It's gardening season. New eco-tools boast their earth-friendliness but how will they stack up against traditional gas-guzzlers? Wendy Bounds investigates.
Story from the Wall Street Journal
And I haven't used a single drop of gasoline.
It's shaping up to be the summer of the "alternative energy" outdoor power tools and lawn care machinery. From battery mowers and garden cultivators to a new propane-propelled string trimmer, manufacturers and retailers are rolling out consumer machines that run on gas substitutes and boast lower emissions and fewer maintenance headaches.
Right now, Ariens Co. of Brillion, Wis., is introducing its $3,299 "AMP Rider" electric-motor mower that works off rechargeable lead-acid batteries and never needs an oil-change. Valley City, Ohio-based MTD Products Inc.'s Troy-Bilt brand just launched a $169 seven-pound lithium-ion battery trimmer it says can run up to 45 minutes on a single charge. And Vergennes, Vt.-based Country Home Products Inc., known for its futuristic Neuton brand battery push lawn mowers, just added four new tools with interchangeable nickel-cadmium batteries to its lineup, including a $109 chainsaw.
Meantime, home-improvement retailers are allocating more shelf space for these eco mowers and other eco machines, lured by slowing sales of gas models and robust interest in alternative-fuel models. At Home Depot Inc., 2008 was a record year, with double-digit sales growth, for non-gas outdoor equipment.
Two factors are driving the trend, says Wesley Neece, Home Depot senior merchant for lawn and garden: the greening of America and lingering caution about rising gas prices. Home Depot sells a range of items from corded and battery-powered push mowers to a trimmer just out from Los Angeles-based Lehr Inc. that's fueled by a small 16.4-ounce propane canister. Home Depot is just beginning to sell the Ariens battery AMP Rider online.
"There's a lot of innovation with battery technologies," Mr. Neece says. "There are longer run times, better performance, and then you have prices coming down. Everything is happening at once."
This market may get more heated thanks to newly proposed legislation that would offer consumers a 25% tax credit up to $1,000 toward the purchase of environmentally friendly lawn, garden or forestry power equipment. The "Greener Gardens Act" was introduced late last month by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.) and two other U.S. congressional delegates from Vermont. It is designed to provide "immediate incentive for people to purchase clean, alternative fuel engines that ... operate on little or no fossil fuel."
While non-gas, corded and non-corded consumer power equipment has been around for years, the breadth of the offerings is fast-expanding. Towson, Md.-based Black & Decker Corp., which first introduced a battery push mower in 1970, recently has been expanding its line of outdoor tools with interchangeable 18-volt nickel-cadmium battery packs to include everything from a power scrubber for washing boats and cars, to a pruning saw. Marketing focuses on convenience and ease-of-maintenance as much as the environment.
"We now sell more dollars worth of cordless string trimmers than the corded one," says Joe Newland, Black & Decker's product manager for outdoor products. "There are tradeoffs, and what you lose in power, you gain in convenience and weight." He notes that female buyers are a particularly robust audience for gas-less tools. "They don't want to start with filling it. They just want to use it."
But it's the entrance of high-end gas tool makers such as Ariens and Sweden's Husqvarna Group to this consumer niche in the U.S. that signals the most notable strategy shift. This season, Husqvarna is introducing to its U.S. dealers an $899 rugged soil cultivator run off a single large lead-acid battery. The company also just launched an "EcoSmart" marketing campaign highlighting products that lessen their impact on the environment, such as its manual push reel mowers (U.S. sales almost doubled in 2008), and its solar-battery hybrid robot "Automower."
Part of the rush to develop new non-gasoline technologies is driven by increasingly tighter exhaust-emissions standards for outdoor power equipment. Last fall, the Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules requiring a 35% reduction in emissions from new lawn and garden equipment over the next few years. "I would describe the alternative fuel market as emerging and growing," says Kris Kiser, executive vice president of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, an Alexandria, Va.-based trade group.
Still, manufacturers express caution about going cold turkey off gas in certain high-demand, heavy-use categories, lest performance suffer and dilute their brands. "A push mower, if it is going to have our name on it, it needs to be more robust than a cultivator," says Gent Simmons, a U.S. product manager for Husqvarna. "We are testing a very powerful premium battery push mower, and we are very close. But before we launch, the quality expectation has to be there."
Likewise Stihl Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Germany's Stihl International GmbH, is proceeding cautiously with alternative-fuel machines while focusing on getting emissions down in its popular gas-powered chainsaws and blowers and beefing up corded electric equipment offerings. "It's one of those things where we want to be careful," says Roger Phelps, Stihl's promotional communications manager. "One thing customers are demanding is for performance to still be there. It's cool to have a battery-operated mower, but if it only gets halfway across the yard, that's not very cool."
So, just how far can you get on a single charge? For several weeks, I've been testing some of the newest and best-selling players in the category around my property.
The good news: In nearly every case, the batteries' duration was better than advertised. (Notably, these were new batteries.) Despite having a garage full of loyal gas models I mostly love (a Stihl chainsaw, an Echo trimmer and backpack blower, and Honda push mower), I relished not running to the gas station, cleaning a spark arrestor screen (don't ask) or fishing out a fuel filter for replacement this year. In some instances, the eco-tools' performance exceeded my expectations; I'd never have thought a small battery chainsaw could slice through an eight-inch trunk of Cherry tree without getting stuck. (For more on each machine's performance, see accompanying chart, as well as video at WSJ.com.)
Video: Watch Wendy Bounds test out some "green" outdoor power tools.
The new $3,299 Ariens AMP Rider was the priciest and most ambitious entrant. It cut grass evenly and drove smoothly, save an awkward reverse pedal and some huffing and puffing on certain hills. Its small size was comfortable for a tall woman's frame, and even though its motor had a tinge of whininess, I could hold a conversation without screaming while mowing. That's what I call organic lawn care.
The challenge for the AMP will be cost and winning over heftier gas-rider enthusiasts accustomed to the power of their machines. After three or four years, Ariens says the batteries will need to be replaced -- at a current cost of about $749. However, the company says that price-tag is comparable to the $200 in annual savings users will reap based on not needing gas (based on $3 a gallon), oil, replacement filters, spark plugs and annual maintenance checkups. Chief Executive Dan Ariens says early retail signs for the AMP "are fairly good," given the state of the economy and the unit's price.
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The battery push mowers I tested are cheaper ($400 to $500). My biggest beef was weight. While the two models, from Neuton and Black & Decker, cut well, didn't spew smelly fumes and started on a dime, at 70 to 76 pounds, respectively, they felt heavy on hilly turf. Neither was self-propelling though there are such models on the market, such as the Solaris brand.
By contrast, a new svelte 27-pound electric model called the "Mow Joe" from Edison, N.J.-based Snow Joe Co. was a breeze to lug around. But it needs a cord, which is cumbersome, and will cut to a Marine-style 2.4 inches. In the end, I still liked the old-school approach to groom my 3,500-square-foot lawn eco-style: a 34-pound push reel mower. It wasn't fancy, and I broke a sweat. Otherwise, it didn't cost a dime in energy.
This eco-tool trend doesn't look to end with summer. Due out for cold weather: a battery-powered snowblower from Ariens that its CEO says hurls snow farther in early tests than comparable gas models. Lehr says it will introduce a propane backpack blower this fall. And later this year, Husqvarna plans to launch a U.S. zero-turn radius mower run off propane, while Hustler Turf Equipment, a division of Hesston, Kan.-based Excel Industries Inc., is readying an all-electric zero-turn riding lawnmower called the "Zeon."
My gas machines are starting to look a little nervous.
