Is it worth reviving a *old* B&D battery mower?
 

I've inherited a very old Black & Decker battery mower - it's a 12v model that I had not even seen before. The wheels are pretty wonky, and the previous owner blocked off the side chute to make it into a mulching mower.

Has anybody converted one of these to use a standard car battery; or any other method to keep using one of these mowers?

If the charger works (or you have any old 12V charger), all you probably need is a battery... should be an easy fix. Darin did this two years ago:

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/lawn-g...ker-mower.html

I do have the charger, yes. Thanks for the reminder on the old thread. That is similar to the mower I have.

A normal car battery will work, but the gel batteries like that seem to handle deeper discharges if I remember right, they also tend to be easy to find a direct replacement for the battery.

On my electric lawn mower I replaced the gel batteries a few years ago and they are still working ok, 4-5 years of use is common, but when they are in need of replacement next I plan to go with Lithium, I haven't found anything much cheaper that looks better then PingBattery LiFePO4 Battery packs for Electric Bicycle e-Bike & Scooter, Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery but he doesn't have any 12v packs, a lot of other mowers are 24v or 36v.

Did you ever spend time reviving the old mower Neil?

I have not been able to even look at it again.

Neil,

Why don't you just rip it's heart out and put in its place, a nice reliable AC induction motor? It will give you trouble free service many times longer than a battery power setup ever will.

Cords really aren't so hard to get used to. A GFI breaker for the circuit you will use is always a good idea, although I built one that never got that luxury, and in all the years of use, I never felt a single tingle.

Be a man Neil, rip its little heart out...

Sincerely,

-AC

I own two plugin electric mowers! One has a 300' cord, and the other has a 200' cord. :)

That's a total of 500 feet of extension cord!

There comes a time in every mans life when he has to ask one of the most important and difficult questions of his life... Do I own my lawn, or does it own me?

...I mean, my lawn is maybe 40' x 15' and I consider it to be a hateful, dreadful, repetitive, soul sucking burden. In fact I am in the process of turning my front lawn into a vegetable patch as soon as possible.

The next door neighbors were looking askance at me a year ago, for not doing my part in maintaining the illusion of an English dream lawn. So I gave them some tasty home grown heirloom tomatoes, and now, the neighbors on both sides are also turning their lawn-burdens into lovely, productive gardenettes that are even more successful than mine.


Liberation!!!!

-AC

I agree - the 200' cord is more than enough for my yard, actually. The 300' cord is for the Friends Meeting (Quaker) lawn which is about 2.5 acres - and there are several plug locations.