Battery Mower Strength: Why Specs Are Deceiving + How To Tell How Strong A Mower Actually Is 

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Good explaination/comparisons. Thanks for putting this together. A possibly helpful analogy compares electricity to plumbing. The amp-hours is the capacity of the tank (like gallons) because amps are a rate of flow (coulombs per second, like gallons per minute). The voltage is the pressure to push the electricity out of the tank (like PSI). The watt-hours (volts multiplied by amp-hours) is how much power to do work is stored in the tank. The units are the challenge because some electrical units imply time or a rate, while others do not. In plumbing the rates and times are never implied, always explicit. Say you have water tank. The pressure (volts) is determined by the top water level. If it is 10ft up you will have four to five PSI (volts). How fast you can drain that tank is determined by the outlet size and the pressure and is the flow (gallons per minute or amps) so if the flow is 1 gallon per minute and takes 20 minutes you have a 20 gallon tank capacity (amps multiplied by hours is amp-hours). How much work it can do while draining at any moment is combination of pressure and the flow (volts multiplied by amps is watts). The total work it can accomplish while draining is the time it takes to drain combined with how much work it can do at any moment (watts multiplied by hours or watt-hours). Using the water from the tank to rinse off the kids toys, a 1/4in drip line is not going to work very well because it does not have much power to work at any moment (flow multiplied by pressure, like watts) but you can dribble that 20 gallons of water for 20 hours so you might still eventually get the job done. Using 1in PVC does okay rinsing the kids toys with higher flow because the higher flow has more power (watts). However the higher flow drains the entire 20 gallon (amp-hours) tank more quickly so while getting more work done at any moment, cannot work as long so the same watt-hours are accomplished. Raising the tank to 20ft up gives higher pressure which increases the flow (higher amps) and works even faster to rinse the kid toys (watts, greenworks doesn't stall in the deep grass) but all 20 gallons (amp hours) are empty with even less time to work, but still does the same job (same watt-hours). You might have a large tank (lots of amp-hours) at a lower pressure (like EGO 56v 7.5ah for 420 watt-hours) or a smaller tank at higher pressure like greenworks (80v 4ah for 320 watt-hours). To compare a single number for how much "work" is in the tank, you have to compare watt-hours. But that only compares the batteries. How efficient is the mower? How well does it cut? How much power (watts) can it save when full power is not needed? How much power can it use to avoid stalling in high grass? Efficiency of working goes way beyond the scope of analogy. :) Don't know if that helps. One of those cases where a picture really would be worth a thousand words (or more).

Another great video. You explained it well. The Greenworks can spin and keep spinning the lighter blade through heavy stuff, like a small car with a turbo. But might not be best for long road trips. The Ego has a bigger Watt hour gas tank but uses more energy but is getting more “work” done (cut quality). Like a suv pulling a trailer. More energy expended, but based on mulching, one could argue more work applied in the thing that mattered. The small car could climb a hill faster since it is lighter, but the suv with trailer got there slower but was useful since it carried the trailer too (cut quality vs. just cutting the grass).

That background is so beautiful.

I appreciate the technical focus. You're providing much higher value info than typical mower reviews.

I own a middle level EGO lawn mower. Huge fan of EGO products, I had a refurbished EGO snow blower, it came with the 1st gen batteries, they suck. I tried getting them replaced through EGO support, they basically told me it has to completely stop working before they'll warranty it. I get about 12 minutes of usable charge on a gen 1 battery, meanwhile the newer 3rd gen 5 amp hour batteries give me about 16 minutes of use. With Greenworks 80V, costco offers a 4 year battery warranty with a extension of 4 years if you register online. Moving forward, I'll probably do that. EGO batteries are only covered for 3 years. My 2 cents.

Great job with your explanations.

This is going to be VERY useful in my decision. Purchasing soon. Wanted a gas mower, because they're cheaper, but after a few days of intense research and watching dozens of RU-vid videos, I've decided to go electric (for a number of reasons). The information you provided in this video will be key to my decision on what mower to buy. Many thanks for your hard work.

Efficiency is hugely important, but cut quality is up there as well for most important mower characteristics. There intuitively is a bit of a trade off between the two as the optimal air flow patterns and blade, deck, and motor/trans designs are not likely identical for both goals. A well designed mower should have a good balance of both. It's like you say, everyone's priorities are different, buy what you want. Anyway, keep the reviews coming!

Great information - I’m actually debating between a Greenworks and the Snapper XD 19” push mower so this has given me food for thought. Thanks for keeping it simple, and applying Ohms Law correctly.😉

Really enjoy the style of your videos

Wow, the bottom line for me is your real world experience with these mowers! And from what your experience shows, the Greenworks has a better ability to cut through the dense deep grass...Where do the Toro Recyler or SR fall in this category? (Will look for some of your other reviews for details as well.) Thanks so much for this video and discussion!

I’m sure the green works mower presents as more powerful because it is spinning a smaller lighter single blade. You are putting less stress on the electric motor this way. The Ego uses a heavier dual blade system. Which will provide greater cut quality. But simultaneously put more load on the motor. Then there’s always the efficiency of the motor itself. There no telling what electric motor designs and quality we are comparing here.

It is tempting to assume the device with the highest amp draw under a strong load is the strongest device and would be the most resistant to stalling out in difficult conditions.

My takeaway is more is not always better when you take into account the efficiency of said lawnmowers. Advertisers always sell more is better while not taking into account the efficiency of their product thus misleading consumers for more sales. CPU/computer manufacturers have been doing this for years. I am currently replacing a corded 21" Greenworks/25112 that died right in middle of cutting lawn. I am looking to replace with a cordless version lawnmower. Thank you for your time so I can make a more informed decision.

So, it seems like 2 blades with self propel needs more power and uses more power than 1 blade push. I haven't heard too much of the batteries overheating.

Thanks for all these info, I am an Ego fan and I just bought the new model 2156sp. 3 infos we get with the new model is torque: new 8.3 vs 7.0, Rpm new 2900 vs old 2800 and watt of motor 1200 vs 1000watts. what is torque and wattage of motor on Greenworks. thanks

Would love to see the equation on a Toro Super Recycler on Max speed with performance blade. According to the repair assembly drawings on Toro website, it is 2,000 watt motor.

Just bought a house in Branson Missouri the Ozark mountains probably 30° slope yard about half an acre. Looking for a blower for blowing rock, mulch and driveway and the yard without raking and also looking for a walk behind mower and maybe additional accessories, like to get one manufacture for all my accessories so I can swap batteries back-and-forth. Would you prefer EGO or Greenworks?

Is it possible and I wonder what would happen to efficiency, power, etc if you installed a single blade (perhaps a mulching blade) on a dual-blade mower like the EGO or like the RYOBI 40v models?

what say you about the greenworks 80v vs the greenworks 60v

Can you access the motors to get the motor name plate data? There should be a torque curve that we can lookup.

Hey Brian thank you for all your help. What is the best electric mower for a steep slope like 40 degree?

In the same way, real world performance in a computer is quite different than what the specs might suggest. And the same thing goes for high end cameras. Be careful not to buy without hearing reviews about real world performance.

You didnt compare them equally. You used greenworks to base all bateries. And the mechanics and battery use is most likely different. Please compare them equally. Id appreciate that. Ty

Higher voltage means more electrical force. Higher force means work becomes easier 💪

I see you're comparing these two mowers. But did you actually use the ego to get the data you got by using the greenworks? Or did you just base ego off greenworks data? That seems biased. Im considering an electric mower. And I trust your channel. But this video seems biased and not based on the actual science I trust your channel for.

battery mowers are good , if you like wearing a bra

80v dont bog down, get big battery, all others are a waste.