In attempting to reduce your household environmental footprint you may have overlooked the humble lawnmower. Every year in Australia lawnmowers produce millions of tonnes of CO2, tonnes of particulate pollutants and a great deal of noise pollution. According to Professor Tim Flannery, a petrol lawnmower produces up to 40 times the emissions of a car for an equivalent operating period.

While searching for a better way I considered a range of mowers including; hand powered, corded electric, lead acid battery or just letting the grass grow long. None of the alternatives really worked for my neighbours or myself.

Astonishingly quiet

Just as I was about to purchase a noisy, smelly, polluting petrol machine I found the ideal mower. It is powerful, astonishingly quiet, easy to operate and has the lowest carbon profile possible.

The Rotak 37 LI cordless electric lawnmower from Bosch has just been launched in Australia. This cordless electric lawnmower overcomes many of the limitations of previous electric mowers. It has no messy cords to be tangled up with or worse yet it has the equivalent power of a mains connected mower. How does it do this?

Lithium Ion Technology

The answer is Lithium Ion (LI) batteries. LI technology has many advantages over traditional lead acid batteries; LI is much smaller and lighter relative to energy density, LI recharges much more quickly, LI batteries last longer and do not leak acid.

The 36 Volt LI battery that comes with the Bosch mower enables the machine to be both powerful and manoeuvrable. The total weight (mower and battery) is just under 13kg, which means I can carry it from garden to garden and easily navigate around trees and other obstacles while mowing.

I now use this mower on my medium sized suburban lawn with three separate lawn areas. All my electric prejudice is dismissed by the power and ease of use of this mower.

Because my lawn is relatively large and sub tropical Queensland promotes lush thick growth I need to recharge the battery in order to complete the job. This is not as inconvenient as it seems. I can mow for about 45 minutes before the battery needs to be recharged. Me too – if I’m honest.

One hour to recharge

Unlike me though, the mower does not become less efficient as the charge wears down, it simply continues as normal and then just stops. At this point I have to stop mowing for an hour while recharging the battery but I have no trouble filling the time with the many small gardening tasks that require my attention. After the recharge it is back to the mowing to finish it off.

Some things can cause the operating time to be reduced and this may require a little forethought when deciding when to mow. Avoid high temperatures as overheating the battery causes it to discharge more quickly. Don’t let the grass get too long as it uses a lot more power to deal with thick growth.

The high initial cost of this mower (approx $699.00 at large home improvement stores) is more than offset by the machine’s clear advantages in noise, pollution, ease of operation and the quality of the outcome. Low operating and maintenance costs can also be added to the list of advantages.

Because of its lightweight and low noise this mower is actually fun to use and its environmental advantages provide a feeling that is hard to put a dollar value on.

Written by Joe Purcell