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If you have a yard that you have to mow, then the warmer weather means it’s time to pull out your lawnmower. While most of us think of a traditional gas lawnmower, I always like to explore alternatives and see if there’s something cheaper. Many years ago I compared gas and reel mowers, but since then, a new kind of mower has arrived on the market: the electric mower. They all have pros and cons, but the cost of using each one is also different, so I wanted to try comparing lawnmowers to help you decide which lawnmower is best for you.
Comparing Lawnmowers
The three types of lawnmowers are gas mowers, electric mowers, and reel mowers (or manual). I’m going to look at each one and approximate the cost of buying and using each lawnmower for 10 years. I’m going to assume an average sized yard and a mowing season of half the year (26 weeks), which is what we have in South Carolina.
Gas Mowers
When most people think of lawnmowers, they think of traditional gas mowers. These are not a bad choice at all, but I hope in this post to give you enough information to decide whether it’s the best option for your yard. This Craftsman Lawnmower is $229 on Amazon. It was hard for me to come up with a good estimation of how much gas a lawnmower like this uses, but there seemed to be a consensus that they use up about 1 gallon an hour. Of course, depending on how big your yard is, it might take you shorter or longer to mow your yard.
So let’s say it takes about 30 minutes to mow your lawn. That’s 1/2 a gallon each week. If you mow your lawn once a week for half the year like we do in South Carolina, that’s 13 gallons a year. In 2019, the average cost of gas in the United States was $2.70/gallon. That means you’d spend about $35/year.
Another cost related to gas mowers is maintenance. Each season you’ll need to do some basic maintenance or pay someone else to do it. It costs about $85 to pay someone else to do it if you’re not familiar with the process. To deal with the oil, air filter, and spark plugs yourself, you’ll pay about $25 per season.
Let’s add it all up for the cost to use a gas mower with these parameters for one year, and then for ten years. We’ll assume you pay someone else to do the maintenance.
One year: $229 + $35 + $85 = $349
Ten years: $229 + $35(10) + $85(10) = $1,429 (or an average of $142/year over 10 years)
Reel Mowers
A reel mower is a throwback to a simpler time. This mower is not powered by batteries or by gas, but by you! You won’t want this mower if you have a huge yard, but if you have a smaller yard, this might be worth it. This American Lawnmower Company reel mower costs $73.85. You’d also need to buy a lapping kit (approximately $20) for maintenance in order to keep the blades sharp (check out The Art of Manliness guide to sharpen a reel mower).
You can probably already see that this is going to cost way less overall than a gas mower. That said, your time is also worth something, as is the amount of energy you want to expend. But if you want an weekend workout that also contributes to your home, then getting a reel mower may be perfect.
Here’s a look at the cost, assuming you have to buy a lapping kit each year (which would probably be overkill!).
One year: $74 + $20 = $94
Ten years: $74 + $20(10) = $274 (or an average of $27/year over 10 years)
Electric Mowers
The final option is to get an electric mower. These mowers run on batteries that you recharge in between uses. The Greenworks electric mower is about $280 on Amazon, and a new battery is about $125. You may need to replace the battery after a few years, but unlike a gas mower, an electric mower does not require an regular maintenance. The only other cost related to an electric mower is having to recharge the battery. It looks like it takes about 6 hours to recharge the battery, which should be enough to mow your lawn once each week. Electricity right now runs about $0.129 per kwh, so it would cost about 75¢ to charge your battery each week, or about $20 over the course of one year.
Again, let’s compare the cost for one year and ten years (I’m assuming you might replace the battery twice over those ten years).
One year: $280 + $20 = $300
Ten years: $280 + $125 + $125 + $20(10) = $730 (or $73/year over 10 years)
Which Lawnmower is for You?
Now that we’ve compared the costs as well as the pros and cons, you have to decide which one is best for you. You may already have a gas lawnmower, and if that’s the case, then the cheapest option is probably to use it until it dies. Then you can decide if your yard is small enough to make a reel mower a reasonable choice, or if you’d rather go for the significantly cheaper electric option. I’d love to know what you decide!
What kind of lawnmower do you use? Let us know in the comments!
