Now that I think about it, it was probably before the pandemic. 🤔
If you buy an electric mower, you never have to change the oil again. Or the spark plug. Or buy gas. Or clean the carburetor.
And they’re quieter! God I wish my neighbors all had electric mowers. Sometimes it seems like they’re invited to all the zoom meetings I attend.
If you never mow and grow insect friendly lawns…you wont ever have to buy a mower…fuck lawns.
After spending several hours on Saturdays doing yardwork I didn’t enjoy doing for years on end, I finally hired a gardener. Now I get to spend that time doing yardwork I do enjoy, like making landscaping improvements, or gardening.
Wish they made an affordable electric zero turn that could handle mowing 7 acres of field 3-4 times a month in the summer. I need commercial grade sadly and there’s nothing in the homeowner space that comes close to my needs. The commercial ones are like 30k to compare with what I got for 6k
But you will have to buy $1000 worth of batteries if you have a large yard.
While I can’t say I have a large yard. My 80v Greenworks system can do the job 90% of the time on 1 battery (I have 2). When it can’t from being lazy and not mowing as often as I should have or it was especially rainy, I can swap the batteries in moments and the battery charges within 20 or so minutes. By then I am done or using the battery from the mower in the leaf blower or weed whacker.
I would imagine if I had a larger yard I would go with a third in the event of having longer grass to cut and would have a battery charged, battery charging, and one in use.
I would not trade my yard system with a gas one for any amount of money. If i do anything it’d be to hire someone that uses electric (quieter!) to mow and edge and all that jazz. Or use a Fiskars reel mower.
Oh yea. I drive an ID.4. Suck it gas stations trolololol.
I have 1/3rd acre, takes 2 batteries to mow uninterrupted. Anything bigger than that I hope it’s not just grass, that’s a waste of space.
Mine burns a little oil, so I just keep adding it. That way it gets a perpetual oil change. guytappinghead.jpg
I’ve owned a car like that. Drove that thing for years until the driver’s side door fell off and I parked it.
I think most mowers are two stroke engines, which generally are designed to burn oil.
Most mowers are four stroke like automobile engines, this includes pushmowers. Modern ones even have oil filters. Generally, riding mowers have two cylinder v-twin engines and pushmowers are single cylinder.
Two stroke engines are generally found on smaller things like chainsaws and weed eaters.
You mix special oil into the gas for two strokes. They do produce more smoke, especially when first started.
Nah, most push and riding mowers are definitely 4 stroke. You’re absolutely correct that 2 strokes need to burn oil and create some visible smoke (to be properly lubricated). Only small, powered equipment (such as trimmers, blowers, and chainsaws) are still commonly made with 2 strokes. My smoking push mower was made in the mid 1980’s and is miraculously still running. It apparently has worn seals that are allowing crankcase oil into the combustion chamber.
Cool, did not know that! I have to admit I made assumptions there, figuring 2 stroke engines are probably more appropriate for smaller equipment. But I guess since you don’t have to carry a mower, a heavier engine is not a big deal, makes sense.
Good luck with your mower, no need for something else as long as it’s still working! After all, with a lot of things they really don’t make em like they used to, that old mower could serve you for a very long time.
A true shower thought
I thought two-stroke engines mix the oil and fuel together? Every time you refuel, you should also be topping up the oil. Am I wrong?
I’m not sure you can even buy a two stroke lawnmower. Snowblower, maybe.
Yes, you need to have oil mixed with the gasoline in a two stroke, because the area under the piston (where the crankshaft is) creates the vacuum on the upstroke to draw in the next fuel charge. Lubrication of the crankshaft bearings, then, must come from oil that is in the gasoline, either by premixing it, or from an oil injection system.
A four stroke, on the other hand, uses the top of the cylinder, above the piston, to draw in the next fuel charge through an intake valve, and the area underneath the piston is bathed with oil. Over time, that oil (including its additives) breaks down and loses its lubricity, and must be changed for fresh oil.
I’ve got and used them.
Making sure I’m reading this right - are two and 4 strokes oriented differently? I always thought both were above the cylinder.
Orientation isn’t terribly relevant, although it is easier to design a two stroke engine in an “odd” orientation, because it does not have to be concerned about engine oil draining back into a sump.
In the simplest kind of two stroke, the compression and intake happen at the same time. Piston goes up (toward the cylinder head), compressing the fuel in the combustion chamber, while at the same time, fuel is drawn in beneath the piston, around the crankshaft. At top dead center (ish), spark occurs. Combustion powers the piston down (power), while at the same time forcing the fuel charge from beneath the piston into the combustion chamber via a transfer port, which also directs the exhaust to exit the exhaust port.
These two strokes - one up, one down - are one complete “cycle” of the engine’s operation.
In a four stroke, starting with the intake stroke, the piston moves down and the intake valve opens via a camshaft. Intake fuel charge enters the cylinder between the piston and cylinder head. The next stroke is compression. Both intake and exhaust valves are closed as the piston goes up. When the piston is all the way up (ish) to the cylinder head, spark occurs, causing combustion. The intake and exhaust valves remain closed, and the piston moves down. That was the power stroke. The next time the piston moves up, the exhaust valve is open, and exhaust is ejected through it. Intake, compression, power, exhaust; or colloquially “suck, squeeze, bang, blow.” Those four strokes complete one “cycle” of the engine’s operation.
Each engine has a crankshaft. This is the rotating shaft on which the piston is attached with a connecting rod. On the crank end of that rod there are bearings. (Two strokes will use roller bearings while four strokes will (usually) use flat bearings.) The connecting rod attaches to the piston with a wrist pin bearing. These bearings require lubrication. Without a thin layer of oil between the metal surfaces moving against one another, friction will quickly create heat and catastrophic bearing failure. (A four stroke also needs lubrication of the valve train, contained in the cylinder head; two strokes have no valves, and so no top end lubrication is required.)
A four stroke engine accomplishes this lubrication with thick engine oil. Most commonly, this oil collects in a “wet sump” oil pan at the bottom of the engine, is picked up by an oil pump, and circulated through the engine, being directed at the parts which require it, finally draining back into the sump. (There are also “dry sump” systems, where the oil resides in an elevated oil tank.)
A two stroke engine - since the crankshaft portion is also the engine’s fuel intake - does not have an independent oiling system. Such a system would interfere with the fuel intake, so the lubrication for the crankshaft bearings has to be included in the fuel. As described previously, this can be either with an oil injection system, where oil in a separate reservoir is delivered directly into the crankcase, or by premixing thin two stroke oil into the gasoline. In either case, the two stroke oil provides lubrication to the crankshaft, and then is burned in combustion. This is why two stroke engines have tha blue exhaust plume; that’s the two stroke oil burning.
Two strokes also have incredibly good power to weight ratios, mainly because they have twice as many power strokes per engine rotation. They are also incredibly simple, what with not having camshaft and valve train. Why don’t we use two strokes all the time then?
Well, mainly because they burn oil by design. But they are also noisy, and their design makes them severly RPM limited (they’ll lose power as they’re unable to intake enough air/fuel to keep running). Where two stroke engines shine is in very small applications (weed trimmers and model airplanes) or very large applications (industrial and maritime), though the latter makes use of fuel injection as opposed to carburetion, and does use a wet/dry sump engine lubrication system.
I knew some folks with a repair shop as a kid and got to use one of these.
I haven’t pushed it anywhere near 10,000 km, so I should be good, right?
Right?
