I've been using a Brill 380 battery-powered lawn mower for the past two summers and have been pretty happy with the job it does on our lawn. It's light and quiet and easy to operate -- so light and quiet, in fact, that people often stop and ask about it. The mower is powered by a battery that can be removed and charged in between mowings. It takes about 12 hours to fully charge, and can mow for about 30 or 40 minutes on that. Being only able to mow half the yard at once is one of the drawbacks of the mower, but for me it hasn't been a problem. If it was, I suppose I could go out and buy another battery and keep both charged.

Other potential show-stoppers with this mower are its inability to do a good job with sparse grass or weeds taller than about 4 inches (because it's a reel mower, with blades that turn parallel to the ground, it cuts regular grass fine but doesn't do so well on spindly stuff), and its maximum height setting, which is only 45mm (just under 2 in). Neither of these things has kept us from keeping the lawn in decent shape, though, and we definitely prefer this mower to one which requires gas and oil and spark plugs and more maintenance, as well as emitting as much pollution in an hour as a 100-mile car ride. We also use the mower to grind up leaves with the grass in fall to add as over-winter mulch on garden beds, and it does a great job of that, making an even finer mulch if you empty out the catcher and run the mower over the contents a couple times.

We got the Brill mower at PeoplePoweredMachines.com, where a newer model of it is currently $429. I see they also sell another electric mower that comes with two batteries and has a wider height range, and is $379 (but not available til 2009).

I talked to two other neighbors who use cordless mowers to see what they think of theirs. Both of them are very happy with their mowers and say they would buy them again (in fact, one already has, when his old one died last year). My neighbor Paula bought a Neuton online at the beginning of the season, and my other neighbor Mark has a Black & Decker that he ordered from Lowe's, also at the beginning of the season (after using one for several years previously).

The Neuton is very light (46 pounds without battery) and the handle folds down to make it even more compact for storage. Even with its 23-pound battery (which Paula says she does not mind, since she is used to hefting 25-lb bags of kitty litter), the Neuton is easy to push and does a great job of mowing, with its rotary blades. The battery holds enough charge to mow the entire lawn with no problem, and is removable so it can be charged indoors if there is no charging capability outdoors. Tools for replacing the blades are included and easily accessible -- Paula had to replace a blade after running over rocks and sticks as she was getting her yard ready for a complete re-landscaping in the spring, and says it was simple to replace. The Neuton is a mulching mower, which means grass gets chopped up fine and left on the lawn as a nutrient instead of having to be bagged. The only thing she doesn't recommend is the add-on edger/trimmer, which can be unwieldy to use attached to the lawn mower -- she says she prefers a separate cordless trimmer.

The Neuton is available online at NeutonPower.com, for either $349 or $449, depending on the model. I haven't found a place that sells this locally.

I've been envying Mark and his family their Black & Decker electric mower for years, since it does a great job of cutting. It was never available locally when I went mower-shopping though, which is why I ended up buying the Brill online. The Black & Decker 19" cuts the grass very closely (and is adjustable to 3 1/2"). One online reviewer reports that if the grass is too high, some patches of grass can be left behind, but Mark says he has not found that. The mower is big and rather heavy (76 lbs), but I didn't find it hard to push, nor does Mark's wife, who used to mow with it regularly. Like other electric mowers, this one is not cheap -- about $500 at Lowe's (where their website says it is not currently in stock but can be ordered) and Sears. It can be used as a mulching mower or with a grass-catcher.

Another less expensive non-gas lawn mowing option is a corded mower. We had one of those for several years before the Brill and found it did a great job cutting the lawn but was a little tricky to operate with the cord. You need a couple long extension cords too, for a lawn of any size, which can be a hassle to untangle when you want to mow the lawn. The discharge cover on the side of the mower broke off after a couple seasons too, so I can't recommend whatever model it was we had, which we eventually freecycled.

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