NEW MINI ZEN THE SUNJOE CORDLESS MOWER

Well, this was sort of a birthday gift but also something we wanted and had been talking about.  We have the area around the raised beds with the fruit trees and we're sure many of you have seen the mess we often have because it's so hard to get the Zen Machine between the beds like we used to.  The, once we have the fishing line fence up (to keep out the deer) we can't get in with it at all.  The grass would grow unchecked.  

We've used the weedeater/trimmer but it's difficult to "mow" with it.  We tried to borrow 2nd Family's regular mower but it wouldn't start most of the time and was always a mess with oil and fuel etc.

So recently, we started thinking about electric mowers. There are really two options: corded or battery.  We could go corded since there is an outlet on the back of the house but we also thought about using it elsewhere in the yard on occasion and knowing me, I'd run over a cord, ha.  We opted for battery.

This is the one we decided on:

It's the SUNJOE brand and the model that we chose you can see HERE ON AMAZON.

Cordless electric mowers are pricey.  Since we aren't sure how well this will ultimately work out, we didn't want to go the really expensive route.  This one has steel blades, a 14" cutting path, adjustable height, a 10 gallon bag to catch clippings or, in the version we chose, you can just remove the bag and use a side chute.  It's not self propelled though and the run time is only about 30 to 40 minutes but for what we need, it is fine.

Sunjoe mower in the box

I thought I'd take it out and put it together at the apartment but when I saw how well it was packaged, I figured I'd just read the instructions ahead of time and be ready.  I loaded it up and headed to the farm.

Assembly was super easy.  It took me about 15 minutes while sitting on the porch with a cool breeze blowing.

Sunjoe charging

You just attach the upper handlebars and some clips for the wire and that's it.  It's very lightweight.  I plugged it in and let it fully charge while I was on the big Zen Machine.  It charges fully in about 3 hours.

Sunjoe blades

The body is hard ABS plastic but the blade is steel.  I decided to fire it up.  You push the button and pull the safety lever and it starts right up.  It's weirdly quiet.  Like a box fan on high speed.  It takes a bit to get used to it because your mind and ears are so tuned to gas engines and the noise they make.  

Here is an example of what needed to be mowed...

Sunjoe mowing before

This is before:

They are the areas between the square raised beds of the fruit trees and the round rings of the berry beds.  The Zen Machine won't fit and it's too much to try to do with just a weedeater so the grass (and weeds) grow. 

Sunjoe mowing after

And here is the same spot after.  

It will be great for this task and even later on for perhaps mowing around flower beds and getting under bushes and trees where the big Zen Machine can't fit in other places on the property.  Here though, I'll be able to slide it right under the fishing line fence and mow.

It's not perfect;  I sure wouldn't want to mow a large yard with it, the run time is a bit short, it's not self-propelled and the body is obviously not steel construction.  They (and other brands of course) have better models for that but for what we'll use it for right now, it IS perfect and best of all, no cords, no gas, no oil, no mess, and no loud noise.

Exactly what we needed!

The Sunjoe cordless electric mower

And besides, it's so stinkin' cute!