Apologies for the grab bag. Can we have more product reviews of the new breeds of battery rechargeable powered home and everyday household items?
As I often follow up sites dedicated to renewable energy, I’m seeing more and more products that offer alternatives to petrol (gasoline) power, or plug in 230V. Two aspects that stand out,
The variety of products and brands on offer suggest a fast growing market moving towards greater consumer acceptance.
Looking to availability in Australia we appear to be under served (lack of product choices) and over priced (up to 2+ times higher) where there are local alternatives.
Admittedly these are perceptions. The product categories include e-bikes, battery yard maintenance equipment, hand power tools, and household cleaning.
Is Choice also able to offer a comparative market survey. A desktop revealing how well off or not we are for product range and pricing compared to the rest of the world, EG USA and UK markets. Perhaps Choice could leverage the relationships with the consumer organisations in these other markets for comparison product data?
A local option
Even adding 50% to the following e-bike to account for exchange rate and gst it looks a bargain compared with local offerings? Of course the astute consumer will realise the US available product is not road legal in Australia. It has a 500W motor, twice that legal locally, and higher top speed, also not road legal.
It’s worth considering in store Australian bike specialists retail products can be priced even higher than the two prior examples. Specifications can vary as well as quality.
Have you found a way to correlate equivalence of energy consumption of battery vs petrol power?
Does it make any sense to do a simple task comparison? With a suitable trial setup compare a comparable battery tool with a petrol of the same nominal capability. How far does a standard battery go on the task? How much fuel is needed to get to the same point?
I’ve a rough guess it takes 1-2kWh of battery to replace 1 litre of fuel, depending on tool and task. I’m bound to be wrong. A line trimmer is likely to give one result as the task is relatively constant. A chainsaw or pruning tasks might see a better battery outcome due to less idle time. Electric tools are on off as needed. Petrol tend to waste fuel on start and idle from starting to use.
I have not. This project is going to compare the various battery systems that we purchase for testing with one another. We won’t be purchasing any petrol powered tools at this point, but it’s a very good suggestion as I know some ( many ? ) users are concerned at the possible performance impacts of moving from petrol to battery power.
Personally, I have several battery powered tools, and only one remaining petrol powered tool - a line trimmer. I does bother me that it is fossil fuelled, two-stroke, noisy, and spends some of its time idling. It doesn’t get a whole lot of use, but I will eventually get a battery powered equivalent.
Ditto, and they are great, including the 20l pressure sprayer.
I’ve two ancient and light duty line trimmers for around the house that have both become more trouble than value, so keen to see the results of your work when done.
We have the Ryobi One+ 18V system and we use the whippersnipper with that system. I find that the 5Ah battery just does around the 3 sides of the house and fence line that require a whippersnip on a 15 x 36 metre block. I think the 4th side if it had to be done as well would even press the 6.0Ah battery, perhaps the 9.0Ah would be the go for that. To do our yard with the 40 cm width mower we have to have the two 9.0Ah batteries installed to get our smallish yard done (large house on that smaller block) without having to have spares waiting. We tried with two 5’s before but they ran out before completion, so didn’t bother with an upgrade to the 6’s and went straight to the 9’s. Benefit of the 6 and 9 are they are rated High Performance whereas the 5 is not.
I am only guessing but the 36V system would possibly be a much better match for larger yards and heavier work. The 18V one if you had a few batteries could do a lot of work, how many batteries would you like to carry around or even the 36V ones for larger and tougher jobs….
I have the 36V blower/mulcher with the 4.0Ah battery and I get about 50 minutes of good work out of it. There are larger capacity ones in that range which would obviously give much better times for operation.
The tree service I used for my hedge trees this year (about 5 hours for 3 people) used electric Stihl trimmers. All the previous providers had petrol so change seems to be coming. The time spent was essentially a constant or close enough.
My mowing and whippersnip times are the same as when we used petrol. Just a lot less noise and smell that I have to deal with. Battery change if needed is less time than to fill a tank and restart a mower/whippersnipper. Weight of the whippersnipper is a bit more and the mower a lot less.
Some of the product lines offer guides.
Hopefully there are handy guides for popular products similar to this one. Stihl uses a 36V system. Not a recommendation for the average backyard user perhaps, but a good indication of what is possible.
I can’t see the problem. The engine manufacturer should be able to supply the power output details of the petrol engine in kilowatts. Admittedly gauging the cumulative work output per hour, say, will be more difficult to assess for the IC engine. But a direct comparison at maximum output for each type of device would give a reasonable idea. Anyway, what man alive wants to spend his days trying to get the wretched two-stroke and four-stroke motors started, not to mention buying the fuel and maintaining the noisy smelly things.
Noted the cordless - battery lawn mower product reviews have been updated 18th Feb.
I suspect because of a number of variables raised in prior posts, a field test is more likely to yield the fairest comparison, of battery vs ICE.
Real world, could one set out a larger test area and run a select/ed battery models till fully discharged IE flat, to compare with one of the select ICE mowers measuring fuel consumed to mow the same area?
It’s a shared sentiment, although mostly reserved for the older ICE powered yard equipment in our menagerie. I’d agree for what is an average block these days 300-800sqm, less after allowing for pool, sheds and house there are battery powered tools able to meet every need.
There’s a smaller number of Choice members with larger tasks on blocks of up to 2000sqm or more. And even fewer like I where hectares is more useful a measure. I’ve watched as the capability and endurance of various battery rechargeable tools and equipment have steadily advanced. My first battery drill was a 1981 Skil Sher. I’ll lay claim to being an early adopter, and note keenly progress of battery tool/equipment.
I have replaced all of my corded tools (drills, grinders, sprays, scrubbers, brush cutter, hedge trimmer, blowers, shears, loppers, fertiliser spreader, jigsaw) with Ryobi 18V ONE+ equivalents.
All have fared as well as the corded ones that I replaced and have sufficient battery life for any jobs that I have needed doing.
It’s a little thing, but this 70yo person with arthritis finds cordless tools easier to handle than corded ones as we can devote both hands to them without having to keep moving a cord…
I will replace my 4-stoke lawn mower and 2-stroke edger (both bought after Choice comparison tests) when they die as they don’t need cords and are relatively new.
eBay equivalent battery packs are half the price of the Ryobi ones and seem to provide the same performance, so may that could be the subject of a Choice report?
