Commercial grade gas powered landscaping tools can't be replaced with consumer grade electric alternatives, or even consumer grade gas powered ones, not unless huge strides have been made in the tech and power output. Pro grade mowers are upwards of 10k and run hundreds of miles a day, every day, often in the rain. I don't see that being replaced with a EV type setup. Throwing gas in something is way faster and less error prone than quick chargers, battery swaps, or dealing with a bunch of electronics that are always deployed into dirty, wet, and unexpected envs
Keep the gas powered equipment where it's needed but the typical weekly lawn service can replace their mowers and leaf blowers today with only slight tweaks to their day to day operations.
The tree company I used to work for begs to differ. Our 2 man crew alone could do 2-4 trees a day depending on size, with one guy in the tree with a saw and one on the ground running the chipper and cutting the large bits into smaller pieces.
Every example I gave was in context of the comment I'm replying to, and that comment was talking about commercial crews doing this stuff all day every day and replacing their loud gas powered equipment with electric solutions. Tree companies, lawn services, fence installers, lawn care/landscaping places.
> Keep the gas powered equipment where it's needed but the typical weekly lawn service can replace their mowers and leaf blowers today with only slight tweaks to their day to day operations.
Weekly for you. Every single day for the crew, sometimes all weekend too if they fall behind due to rain, etc. They have to have EV that is just as powerful and easy to jump on and get going, run all day long and operate in dirt and wet grass, and not cost a million dollars in chargers and spare batteries, which if they are lithium ion batteries, have to be replaced a lot more often than a gas engine w/ regular oil changes would. And when the electric motors burn out (they have bushings and coils which wear out with use), I can't imagine they will be cheap or available at lawn supply stores where you can go to get any gas engine part you need to fix your money maker that day
I'm all for electric replacements, it's just a long way off imo. These machines get beat on daily and have to keep running. Gas is easy, produces plenty of power, and is cheap compared to an aresonal of batteries and chargers and electric motors and all that goes with wiring those things in wet enviroments
Guarantee you that the guys mowing lawns around here in their beatup pickup trucks didn't drop $10k on a lawnmower.
But let's assume they are small scale personal beater pickup trucks. If they can't afford a nicer work truck and aren't able to purchase professional grade equipment, do you think they will be able to afford electric alternatives and extra batteries, etc?
Regardless, pro or consumer, they are all the same level of loud you are annoyed with. If you think it's bad as the person hearing your neighbors yard being mowed, think of what the operator is dealing with (ear protection is a must).
Maybe I'm indifferent because I used to do landscaping and spent time around all kinds of loud machines, but imo it's not that big of a deal. It is loud, I'll give you that. But pro mowers are fast, because more lawns is more money. So on a regular city or suburb lawn they are in and out in 5-10 minutes. Walk inside, or close the window, or run an errand. Sometimes people's occupation is an inconvenience to us, but it's a tiny fraction of your day and there are plenty of things you can do to minimize it.
On my street there are about 10 properties within earshot that get weekly service. And it takes a good 30 minutes with mowing, trimming and blowing. It doesn't bug me as much as some people but I'm not gonna lie, it sure would be nice if the equipment was all-electric. I think it may happen in a few years, but right now the support ecosystem is just not there yet.
It would be more expensive for sure. I think I'd be willing to pay somewhere around 1.5-2x for an electric crew, and guessing many others would too. It will be interesting to see if it turns into a domino effect when it starts, and especially with HOA type areas where there is more ability for enforcement.
If they can afford new equipment at all, then yes. Electric leaf blowers appear to be slightly less expensive than gas now.
I assume that what’s going on is that the actual electric mechanism is vastly simpler — the motor is quite small, so you put it where you want it instead of worrying about belts or other power transmission devices), and there’s no need to handle fuel. On the flip side, batteries are fairly expensive.
Landscaping equipment isn’t the most expensive, but it isn’t cheap.
Most crews are 2-4 guys with 1-2 mowers and they work all day long.
Going to a customer's house and consuming their electric all day isn't going to work out, or having extension cords strung everywhere, where you're literally dropping heavy trees with sharp right angle cuts, and cord snagging brush and branches, and you know, the chainsaw itself which will go through a cord in an instant and if it doesn't you won't be worried about loud noises anymore. Cord powered saws for real crews are not practical at all. That leaves the options - battery powered, and those do not have enough power to cut down large trees (I'm talking about more than falling a tree), or bring your own electric, ie, run a generator, which would be gas powered and just as loud and non-green as gas powered saws and still has the whole cord issue.
Maybe that was the case 5-10 years ago but not these days. A buddy and I cut 10-12" dia tree sections into rounds in short order with a 16" bar Ego chainsaw. It was, let's say, 10% slower than an equivalent Stihl but it had more than enough grunt and was incredibly quiet - no need for ear protection.
If you're using a dinky little 18V chainsaw then they'll choke on anything but the new stuff using 56+ volt batteries pack some serious punch. Gas chainsaws are still needed for some use cases but the lack of noise, exhaust, vibration, and fuel/filter maintenance positions them to fully replace gas chainsaws in the reasonably near future.
That sounds more like a dull chain than a saw issue.
[1] https://www.exmark.com/electric [2] https://www.toro.com/en/professional-contractor/commercial-m...
Yeah because this is what the landscaping crews do every single week on my street. Not.
Jaws of Life are now battery powered instead of off a hydraulic system.
There are certainly pro grade electric devices; industry has been using large ac motors for a while.
Gasolind is certainly not easier than electric when talking about commercial vehicles with frequent starts and stops and heavy loads (a good reason why many fleets are more likely to use turbo diesels for the last 20 years). A diesel electric locomotive is a great example of heavy industry (and 2 very , and guess which system has higher maintenance costs.
Who said it had to be 18V? All my outdoor equipment is 56V.
https://egopowerplus.com/18-inch-chain-saw/
Good luck cutting down a 60 year old oak tree with a 2cc gas motor!
I don't think I've ever actually seen a 2cc chain saw. It would be like pocket sized, suitable for cutting pencils. 2cc motors are used in hobby rc cars.
The only real issue is that the blower doesn't last long on a battery, which is no problem for cleanup after mowing, but not so good for leaf cleanup in the fall. Since I now have multiple pieces of equipment, I do have a battery (and charger) for each including a large one for the mower that I can swap out as I'm working. By the time the last one is drained, I have been able to charge a couple of fresh ones.
However you need to keep the blade sharp.
The real issue with bigger trees would be the blade length, not the battery (well, unless you're taking an entire tree down in which case you'd need extra batteries).
Also, like any chainsaw, keeping the blade sharp is also key.
No, I haven't had to take any trees down, this is mostly for trimming and chopping up fallen branches etc.
Still a ways to go. Beer truck this morning had non white-noise backup horn. Nearly jumped out of my shoes.
Longer term I feel like two thirds of this job is very automateable.
I fully expect a fleet of little mower bots to be rolling off some mothership vehicle in under a decade. There's still shrub trimming & gardening roles that seem infrequent enough to be manual. And for a while I expect there probably would be an onsite human, but eventually it feels like it'll be regular enough for many dwellings.
I also wish this sort of thing were just done municipally. Trimming is once every other week. Bot swarm has a preprogrammed path. Rates are incredibly low for basic service. Shuttling gear & crew around for individual lawns like is bonkers inefficient.
Perhaps there’s options with large swappable battery packs.
That gas owner is 28 years old. I would if a battery operated plastic one would have lasted me that long?
He can charge his mower while between jobs and while using other tools. I would say it works for companies that do mostly residential mowing in sunny places. If you were a larger landscaping business you would probably want at least two crews with different setups: Heavy duty gas equipment for larger yards or tough first time mows and a battery setup for residential "maintenance" mowing.
https://opereviews.com/ryobi-40v-backpack-battery-system-rev...
It's always frustrating to me trying to get around landscaping trailers street parked on winding roads with no shoulders. Half the time you just have to hope that there's no one coming the other way too fast to stop.
I can understand that in some places there's just nowhere to park, if the driveway isn't particularly long or already filled, but even when there's a hundred or more feet of empty drive no one ever seems willing to back in and get out of the street.