5 Things to Know Before Buying Garden Power Tools

One of the most common yard tools, a mower is essential for basic lawn maintenance. Gas-powered mowers are popular, but electric and cordless models are also available. Modern lawnmowers can feature everything from smart technology to cruise control.

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Choose from riding mowers, walk-behinds, self-propelled options, zero turn models and robots. Pick the type of mower that best fits your yard size and needs:

• Riding mowers make quick work of overgrown lawns and are ideal for more than a 1/2 acre.
• A zero-turn mower is perfect for curved, tree-filled landscapes of less than an acre.
• Use push lawn mowers for small yards. Consider a manual push mower if the area is particularly small and easy to maintain.
• Flat yards of less than an acre are perfect for robotic lawn mowers.

Keeping hedges and small bushes nice and neat can be a lot of work. Save time and fatigue by using a power hedge trimmer. Two flat blades provide more power than a single blade. Corded models are more powerful than battery-powered hedge trimmers. Battery-powered hedge trimmers do allow more freedom but require more upfront investment.

An edger keeps the areas near your curb and between walkways free of grass. You can maintain a manicured look with an electric, gas or battery-powered edger. Battery-powered edgers give you more freedom and vibrate less than gas or electric models. They are perfect for small yards. Gas-powered edgers can handle bigger yards with ease, but they tend to vibrate.

A string trimmer or weed trimmer cuts grass with a fast-moving string. It is one of the most versatile of outdoor power tools. There are gas-powered models and ones that run on batteries. Both make quick work of overgrown grass in driveways, around trees, near retaining walls and more. However, cordless trimmers are lightweight and budget friendly.

Gas-powered string trimmers can go more places, but they also require more investment and maintenance. Choose a trimmer that has good weight distribution and a curved shaft. Both make using the machine less of a strain on your arms and back.

Chainsaws are must-have yard tools if you have trees. They come in handy during fall pruning and after a storm. Noisy and powerful, gas chainsaws can zip through thick fallen limbs. They also require more upfront investment and maintenance.

Electric chainsaws are quieter, but the cord can be difficult to work around. However, both electric and cordless chainsaws are lightweight and easier to control. Battery-powered chainsaws are best for small branches and require repeated recharges.

Raking fall leaves can be back-breaking work. A leaf blower makes this yard chore much easier and more efficient. Gas blowers are powerful enough to blow even wet leaves and other hard-to-move debris. Loud and heavy, they do require a bigger upfront investment.

Electric or cordless blowers are lightweight and quieter. You can choose a handheld model or the popular backpack type. Backpack leaf blowers work well if you have a lot of ground to cover.

Garden power tools like cultivators and tillers make planting easier. Either can be gasoline-powered, cordless or electric. A cultivator is small enough to turn soil around plants, trees and shrubs. It helps you prepare soft soil between plantings or seasons, tear out weeds, mix fertilizer into the soil and more.

If you’re putting in a vegetable or flower garden from scratch, consider renting a tiller. If you have a large, hard-to-work area, a rear-tine tiller is powerful enough to break up a lot of soil. A front-tine tiller works best in soft soil and smaller spaces.

An aerator breaks up hard soil so grass roots can grow. Aerating your yard at least twice a year is fundamental to a healthy lawn. You can get a gas-powered or electric-powered machine. Gas-powered aerators are more powerful machines and heavier than electric models. The more weight an aerator has, the better its spikes can penetrate the soil. Choose hollow spikes over solid ones since they may compact the soil even more.

Handle cleaning all your windows and walkways with the right power or pressure washer. Pressure washers provide a deep clean for outdoor furniture, patios and decks. Electric pressure washers usually have more than enough power for most jobs. Gas models offer more power and require more upkeep. Pressure washers that have 1,300 to 1,800 PSI work well for light duty jobs such as car washing. For heavy-duty projects, such as sidewalks or hardscapes, choose a unit with 2,000 to 3,000 PSI.

A good lopper or pole saw is ideal for pruning trees and shrub branches. Manual models are best for limbs that are an inch or less, but power loppers can handle limbs of up to four inches. A power lopper can also hold the branch while cutting. For higher branches, few things make pruning jobs easier than a lightweight, powered pole saw. For thicker branches, make sure the pole saw's bar is at least six inches long.

If you have several trees or hedges on your property, invest in a chipper or shredder. Choose a chipper based on its capacity, horsepower and reduction ratio. The greater a chipper’s reduction ratio, the more efficient it is at reducing waste. The higher its horsepower, the more power a chipper has. Many models have different-sized screens that determine the shredding capacity. A versatile chipper can make fast work of turning twigs and small branches into mulch. Or it can easily turn dry leaves and clippings into compost.

Shoveling snow can be tiresome and time-consuming. If you live in an area that gets a fair amount of accumulation, a better solution is a snow blower. Most snow blowers are budget-friendly and easy to use.

A gas snow blower has the power to deal with heavy, wet snow. An electric or cordless model is powerful enough for clearing a small amount of snow a few times a year. For small outdoor areas, consider a lighter weight, single-stage snow blower.

A portable generator can come in handy, especially if you have electrical power tools. Choose a size that has the right wattage for your tools. There are two types of wattage numbers to consider: the running watts and the starting watts. Running watts are needed to keep a tool running. Starting watts are the maximum amount of wattage a generator can produce. Make sure your starting wattage is adequate for the job according to the manufacturer’s specifications.

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Know Your Motors

Battery-powered yard tools can be equipped with either a “brushed” or “brushless” -style electric motor. Brushed motors cost less so they’re often used in economy tools where a low selling price is critical. Brushed motors are also less energy efficient than brushless versions, so they’re not a good fit for tools that must handle heavy loads or run for long periods because they’ll drain the battery faster. But that doesn’t mean you should rule them out completely. Brushed-motor hedge and edge trimmers save money and work just fine for maintaining smaller yards. Due to the shorter run times and lighter loads, the battery can easily last through the job.

However, that’s not the case with leaf blowers and chain saws. They’re typically run for longer periods at higher speeds. For those tools you’ll want a brushless-motor tool and a large battery—you don’t want to run out of power in the middle of a tree trimming or leaf wrangling project.

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Understanding Electric Motor Power Usage

You’ll find battery-powered yard tools with 18-, 24-, 36-, 40-, 56- and even 80-volt batteries. You may think that a higher voltage battery automatically translates to more power. That’s true in some cases, but not always. In fact, a well-designed tool with a 40-volt battery can match the power of an 80-volt tool, so you can’t rely on battery voltage alone to judge a tool’s suitability.

The true measure of a battery-powered yard tool’s efficiency is its wattage. To calculate wattage simply multiply volts times amps. Here’s how that applies to battery-powered yard tools. If you think of volts as pressure (psi) and amps as volume (gallons), then multiplying volts (pressure) times amps (volume) gives you the number of “gallons” at a set pressure (volts). So a tool with a higher wattage rating uses more power than a comparable tool with a lower wattage rating.

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Understanding Battery Capacity

The electrical storage capacity of a battery is rated in amp-hours. An amp-hour rating gives you an idea how long a battery can continuously output a set number of amps. A 5-amp-hour battery, for example, will discharge 5 amps continuously for one hour. If you run the yard tool at a higher speed or higher load that draws more than 5 amps, the battery will discharge faster.

But a battery’s amp-hour rating alone doesn’t give you an indication of how much total power the tool can deliver. That’s why you also need to compare the battery’s watt-hour rating (volts x amp-hours). Some manufacturers list the watt-hour rating, but many don’t. Here’s an example of two similarly sized batteries based on amp-hours.

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The 40-volt Toro PowerPlex T90 battery has a 2.5 amp-hour 90 watt-hour rating. Another manufacturer provides an 18-volt 2.0 amp-hour battery with a 36 watt-hour rating. Even though the batteries have similar amp-hour ratings (2.0 and 2.5), their watt-hour ratings are very different (90 versus 36). If you’re comparing batteries, make sure you compare watt-hour ratings instead of just amp-hours. Life hack: How to double the life of your lithium ion batteries.

Photo: The Toro Company, Rick Muscoplat

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About Those Battery Power Indicators

Many lithium batteries come equipped with a series of lights that indicate remaining battery power. They’re an invaluable aid to let you know whether you’ve got enough power to finish the job or start a new one. The indicators are fairly accurate, but they’re not foolproof. That’s because lithium batteries don’t discharge like older nickel–cadmium (NiCad ) or nickel metal hybrid (Ni–MH) batteries. Those batteries discharged slower and slower until they finally conked out. So you could “milk” that last little bit of power out of them to finish the job. Lithium batteries, on the other hand, output power at a fairly steady rate until battery voltage reaches a pre-set cutoff point, and then the battery shuts off completely. So be warned; if you start a job with less than 1/4-power left on the battery, your yard tool will probably shut down sooner than you think. Once it’s shut down, you’re out of business.

Photo: The Toro Company, Rick Muscoplat

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What’s the Deal With Battery Run Time?

The most common complaint from battery-powered yard tool owners is that the battery doesn’t last as long as advertised. Most manufacturers publish run times based on the tool on the lowest speed. If you run the tool at a higher speed, you simply won’t get the advertised run time.

Here are some rules of thumb for managing battery run time:

• Many homeowners run their leaf blower at top speed to move leaves and clean sidewalks and driveways. You don’t always need that higher speed to get the job done. You’ll get longer run times if you buy a leaf blower with several speeds and a power boost button. Run the tool at the lowest speed and use the higher speed or power boost only as needed.

• String trimmers and hedge trimmers can run at the lowest speed when trimming weekly growth. But if you let the growth get out of hand, don’t be surprised if your battery discharges faster due to the heavier load.

• Battery-powered chain saws can usually handle felling and cutting up small trees and shrubs on a single charge as long as you cut slowly. However, if you try to cut too fast, you’ll overload the motor and discharge the battery faster.

Which is faster, a gas- or battery-powered chain saw?

These are our top 10 chain saw tips.

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Which Speed Button Setup is Best?

Battery-powered yard tools are available with several speed options.

• Multiple speeds that you control from the trigger or push button control panel

• Infinitely variable speed that you control from the trigger or with a speed dial

• Boost mode that provides maximum power as long as you depress the “Boost” button

Infinitely variable speed may seem like the best choice because it allows you to fine tune the speed to get maximum battery run time. In reality, most users find it a nuisance. The truth is, few projects require that degree of speed control. If you’re considering a tool with trigger-controlled variable speed, make sure it’s equipped with a “cruise-control” trigger lock so you can release the trigger and still maintain the speed. Otherwise, choose a multiple-speed unit with boost mode.

Photo: The Toro Company

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For Leaf Blowers, It’s All About MPH and CFM

Leaf blower buyers get really confused by air velocity and air volume specifications. They wonder which is more important—miles per hour (MPH) or cubic feet per minute (CFM)? When it comes to lifting and moving leaves, MPH alone isn’t a reliable indicator of the leaf blower’s abilities. That’s because MPH is directly related to the tool’s nozzle size. So a blower can easily achieve a high 300-MPH rating, but have a very small nozzle opening. That may be great for blowing out the cracks in your driveway, but the blower sure won’t round up many leaves.

You need high air velocity (MPH) to lift leaves off your lawn and out of flower beds. But you need a high CFM and MPH rating to round up piles of leaves. So, the best leaf blowers have the highest CFM and MPH rating, along with multiple nozzles. Here are 14 tips for dealing with leaves like a pro.

Photo: The Toro Company

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Edger/Trimmers Offer the Best of Both Worlds

You can turn any string trimmer into an edger simply by rotating the tool 90°. That trick works if you have a short sidewalk. But holding the handle in that position for a long time can be hard on your wrists. That’s where a dual-mode edger/trimmer unit comes in handy. Use the head in the horizontal position for trimming around your foundation, fence and gardens. Then rotate the head 90° and edge a long walk and driveway while holding the handle in its normal position.

Photo: The Toro Company, Rick Muscoplat

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An Additional Battery Boosts Your Productivity

If you’re like most homeowners, you cut the grass, trim and edge with a string trimmer and then clean up the sidewalk and driveway with your leaf blower. If you have a small yard, you can probably do all those jobs with a single battery. But on larger yards, you’ll be far more productive if you buy a second battery. That way you’ll finish the job faster instead of waiting around for the battery to recharge. Here are some tips on caring for lithium ion batteries.

Photo: The Toro Company, Rick Muscoplat

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