Tag: electric

Review: Kobalt 80V Snow Thrower

After a relatively quiet winter, in which I didn’t pull out my very old, hand-me-down Ariens Sno-Tek snowblower even once, we got a quick 18″ in less than a day.  Guess what didn’t start and, in the middle of not starting, stopped turning over entirely?

After an all-day family effort to shovel us out, I ordered a new snowblower.

For the record, I don’t like small engines.  I find them to be dirty, loud, persnickety little things.  I dislike inhaling gasoline and exhaust or carrying the smell on my clothes afterwards.  I dislike the flammability factor.  I dislike the toxicity of petroleum.

So I replaced my gasoline-powered snowblower with a battery-powered electric: a Kobalt, described as “80-volt 24-in Two-stage Self-propelled Battery Snow Blower 5 Ah (Battery Included) (Charger Included)”.

Kobalt 24-in dual-stage snow thrower

I waited a week and a half on shipping, expecting more snow that never came.  As the day approached and as the forecast remained clear, I started to worry that I had cast a protective blanket over the region and no more snow would come this year.

However, I suspect that someone else put their snowblower away prematurely because snow came within days of taking delivery, so I can write this review while the snowblower is still under warranty!

The unit is nearly 250 pounds and is shipped in a box on a pallet.  The box (barely) fit in my neighbor’s Honda CRV, so we got it home without needing to rent a truck.  Shout-out to the folks at my local Lowes for being super helpful by helping us load it!

The Good

It works!

It Moves Snow

It’s advertised with “

With the chute angled upwards, I was making arcs of snow that exceeded our 2nd floor roof line until it was fouled by low hanging tree branches.  After angling the chute downwards a bit, snow was reaching at least 25 feet down the driveway.

Takes Snowdrifts and Piles

After tackling the new snow, I started working on the snow we didn’t clear after the last storm.

Since that storm, we’ve had a couple of weeks of deep freeze, followed by a few days of at-freezing temperatures and very cold nights.  The mix of snow drifts, shoveled snow, and plow wash had started to crystalize.  The highest were still up to 3′ but most were around 2′.

The firmest, most compressed piles make the motor sound a little different, a little bit of struggle sound, but the chute output didn’t change.

I found that it was easier to have the auger bite into the base of the piles, rather then levering the scoop over the top.  It’s not particularly hard to maneuver, I just got better results by staying low and “eating” the base so the higher stuff collapses.

Quiet

I used to wear cups-over-the-ear, noise cancelling headphones when I ran the old snowblower because it was so noisy-loud.

In comparison, I could feasibly talk with someone over the sound of this machine.  It’s a little bit of a “flying saucer” sound, not particularly offensive.  I didn’t feel the need to use any ear protection.

Controls

The controls are a mixed bag.  Here’s the good parts:

There are levers to control the auger speed, the self-propelling speed, and the chute angle.  All are well placed and make sense.  I really like having a chute angle control by my hands.

There’s also a handle to rotate the chute.  You pull it towards yourself, rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise to set the chute direction, and release.  It’s a quick movement.  It’s not my favorite, but it’s efficient.

There are buttons for power and headlights that are front and center.

kobalt 24-in dual-stage snow thrower features

The Meh

These are things that work as advertised, but didn’t “wow” me.

Decent Runtime (But Not More Than Advertised)

The box comes with two batteries but there are receptacles in the battery case for three.  (The product is advertised this way.)  I purchased a third battery up front because I wanted longer run time.  I like to help out my neighbors after I finish my driveway.

I think I ran around for about 90 minutes on the three batteries, which matches the stated specification of

Battery Run Time (Hours)

1

as 50% more battery leads to 50% more runtime.  No bonus points for exceeding expectations.

It’s worth pointing out, though, that it ran the same when the batteries were nearly depleted as it did at fully-charged.  I didn’t notice a difference in performance, which is good.

Controls

As stated above, not all of the controls fall into the “Good” category.

The hand grips have levers on the top, to turn the auger and self-propelling on and off, and levers on the bottom, to control turning.

This is not the easiest scheme to use.  I found that turning off the self-propelling and just doing the rotation myself was much easier than using the bottom levers.

There are LEDs to show you the status of the batteries and headlights.  The panel is nearly horizontal and it quickly got covered by the snow that was still falling.

The headlight indicators are rather dim and hard to see, even when not covered by snow.  It turns out that I had them lit for most of the session, because I didn’t know.

Self-Propelling

Speed

There are four settings for self-propelling speed, three forward and one reverse.

I think that the forward speeds should be a simple rheostat so that you can pick any speed from zero to max, rather than having three presets that maybe don’t match anything I want.

Reverse and Turning

Self-propel is useful for going forward.

I found reverse to be superfluous, but I may be in the minority on this.  This snow blower is fairly easy to maneuver so I just disengaged self-propel and pulled it backwards when I needed to back up.

Unlike gas-powered snowblowers there isn’t much resistance to turning the wheels when the motor isn’t engaged.  Forwards, backwards, twist left or right, it’s all pretty easy to reposition without powered assistance.

Headlights

I haven’t cleared any snow at night so far, so I cannot attest to the utility of the headlights.

As mentioned in “Controls”, the headlights were lit in the middle of the day and I didn’t know.  They’re cycled on-and-off via a single button so it’s a little hard to know which state they’re in since, as mentioned above, the indicator is hard to see in daylight.

Charger

The charger is advertised as a “75 minute” charger and that seems to be accurate.

It’s dead simple: plug in one or two batteries and plug it in.  It takes care of the rest.  Lights will indicate the charging and battery states.

However, it’s very, very loud.  It has built-in fans to cool the batteries.  This makes sense.  Batteries generate heat when you charge them, and the faster you charge them the hotter they’ll get.

I suspect that most people will do their charging in a garage or basement and this won’t be a consideration.

That said, I don’t always need to charge my batteries as fast as possible.  It would be nice if they had an “overnight mode” which would charge the batteries low and slow.  It would be quieter and may lead to longer battery life.

The Bad

Things I would change if I could.

Constantly Hitting Power Button

I mentioned above that the power button is front and center.  I suspect that there is a practical reason for this.

Every time you release both hand grip levers, the unit shuts off.  You need to hit the power button again before the levers will start the auger or self-propel again.

This obviously works as a dead man’s switch, but it’s kind of annoying.  Stopping the auger and self-propelling, without killing power, seems like it would be safe enough.

At first, I found myself hitting the power button constantly and getting irritated.  After a little while, I just kept the auger going even when I was repositioning, which is wasteful of the battery but less irritating.

Expensive Batteries

This is an expensive machine, and it seems that the batteries represent a significant portion of the cost.  Just one battery is $250, nearly 10% of the cost of the entire unit.

While I’m glad I have third battery for longer runtime, I am not inclined to buy two (or three) more to swap during long sessions.

I can see the business case for Kobalt, though: buy some of our other 80v products for the summer and you’ll have all the batteries you need!

However, I bought a Kobalt electric lawn mower last year, but it uses a different battery.  🙁  I don’t have much need for their other heavy equipment.

Poor Instructions

I was able to unbox and assemble the unit using the instructions, but the instructions and drawings are not clear.  I had some assembly-disassembly-reassembly moments, mostly around the auger handle.

You’ll need an M6-size Allen (hex) wrench.  The instructions don’t mention that you’ll be using one, or that one comes packed in the box.  I didn’t find it until after I was done with assembly.  It was tucked into the battery compartment and hard to see.

Overall assembly time was about 1 (very cold) hour, and would have been faster had the instructions been clearer.

The Ugly

So far, nothing ugly to report!

Conclusion

I’m happy with it.

Time will tell how this snow blower stands up to years of use, but the first snowfall was a successful trial.

I think electric is the way to go.  I’m glad I won’t have to worry about draining gasoline this spring.  It should be cheaper to run over it’s lifetime, despite the upfront purchase premium.

I may fix up the Ariens and sell it, or just put it out on the curb and let someone else manage the trouble, but I’m not going back to gas powered.

Geoffrey the Automower

I met my robotic overlord, and I immediately pack-bonded to it.

Let me back up a little.

I am not a gardener. I hate taking care of lawns. I’m the type of person that likes to do a good job, do it well, get the result perfect – and then it should stay that way. I don’t like doing the same thing over and over. It gets dull, quickly.

A lawn takes a lot of work. It runs counter to my pleasure. No matter how well I do the job, in two weeks I have to do it all over again. So my lawn always looks like crap.

So this year I took my government-issued funny money (the CARES stimulus payment, AKA the COVID relief) and plowed it right back into economy. I bought an “automower.” Specifically, I purchased a Husqvarna 115H.

What Is An Automower?

An automower is a Roomba for your lawn. You set a schedule and it takes care of getting the lawn trimmed and keeping itself charged. During operation it makes random passes over its mowing area and covers every square inch… eventually. It comes with a base station where it charges and “sleeps” when it’s not in use.

The mowing area is defined by a “boundary wire” that makes a continuous loop from the base station, around your yard, and back to the base station. (It is possible to have multiple mowing areas.). There is also a “guide wire” that extends from the base station to help the mower come home.

Automowers tend to be “mulching” mowers, meaning they leave their grass clippings in place instead of bagging them up and dumping them somewhere. Since they run so frequently this shouldn’t leave an unsightly mess; each cut should be millimeters in length.  Mulching and leaving the grass clippings in place is better for the lawn, as well as making the mower simpler and far more reliable.

They’re convenient, but also environmentally conscious.  They’re universally electric, making them quiet, emission-less, and built with a minimum of materials.

My First Thoughts

Setting Up

I purchased direct from Husqvarna.  The mower arrived in just a couple of days. (Going through Lowes or Home Depot would have taken a week longer.) The box is an armload but can be managed by a single healthy adult.

Everything you need to set the mower up comes in the box, except housings to keep the power supply and base station dry.  More on that in a moment.

The instructions were a bit unclear, but not terrible. There are steps that are in the quick setup guide that aren’t in the full guide, which is annoying, you need to read both.

There are diagrams, but they’re useless until you know what you’re doing – at which point you don’t need them anymore because the rules are quite logical.

The manual spends some time explaining complicated setups with multiple zones and islands, which may only apply to a minority of buyers, but no time spent on some of the most basic (and critical) steps: picking a spot for a base station and considerations for a guide wire.

Here’s What You Need To Know

  • There are two wires to worry about: the boundary wire and the guide wire.
  • The boundary wire makes an unbroken loop around your yard and through the base station.
    • The loop may not cross itself. (This is stated in the manual, but poorly in my opinion.)
  • The guide wire connects to both the base station and the boundary wire with a splice. The mower comes with little splice boxes to accomplish this.
    • It can connect anywhere on the boundary loop, so long as the first meter (3 feet) extends straight out from the base.
    • The guide wire may bend after the first meter, but should not have corners. The mower has trouble following at corners, and may run off the guide and get lost when it’s at its most tired and starving, which will make you worried and sad. Gentle, freeway-style curves are best.
    • To save on wire you may bend the guide wire right back to boundary, after you’ve come out a meter from the base station.
    • The quick start mentions that you need  to make a loop of wire somewhere in the boundary, but the main booklet does not.  Neither guide says why you’re doing it: you need to plan where the guide wire will tie into the boundary and leave some slack there. There’s no indication regarding how long to make the loop – a finger’s length is enough. You’ll splice the guide wire into the boundary wire using one of the included splicing boxes.
  • The instructions say this, but it’s not clear enough: the boundary wire should not come near the left side of the base station.
    • “Left” is your left as you’re facing the front of the base station.
    • The boundary wire should run away from the base station at a minimum 45° angle from the left side of the base station, and go out for at least a meter or two. If it’s too close to the base station you’ll get a calibration warning.
    • Since most of the important work takes place behind the base station, it would make more sense to change the point of view and reverse left/right in the instructions.
  • It’s not clear how frequently to put stakes down to keep the wire in place, except indicating that you must space them a minimum of 30 inches apart. I took my best guess on frequency, but I’m also lazy so maybe I didn’t use enough. Time will tell.
  • Finding a good home for the power-brick was harder than expected, as the instructions tell you that it shouldn’t get wet. (That’s an odd requirement for outdoor hardware.) I wound up screwing it under our deck, inside a plastic tupperware bin to protect it from drips.

Total Set Up Time

From unboxing to the mower’s first run was about three hours of work.

Our yard is basically a square, less than two-tenths of an acre, and it’s all behind the house.  We don’t have any complicated edges or ‘islands’ that require runs into the yard.  Everything we need the mower to leave alone is in the outside edge.

We chose to lay the wire on the soil and stake it down, rather than trenching and burying it. The mower comes with plenty of stakes and wire; we used a fraction of one spool. If there were complicated sections we could easily have used more, but now we have enough leftover to fix mistakes and broken wires for a while.

Laying the wire on the soil was an easy choice because we have very little grass. Our yard was re-graded this spring and there’s still lots of bare soil. (We skipped hyro-seeding so we could customize the mix ourselves – wildflowers on the edge and lots of clover everywhere else.)

We stopped in the middle of set-up to run out and buy a 30 qt plastic tub, to make an ersatz garage for the base station. I’m not counting that time in the set-up time.

I may make a real “dog house” for it later.

Operation

Getting the mower itself running was very easy for me. I’m a technical person, your mileage may vary. You push it into the base station to start charging, set a security PIN to prevent theft, fill in some other information, and push “start.” That’s about it for the year, unless you want to make changes.

The unit is quiet. It’s much quieter than I expected. I expected moderate electric lawnmower noise, but I got nearly-silent operation. It’s “guaranteed” to be 59 decibels or less, but as a layman I have no point of reference for that. Suffice it to say, it’s super quiet.

Here’s What You Need To Know

  • There are three small blades that attach to a disc underneath.  They have a short lifetime.  The manual suggests that they will need to be replaced every 4-7 weeks.
    • The mower comes with your first summer’s worth of blades, and replacements are relatively inexpensive.  We found a set of 30 online for ~$15.
    • They look to be reasonably easy to replace.
  • You may schedule the unit to run around the clock – it doesn’t care about day vs night.  Consider nocturnal animals before you schedule it for nighttime, though.
  • You don’t need to shut it off in the rain, though you might want to unplug it during thunderstorms.
  • There’s a phone app that connects over Bluetooth that’s easier to use than bending over the control panel on the mower.

It’s very fun to watch. I immediately started rooting for it to knock down tall sprigs of grass and other vegetation. It’s good to watch it to make sure you set the boundaries properly, leaving enough room for “overage.” It will cross the boundary a little, you can’t make tight margins.

We’ve had it running for less than 24 hours and it’s reached pretty much every point on the lawn.

If the mower crosses a boundary, hits something that activates the bump sensor, or gets confused, it backs up and tries a new direction.  That seems to be a simple and effective solution.

Here’s a video of the mower in action this morning:

There is a stand of taller weeds emigrating from a neighbor’s yard, which took over that side of the yard last year. It has already re-sprouted and grown to a foot high since we re-graded the yard a few weeks ago. If we let it go all summer again, it will grow into two-meter-tall woody stalks. The mower has been slowly nibbling it back until the bump sensor activates, and has already cut down nearly all of it – about 2 square meters (6 square feet). We might have to weed the very edge of the fence, but that’s it.

Considerations Before Trying

Autonomous mowers might not be a good mower for some situations:

  • You like to make patterns in your lawn, like my boss does. He enjoys making checkerboards like you see on professional baseball diamonds.
  • Your lawn is complicated, with lots of islands, special plantings, drop offs, marshy spots, and/or slopes.  The boundary wires will be time-consuming to lay out.
  • There is particularly uneven ground in the mow-zone, with holes, ruts, divots, and/or surface tree roots.  The mower could get stuck and require frequent rescues.
  • Boundary wires could be a tripping hazard in a high-traffic lawn and are more likely to be broken by repeated stepping.  Burying may be a good solution, but complicates installation.

Closing Thoughts

Despite some frustration with the setup instructions, the first 24 hours have gone swimmingly and I’m very happy. This might be the first time in my adult, home-owning life that I’ve had a neat lawn for more than a week per summer.

Having a real, autonomous, domestic robot makes the future feel like it’s finally arriving.