With the rising cost of gas, and concerns about greenhouse gases effects on the environment, electric yard tools are becoming extremely popular.

There are more and more companies these days that are starting to produce electric yard tools. Electric yard tools help to reduce noise pollution, and cut smog emissions. Electric weed eaters have been around for years, and now to accompany them, we have electric lawn mowers.

While the money you spend on an electric lawn mower may seem intimidating at first, it won't take long for you to realize how fast you will actually save money by using one. The 10-year operating costs of an electric lawn mower are less than half of those of a gas powered mower, making it quite easy to see how much money you will save in the long run.

The average gas lawn mower holds just under, to one gallon of gas. With gas prices reaching well over two-dollars a gallon, the amount of gas you must purchase to mow your lawn for even just one summer quickly adds up. Compare that to the electric lawn mower, which costs about fifty cents of power per battery charge, and you can see just how much money you will save.

Electric lawn mowers are also a better option for the environment. Gas powered lawn mowers not only contribute to small particle pollution and green house gases, but can also cause health problems to those that use them. The gases and emissions released by a gas powered mower can contribute to heart disease, asthma and other respiratory infections.

Electric lawn mowers on the other hand produce less than one percent of the carbon monoxide that is released by gas powered mowers, 6 pounds less carbon dioxide and 1/9000th of the hydrocarbons. With so many people mowing their yards daily, imagine how much of these environmental hazards are being produced on a daily basis!

Because electric mowers are gaining popularity, there are becoming more options available for you to choose the perfect mower. Many of these electric lawn mowers offer the same features as standard gas mowers including mulching, grass collecting bags and cutting-height adjustment. Some electric mowers are even capable of handling trimming and edging.

There are of course, a few down sides to electric mowers. Depending on the size of your yard, an electric lawn mower may take more than one charging for you to be able to complete your entire yard. Most lawn mowers offer a battery life of an hour or more before needing to be recharged, however if you have an extremely large yard, you could be looking at an entire day of charging, mowing and charging again.

Electric mowers may also have a harder time cutting through thick or tall grass. If you have extremely thick or tall grass, you should look for the electric lawn mower with the highest amount of horse power. The higher the amount of power, the easier it will be to cut, although it is also important to remember, the more strain you put on your mower, the shorter the battery life.

While there are a few down sides to using an electric mower, it is still quite easy to see that all of the good points greatly outweigh the bad. Electric mowers will inevitably save you a great deal of money, and help to make our environment far more safe.

Learn more about this author, Lisa Smegal.
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