’s new cordless push mower so far, I’d like to restate the major limitation with this review. My area of the country was under drought conditions for most of the summer, and so I don’t feel I was able to fully test the mower under normal summer conditions with healthy well-hydrated grass.
It’s a given that a battery-power mower is not going to have the same cutting ability or lift as a gas lawnmower, especially one that has been optimized for battery life. That said, I’m still pretty disappointed with the mulching cut quality in my yard. The cut quality while using the bag or the side discharge chute was good, I found it to be closer to the Ego LM2101 or previous Dewalt mower while mulching. Bagging performance was also adequate with grass clippings and a few early leaves.
This mower is priced to compete. At $399, not only do you get over an hour of runtime, but you get 2x 10Ah batteries. If you were to buy similar batteries separately, it would cost you somewhere between $300 and $350. Even a pair of 9Ah Flexvolt batteries will cost you over $300. So basically you are getting high-capacity Dewalt batteries and having a lawn mower thrown in for a few extra dollars.
Should you buy this mower? Again it’s a hell of a bargain if you take the batteries into account and you don’t try to mulch a sparse, thin grass yard. I did not have a good experience using the mower on thin grass in mulching mode, but as long as you bag or use the side discharge shoot, or have a thicker variety of grass that doesn’t need much lift to be cut, it may be worth looking into.
Buy Now via Home Depot
Buy Now via Acme Tools
Dewalt also has a self-propelled version of this mower that’s currently priced at $479 via Home Depot.
Thank you Dewalt for providing the test sample used in this review.
Big Richard
Going from the gen I to the gen II, I did prefer some aspects of the gen I that I was disappointed did not carry over:
– Carry handles
– Battery gauge (though as you said it was not the most accurate)
– Single handle height adjustment
– Batteries vertically “dropping” into battery compartment rather than horizontally “sliding” in
– Higher blade speed (I think I never actually measured)
– Small front wheel, larger rear wheels
It does definitely offer better battery life than the gen I. I have the self propelled model and my lawn is thick, well maintained, and around 12,500 sq ft – and I double cut my 1,000 sq ft front yard for pronounced stripes. Mulching at setting 4 (2 3/4″), I still have two bars left on the 10Ah batteries when the grass is dry and under 3.5″. It primarily runs at low speed. During my testing I used a pair of 6Ah batteries and was just able to finish my yard. With the gen I, the same conditions would eat up 9Ah batteries and leave me about 1,000 sq ft short.
Now if I drop the deck down, it is a different story. Mulching on setting 3 (2 1/4″), it is in high speed pretty much 100% of the time, it also starts to leave behind clumps at that point (again my grass is thick), so I throw on the side discharge or bag for setting 3 or under.
I’ve never had issues with the cables getting caught when folding, but I too do wish there was an override for the auto high/low speed. I would likely run it in high almost exclusively because the higher blade speed creates more suction, pulling the grass up more so you do not get the missed grass blades as you alluded to. I also am not crazy about the blade. I would prefer to have more options. Overall, I knew what to expect when I got this mower, and it met my expectations and the 10Ah batteries made it too good of a deal to pass up.
Benjamen
To be fair they only removed the rear carrying handle. I don’t think I ever had a reason to use both handles. I do use the front handle quite a bit because I store it vertically and I grab the handle to move it around. The more forward front handle actually makes this easier than the top mounted handle.
I also had quite a few issues removing batteries from the “drop in” bay of the first one. They tended to stick. I haven’t had that issue with the gen II.
I’m assuming the identical wheels on Gen II are to cut costs even more.
Big Richard
I should have specified, you are correct in that the push model has a front handle, the self-propelled model does not.
Benjamen
My mistake. I blanked that you were talking about the self-propelled version and assumed it had a handle like the push version.
That is rather annoying that there is no front handle.
Jason
I switched from a Toro gas to Ryobi 40v a couple seasons ago. While I love how quiet it is, light weight, decent power, can store it folded easily, etc the lift isn’t the best. Haven’t checked to see if there’s a high lift blade available but it also has the auto shift to higher power. Would be nice this fall to leave it in higher power mode I’d gladly sacrifice runtime to not leave all the leaves behind. Probably the only thing I liked about the Toro better.
David
Hi Jason, when the many safety cutoff switches start to fail on your Ryobi (and in my experience with two generations of the 20′ mower, they will – i’m a slow learner) hopefully there will still be some warranty left. My advice is to not tinker with it too much (& I’m a master tinkerer). Just take the thing back to where you got it and try to pick up a new one, or get your money back. This course of action will be best for your sanity. I have spoken.
MICHAEL W RISNEY
Living that now with the one I bought for my sister in law. They did send a replacement mower, but it showed up with a broken back wheel.
My mower has a problem with the rear wheel anchor plate screws coming out from the plastic body
Gerald
I have the self propelled version, no cable pinching but it looks laid out differently. Mulchs fine on St Augustine.
As for the handle safety lock out, pretty unlikely wont be much of a defense in a product liability lawsuit.
Jon
I do not yet find the electric mowers to be compelling for my purposes, but as you state it is almost worth buying for the batteries.
fred
Perhaps not in my lifetime – but battery electrics are going to have to get better and more powerful across the spectrum as the world tries to move to zero-net carbon emissions. I don’t yet see my landscaper replacing one of his engine-driven zero turns with a battery-powered one quite yet – but its coming. For a homeowner it might be practical now. I saw a Ryobi that was advertised as being able to handle over 3 acres per charge so that might suit my needs if I were in the market.
MM
It’s just a matter of time. Cordless tools were more or less a joke compared to their corded counterparts 30 years ago. Now many are not just on par, they’re flat-out superior. Corded power tools are already taking on and surpassing weaker gas engines like those in trimmers, it’s only a matter of time before they do the same for mower class engines.
But we’re not at that point yet.
Mopar4wd
My ryobi cordless trimmer made be a believer in cordless yard tools. I bought it more then a decade ago just clip a fresh battery in and put some more line in every once in a while. No maintenance no hard starting damn thing just works.
I still use a gas mower mostly because I can’t decide which cordless one I want yet (plus people keep giving me free ones).
I have a cordless blower I love for quick clean ups of the patio or driveway and some light leaf blowing, but I just bought a new gas blower for leaves in the fall. A bigger electric one would work but with the amount of batteries to do a yard in a day it’s just more economical to use a gas one.
MM
In my experience the current cordless OPE performs well around the 1-2 horsepower power range. Stuff like string trimmers, hedge trimmers, small blowers, small chainsaws, etc, work great. But the none of the models I’ve seen are able to compete with the ~5HP power level of a standard gas push mower. I think it could theoretically be done with larger battery platforms like Milwaukee MX, a dual-Flexvolt system, etc, but there’ s just not enough power in a pair of 18V class batteries to run a ~5hp machine for a reasonable runtime.
I think it’s only a matter of time before that will change though, batteries keep getting bigger and better.
Jon
I agree it is a matter of time, just not yet there for my purpose.
If dewalt put out a 2x60v version I would be awfully tempted. Even then, I could only justify the cost as I have already invested heavily in flexvolt tools/batteries.
Franco Calcagni
I think the batteries are here, just not at a consumer level price. I have no experience with them but am guessing that a Milwaukee MX Fuel lawnmower, if it existed, would meet the requirements that people expect from average gas mowers.
The problem is the price; 1 battery costs more than most mower/battery kits currently available.
itsme
I bought this same mower earlier this year. I have a third of an acre with about half being zoysia grass. If I mow once every 7-10 days I can get through my yard on one charge. I’m really happy with this mower overall and have had no problems except when I haven’t had time to mow consistently.
Joatman
I’m curious how well this would perform in the fall while mulching leaves. That’s a huge factor for a lot of people when choosing a mower. You can buy a nice gas mower with a Honda motor for $400……which is also cordless.
Seth
Most cordless mowers are pretty poor at doing leaves, its just too stressful on a system which is clearly optimized for battery life.
I have a kobalt 40v and the best approach is to set it up for side discharge and mow a leaf covered area in decreasing circles so there’s a tidy pile, then come along with a different tool to mulch and bag the leaves. Purely mulching can barely cut any given leaf in half, and bagging just doesn’t have the suction to get leaves off of all but the shortest cuts of grass. Leaf duty is the biggest letdown about this mower, and so I’m going back to gas once one more of my batteries gives up the ghost.
Joatman
I’m convinced this wouldn’t suit my needs. If this could totally replace and meet the performance of a gas mower, I think I’d jump on it. The cost isn’t that bad being you get two batteries with it. Granted I only use about $25 worth of gas a year, I could use the batteries on my other Dewalt tools. I used to have the Dewalt 20v trimmer but it bit the dust after 5 years. I would have thought the brushless motor would have lasted longer. Sold it on Craigslist for $20 as spare parts. I replaced it with the Kobalt trimmer/blower/battery combo when it was on sale and have been extremely happy with them. The trimmer isn’t as robust as the Dewalt, but it has more power in my opinion. Thanks for the reply.
jec6613
The older DeWalt 40V does well with leaves, especially bagging, but also mulching. However, the battery life isn’t great. As a supplement to my large John Deere, it’s fantastic – one battery can get all of the corners and small areas where the tractor can’t get to, and the power and cut quality is pretty much identical.
And the rest of the 40V system – blowers, chainsaw, and trimmer, make it completely worth it. I have one engine to maintain, the tractor engine, and the rest can just sit there and be ready to go on a moment’s notice. So the chainsaw and backpack blower only being used annually isn’t a big deal.
Benjamen
I have used both the Gen I Dewalt and my Ego and they both do a decent job of mulching leaves, as long as you do it regularly and don’t only do it once at the end of the season when the leaves are wet and 3 inches deep.
I’m interested to see how this gen II will perform both mulching leaves and bagging.
Mike (the other one)
I’ll stick to gas mowers for a while.
Li-Ion/Brushless makes sense for leaf blowers, trimmers, clippers, etc, but I don’t think battery tech is good enough for mowers yet.
Benjamen
It really depends on your application. My Ego works just fine — just as well as my old Toro prosumer model — for what I use it for.
I think battery powered mowers are getting close, but I agree they aren’t a one-for-one replacement.
Chris I
Why don’t you think that?
Cuts my yard just fine
Mopar4wd
For my 1/3 acre lawn this sounds about what I want. I have been going back and forth on this the Makita or the Ego. I came real close to a clearance Kobalt but I haven’t talked to many people with experience on the Kobalt 40V system.
I have other dewalt 20V tools which would be the biggest draw for me to this mower. It is basically like buying just the batteries and getting a mower. But the dewalt gets very inconsistent reviews. The Makita seems to be almost universally loved by everyone that tries it but in this price range it’s an 18″ instead of a 21″ also smaller batteries but a better charger and an extra set make up for it. Plus a new system when I already have Ryobi and Dewalt. The Ego seems to hit all the technical points and just behind the makita in the reviews. Acme had some great sales on them over the summer but again wondered about a new battery system.
teicher
I have a 40V kobalt mower, for my 1/4 acre lot with centipede grass its perfect. This fall I’m going to try using it to mulch leaves in my natural area and I’m sure it’ll be good enough.
I have a Kobalt 24V string trimmer, blower and hedge trimmer, too. Good experiences with all of those, too.
I’m more than satisfied with the performance for the price I paid.
John
It’s funny to call it cordless in the title. My Honda gas powered mower is cordless.
MM
Reminds me of the first time I saw an electric screwdriver on TV when I was a kid. I thought it was the greatest thing ever and ran to tell my dad about it; his reply was entirely deadpan: “all my screwdrivers are already cordless”.
fred
We used Hios electric screwdrivers in our fabrication shop – but alas – none of them were cordless. Kidding aside, “cordless” has of course come to mean “on-board-battery powered”.
Back on topic, one would think that a lawnmower might be something that Milwaukee could add to its MX battery platform for commercial use. Perhaps they judge that their is not enough demand for such – as it would push the cost up beyond the typical homeowner’s price point and might not appeal to many landscape contractors.
MM
A contractor grade riding mower starts at around $7500. I’m thinking at that price point they could probably make an MX platform work.
But I think the charge time is still a concern for contractors. It takes very little time to pour gas into a gas tank while it takes a while to charge batteries. So they’d either have to have some kind of special high-speed portable charger that runs off the landscaper’s truck, or they’d have to start the day’s work with enough batteries to make it through the whole day.
An arborist I know loves small cordless chainsaws for climbing and pruning work, they have obvious advantages over the gas models and he can toss a small number of batteries in his truck and he’s set for the whole workday with that saw. But he finds the larger cordless models, even pro brands like Stihl, unusable for larger work because it’s impossible to keep up with charging batteries fast enough to use them and it’s impractical to bring enough pre-charged for a full day’s work with a crew of guys, meanwhile when a gas saw runs out of fuel it’s back up and cutting a minute later and one can of gas runs every saw on the truck all day. And that’s talking about replacing a typical pro chainsaw of perhaps 5 HP equivalent. A commercial riding mower, being much more powerful, has a an even worse problem.
Some really rough math: A commercial riding mower might start around 25 hp, that’s about 18.5 kW. Meanwhile a typical north american wall can supply a max of 1800 watts or 1.8kW. So if we assume the battery, charger, and motor are all 100% efficient then it takes 10 times as long to charge that battery compared to the runtime it gives. This is a big problem. Want the battery to last an hour at full power? It takes ten hours to charge. Want a batteries that can run for 6 hours, enough for a full workday of mowing like a pro landscaper might want? Two and a half days. In order for this to be practical there must be some kind of high-power charging system involved similar to those used for electric cars because no matter how good the battery tech may be there’s still the wall socket bottleneck for getting that power into a battery.
Steve L
You nailed MM
Electric cars started with 110 volts residential and 220-240 charging stations. That wasn’t enough so 400-600 volt stations were added. 800 volt is coming.
and higher battery density will be here in hopefully a few years.
the big ticket item manufacturers are paying for the research on faster charging and higher battery density. It will keep moving down to lower priced items like tools – one of these days an electric mower will be a good choice. Not yet for me.
fred
While the battery powered zero turns currently available are sort of wimpy compared to their engine powered brethren – the technology will advance. That’s particularly true as climate change mitigation initiatives move forward.
But just to add to comments already made and for some perspective about the challenge:
1.8 gallons of gasoline (typical zero turn usage per hour) is about the equivalent of 59.4kWh of energy. Even if the engine/transmission system is only 10% efficient – that is about 6kWh of useful work.
Ryobi – for one example makes a zero turn with 100Ah of batteries operating at 48V = 4.8kWh equivalent. That’s – probably OK to get through my lawns – then come in for a recharge/topoff – but it wouldn’t do for a contractor mowing all day
Stuart
Is this any different than cordless screwdrivers and other such tools? Didn’t saws all used to be handheld before being electric and then cordless battery-powered?
I figure there are 3 types of powered mowers – gas engine, electric (AC), and cordless battery-powered. Search engines do their own thing these days, but I figured readers searching ToolGuyd’s archives would likely use “Dewalt cordless mower” as the main query, and so I tried to make the post easier to find.
Franco Calcagni
You did right….unfortunately, there are always those that think they are funny or witty.
MM
Nope, no difference at all. And I think that was the point.
It was really just his way of saying that he didn’t use tools often enough to warrant buying powered versions. He didn’t have a power saw or drill either, though he did eventually get a cordless drill much later in life. He was not a contractor, and while he was very much into DIY it was all electronics related, HAM Radio, electric guitars, amps and whatnot. Thinking back it made perfect sense, he simply didn’t have a use for a cordless screwdriver.
RCWARD
Sticking to EGO for my lawn and garden needs and a gas mower for cutting the grass
Plain grainy
There are the 20v slide on power adapters for Dewalt batteries. They have a 3 light fuel gauge to indicate power left in battery. You would need to remove the battery from the mower to check power status. There might be a % power adapter, but i haven’t seen one yet.
Plain grainy
Sorry, I see the batteries already have a 3 light charge gauge built in.
MFC
I am now on my 5th DeWalt mower. Three 1st gen, two 2nd. The first ones couldn’t handle heat buildup and so if you had a larger yard and went through multiple batteries the thing would melt in different ways. The 2nd gen had problems with blade balance and the service center couldn’t get me a new blade for a couple of months so they refunded me and I bought another one. The self-propelled version is nice and has enabled my 9 year old to be able to mow. Can’t handle heavy grass, but is fine for weekly maintenance. We’ll see how long it lasts…
Steve
Worst mulching cut you’ve ever seen? Have you used Husqvarna? I’m sure they can give this thing a run for it’s money.
Bob
I wonder how many seasons the batteries will last before end of life? Or put another way how many charges can a 10ah 20 V battery take before its dead.
Around here mowing season is April to October. Usualy cut once a week but in spring sometimes twice a week. Figure 40ish mowings. On the lower end I would expect the batteries to recharge 400 times so you’re looking at 10+ years. Mower deck will probably rust out before then. Wonder if the electric motor will hold up that long.
Probably would be replaced with beter tech before then any way.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. My yard is too big for electric and I am way to meticulous in my lawn care for anything but a perfect cut.
Still at some point it will probably get there. An autonomous electric mower that I can set the travel pattern on would be tempting. Mow every three days with alternating stripes! I think I would miss mowing too much. Yeah Im weird like that lol
Koko The Talking Ape
I don’t own a lawn, but I’ll just throw this out there. It’s possible to have a yard that doesn’t need mowing in the first place. There are many ways to do it, like say with low growing ground covers, pebble or stone cover, tall grasses or bushes, etc., all depending on your location and how you want to use the space.
Also, some cities in the West are paying people to get rid of their lawns and replace them with something that doesn’t need so much water. So you can reduce maintenance needs and make some money too. Of course, getting there might take some work and money.
Also, consider the fact that not only is mowing your lawn a pretty big chore, it’s one of the few places where electric tools haven’t quite caught up with their gas-powered ones (you can see that from the comments here.) And those tiny gas engines just spew pollution, much more than your car, for instance.
So. I know people love their lawns. I just wanted to mention some alternatives.
Benjamen
I’ve thought long and hard about this and the problem is that you are switching one larger task for a whole bunch of smaller tasks. That works for some people and doesn’t for others.
Rock needs to be maintained. It migrates everywhere (notice the dings in my mower blade?) and detritus builds up in if you aren’t diligent about blowing all the leaves and other plant matter that accumulates. If you don’t, in 5 to 10 years you have weeds growing. Then it’s harder to fix than just starting over.
You have to be careful where you place tall grasses, you shouldn’t have them close to the house because they dry out in the summer and pose a fire danger. Not really a more work issue, but it limits where you can put them.
Gardens need constant attention. Ground cover can migrate where you don’t want it and need to be monitored.
We are still trying to convert more area from grass to things like hosta beds and gardens. Some days I just want to convert everything to astroturf.
fred
I used to own a getaway house on a large property in a rural community that had one been primarily small farms. There was some “lawn” – but neither I nor my neighbors much worried about what was growing. Nature seems to always takeover unless you are crazy-diligent. The local contractor who maintained the “lawns” (more fields than lawn) came in one in a while with a Gravely tractor with gang mowers and a sickle bar.
My current main residence has actual lawn that requires what some would say is an unconscionable amount of maintenance ( fertilizer, lime, seeding, weed control + insect control chemicals, mowing, thatching etc.) that I pay to have done. Considering that its all for show. I’m not sure for how many generations more the practice will be sustainable. Since we moved in we cut the backyard lawn area in half – adding about 1/2 acre to the garden. Both garden an lawn areas require TLC – but my wife and I somehow feel better about the environmental consequences of having less lawn and more garden. If we had figured out an attractive way to cut the acre of front lawn in half we would have done that too.
My take on all of this is that we (particularly suburban dwellers) are slaves to convention with a minds-eye view of what our properties should look like. That sort of landscaping – aided and abetted by post WWII real estate developers – may also translate into resale property value and “curb appeal”. Energy use, Global Warming and Water Conservation may ultimately change our thinking.
Koko The Talking Ape
Great thoughts, fred.
“I’m not sure for how many generations more the practice will be sustainable.” Technically, it’s never been sustainable, because sustainability means there’s no net damage to our resources or environment. Even if lawns do a tiny amount of damage, it’s not sustainable, because given enough time, they will wreck things.
And I believe they do more than a tiny amount of damage. The big issue for us in the west is water consumption, but there’s also pesticides, fertilizers, etc. as you say. IIRC, mowing and even collecting leaves disrupts insect populations, which are harmless to both lawns and people, but are necessary to support bird and small mammal populations.
fred
I’m told that the idea of having a manicured lawn first gained popularity in the 17th century on the estates of the wealthy. The idea caught on – not surprisingly – as folks with lesser means wanted to emulate their richer cousins. A whole industry (perhaps multiple industries would be correct) grew up around it and now e have companies producing grass seeds, sod, fertilizer, soil amendments, pesticides, and all manner of maintenance implements from aerators to lawnmowers to rakes and sprinklers. Many owe their livelihoods to our lawns and their maintenance. With the growth of the suburbs after WWII I suspect that the acreage devoted to lawns grew exponentially as did the businesses to support them.
Moving away from having a lawn to something better will require a paradigm shift of major proportions. And – akin to what Benjamin says there is no perfect solution that is immediately apparent. Somewhere deep in our brains we probably recognize your points about the harm that fertilizer and pesticide runoff is doing, that our precious water supply has much better uses than on lawns, and that using energy (fossil fuels or even renewable) to maintain a lawn is illogical. But then we get flooded with those “house beautiful” images of a lawn party or toddlers crawling along on an expanse of green – and all logic is put aside. Green concrete is not the answer (concrete BTW is very energy intensive to produce) nor is Astroturf – so I’m afraid that for a while we will be stuck with trying to make lawnmowers better.
Koko The Talking Ape
Absolutely right. I didn’t mean to imply that alternatives to lawn would eliminate your yard maintenance chores. It would just reduce them.
Anyway, for me, the real point is not reducing the amount of work you do, but reducing the air and water pollution, water consumption and ecosystem disruption that grass lawns create. 🙂
Benjamen
My point was that I’m not convinced that the alternatives would reduce them that much after you include the work required to implement them.
I’m actually really surprised that I did not get a comment like: “Why didn’t you just water your grass — then it would have grown and you could have tested it more.” I was really disappointed at how many people in my area had perfectly green lawns during the worst drought we’ve had in a long time, because they were watering them (and the street) every other day.
Switching to battery powered OPE, letting my grass go dormant, letting my clippings stay on the lawn rather than collecting them, and growing grass that is actually appropriate for my climate, are some of the ways I’ve tried to address my own concerns about pollution and water consumption.
Koko The Talking Ape
Right, I know that was your point. My point, or actually my main concern, is different. 🙂
I’m glad you are taking care to reduce the environmental impacts of your lawn though!
Hon Cho
The DeWalt cordless mower is assembled by MTD. On inspection in Home Depot, the DeWalt deck and a Troy-Bilt built by MTD deck were identical in construction and placement of mounting points. MTD, I believe, has been purchased by SBD. The use of a deck not specifically designed for an electric mower may be less than ideal if a mower can’t match the power output characteristics of a gas engine.
Sean
I bought this mower, used it for about 3 months and returned it.
First time I used it, it worked great. It’s only about a 1/4 acre lot, including the house.
By month 3 it would only run for 10 minutes and I would have to recharge batteries. By this point I had stopped using the self propelled capabilities and was just pushing it to conserve battery. Still about 8-10 minutes in, batteries dead.
Went back to a gas mower, very disappointing as I assumed electric would have been fully capable at this point. But in fairness perhaps electric is, and the DeWalt batteries just can’t handle it. Or maybe I just got a lemon.
Big Richard
Sounds like you killed the batteries, or possibly as you said you got some lemons. Every time you run a lithium battery completely dead, it will lose some of its charge capacity. Do it often enough and that 10Ah battery becomes a 5Ah battery. I still don’t know why manufacturers don’t stress this more in the manuals. Maybe they want people to keep buying batteries, but cases like yours also lead to negative reviews. they do offer this advice though:
https://www.dewalt.com/dewalt-dna/featured-articles/best-practices-for-battery-life
Ideally you want to have spares and never let them go below 30% before charging (on DeWalt batteries 1 bar is <50%, so you kinda have to guess).
Check out some studies that have been done of depth of discharge and cycle life of lithium ion batteries.
fred
We got used to NiCad’s where constantly topping them off resulted in “memory” problems resulting in batteries that were seemingly never able to give their all. As you say – translating the NiCad use strategy to LiIon batteries creates a new set of problems.
Big Richard
That made sense 10 years ago when lithium ion was new. It’s just odd that people understand the logic when it comes to their cell phone. They charge them every night regardless of the percent because everyone knows if you run them completely dead regularly, they never last as long afterwards. Somehow that common knowledge is lost when people use other battery powered devices, like tools and OPE.
I don’t know how many dozens of batteries I have across multiple platforms and voltages, and I can honestly say I have never had a premature failure on any of them. Maybe I’m lucky, maybe I’m a wizard, who can say.
philip s john
I own near 40 tools and maybe 40 batteries. All dewalt and Milwaukee including HO and 60v. I own both mowers.
All have been amazing in terms of durability… except the Milwaukee HO 12 amph battery. Some of the high draw HO tool get to hot and trip out to often. It killed a 12 amph.
LGonTG
My first thoughts went to making a go-kart or something from the engine like I did when dirt poor to make money.
Big Richard
For those that do not like the front-wheel drive self-propelled, they are coming out with a rear-wheel model next spring. Doesn’t appear to be any other changes.
https://www.mynewsdesk.com/us/dewalt-usa/pressreleases/dewalt-r-introduces-several-new-outdoor-battery-powered-products-at-gie-plus-expo-demonstrating-its-continued-innovation-in-electrification-3137790
Big Richard
There are a couple changes. The rear wheel model has larger rear wheels, single lever height adjustment, and is available kitted with 2x12Ah FlexVolt batteries, in addition to the 2x10Ah 20v battery kit.
loup68
They should not have made a front wheel drive mower. MTD research center has enough knowledgable people and past experience to know better than to make one.
The front drive mower preformance may turn off a lot of buyers from buying Dewalt products.
Thank you for letting us know about these upcoming new products, Big Richard.
Big Richard
The one nice thing about front wheel drive is that you can keep your hand on the wheel engage “throttle” the entire time, and just push down on the handle a bit to raise the front wheels to come to a stop, do a turn, or whatever. But overall, I think rear-wheel drive is the preferred option.
It does look like it is going to cost $100 more than the front-wheel model, at least with early pricing.
loup68
Trust me, rear wheel drive is a lot better with a rear bagger. My wife’s mom had an MTD made gas front wheel drive. When the bag starts getting full, too much weight is in the back and it will not pull. I had to pickup the back wheels off of the ground to make the front wheels pull.
Big Richard, do you work for SBD? You seem to now when all of the new stuff comes out.
Big Richard
I have heard that complaint about front wheel drive mowers. I personally rarely ever bag so I have not encountered it, but I can see the issue.
And no, I do not work for SBD. I just do a lot of tool repair, testing, and review, so I like to be ahead of the curve and share my knowledge. I keep an eye on tool shows across the country and look for leaks through retailers.
MM
I can share the complaint, though it’s been many years since I have ever used a bagger. Once I discovered mulching blades I never looked back: less work for me, better for the environment and my yard looks better. But even with no bag rear wheel drive has better traction as the handlebars tend to put more weight on the rear wheels than the front. The commercial walk-behinds have this designed very well. As much weight as possible over the rear axle with large, low-ground-pressure drive wheels, and swiveling caster wheels up front which bear relatively little weight.
I did think that front wheel drive mowers did have one beneficial feature, however: by pushing down on the handlebars one can easily feather how much pull the front wheels provide, or even disengage it entirely, by pushing them off the ground. I found that technique gave a lot more control than dis-and-re-engaging the propulsion. This was especially true when there was no differential in the propulsion and you needed to make a tight turn. But it’s really moot today, an all-electric mower likely has great speed control rather than the brutal ON-OFF overcenter clutches the old gas front drives had.