cordless electric Kobalt lawn mower 'review'

Following Dale's lead I'm writing a review of our new cordless electric Kobalt lawn mower.

We decided a long time ago that if we had to buy another mower it would be electric not another smelly gas engine.

We brought it home yesterday and mowed the side lot in less than an hour.

A lot of it was thick and we noticed the motor shifting gears for that. I assume that used up more battery as it needed charging after about a half hour of mowing. The charge only takes 30 minutes, though so with two batteries there wasn't much of a pause in the mowing.
I think next time we can finish on one battery as it won't be so tall.

It is heavy (we wanted a metal deck, not plastic) but not noticeable when pushing to mow and so wonderful to mow without breathing gas fumes and we can talk to each other while it's running...still an engine sound but not nearly as loud as a gas engine.

Nothing left to mow right now though....we used the mulching option because a lot of mouse ear chickweed is going to seed and there are some places that look like they could use the mulch but much of the 'yard' was heavy clover and a few different grasses.

The 'high' setting seems to be almost four inches. I plan to mow again with the bagger after it grows an inch or two.

I'm hoping it lasts until this area is fenced for orchard and sheep

We're testing out the bagger on the grass and clover around the edges of the chicken pasture and the garden....wonderful stuff. We've been without a bagger for awhile and miss it as mulch in the garden beds.....the battery is still hanging in there after eight or ten baggers full....the clover is especially thick and nice.
I don't have anything bad to say about this mower except that it's not a sheep

Love the bagger and height adjustment on this mower. The bagger holds more than other baggers we've had and has a nice wide opening for emptying. The height adjustment is one lever, instead of each wheel separately and goes to a good five inches.
I just finished mowing the side yard (without the bagger) after letting it grow up in dutch clover and waiting for the crimson clover and some of the grasses to go to seed. It mowed great even though thick and slightly wet...had to charge up the battery a little more often but had plenty of power for the job.

Our son's tell everyone we have a 'coal fired lawn mower' now
Our neighbors all have riding mowers and are finally understanding that we don't need help nor do we want help to keep our property mowed. One neighbor keeps offering and the other mowed some of the clover I was letting get tall for mulch after dark one evening....he said he thought he was doing us a favor. We've never lived within anyone's view before...interesting.

Folks aren't picky about their lawns here, lots of dandelions, etc., but when they mow they mow really short.

I tried to bag some really wet grass with lots of clover in it. This didn't go very well. It bunched up at the beginning of the bag. Now that the grass is much drier, the bagger works much better. I mulch almost all of the grass that I cut, since my customers have no use for the clippings. Mulching hogs power, but leaves a nice finished look.

Does your machine have headlights? I didn't think that the light would be of much use to me when I bought the machine. A few weeks later we had some really hot days. I cut my edges and drove Wildlife to the fringes during daylight, and finished at night. It was nice and cool and I was able to work with my shirt off. The headlight has also been used as a giant flashlight in the basement of a house that I worked on. The battery is good for hundreds of hours when used only for light. The headlight feature would be quite handy for anyone operating a landscaping business and transporting their goods in a covered trailer.

I'm glad I didn't go for the self-drive option. It turns out that most of the grass I cut is highly variable in length and density, so I would have to constantly be changing speed.

This customer gets me to mow an acre and a half, once a week. It usually takes about 5 hours at $45 an hour. So he spends $225 on his grass every week. I can't imagine that I would ever have such a financial priority, even if I were far wealthier. I met an elderly couple who keep three of their five acres in mown grass. They complained about the expense, but didn't seem willing to reduce the acreage or allow their neighbor to put sheep on it.

Does your machine have headlights?

No headlight...I can see where it's handy for you...I can't see where we would use it as we are pretty much done for the night at dusk.

I think we'll be bagging every other mow...this time mowed as mulch to leave some seed to fill in the areas that had been mowed too short and only had some poor looking mouse ear chickweed...next time I'll bag and get the clover for the garden.

I could never use a gas mower again, there's nothing about one I'm missing.

Thanks for bringing up the bagger! I have a huge patch of blackberries I want to weed away from some spruce trees and so far the most effective and effortless way to kill them off has been to dump grass clippings on them.

I'm glad I didn't go for the self-drive option. It turns out that most of the grass I cut is highly variable in length and density, so I would have to constantly be changing speed.

That's what we were looking for originally and I'm glad we couldn't find one now. This isn't hard to push on this lawn...a few gradual slopes and some dippy places but no different than any push mower we've used. I was a little concerned when I saw that boxed up it weighed 80 pounds. I think some of that is the metal deck, which we wanted. It doesn't seem like it weighs that much pushing it around.

I really like that when done, I can remove the battery and push it up to the wall and lift the deck to store upright...at the same time I clean out all of the accumulated grass and add to the compost. It makes it easy to remember to do that before it turns to grass bricks under the deck.

First fail....the charger went crazy on us making odd noises and readings, and not charging the batteries.  We called the company and they are sending a new one this week.  We are to have the old one boxed up and return when UPS delivers the new one.  I've never had a return happen that easily.  They did ask what was wrong but didn't argue or question it.

The mower has been working fine considering the lush grasses from this summers many rains.  It's hard to fit in a mow when it's dry enough.  We were down to a small patch left to mow when the charger quit, so after a few days our neighbor offered to mow it with his riding mower...he ended up mowing half the lot and very very short.  The difference is really dramatic...the other half mowed several times high by us is a lush green, the part he mowed is scalped and has clumpy bits of dead grass all over.

I can't wait to start planting fruit trees, etc. so that it isn't looked at as lawn by the neighbors who want to be 'helpful'.

Bumping this thread to say this mower is still going strong.

We replaced one battery last year and also the wheel bearings on the rear wheels

Steve removes and sharpens the blade one to two times a season.

At the same time we are planting more and more areas and using scythes more so hopefully we can continue to gradually cut back on what needs mowing with the Kobalt.

Glad you found a good one Judith.  Overall I am impressed by the bang for the buck we get with all the Kobalt gear.  I guess it is the Ryobi of the competition,  as it were. So many years and only one battery replaced?  Magic.  

Curious though....was it expensive,  was it after market or Kobalt brand?

Judith, I like that you bumped this thread as I otherwise would never have seen it.  I have always wondered how these devices would work in real-world conditions and your review shows that it works well.

Also, I am with you in that I don’t really like having to store fuel in my garage, especially as it is very likely to get old, stale and questionably useful.  And that is to say nothing of the fumes from both storage and usage.

Very nice review!!

Eric

Rico Loma wrote:Glad you found a good one Judith.  Overall I am impressed by the bang for the buck we get with all the Kobalt gear.  I guess it is the Ryobi of the competition,  as it were. So many years and only one battery replaced?  Magic.  

Curious though....was it expensive,  was it after market or Kobalt brand?

It was Kobalt brand from Lowes.
I think price was $400 and something?  A huge investment for us.

We have been very satisfied with it although I later read about Ego brand that might have been an even better choice and is prominent on display at lowes replacing Kobalt now.

There's a review here somewhere for it also.. I think Dale posted it?

found one by Thomas ....
https://permies.com/t/66146/Cordless-lawn-mower

I bought an EGo self-propelled mower many years ago. Got good use out of it. Definitely a huge improvement over smelly, dangerous, expensive, depleting fossil fool mowers. Over time, the self propelled mechanism started making awful noises. Still worked, but worrisome, so I eventually just pushed with muscle power only. Later, the sensor that tells it something is binding the blade and shuts it down for safety... that sensor stopped working correctly, mower would not stay on unless the blade was extremely loose, almost free-spinning. Not a good safety condition. Took it for repair to a certified EGo repair shop, they charged almost $100 to tell me the cost of repair was almost the same a buying a new mower.

Having already invested in other EGo eco-system tools and batteries, I got a new push mower, despite my misgivings about long-term reliability of that sensor. So far, after 4 years, still good. I do try to avoid too much jolting and shocking over bumps, but I have a very rocky soil, so I just go slow and take it easy.

I'm impressed that your Kobalt has lasted so long. My 1st EGo mower lasted about 12 years, but the problems started after about 5 years, and I spent the last 4 years of that babying the stupid sensor issue. I was mowing about 3/4 of an acre in Texas.

If I may ask, how big of an area are you mowing with the Kobalt?

B Beeson wrote:I bought an EGo self-propelled mower many years ago. Got good use out of it. Definitely a huge improvement over smelly, dangerous, expensive, depleting fossil fool mowers. Over time, the self propelled mechanism started making awful noises. Still worked, but worrisome, so I eventually just pushed with muscle power only. Later, the sensor that tells it something is binding the blade and shuts it down for safety... that sensor stopped working correctly, mower would not stay on unless the blade was extremely loose, almost free-spinning. Not a good safety condition. Took it for repair to a certified EGo repair shop, they charged almost $100 to tell me the cost of repair was almost the same a buying a new mower.

Having already invested in other EGo eco-system tools and batteries, I got a new push mower, despite my misgivings about long-term reliability of that sensor. So far, after 4 years, still good. I do try to avoid too much jolting and shocking over bumps, but I have a very rocky soil, so I just go slow and take it easy.

I'm impressed that your Kobalt has lasted so long. My 1st EGo mower lasted about 12 years, but the problems started after about 5 years, and I spent the last 4 years of that babying the stupid sensor issue. I was mowing about 3/4 of an acre in Texas.

If I may ask, how big of an area are you mowing with the Kobalt?

There's no sensor on the Kobalt at least not on this model.

For most of that time we mowed  3/4 acre....minus a house and outbuildings.
Now, with more gardens taking up space we are mowing less than a half acre maybe? maybe even less,?

We are both kind of hard on mowers and tend to push the limits...no rocks but sometimes longer grasses and vegetation and I like to lean it back to cut tall clumps...and for what seems like flatish ground it's a pretty bumpy mow here especially along the edges of the woods in back

I guess it's a good thing ours does not have a sensor although I have been thinking about self propelled lately.

I believe I misspoke, wondering about battery replaced, was it about 100 or so?  For 5 Amp hour? I eyed that mower more than once. I try to follow the maxim of " do not covet thy neighbor's mower" but.....

Being of mostly Scot bloodline, and always looking for a bargain, I opted for the 125 clams mower from Skil.  Came with the 5 amphr battery which was sold alone for 100.    Later tried the Skil electric chainsaw with same battery, for the same price.  Two years later and all good. I especially appreciate the saw for scary high elevation cuts while hanging by my climbing harness.  Cuts well and is a real featherweight.  To be fair if it lasts another week I'll have gotten my money's worth and a bit more.  

Rico,
The battery cost a lot...close to $150  I think for a 80V and yes, kobalt brand.
The other original is just fine so far.
We did read that we should let them cool before putting on the charger and did not always do that early on so that might have played a part in longevity.

Hoping we won't need to buy another.

As a thought about the battery,


Maybe consider buying 3rd party aftermarket batteries.  They are easily available on Amazon and might be 1/2 to 1/3 the price.  I have done this myself, the batteries are just as good and I saved a bundle.

Eric

Eric you hit the nail on the head.  Easy to find after market batts for my ryobi tools but not the 40w on3s for Skil.  Still looking...