What's your experience on battery powered yard tools?

I'm currently looking at the 80V Kobalt and Greenworks brands. I read somewhere that Greenworks makes the Kobalt brand?

Kobalt seems to be SLIGHTLY more affordable, but it doesn't have the larger battery options the Greenworks brand does. Kobalt only has 2ah batteries while Greenworks has 2.5ah, 4ah, and 5ah. 

My yard isn't particularly large so I think one battery should be fine. Of course, once you pick one brand you have to stick with it because of how the batteries are packaged.

Any thoughts? 

(Please, please save the "buy gas, buy used" comments)

My grandmother has an electric weedwacker that works great, a Black & Decker that uses 48V batteries IIRC. Has plenty enough charge for a small yard. It just needed its first battery replacement last year, it was at least 3 years old by then.

Had a Worx long ago, and loved it. Bought an EGO power+ 56V about a year ago, and loved it more.

I have the B&D 40V MAX Weed trimmer/edger.  Its great for weed trimming.  For edging its good for maintenance, but if you are edging for the first time, you'll drain it quick.  I ended up with this because at the time of purchase it was one of the highest rated from consumer reports with a pretty fair price.

I have the 40V Leaf blower as well.  Great for clearing off the driveway/sidewalk, not great for getting rid of all the leaves in the yard in fall/winter.

My push mower is gas.  If I could do it again, I'd do battery for that as well.

I have the 80v Kovalt to run my line trimmer. Really glad to have it, once I changed the trimmer head. Also use the pole saw attachment, really works great. 

Friend with the mower loves his. 

Dang they have 80v units now? I love my 40v Ryobi stuff. Leaf blower is next on my list.

Current plan is to buy the polesaw and mower first. Get the lower branches I can and have them hauled off. Not a ton of grass in the front yard because of all the trees/thick limbs. Some of them are so thick branches were treeless when I moved in, in September. 

Are there any good online guides for what to trim from the tree now that are no leaves to discern which had them growing?

I need to trim the trees in my front yard as well - same problem with my grass.  Everything I have been reading suggests trimming them after they bloom in the late spring.

Unfortunately I need to trim a lot of branches (bradford pear), not just the lower ones, so I'm in for quite a bit of work when the time finally comes :(

I like my 40V Ryobi gear too.  Small urban yard front and back, uses less than one 4.0 Ah battery to do it all.  The string trimmer works fine.  I also have the blower which is nice for light snow, dirt, and dry leaves.  I've had this stuff for a few years, can't really remember why I didn't go with the Ego 56V stuff.  Probably weight and cost.  

But overall, I like the electric stuff versus having a bunch of loud smelly gas engines that need maintenance.  Exception seems to be snowblower, the Ryobi one sucked but then got recalled so I didn't have to dump it.  

Has anyone used the Harbor Freight stuff?

I love my Ryobi 48V edger, but they went to a different setup now so I need to do a new "system".

I have the 40V Kobalt weed trimmer.  It will also work with the universal accessories Lowes sells near them.  I use the blower attachment to clear grass cuttings off the sidewalk and driveway.

It works well, although I've had a heck of a time getting the line to load into the feeder consistently.  Not having to deal with 2-stroke mix is nice.

My yard isn't large, but I do have a fair amount of "stuff" to trim around and a charge will usually give me two trimming sessions if I don't let the weeds get too out of hand.

I have the 40V Greenworks G-Max tools, specifically:

Twin Force Mower: Purchased 3 years ago to replace my corded lawn mower.  We've got .29 acres (including the house) and if I mowed more often than once every 3 weeks, it would probably mow my yard fairly easily.   As it is, I average about 2.25 full rounds of batteries to do both front and back yards.

Cordless Pole Saw: Got this to take car of some high up branches and really like it's usefulness.

12" String Trimmer: Easy to use, not much else to say.

Cordless Sweeper: Haven't used it yet.

Batteries: Mower came with 2, and it uses both.  Only came w/ 1 charger and you can't charge in the mower, so that was a bit of a nuisance.  Was looking into a getting a 3rd battery and another charger, when the cordless sweeper went on sale (with battery and charger) for less than the battery and charger cost separately.  Having the 2nd charger and 3rd battery is really nice and I would at least recommend 2 chargers if you need to use 2 batteries simultaneously.  Haven't had any battery issues yet.

I've had a B&D battery mower for quite a few years now, a few less for a Ryobi trimmer, and last year I got a cheap blower that was a 25th anniversary gift here at work.

So far, I'm really happy with the change over.  The mower is what I use the most- including shredding and picking up leaves.

All in all, I think you will like whatever you get.

ProDarwin said:

I need to trim the trees in my front yard as well - same problem with my grass.  Everything I have been reading suggests trimming them after they bloom in the late spring.

Unfortunately I need to trim a lot of branches (bradford pear), not just the lower ones, so I'm in for quite a bit of work when the time finally comes :(

See and I've always read/heard that you should trim them in the winter when they are dormant.............this needs more research.

I have 8-9 trees in my front yard all at least 20' feet tall................and they all need trimming/cleaning up all the way through. I figured if I can at least get the bottom 4-5' that will save me money over hiring the guy again I used for some quick immediate cleanup that needed to happen as soon as I moved in.

Oh and thanks for all the input everyone, that eases my fear about going ahead. I'll check with Lowe's and if issues can be exchanged in store, that will probably win over Greenworks.

z31maniac said:

ProDarwin said:

I need to trim the trees in my front yard as well - same problem with my grass.  Everything I have been reading suggests trimming them after they bloom in the late spring.

Unfortunately I need to trim a lot of branches (bradford pear), not just the lower ones, so I'm in for quite a bit of work when the time finally comes :(

See and I've always read/heard that you should trim them in the winter when they are dormant.............this needs more research.

Yeah, just to double check myself I googled it real quick.  And of course the first two articles I read completely contradict each other.

I used to mow the elderly neighbor's yard sometimes with her Ryobi (I think... bright lime green) and it did a fair job with her 0.2 acres.  The one thing I noticed was its complete lack of oomph.  You had to stay on top of mowing.  If the grass got just a little bit out of hand you had to set the deck high for a first cut, then wait until the next day (another full charge) and put the deck back to where you want the height and do it again.

I love my 40v Ryobi so much I wrote about it here: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/i-gave-up-on-2-stroke-power-equipment-hello-40v-co/102423/page1/

My cordless 40v powerhead coupled with the brushcutter is a weapon of grass destruction. I'm never going back to gas.

We bought our dad a Stihl battery powered chainsaw for Christmas. Why? Because everybody online said it is the best battery powered chainsaw, when you think of it as a chainsaw. So we went Stihl. 

Now, you could argue that you should look at what is the best lawnmower as that is the one you will use the most, but for us the saw was the most important as it was the most dangerous implement. And dad doesn't mow his own grass, so that is a non issue.

I bought a Milwaukee 18v string trimmer with a king sized battery.  It is fabulous.

I have the Kobalt 80v string trimmer and leaf blower. I also have the 80v Greenworks hedge trimmer that I purchased because Kobalt didn't offer one. I figured that the batteries would surely be interchangeable. They aren't, but I was able to modify the Kobalt charger to accept both the Kobalt and Greenworks batteries. Kobalt is nice because you can deal with a Lowes store if you have issues, but buying all Greenworks would've saved me the cost of a second battery.

Ive been very pleased with mine. They're strong and powerful. As close to gas powered as I've experienced, and way quieter. I love not dealing with fuel or pull starting. I shove the battery in and it's ready to rock in 2 seconds. I have something like 17 trees, 3 telephone poles, and a mailbox that I trim around. Plus a couple of flower beds on their own, and my house has beds wrapping around 80% of it that get edged pretty much weekly. If I have the trimmer on it's highest setting, a fully charged battery does all of the trimming with a bit to spare. I throw it on the charger, and it's ready to use in the leaf blower by the time I finish mowing. The 30 minute charge times are legit, but at full bore, I only get about 30 minutes of run time out of them too, so large jobs can require some planning, 30 minute breaks, or multiple batteries. I use the leaf blower all the time.

Bought for light work, but ended up up using it a lot.  No problems.   Got it on Amazon.

I just bought an electric (battery or plug in) snow blower. LOVE IT!  

We also have a corded string trimmer. I look to reduce my cylinder count any time I can. 

We have an 18v (I think, it's whatever their crappiest one is) B&D trimmer that SWMBO bought at Lowe's last summer to preempt me from buying "some piece of junk from Craigslist." It's...not what I would have bought, but it gets the job done. We have a lot of trimming that needs to be done and areas that can get thick in a hurry during the summer months, and the low end Black and Decker lacks in both power and battery life.

That said, it has changed my perspective on electric yard equipment, for all the reasons already mentioned, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy or recommend a better one. 

We have a rhino blower and line trimmer. It’s fantastic!  My only gripe is the head in the trimmer releases line whenever you let off the throttle, so it uses a lot of line up. But that’s a problem with the head, not the drivetrain