Neuton Mower Review

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.

Is Your Bermuda Grass Healthy?

Bermuda grass is known for its thick lush lawn that is a pleasure to walk on. However if your grass gets stressed out it might start lacking in the coveted curb appeal we all work so hard to achieve. So lets discuss a couple different areas where your bermuda grass might be struggling to remain healthy.

Crunchy Bermuda

Got some patches or really dry bermuda grass that hurt to walk on. Maybe you can see the thatch / soil between the burned out shoots of bermuda. Chances are if you’ve got some really dry spots in your yard it’s not getting enough water. One article you might find particularly helpful is How Much Water Does My Grass Need.

Weedy Bermuda

Another tell tail sign your grass might not be healthy are weeds. If you’ve not implemented a strict weed control regimen into your lawn care routine, maybe it’s time to start. Weeds thrive in soil that is not conditioned to well. If your soil is healthy your grass will be healthy and the weeds will die off. If you’re looking for an organic solution to weed control you might consider broadcast spreading some sugar on your lawn. Otherwise there are several commercial weed control products to help you rid your lawn of pesky weeds.

Seed Head Bermuda

Bermuda grass that is stressed out will start throwing seed heads only a couple of days after mowing. These cause your grass to appear like it needs mowing again but is actually a sign your grass is in distress. What I’ve found is that most lawns are in pretty good shape and only have a couple of patches where seed heads are prevalent. If your lawn is covered in seed heads you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you to get your grass back in shape.

Are Organic Weed Killers Really Worth the Extra Cash?

There is a growing interest amongst people interested in protecting the environment about the use of organic weed control products. These are the same people interested in organic fertilizer. There are several organic weed killers that are effective for spot applications to control weeds. These products usually contain high concentrations of vinegar which act quickly to kill weeds, but do not harm earth worms, beneficial insects and do not provide a danger to aquatic life if they run off into streams or rivers.

These products are not as easy to find as the chemical herbicides and are considerably more expensive. In many cases these organic weed control products can cost 5-7 times more than man-made herbicides. The question that many face is if the organic weed control efforts worth the extra cash? This is probably a personal decision about how one believes the environment is affected by man-made chemical herbicides. Chemical herbicides do degrade over time, but are a hazard to aquatic life if run off occurs into rivers or streams. Responsible use can minimize those hazards, although not entirely eliminate them.

Organic weed control is the safest way to deal with a pesky weed control problem so the answer to the question might be to consider an investment in organic weed killers as an investment in our environment.

Perhaps the most responsible choice is to practice lawn care techniques that allow the minimum number of weeds to grow. Establish a rich thick lawn, cut the lawn higher throughout the year to discourage weed seed from reaching the soil and germinating. Also one can use organic weed control sparingly as a spot control to quickly and aggressively stamp out weeds and prevent them from spreading.

There are other ways to use organic weed control measures. Areas that are habitually infested with weeds could have mulch applied to prevent growth. Strawberry farms often use porous sheets that enable rain water to reach the soil, but block sunlight from the weed seeds that may lie beneath it.

Tree rings are a popular way to use organic weed control measures for areas that are often a breeding spot for weeds. These porous sheets around trees enable moisture to permeate the soil while preventing weeds. An organic weed control measure that can be applied to dandelions which are a nuisance weed found throughout the country is to apply a spoon full of salt which will result in a quick kill. The ultimate organic weed control solution is to pull the offenders out of the ground. Be careful to pull the root completely out. This is best applied after a rainfall when the soil is moist. Organic weed control is practiced regularly will serve to protect our environment.