About a year ago we moved into a new to us house. For the better part of a year prior we were apartment dwellers with a lot of stuff in storage. Just prior to this was a 2,200 mile trip to move to the Pacific Northwest. By then my lawn mower was almost 10 years old, all electric and had been through three sets of SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries and a conversion to LiOn batteries that I did a couple of years before. The batteries made the trip but the mower did not for a few reasons, one, it was old, two, the cost of moving and storing it would be more than a new one, the plan was to buy one once we had sold and bought our now house.
After living in an apartment for almost a year, the lack of having to do yard work most every week was not something I missed. When we got the new house one of the first things we did was get some quotes from lawn places for maintenance and for the most part I would have to work about an hour a month to cover the expense and not have me take about 4 hours a month in lawn work. That works for me!
Needless to say this did not go as planned. The first company we used (names shall not be used to protect the guilty) lasted about four months. The one thing we value and require is good communication. This doesn't mean that someone instantly respond to our every whim but if we send an email or text a reply in less than a day (depending on time of day) should not be unreasonable. We couldn't get the dates of when mowing was to take place and they would just show up, sometimes twice in the same week, sometimes two weeks apart without a valid reason and we had almost zero communication responses from them.
So we started the process again, this time doing actual interviews with the owners to make sure they knew what we were expecting and what was required, with good communication being a key requirement. The simple act of replying to a text or email with "let me look into it" in less than a day goes really far with us. It tells us that you got and acknowledged the text/email and when you can will get back to us, we are good with this.
So we moved on to the second company and all went pretty well until we had neither seen nor heard from them in three weeks. This is also a week after they were to be here and no responses to emails or texts. Nothing. Completely ghosted.
Two strikes and done with dealing with others for lawn services.
So, I had already started searching for a new lawn mower, found one I thought would be a good one with headquarters in the US and ordered it (from a place with home in the name) with delivery to be the Friday before Memorial day. Then it changed. And changed again. By now my lawn was looking like a field ready for harvest and the mower would not be delivered until the Tuesday after Memorial day as I did not expect them to actually deliver it on a holiday.
So I borrowed a mower from a neighbor over the weekend to at least get something done. The mower was actually delivered on a holiday, and I set out to get it ready. Not a lot involved, charge the battery and put a few parts together and then test it.
Guess what happened next?
Yep, it didn't work. At all. The battery had charge but nothing would power on. So I called support expecting to get a recording that it was closed until Tuesday but instead got into a holding queue for about half an hour until it was answered. By a recording. That they were closed. WTF?
So on Tuesday I called and was on hold for about four hours to have a 15 minute discussion on my options.
1) Wait another 10 to 14 days for a new one to be shipped out from the factory. 2) Return it to my local store and get something else as they were only sold online.
This is now called one strike and you are out. Four and a half hours on hold to be told it will be another two weeks to mow my lawn and you are done.
So I go to my local store and return the mower and picked up a different brand of electric mower for around $100 less. It is a little smaller and runs on less voltage but still more than the last one. Even less setup to get ready and it works! It also came with a coupon for a free rapid charger but the website seemed to have issues so I started an online chat with support who took my info and let me know it would be about 6-8 weeks for me to get it. A little over 8 weeks I got a package from them but it seemed a bit heaver than it should have been for just a charger. It turns out it was a battery, smaller than the one for the mower but compatible with any of their electric lawn tools and it could still cut my lawn and have 50% left. So I now have two batteries and no rapid charger. This time I called support about the mix up and thought they might want their battery back. Nope, keep it and we will send you out the rapid charger, not sure where the mix up was on their end but it will work out in the end.
One thing I did notice is that the makeup of batteries has changed in the recent times, my older LiOn battery packs have connectors for each individual battery(s) connection point. By this I mean if you pack has eight batteries and used them in pairs there are five connection points, the very ends where you get full voltage and the connections in between where the pair of batteries are isolated for charging and the BMS (battery management system) is in the charger. the new packs only have a few connections so the BMS in on the battery pack now instead of the charger. From a manufacturing end I am not sure if this makes sense as there are more parts in the battery pack that might get replaced more often than in a charger that would only get replaced minimally but it may also provide better controls for battery drain/temp monitoring and provide a longer life for the pack.
Next up, 600 gallons of toilet water as the Home DIY Adventures continues in part 3.