Lawn Care…

Ready to join the rest of the crowd and go green? You should really consider a Neuton Mower!

I recently had the opportunity to get my hands on a brand new Neuton CE 6.2 mower. This is the latest release from Neuton boasting a 19″ cut and a 36V sealed lead acid battery. More impressive than its wide cut and high powered battery is its ability to virtually eliminate harmful emissions. Believe it or not, your traditional gas powered mower will produce its weight in emissions every year. The Neuton mower is able to completely eliminate these emissions by running a battery that only costs $0.10 to charge. The question most of you are probably wondering is will it cut my grass? Read the rest of the review to find out!

Unboxing the Neuton Mower

The Neuton business model is that of direct consumer sales, which means you can only purchase these mowers online or over the telephone. You’re not going to get your hands on one at your local home improvement stores anytime soon. The major advantage to this strategy is that you don’t have to haul your new mower home from the store. The big brown truck will drop it off on your doorstep.

Popping the top on the box you’ll find a very well packaged mower. There is absolutely no assembly necessary. By dropping the back flap off the box you’ll be able to roll your new Neuton mower right out of the box. Straighten the handle with just a ’snap’ and you’re ready to mow! Unfortunately you’ll have to wait 24 hours to get the battery charged up and ready for its first workout.

The owners manual is well written in plain, easy to understand, English. After some of the manuals I’ve read, I’m grateful for a well written manual. Other than the manual you’ll find the necessary mulching attachments and a grass catcher that attaches with ease.

The Neuton Mower Experience

Charging the Battery

With the removal of a simple cap you’re able to plug the battery in and begin the initial 24 hour charge. The battery can be charged while still installed in the mower or easily removed by turning the latch and putting the battery on your garage workbench. The only minor issue with battery charging is the lack of status that the battery has been fully charged. There is however an led to indicate your battery is actually charging. At the end of the day you’re going to plug the mower in and forget about it until the next time you mow.

Starting the Mower

Tired of wondering if your gas powered mower will start next season? Tired of pulling your arm out of socket with a hard to start mower? Enter Neuton! Install the safety key, and pull the trigger. This baby purrs like a well fed kitten. I expected the ease of starting this mower, but the first time I started it, I was impressed.

Almost more impressive than the ease of starting was the noise or should I say the lack thereof. Neuton claims their mower is half as loud as a traditional gas mower. This claim is well founded. I just happened to wake up a bit early Saturday morning. My wife asked where I was going and I told her to mow the grass. She said “You can’t mow this early in the morning” and I said “what are you talking about, I’m using the Neuton mower”. “Oh! Nevermind” as she put her head back into the pillow. Even my wife noticed the lack of noise produced by this mower.

Mowing the Grass

The lack of emissions, easy to start, and less noisy mower are all great selling points, but if this thing can’t cut the grass, what good is it. I gave this mower a run for its money as I’m in the deep south mowing some of the thickest bermuda grass. Running a lawn care website, my yard is expected to be the thickest greenest grass around. I was a skeptic to say the least. I even went one step further and used the Neuton to make the first cut of the season. I dropped the blade to the #2 setting (which was a breeze) and set out on the front yard.

Surprisingly the Neuton mower was easier to push than my gas powered self propelled mower. I guess I should mention my ’self propelled’ option isn’t working quite as it should. My guess is that the Neuton is lighter than my gas guzzling mower. It easily ripped through some of the thickest bermuda grass you’ve even seen. I was astonished!

As the bag filled and the clippings backed up onto the blade the mower did bog down. As I hit another patch of the thickest stuff in the yard it died. Puzzled I looked at the battery guage to find it dead. I had only been mowing 15 minutes and knew the battery still had juice. Thinking for a second, I reached down to check the safety key. As the mower went into the stall condition the current spikes and thew a fault condition to keep everyone and everything safe. I popped the key back in and off I went. Even more impressed.

Getting ready to finish the front yard 25 minutes in, the mower dies again. This time it was the battery. Puzzled I pulled out the gas mower and finished the weekend chore. Later that week I had a call with the sales and marketing executive from Neuton. One of the first things I asked him was what kind of grass is this mower designed to cut. To sum it up he said that some of the thicker southern grasses, like bermuda, st. augastine, and zoysia, will wear the battery out quicker than the other grasses found around the country. “Good answer” I said, because this baby cut some of the thickest bermuda I’ve got but couldn’t last for the entire lawn. If you’re interested the entire call can be found here where I asked several other questions you may be interested in if you’re thinking of purchasing a Neuton mower.

So to answer your question: Yes, this mower can cut grass.

Neuton Exchange Program

One of the more unique programs you might be interested in is the Neuton Exchange Program. Essentially what happens is your local municipality will contact Neuton. A venue will be chosen where anyone with a gas mower can stop by and drop their old clunker in the dumpster and walk away with a brand new Neuton mower for only $100. It turns out that your local government ends up subsidizing the rest of the cost of the mower. Cities like Los Angeles, where smog is an on going battle, can’t get these Neuton mowers fast enough.

Conclusion

If you’re one of the 54 million gas mower users and thinking about making the switch you really should consider a Neuton mower. These mowers aren’t for everyone as I found out with my bermuda grass. However if you have a lawn smaller than a third of an acre and have grass other than bermuda, St. Augustine, or zoysia this might be a perfect fit. The mower is compact, easy to store, comes with a full line of accessories including extra batteries, trimmer / edging attachment, and one of my favorites the stripping attachment which will give you that ‘baseball’ field look.

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