Swapped my electric lawn mower for a manual reel mower last spring and the carbon difference is bigger than I expected

I bought a cheap electric push mower 3 years ago thinking it was better than gas. Then I actually checked the power usage. My electric mower pulls about 12 amps for 45 minutes each week. Thats like running a small AC unit. I switched to a manual Fiskars reel mower for 200 bucks. No fuel, no electricity, just my arms pushing it. It takes longer but I burn maybe 100 extra calories per session and zero grid power. My neighbor saw me and asked why I downgraded. Told him about the math and now hes thinking about it too. Has anyone else made a similar switch? What did you notice?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan.logan2d ago

And @irismartinez you nailed it about the quiet part. I didn't realize how much I hated the sound of my electric mower until I didn't have to hear it anymore. With the reel mower I can actually hear birds and my neighbors can sit on their porch without me drowning them out. Plus the lack of cord tangles is huge, I used to spend 5 minutes just untangling the extension cord before I even started. The clean cut thing is real too, reel mowers actually slice the grass instead of tearing it like rotary blades do. Less browning on the tips after a day or two.

thomas_martinez2d ago

The cord tangles thing is such a perfect example of how we just accept dumb annoyances as normal. It's like how we put up with tangled earbuds for years until bluetooth came along and we realized how much we hated them lol.

irismartinez2d ago

Switched to a reel mower last summer. The quiet is the real win. No extension cord tangles either. Takes longer but the lawn looks better with the clean cut.