My history with Lawn Mowers.

Not mine but.......

Growing up we always had gas mowers. We had fairly large lawns and for the times gas, was appropriate.   My dad had a bit of a passion for small engines that he was never quite able to pass on to me.  He would do the maintenance and even rebuild anything from the lawnmower to model airplane engines.  He even rebuilt the family car's engines on several occasions while I was growing up.  I never quite got a hold of his passion though.  

I probably had at least three gas mowers in the first 10 years that my wife and I had our first home.  I know I burned up one of them and my little brother borrowed one and  hit a piece of concrete with it and broke the shaft.  Also, I hated the whole going to get gas thing.  Even putting the gas can in the trunk, it would still smell up in the front and the smell would linger.  

I had borrowed a corded Black & Decker mower once and knew I never wanted to own one of them (corded not necessarily B&D).  Then Black & Decker came out with a cordless mower.  It was only a 24 volt model but back then it was the bomb.  I was able to pick one up at the Black and Decker outlet store for about a third off.   I used this mower for five years even though it did get a bit wimpy when the batteries started to wear out.   I did change the batteries once and it wasn't bad cost wise since I did it myself.   Then my circumstances changed enough that I was able to hire a lawn service. But this mower had matched my needs fairly well.  

During the time I had the lawn service, I sold the Black & Deckermower at a yard sale.  Then my wife became disabled and we had to make some cutbacks.  So once again I was in the market for a new mower.  

I looked at the then current crop of Robotic Lawn Mowersand was drooling a bit but they were a bit expensive.  I had both front and back yards to mow so I would either need two mowers or at least set up both yards for the robotics and then move the mower between them.  But comparing the price to the lawn service it was still tempting.  I also had developed an allergy to something to do with the cut grass.  So it was very tempting.  But I found a 48 volt Ryobi Self-Propelled Moweron sale and decided to go with it.

Man this mower has been great.  I was worried that the extra power to propel the mower would drain to much from the batteries and leave the mower feeling wimpy again but that was not the case.  This mower has definitely been the best mower I've owned to date.  But now the battery is not charging and I think it is the charger that is not working.  But I suppose it could just need a new set of batteries.  

Doing some research for the charger though I found an interesting project to consider.  Making a solar charging station for the mower.  If it is the charger then to solar charging system would replace the charger.  And I live in Phoenix, the Valley of the Sun after all.  So it would make a lot of sense to do this.  Since I only mow the lawn every other week or so It probably wouldn't even take much of a solar system to do this.  

If you are in the market for a new mower, my recommendation is to go with one of the bigger voltage Cordless Mowers rather then a gas mower. They are so much more of a pleasure (if mowing the lawn can be a pleasure) than any other mower I have owned.

Next I plan to come up with an actual plan for the solar charging station.

If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comment section below.