Hereā€™s Why You Should Make the Switch to Electric Lawn Tools

By: John Garcia | Date Posted: August 24, 2022

Electric lawnmowers and other lawn tools are finally getting to the point where they can hold their own against gas-powered tools ā€“ and itā€™s time to think about making the switch. While you might still need the power and longevity of gas if youā€™re a professional landscaper, electric lawn tools are becoming the better option for homeowners with less than an acre or two to maintain.

Electric tools have several benefits over gas tools. You donā€™t have to worry about maintaining a combustion engine, mixing gas and oil for two-cycle engines, spilling fuel, or polluting the environment. Electric tools are lighter and easier to use, make less noise, and require no maintenance.

Electric Tools Are Lighter and Easier to Use

Cordless electric tools are battery-powered, and todayā€™s lithium batteries are smaller, more efficient, and lighter than ever. That means your average cordless electric lawn mower, for example, will be a lot lighter than a gas mower with a heavy combustion engine. Electric lawn tools like string trimmers and hedge clippers may also weigh less than their gas counterparts.

Electric tools are easier to use, too. Pulling on a starter cord, thereā€™s no need to put your shoulder out of the joint. You can start your electric lawn mower, string trimmer, or chainsaw with the push of a button or the flip of a switch.

You Can Say Goodbye to Spills and Maintenance

Gas-powered tools have combustion engines that have to be maintained. You need to change the oil, spark plugs, and filters. Thereā€™s a lot that can go wrong with the engine, so repairs are more likely.

You donā€™t need to do yearly maintenance on an electric tool to keep it in good shape. That means no more oil changes, no more filter changes, and no more spark plugs. It means no more having to dispose of old gas or used oil.

You donā€™t even have to be doing maintenance on your gas-powered lawn tool to spill gas. Youā€™re likely to spill a little gas every time you fill up your gas can at the pump because most pumps wonā€™t automatically shut off when filling a gas container the way they do when filling a carā€™s tank. And youā€™re likely to spill a little more gas when filling up the tank on your gas-powered equipment.

That might not seem like a big deal ā€“ how much gas or oil can one person spill, anyway? Well, not that much, but you have to remember that, across the country every summer, millions of people are spilling small amounts of gas and oil in the course of doing maintenance on gas-powered lawn tools or simply filling them up with fuel. The pollution generated each summer by so many people spilling relatively small amounts of fuel and oil is equivalent to an industrial oil spill. That spilled gas and oil leaks into the groundwater, harming aquatic ecosystems and potentially exposing human beings to toxic chemicals like toluene and benzene. You could do your part to protect the environment and your health by switching to cleaner electric lawn tools.

Electric Tools Might Save You Money

Of course, youā€™ll save money on the gas, oil, spark plugs, and filters needed to operate and maintain gas-powered lawn tools, but thatā€™s not the only way switching to electric lawn tools can be cheaper. The tools themselves are often cheaper than gas-powered equivalents. If you buy tools from the same manufacturer, they will all use the same kind of battery. For example, Ego lawn tools all use the same battery. That means you can buy some of your tools without the battery and save some money. It also means that you can replace batteries as they start to wear out and hold less of a charge. Electric Tools Might Save You Money

Thereā€™s No Need to Be So Loud

Want to cut the grass at 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday without making your neighbors hate you? Consider an electric lawn mower. The combustion engine generates most of the noise that gas-powered lawn tools and mowers make. Use a tool that doesnā€™t have a combustion engine, and cut out most of the noise. Electric lawnmowers and other tools are extremely quiet, so you can use them without disturbing the neighbors.

Create Less Pollution

According to Consumer Reports, running a single gas-powered leaf blower for just one hour can create the same volume of carbon emissions as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry 1,100 miles. Thatā€™s because small, two- and four-cycle engines arenā€™t built to the same efficiency standards as automobile emissions, so their emissions are 20 to 300 times those of an automobile. Imagine that level of emissions happening all over the country, hundreds of thousands of thousands of times over, every day in the summer. Itā€™s no wonder climate change is still a problem.

Electric lawn tools, on the other hand, create no emissions. Sure, you have to charge the batteries, and that takes electricity, which might be made using non-renewable fuels. But electric plants tend to generate fewer carbon emissions than small two- and four-cycle gas engines because there are regulations in place to keep power plants from creating pollution. So your rechargeable electric lawn tools will be responsible for far fewer carbon emissions. If your power plant uses wind, solar, or hydroelectric facilities, then thatā€™s even fewer carbon emissions your electric tools will create.

Battery-powered lawn tools are highly efficient, using less energy than gas tools while providing equal work output due to their electric motors. They avoid wasted heat energy and are environmentally friendly, quieter, and easier to use.

Thank you for reading!

John
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John is the founder and chief editor of Homienjoy. With over 15 years of experience in the home improvement industry, John is passionate about helping homeowners confidently tackle their projects. Holding a civil engineering degree and working as a contractor, project manager, and consultant, John brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Homienjoy community.

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