Finally got my chance to use my new mower today.
I have a tall fescue lawn. It had only grown a couple inches in the past couple months because of all the nasty weather we've had.
I charged up the 7.5ah battery, pulled the mower out of the box and set it up. No need to read any instructions on the mower as I've own the prior mower for at least a year and a half.
I set the mower to it's highest setting (4 Inches). Right now my grass isn't 4 inches tall but if I cut it that way, it will grow up to that height.
As I took a good look at the mower, it looks a little different. Better? I don't know about that. The mower could use more black highlights. I can say that mower is a bit heavier than the 20" mower and it actually 'feels' light a gas mower in the hand. It's built like a tank.
While I can't really speak towards the full capabilities of the mower as of yet, It does seem to have a lot of power. When my grass is actively growing, it is actually thick enough in spots to stall the prior model. We'll see what happens with this one. I'll have to wait on that test though.
I didn't really care for the self-propelled option. Yes, you can use the mower without it engaged. I cut for maybe and hour and a half and used the self-propelled option about 3 mins of that time. As I stated, not for me really. I can say that it does work well. At full speed, you'll be running across your lawn trying to catch up to the mower. You do have a range of speed options though, should you decide to use it.
The extra inch in size did seem to cut my time down by a little. I still don't like that I'm being told not to clean it with a hose. That should be a standard option. There are other electric mowers that will allow cleaning with a hose.
An item that some had a problem with last year were the hinges. They are very stout this year and I don't see them being a problem this time around.
Another thing that caught my attention even though it was small was the key. It doesn't seem to come out this year. I don't know if the instructions say different because I haven't read them but I think I would have noticed while using it today if it did.
As mentioned before, I bought the model with the 7.5ah battery. With the prior mower, i'd use 1.5 of the 4ah batteries to complete my yard. Even though I was not cutting off a third of lawn height today because I had the mower set to it's highest point, it cut my entire yard and it's indicator never turned red on it's own. When I threw it on the charger, it showed one bar and then after a minute or two, it went to two bars so I am thinking the battery is what it says it is...a little over 1.5 times the capacity of a 4ah battery.
As for today's cut, i'd give the mower a 9/10. I will have to wait until my grass it actively growing to add anything more to that.