First Cut and Thoughts

First cut, first impressions:

Took advantage of the nice weather today and tried my new Ego LM2100 push mower, it was about 10:30AM, the sun was out and the temperature was around 45 degrees. The grass was a lush deep green, full of moisture from the rain and the cool weather we've had.

I removed the mulch plug, attached the rear bagging attachment and began on a small section (about 40'x4') that always seems to grow faster than the rest, it had reached a good 8 or 9 inches in length and I set the cut at the highest level (#6) and went back and forth readjusting the height until I was satisfied. This turned out to be level 3 and I finished the remainder of that side of the lawn at that height. I emptied the bag 3 times during this part of the lawn. Now I went to the main part of the front lawn (roughly 40'x50') and decided to lower the mower deck to level 2, I had looked back at the previous section it just looked too long yet. I finished the front lawn at this level and only had to empty the bag three more times, the bag, however, was noticeably fuller these times.

Observations:

The trash bag I'm filling is 33 gallons and at completion of the front lawn the bag is only half full. When I mow the front lawn with my rider (with twin grass catching bags) I typically have to empty them at least three times just for the front and the amount of grass that would be collected would easily fill two+ 33 gallon trash bags. So now I'm wondering where all that grass disappeared to????

The Ego definitely has issues picking up leaves and other small debris from the lawn. When I'm done cutting my grass I like to see green and only green. I didn't get that satisfaction with my Ego. Needless to say the Ego doesn't much ability to “lift” and that may be where all my grass disappeared to.

I noticed quite a few uncut blades of grass. Might have been the thickness of the lawn, time will tell.

I popped the battery into the charger when I was done and the charger showed 25% so I assume I used 75% of the battery on the front alone. I don't know if this is due to the thickness of the grass of if the battery is defective. The charge level was 100% when I began. My entire lot is 85'x150', just under a 1⁄4 acre.

To it's credit it is lite and easy to maneuver. Height adjustment is wonderfully simple and easy. It's easy to push, with my fairly level lot the SP'd model would be a waste of money.

Final conclusion:

The primary reason I purchased the Ego was to get a mower that was lite so I could easily trim around things and get into tight areas. It does that but I have to ask myself if I needed to spend $500 to achieve that end? A smaller, less expensive battery powered mower could achieve the same thing. Will I be returning it to Home Depot? I don't know, I'm going to give it a few more goes before I make my final judgment.

Sorry for rambling.