Black and Decker Electric Mowers: Making Your Neighbors Jealous For Decades!

Why the heck am I creating a blog about Black and Decker electric mowers? Well, to put it bluntly, it's 2012 and if you're still using a greasy, smelly and loud gas/oil mower, you're a dinosaur.

This isn't an easy change to make, I'm the cheapest middle-aged man I know (ask my wife) and I bought dozens of used mowers since the late 90's when I wasn't so old and mix/matched the parts to keep these beasts alive. Many were simply "grass benders" until sharpening the blades, oiling them and generally spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME IN THE GARAGE.

As my family grew into a small army (5 kids now) time became an important commodity that I simply couldn't waste anymore. The time came to liquidate my gas mowers and start looking for something easier that needed less maintenance. I miss my garage time but I've discovered some of the best mowers ever made. I've test driven close to 50 different electric mowers since they really took off about 10 years ago and I've decided two brands reign supreme. These brands are Black and Decker and Worx. What's the difference? Well, we'll get into that in a different post but it boils down to Price, Noise and Reliability. These are the two AAA brands on the market right now when it comes to hand push electric mowers.

What really forced my hand in the electric push mower realm was my neighbor. We'll call him "Ron" to keep him anonymous. He's the bane of my existence. His Kentucky Bluegrass lawn is perfectly groomed at all times, fertilized properly and it seems like his whole property is absolutely level. He's like an old lawn magician and no, he will absolutely not give me his secret. I've spied on him and after 10 years have no idea how he does it and keeps it so nice. Maybe it's his mean dog that keeps kids off the grass or something he's feeding the squirrels, I don't know but I WILL have a nicer lawn one day even if I have to wait until he ...moves on. Yeah it's evil so what, you haven't seen his lawn!

Ron had one of the first electric mowers that was popular in the 90's, this silent mower of death I called it because I was sure it would kill him. Over time he ended up with fist sized wads of duct tape holding the cord together because he kept mowing the cord. I admit, I enjoyed it immensely when the noise would cease and a barrage of terrible language was spewed. I still chuckle thinking about it. Naturally, I had to get an electric model too. To prevent running the cord over, I taped a piece of vacuum hose over it. Ugly? Yes. Effective, sort of. I only really chopped it up once compared to Ron's pearl necklace duct tape cord from hell.

Time went on and we upgraded, keeping an eye on each others mowers. Ron got a Black and Decker cordless electric mower a few years back and I had no idea they went cordless at all. It was kind of ugly and looked like the one in the picture up there but black. He could mow his whole front lawn on one battery but I heard him swearing in the back so I assume it ran out of juice back there. I got the next best model (I'm cheap remember) that was about $50 cheaper. It would just barely do my entire front lawn and side walkways. 

I knew with the first use that this was the future of mowing. I mean, how could it NOT be? It's quiet, no gas or oil, no smells. You could probably sneak out late at night and use it without any cranky neighbors being too upset. It does make noise like a mower but not that familiar "broken motorcycle" noise we all know from old mowers.

Today, I actually have 5 electric mowers in my garage, 3 Black and Decker, 2 Worx and a couple neat electric weedeaters as well. Our lawn fight will eventually move into the laser mower realm I'm sure but for now, I lead the tech fight and I know my lawn will look as good as his one day.

In this blog I'll share some stories with you about some different mowers I have and you can decide whether or not electric mowers are up your alley. If not, maybe I'll be a little entertaining as I relate more battles with Ron and the newcomer in the house to the East, "Bill".