IN THE GARDEN

Electric Garden Tools

A nice collection of all electric garden tools can go a surprisingly long way towards fighting climate change. Garden tools like lawnmowers, leaf blowers, chain saws and snow-blowers burn more fossil fuels than most homeowners realize, spewing out anywhere from 20 to 300 times as much pollution as a typical car.

That’s because garden tools have somehow escaped the strict regulations that have forced the auto industry to clean up its act over the past few decades.

In fact, according to the California Air Resources Board, running a commercial gas-powered leaf blower for just one hour produces about as much pollution as driving a 2017 Toyota Camry for 1,100 miles. And that’s before you consider the sheer quantity of the things. According to The Freedonia Group, there are 650 million gas-powered outdoor tools currently in use, each one contributing an outsized share to climate change.

The good news is that, unlike cars, stoves and home heating systems, the gas-powered tools the typical American homeowner uses in the garden are relatively inexpensive to replace. That makes the garden perhaps the easiest place to have an immediate impact on your carbon footprint.

If you’ve got to start your home electrification project somewhere, then the garden may be the best place.

The First Electric Garden Tools

The first tools to be powered with batteries were the ones that use the least power. Think electric weed eaters, electric leaf blowers and electric hedge trimmers. It wasn’t until about 2014 that battery technology and electric motor efficiency had evolved to such an extent that power-hungry tools like lawnmowers could go electric

By 2017, Consumer Reports was rating certain electric-powered lawn mowers as highly as their gas-powered counterparts. 

Accordingly, as homeowners become more climate-conscious, battery-powered garden tools are emerging as the preferred choice, offering a number of advantages over gas-powered ones. 

Electric garden tools are not only lightweight and physically easier to handle, but they make far less noise than traditional gas-powered tools.  They also require minimal maintenance compared with conventional models, which can save money on upkeep costs over time.

Battery-Powered or Corded

The first decision you have to make when switching to electric garden tools is whether to go with a battery-powered tool or a corded one. And you may come to a different decision for different tools. 

A battery-powered lawn mower, for example, may be a necessity simply because of the size and shape of your yard, while the added power that a corded electric chainsaw provides compared to a battery-powered one might be more important to you.

One point about batteries though. It’s best to pick a favorite brand or manufacturer and stick to it. That’s because batteries are not interchangeable between brands. You can’t power an Ego lawn mower with a Greenworks battery. 

On the other hand, if you already have an Ego lawn mower and decide later to get an Ego chainsaw, there’s a good chance that your chainsaw’s battery could become a backup for your lawnmower. You will have to check with the manufacturer, though, to be sure about specific models and their voltages.

In this part of the site we‘re going to walk you through the process of switching out your gas-powered garden tools for electric ones. We’ll review the various models and share our views on the best ones. We’ll also give you tips on what you need to consider depending on the type and size of your garden.

Priced about the same (when maintenance and fuel costs are taken into account) and just as capable, there really aren’t too many reasons not to make your next garden tool purchase a fully electric one.Nowadays, there is little to choose between the pros and cons of electric lawn mowers vs gas-powered ones, except for that whole saving the planet thing.