Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I very rarely write product reviews, but my recent experience with the Snapper SXDWM82K 82V battery-powered mower inspired me to make an exception. And away we go… I bought the mower as an Amazon Prime item and it arrived in 2 days as guaranteed in what appeared to be a factory-sealed box. In the box is the lawn mower itself, two 82V, 2 amp hour batteries, the battery charging unit, mulching and side discharge hardware, and associated instruction manuals. From unboxing to full “assembly” took about 10 minutes (what needed to be done hardly qualified as assembly). Getting the mower set up from its shipping configuration to use configuration (aka “assembly”) was simple and intuitive and did not require consulting with the instruction manual; however, upon looking through the manual, instructions were clearly presented should you wish to use it. As stated, the mower came with 2 batteries. There is one charging unit, so only one battery can be charged at a time. This is not an issue for me whatsoever, but I thought it was worth mentioning. The mower will only accept one battery at a time, so depending on the size of your yard/length of time you will be using the mower, you will likely only need to use one battery to get the job done and the other will act as a spare. I was able to mow my ~2,800 square foot lawn on ½ of one battery. More details in a minute. Full disclosure: I have only used the mower one time so far, but I was so impressed with it, I felt it was worth writing this review. Here’s my experience that caused me to be so impressed: I’ve actually been giving my lawn some TLC this year and it’s thick and growing rather well (Milorganite has been good to me). It was a little longer than normal for this particular mowing, and slightly damp from watering earlier in the morning. Also, because it was my first time using the mower and I wasn’t familiar with its height settings (the instructions provide information on the height settings, but I failed to mind them), I just eyeballed it and ended up setting the mower height about 1 notch lower than I should have, so it cut the lawn a bit closer than I wanted. This, plus the slightly damp grass would have been a definite recipe for bogging down of my previous gas-powered Craftsman mower. Not this Snapper though. It very impressively and effortlessly powered through it all. I can say with certainty that this battery-powered mower is noticeably more powerful than the gas-powered mower it is replacing. I was worried that power would be something I would have to compromise on when making the switch from gas-powered to battery-powered. There has been no compromise, and instead an improvement. I would have been sufficiently impressed with the performance I just mentioned, but there’s more to the story. I finished the front lawn and had just moved to the back when rain began to fall. The rain quickly transitioned from an initial sprinkle to a decent downpour. I wanted to get the back yard done, and ended up jogging with the mower to make it happen. So now we have thick grass, lower than normal mowing height, damp grass and a jogging pace while mowing, and it STILL didn’t bog down. Madness… who'd have thought? Once the lawn was mowed and I was out of the rain, I removed the battery and stored the mower in its upright storage position (love this feature for the space it saves). My intent was to charge the battery and have it ready to go for the next use. To my surprise, the battery meter (LEDs on the battery itself) showed that only half of the battery’s charge had been used. I decided not to charge it and instead try to mow again on the same battery to test its capabilities on a single charge. I’m confident it will get most, if not all of the 2,800 square feet of grass mowed again before having to recharge. It took me approximately 25 minutes to mow, so another 50% or so of remaining battery life should allow for another 20-25 minutes of mowing for a total of about 45-50 minutes of use on the single battery. I mention this because I read a question attached to another review that asked about the manufacturer’s claim that one could mow for 45 minutes. It seemed unclear whether this 45 minutes of run time was per battery, or required both batteries. I can attest to the ~45 minutes of run time on a single battery, which should allow for about 90 minutes when using both included batteries. A few additional observations: Mower feels solid. Good quality design and build. Mower is not self-propelled, but it’s light weight and very easy to push, so I could care less. Besides, not being self-propelled should be fewer parts that could potentially fail, so I’m good with that too. Mower has option to mulch, bag, or side discharge. Configuring from one of these options to another is very fast and simple. Mower has a power saving feature where, if it’s not working very hard, powers down slightly to conserve and prolong battery life. Once it detects that it begins working harder, it quickly and automatically powers up and gets to work getting through the thick stuff. Mower is very quiet. My wife came out while I was using it and it was the first thing she noticed and mentioned. No more smelling like exhaust fumes when done mowing the yard. Good times. I hope this review has helped. As I mentioned, I have only used the thing one time, so I’m not naïve to the fact that issues may begin presenting themselves. I certainly hope not, but if they do, I’ll update. Otherwise, I will plan on writing a follow-up to this review later in the year and/or next year when I start using it again after the winter and provide anything additional worth mentioning. So far, so good for now though. I'm actually looking forward to mowing again because this mower was so much fun to use. Me? Excited about mowing? Weird... **UPDATE, July 18, 2017 (after second use)** Just a quick update to answer the question I posed in my original review about whether or not the battery would last for a second mowing of my 2,800 sq ft yard on one charge. I just finished a second mowing with that same battery (it was showing that it was about half way depleted after the first mowing), and it did indeed complete a second full mowing of my yard. Once done, the battery charge indicator LEDs showed 1 of 4 lights illuminated. According to the owner's manual, 1 LED illuminated means that the battery is between 25% and 40% capacity remaining. I'm quite impressed. I didn't time this second mowing, but my estimate is that it took approximately 20 minutes. I should also add that the mower didn't work nearly has hard for this second mowing as it did the first (first mowing was cut at a lower level with damp grass, and there was some running involved -- read original review above...). I raised the mower level to 'level 4', which, according to the owner's manual, cuts at 2 5/8", as opposed to 'level 3' which cuts at 2 1/8" (my first mowing was on 'level 3'). For this second mowing, the mower did not transition into its 'higher power output' mode since this cutting didn't require that the mower work nearly as hard as it did for the first. I'm sure this assisted in using less battery power, but still - I've mowed about 5,600 square feet of lawn on 1 battery off of a single charge. This is way more than I ever envisioned, and as a reminder, the mower comes with 2 batteries. I'm not convinced that I will ever need to use the second battery at this rate. I get that battery performance decreases over time, so hopefully the battery continues to perform well, or at least for a while; they're certainly expensive to replace. That said, if I can mow my lawn and use less than 50% of one battery, I sense I will be good for quite some time. Finally, I just want to add that the mower performed flawlessly once again for this second mowing. It effortlessly cuts my thick grass, is very easy to push and maneuver, and I'm really enjoying how quiet it is compared to my previous gas mower. I couldn't be happier with all aspects of this mower and it's performance. As I stated in my original review, if anything significant happens that's worth adding, I'll add it. Otherwise, I'll plan on adding another review either at the end of this mowing season (October/November time frame) and/or once we are into the next mowing season, which should be 9 months to a year from now.