What is the reason you're moving away from a lawn care service? Money, aesthetics, exercise...? My guess is not aesthetics since mowing once per month would mean you'll get a lot of weeds outgrowing your lawn each month. In any case, I estimate it would likely take you about an hour to mow 8000 sq ft with a 22" mower, so use that as a reference point. If you want a quicker mow, opt for a larger diameter mower.

 

I paid $1000 last year to have someone mow my lawn, and my thought is to invest this year in a tool and go DIY, mostly economics driven. So, if i can buy a mower for about $1k, that would pay for itself in thr first year, notwithstanding my labor under hard Texas sun.

 

I ended up going with a Ego LM2156SP after watching numerous reviews as well as factoring in cost per Watt-Hour.
In case anyone is interested, below is my analysis which should be up-to-date

 

Just pay someone to do it. Buying a mower to collect dust will just take up space in the garage and remind you how lazy you are every time you walk by it.

 

I have a feeling i would end up agreeing with you, and regret buying it after one season, but figure i have to give myself at least one chance.

 

EGO just came out with the new 22" aluminum deck mowers. $1200.

 

yes that should blow the Milwaukee M18 out of the competition. I am not sure whether i need all that power or will the LM2156 be enough for me

 

I ended up going with a Ego LM2156SP after watching numerous reviews as well as factoring in cost per Watt-Hour.
In case anyone is interested, below is my analysis which should be up-to-date

That is quite the extensive decision matrix. You examined far more models than I think I ever would in making such a decision. But as an observation, I noticed you included criteria that I probably would not have, and you did not include other factors that I would have. I realize what to include or not is a personal matter, but did you consider other items not included in your matrix?

Just pay someone to do it. Buying a mower to collect dust will just take up space in the garage and remind you how lazy you are every time you walk by it.

Agree that saving space in the garage is an underrated factor.

 

I considered battery charge time as well, but not much else. What factors ahould be included?

 

I was thinking that average time per mowing 1000k sq ft might be nice to consider based on deck size (especially if you want to reduce the amount of time spent mowing). Or, maybe ability to collapse/store the unit in the offseason, or other features that might distinguish them. And maybe all of them are self-propelled, but that would be an important requirement as well IMO.

 

There is a self propelled option (SP) in the table and in fact I only looked for SP mowers. Fully agree that mowing efficiency is very important given medium sized lawn and is in fact a major factor for my purchase. I am still shaky on confidence whether i wud be able to last one season doing this myself.

Even though i have some makita tools, i did not pick their mower owing to its to smaller battery capacity, requiring at least one recharge to go through my lawn.

A larger deck with greenworks (25") was compelling..if there some sale/discount this option would be very attractive. Any sale on milwaukee would also bump it up the list quickly.

Ultimately, the 5 year battery on warranty and $$ per WattHr led me to towards EGO, but that also means i will need to invest an an alternate battery ecosystem.

 

Iam also constrained on storage space, so that is also a big factor that may push me back to contracting this out

 

60” zero turn and be done in 15 min. 😁

 

That would blow through a $1000 budget though. For 8000 sq feet, to go fast I would opt for a rear engine mower, but that would still be closer to $2000.

 

My boss had about 7k sq ft and bought a Hustler Raptor brand new. It took him very little time to mow, which is what he wanted. We were on-call a lot and when you only have 15 minutes to mow, you gotta do what you can do. When he retired and moved, I bought it from him. You can definitely find a used ZT for a decent price. Just a little anecdote.
Good luck with your purchase. I hope you have a better time in the yard than it sounds like you do.

 

Just saw Milwaukee M18 on sale for $749 (includes 2x 12.0AH batteries) on ebay with Factory Authorized Outlet and some other websites. Pretty good deal!!

 

What about a robotic lawnmower? You would have way better results than with mowing only once oder twice a month, you don‘t have to spend your time mowing, if you don‘t enjoy it, and you don‘t have to dump clippings.

 

I wud be interested in hearing feedback if you have owned and used one on a lawn of this size

 

My lawn is about 5000 squft. I use a Robomow RS615 (which I do not recommend) since a couple of years. The size of your lawn is not an issue at all, but slopes, passages and narrow shapes could be. I would recommend a robotic lawn mower that doesn‘t need a boundary wire and mows in rows instead of chaotic patterns, which are “state of the art“ today. You can find tons of information online, for instance check out the Luba.

 

I'm late, but while reading all the posts a robotic mower seemed like an optimal choice. If you have a $1,000 budget for mowing, buy one on credit and pay it off over 2-3 years. You can mow at a lower height without harming the lawn if you have the mower mow more frequently. This will look better, help reduce weed pressure, and you only have to set up the device once, and occasionally change the blades on the mower. There are many options out there, but for ease of installation, I'd suggest looking into one with GPS/RTK, or LIDAR versus the older models that require a boundary wire. ManMotion Luba is about $1,900 for the smallest cut size programming, but you may be able to find some used models for a lower cost. If you go to YouTube and look up "Pest and Lawn Ginja", he has reviewed several robotic mowers over the past several months, including one that has a reel mower versus rotary. For people that want to mow low using a reel mower, that's one to watch. It's a start up business and models are going out, but if I'm going to get one like that, I'll wait for the GPS/RTK options so I can get straight cuts. It's a pretty cool set up. It has a microphone that listens to the reel mower and self-adjusts based on what it hears. It has a reverse option to touch up the blade sharpness. This version is LIDAR, but if you're not worried about perfectly straight lines, it's a great option. It cost more up front to get a robotic mower versus a push mower, but it will pay for itself. You may still need to do some trimming, but that's going to be true with any mower. Plus, if you move, it's easy enough to pick up and move with you. It doesn't take much space.