| Most lawn mowers are powered by gasoline. Up until | | | | If you are buying a new battery operated lawn |
| recently they have been the easiest mowers to use. | | | | mower, make sure you get one powered by a nickel |
| It was necessary only to pull the starter cord a few | | | | cadmium (Ni-cad) battery. They are simply better |
| times, or use the electric starter, and then mow to | | | | than the lead acid - they can be recycled and are |
| your heart's content. But gasoline-powered mowers | | | | environmentally friendly. |
| are noisy and they do rather pollute the air with their | | | | Extending battery life |
| emissions. | | | | As with any other type of mower, there are times |
| One of the knocks against the electric-powered | | | | when you should mow your lawn and times when |
| lawnmower was that it was awkward to use. The | | | | you shouldn't. You should never try to mow wet |
| mower must be plugged in via a long power cord, | | | | grass - it produces a tremendous strain on the |
| and care must be taken not to snarl or run over the | | | | battery - or engine - and doesn't do your grass much |
| power cord. | | | | good, either. Don't let your grass grow such that |
| Now, you've got another choice - the | | | | you're cutting off more than three inches at a time - |
| battery-operated lawnmower. A battery-operated | | | | again, bad for the engine or battery, and bad for the |
| lawnmower will generally have enough power to allow | | | | grass itself. |
| the operator to mow both the front and back yards | | | | Ni-Cad batteries |
| on one charge, unless they are extremely large. | | | | Ni-Cad batteries are maintenance free. All you need |
| It all depends on the battery, though. Some batteries | | | | to do is make sure you do not re-charge the |
| last for thirty minutes between charges, others last | | | | batteries until they are completely discharged. The |
| up to an hour. The key thing is that they are | | | | batteries have a 'memory' - if you recharge them |
| rechargeable, so that there's no need to bury them in | | | | when they don't need to be, they will remember the |
| a garbage dump. Although...even these batteries only | | | | energy state they were at when they were |
| last about five years or so - and then must be | | | | recharged, and will believe themselves to be run |
| recycled. | | | | down the next time they reach that state - even |
| There are several types of batteries: alkaline - which | | | | though they have plenty of power left. (Okay, |
| are not used in lawn mowers, lead acid - which are | | | | there's a bit of anthropomorphism there, but you get |
| gradually being replaced by nickel cadmium, and lithium | | | | the idea.) |
| batteries - which are not only expensive but also | | | | If you're concerned about the environment - and we |
| have low storage capacity. | | | | all should be - the battery-operated or electrical lawn |
| Nickel cadmium batteries | | | | mowers should be our choice. |