Should Lawn Mowers and Leaf Blowers be Battery Operated in The Villages?
 

I read this morning that in a half hour, the pollutants spewed by the average two-cycle engine in a leaf blower equals the pollution from a Ford F-150 pickup—over a 3,600 mile drive! California has recently banned gas-powered leaf blowers, edgers, trimmers, lawnmowers, etc. use by lawn care companies because the pollution they put out is equal to the pollution from ALL the cars in California. It seems that battery-powered equipment, recharged at night, has reached the level where by having multiple batteries, crews can work all day without recharging. (All of my power tools are now battery-powered, including my Sawsall and my full-size circular saw and my big drill.) Battery-powered tools are also much quieter. For homeowners in The Villages with lawns, an electric mower with a cord may make more sense.

Should the appropriate governing units here follow the lead in California and require lawn crews to use battery-powered tools?

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I'm not necessarily a "green" person. But 3 years ago, we stopped having our lawn mowed by Dean's. I bought a Ryobi mower and all the trimming attachments. Love it. Works great and has plenty of power and run times.

One-cycle gas engines have ZERO anti-pollution measures and no doubt a source of Co2 etc etc. And of course the noise. The batt tech has improved so much over the past years and will continue. Slow but sure, as with vehicles, lawn equip will shift to battery/electric.

Many of my neighbors switched to batt electric.
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:1rotfl:

Oddly enough those that want electric/battery devices never explain where the energy comes from for: a)mfr batteries b)charging the batteries c)disposing of the batteries.

Likely because windmills don't supply enough energy to cover the cost of building/installing & maintaining them. Solar cells aren't efficient enough to provide the energy needed to cover their cost, replacement and they utilize aforementioned batteries for storage and use.

Nice ideas, but until technology catches up to the pie-in-the-sky wishes for clean energy it ain't happening.

While I love the idea of battery powered (aka quiet) lawn equipment, there are practical items to consider:
1. I would guess the average lawn trimmer, and weed blower used for 8 to 10 hours a day would go through several battery packs per day. Storage, recharging, replacing bad or weak packs, etc. will probably be a big problem.
2. Lawn mowers, both large and small would have similar problems, except these batteries are much larger, and harder to change out, more down time, etc.

I am guessing a hybrid model could work here, smaller items could go to battery, and improved mufflers, and SOME additional pollution controls for the larger equipment could be a workable solution. This could be handled with the contracts for landscaping without a lot of new laws, HOWEVER there will also probably be an associated cost increase.

Most lawn equipment now are 4 stroke, which reduces pollution drastically. But , they should at least have the baffles in the mufflers. That’s why they are so loud. IMO no electric mandate but noise level mandate requiring all lawn equipment to meet factory noise levels. Weed eaters and blowers with muffler guts removed are obnoxiously loud well above factory Dd limit when produced.

Thinking about a steam powered mower. It is so hot here in summer that the steam powered engine could run by itself. 100% clean energy

Just need a few trillion $ subsidy to get it rolling.

My pet peeve with noise is this - in say a cul de sac or a small street, there are 5 or 6 homes. All have different landscapers. So mowing/blowing will happen at 5 or 6 different times a week -
Even if you have 1 or 2 that do their own grass, the noise is cut down substantially.
If all used the same guy, you have noise for an hour, once a week
And the landscaper is more efficient, not loading/unloading at different places
I called 2 of your neighbors landscapers, and both said they were too busy to add me. I told them, you literally cut my nextdoor neighboor’s grass. You’re here. Nope.

IMHO until China and India come to the table and are on board with emission controls, my buying an electric lawn mower is like shoveling sand against the tide with a soup spoon

I don’t want our state doing anything California does.

Logic, facts and reality simply do not influence many posters..

As far as steam power. I've always found it interesting. The reality, high pressure steam is sort of a bomb. Controlling it is way beyond the ability of most in the villages to control it. Steam locomotives, the big ones were more powerful than modern diesel locomotives. They also were less efficient.

I believe they have banned the sale of new gas powered equipment starting in 2024. The exact details still have to be ironed out.

I'm thinking of buying a goat...

Great idea!
 

Great idea! Lawn and garden trimmed and fertilized all at the same time. And if your goat breaks down you can eat it.

Do you realize a Nuclear Power Plant is a steam boiler driving a turbine without using Diesel. Most Navy ships nuclear and steam is more powerful than diesel. Once we add moving parts whether it be gas/diesel efficiency is reduced.

No, most Navy ships are not nuclear. The nuclear ships are the subs, both attack and missile boats, and carriers. The Navy has about 500 ships and less than 100 are nuclear powered.

Be sure to check with ARC……😎

I think we should have all the actual stats on the negatives of battery operated vehicles and tools also. We need to think these things ALL the way through. What is the downsize to batteries; what cost to make, how long useful, what chemicals involved (those could also be considered "pollution", what is the cost analysis of a battery powered lawn mower and a gas powered ? What is the life expectancy of each, same with golf carts, same with automobiles... perhaps CHOICE is the best answer, depends on the situation of the consumer. What could be helpful to our neighborhoods, might be restricting certain days for lawn services in various villages. In many subdivisions, commercial lawn work has restricted days and even hours. It works well. Mowing services still have full time work, just that homeowners in a particular area must have work done on, say Tuesdays or Wednesdays. What this prevents is 7 day a week, even Sundays like here, non stop noise of gas engines at a different house every day. It works, no one is denied work, just different areas on different days, and, peace and quiet on the weekends. Might do as much as forcing everyone, home owners and lawn services to purchase all battery operated equipment ? Maybe the real answer is the natural law.... if most of us find we prefer an electric tool after trying it, people will buy more of them and the gas mowers, etc. will sit on the shelves and lots.... and gradually the superior product will prevail... build a better mouse trap and they will come.. Oh, no, that was Field of Dreams, build a better mouse trap and they will BUY. Time will tell which people will prefer, or like golf carts, an endless 50-50 split with fans of each having many legitimate points ! :):popcorn:

[QUOTE=DeanFL;2021678].
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I'm not necessarily a "green" person. But 3 years ago, we stopped having our lawn mowed by Dean's. I bought a Ryobi mower and all the trimming attachments. Love it. Works great and has plenty of power and run times.

One-cycle gas engines have ZERO anti-pollution measures and no doubt a source of Co2 etc etc. And of course the noise. The batt tech has improved so much over the past years and will continue. Slow but sure, as with vehicles, lawn equip will shift to battery/electric.

EXACTLY, natural selection. If it is a better "new" product, people will favor it, gas powered will die off naturally. It's not another thing that requires more layers of bureaucracy, more legislation, more enforcement, more investigations, blah, blah, blah !

Thank you.
 

Thank you for bringing that up. I plan on getting a jacket from Amazon that will say it is my support goat. Think that will work?

I brought a gas Toro self-propelled mower with me when I moved here. It is loud. I had 2 acres back home and used a Zero Turn for the bulk and this push mower for the trim work. Now that I live an arm's-length from other houses, the echo effect of the mower is very loud.

Recently, I bought a Ryobi mower and trimmer to go along with the 40v blower I already had from home.

I am now able to mow earlier or later in the day. I still work 40 hours, so I wanted to be able to mow at different hours and not be a nuisance to neighbors.

The Ryobi is more quiet -- I don't even wear hearing protection when using it -- although I probably should.

For the home-owner with a small or medium lot, battery is a great option. For people with acreage or commercial landscaping, I think gas will remain the standard.

By the way, I can mow the yard, trim, and edge all on the same 6AH battery. If I do start to run out, I have a 2AH that came with the blower to supplement.

Yes, not sure, but I "think" the rule is all goats MUST be leashed at all times ? Have to check the rules.... but sure makes sense on many levels, economy, efficiency, weather conditions do not interfere with either efficiency or effectiveness, environmentally sound, fewer dangerous lawn chemicals needed to fertilize, for the most part relatively quiet (nothing like the day and night barking dogs in our neighborhood), one time purchase makes it economical and maintenance minimal. A few negatives but, yep, think you are on to something !

The spouse works from home. She does a lot of online meetings and has to apologize for the noise from the various landscape contractors that service the neighbors. We live on a street with kissing Lanais. Thus you get your side of the street, the folks across the street, and everyone behind you. Few if any have the same company cutting grass, so the procession of landscaping diesels trucks and gas mowers march constant near us.

Seems a good solution, one caveat, did you ever do some comparisons on the price of a replacement battery (or purchasing an additional to enable sustained work) with what you used to spend for gasoline ? I suppose that would be a detailed analysis, but, could do with the help of a computer. One thing that stood out is your comment that now you can mow earlier or later and not disturb your neighbors.... too bad all these lawn "service" companies are not as concerned as you ! Have been making mental "notes" on these things as our incredibly dependable, self-propelled, Briggs & Stratton from Sears will one day need to be replaced, always did like Ryobi products, but noticed my latest purchase just a month ago, it too is "made in China !". I keep "looking" at the battery mowers for future purchase. One thing that concerns me, with so many tools and implements going battery, are most produced in the USA and support our economy ? May not be a good choice if we become as dependent on outside sources as we have for medicines, and then come up short ? So many things to consider.. sure hope the old Craftsman continues to start on the first pull for a while longer while we try to weight the positives and negatives ! :ohdear::ohdear:

Yes, because 15 mins of loud noise is really disturbing sleepy old folks that are just waiting to have dirt shoveled on them, so they can rest forever.:pray:

My thoughts exactly, so many times ALL the variables that need to be included in the calculations are missing ! Reminds me of my doctoral study years, was taught early on how to manipulate the results by running analysis on various formats where I added, or dropped, the study variables, or changed the level of significance ! It's always a very tricky thing, and not at all wise to just take "a recent study showed......." ! You have to do the "homework", track down the original study, and take a GOOD LOOK at the study format...otherwise...it means very little actually.

I'll give that a BIG AMEN!!

The developer needs to build a segregated village for all the whining, crying, moaning, groaning, woe is me OLD goats to live in with a 20' wall around it and an armed guard at the entrance to keep out all the riff raff. No lawn mowers allowed, no noisy cars or motorcycles, no dogs, no construction contractors with noisy power tools, and no wind chimes. Did I miss anything?
Apparently some of you lived in Utopia before coming here, so why did you leave? Can old people do anything besides complain?

Careful, goat flatulence is a dangerous pollution. :boom:

You worry about the noise from lawn equipment etc, but NOTHING is mention about the Harley motorcycles
and old cars with loud exhaust pipes.

Would you 55+ people with loud pipes please grow up.

We have friends that live near the gate in TV, and when those loud vehicle's stop at the gate and take off, their windows rattle,
with no respect to people.

There is water pollution, air pollution, and noise pollution.

👍👍👍
 

Hell No

It would be a huge expense if everyone needed to upgrade their equipment thus raising the price we all pay for landscaping. Also, as others have said, it would just be moving the pollution to another area.

Sounds like you didn’t do enough research before buying your home

:agree: https://d32rzbb554tqz0.cloudfront.ne...lies/agree.gif https://d32rzbb554tqz0.cloudfront.ne...lies/agree.gif

You are right on, it NEVER ends, never. Even Sat. and Sun., really hard to believe that is permitted in any community, let alone one as planned and restricted as TV's. But, have a relative who moved to the Villages of Hot Springs in Arkansas. LOVES it, edge of the Ozarks, beautiful lakes, golf courses, nature trails. But she also works at home for a big name box store and constant lawn workers, 7 days a week, could cost her her income. Fortunately, her area of the villages has specific days residents can schedule this, and she is able to NOT schedule hours for her work on that day during day hours. She said she simply schedules her hours for the evening and night on lawn day. Now, I realize, that would not work for everyone, and places like our Villages where it can be done at any hour seven days a week.. well ! It's also amusing (some would say sad I guess), that 4 different companies can all have their big flat beds parked on the same street at the same times, while there employees each blow all the derbies to the neighbors yard, and then their lawn people come around the house and blow it all BACK to the house next door. One (bad me I know !), I asked a worker why they do this, why not just blow it on the lawn of the person they work for. I said this very very politely, not in any kind of "challenging" tone, just like genuine curiosity... the replay was was "MY brother OWNS this company and we are given strict instructions to make sure it is blown out of the yard of the PAYING customer.. . I had a hard time not laughing or appearing to be challenging her ( the worker). I just said, " oh, okay, I see, not questioning, I was just curious was all".... :icon_wink::icon_wink::icon_wink: How would one ever attempt to appeal to an individual who states that kind of "logic".. LOL !
We solved it this way, bought a blower VAC. Now, when the lawn "service" finishes blowing all my neighbor's HUGE magnolia leaves from their yard into our and the house directly across the street, I wait for them to leave, then go out and my blower will suck them up like a vacuum (WorX is the brand), instead of blowing them all into the yard of my other neighbor ! Problem solved, I do the work, but preserve the relationship with my neighbors who are the best. BTW, we love this WorX blower vac in case anyone ever thought about it to solve the problem of getting everyone else's debris.

Sorry, but loud pipes on a motorcycle is just plain self-defense and common sense when living around such dangerous OLD drivers that can't see or hear. My old Harley used to set off car alarms on a narrow residential street, so I used to have to coast down the street, when going home. BUT, the loud noise of me driving in a blind spot while passing probably saved my life hundreds of times. If folks find a few seconds of unpleasant noise on occasion unbearable, perhaps they should just remove their hearing aids. :1rotfl:


It is unfortunate that people are living longer than ever today. They seem to have over lived their comfort zone(?) and now must be so bored that they have to spend their last miserable days complaining about every trivial mote of irritation.

On my street, just about every day of the week I will hear lawn equipment for about 15mins during the day. Most of the time, I do not even notice it. Twice a week, I hear the trash pickup trucks in the morning. Maybe we should demand that they quit picking up because they might disturb someone's sleep? No one complains about their trash being removed, but they sure complain about someone ELSE'S lawn being mowed.


Lets be clear. The neighborhood can be noisy EVERYday, during the day. There are night noise restrictions. Sleep at night and you won't have to be concerned about someone doing their job to support their families in your neighborhood during the day. I would rather hear a bit a daily noise than worry about someone SILENTLY sneaking around, breaking into homes and stealing. But, that is another subject.

The Answer to your question, No!
But you can help yourself to this if you like to keep the noise down and save the world....

Move to California ...PLEASE!!!!

I've had to replace a 40v 5ah battery that wouldn't take a charge after 3 years. A Ryiobi OEM replacement was around $125 ish , Amazon knock off brand was around $80