09/07/2024
Greens mowers Electric vs hydraulic
You have to admit, we’re a bit spoilt for choice in the greens mower market at the moment full electric, hybrid electric, petrol hydraulic, diesel hydraulic, you name it, we’ve got it. But which one is right for you and your club?
Even ignoring the choice of brands, the range of options is vast, so let’s look at the pros and cons of each.
The biggest advantage of electric drive over hydraulic is ‘control’. Literally the moment that reel starts up, it’s at the right speed for the given conditions and it will do that until the day it doesn’t. And here’s its biggest disadvantage. You then throw it in the bin. Electric components are generally not designed to be repaired.
Hydraulic machines on the other hand will take a few moments to come up to speed and are quite tricky to control the speed of consistently especially when you have to factor against a hydraulic wheel drive too. JD’s e-hydro drive system is probably as close as we’ll get to this but at the end of the day you’re still relying on oil, a pump and a motor, and they wear. On a positive note though, hydraulic components to a degree, can be repaired, or, if they need to be replaced are typically cheaper than their electric counterparts.
So that’s the cutting unit drive considered but what about the wheels? Again we have a choice of electric or oil drive. Electric motors produce nearly all there torque (twisting power) from almost virtually the get go so are fantastic for moving a mower. It is incredibly hard though to get a ‘feel’ through the pedal for drive, so a fair bit of ‘computerised trickery’ is used to prevent wheel spin. Hydraulic motors on the other hand give a lot of feel and feedback to the operator and are very reliable, but again consistency can be hard to achieve.
Electric lift/lower. I’ve yet to be impressed by a reliable lifting system to replace hydraulics. Other than the possibility of oil leaks, rams are incredibly reliable and cheap to produce. Actuators by comparison are complex and usually unrepairable, so costly when they fail.
We then need to consider the motive power. Petrol, diesel or battery. They all have their pros and cons but the main thing to remember is ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’. In order to make something work it needs to create energy and there’s always a cost to doing that.
Which one should you buy?
Invariably when purchasing a machine, the purchase price should be at the bottom of your list. Service, knowledge and support are key, particularly with something like a greens mower. Hydraulic machines are generally robust, reliable and comparatively cheap to repair against their electric counterparts. However if your membership is demanding things like more consistent green speed, noise reduction or ‘meeting a green’ mandate, then the electric machine has significant advantages, but at a cost.
