In The Garden | Gas Vs. Electric?

After Thanksgiving, many Americans will experience indigestion due to the massive amount of food or the madness of Black Friday. As the shopping cart abandonment derby begins, there's another conflict and likely disagreement among shoppers at the Thanksgiving table: gas-powered versus electric-powered outdoor equipment. Of course, both sides have their pros and cons, but which is better in the end?

Power tools are quieter. Having spent most of my life listening to the roar of 2-stroke engines, the sudden silence between starting a power tool is overwhelming.

Most petrol powered lawn and garden tools leave my hands and arms tingling or even a little numb after prolonged use. However, vibrations from power tools are significantly reduced. I still get blisters from working with powered lawn equipment, so don't take off your gloves.

Power tools can be more convenient in most cases. Being able to grab a power tool and get to work quickly without having to fill up the gas tank, check the oil, or tinker is a huge plus. Conversely, battery management is important as a discharged battery forces the operator to wait for recharging.

reliable power. Gasoline powered tools have a reliable power supply (no rechargeable batteries) and are easy to repair for anyone familiar with small engines.

Outdoor power tools don't come cheap. For many Americans, the device itself may be in its price range, but batteries are expensive and people find them difficult to spend money on. Especially if you already have a gas version of the same tool.

When it comes to the environmental benefits of battery-powered tools over gas-powered tools, it actually becomes a tricky question. In terms of emissions, petrol-powered lawn and garden equipment such as leaf blowers, chain saws, trimmers or lawn mowers lag behind the efficiency values of modern automobiles by decades.

While automakers have made great strides in improving efficiency and emissions, there is little regulation in the lawn and garden equipment industry to manage this shift. Most power tools produce little or no emissions during operation. However, we cannot ignore what powers these power tools or charges the batteries. In the case of coal-fired power plants, there are of course still emissions, but not when using the tool.

In addition to carbon emissions that contribute to global warming, oil extraction and refining is also a major pollutant. On the other hand, the extraction of lithium for batteries is very harmful to the environment and consumes a lot of energy, water and chemicals to produce batteries. Historically, lithium mining has left open pits and contaminated natural areas and bodies of water.

Lithium battery disposal is a real problem that we must face, but there are solutions. Old lead-acid batteries used to be a major environmental problem, but today the recycling rate for these batteries is 99%. For lithium batteries, we need the same effort to create a recycling system for the next generation of batteries.

There are countless ways to test the environmental impact of outdoor gas and power tools. As this question covers many topics, many more than can be described here.

Basically, the best option for the environment is probably a corded, grid-connected power tool that runs on renewable energy. It's a practical option for some homeowners, but not for all.

Comparing petrol and electric mowers over their entire life cycle, from raw material extraction to the end of their useful life, it is found that electric mowers have a lower environmental impact. Corded electric mowers perform slightly better than cordless electric mowers. However, electric mowers have been shown to have a higher average cost over the life of the unit than petrol mowers. Does that translate to lawn and garden hand tools? Probably up to a point.

Should I buy electric or petrol garden tools? That's the question I asked myself recently when I was at a hardware store looking at a wall of outdoor power tools, then turning around and looking at a wall of gas outdoor tools. I hope you, dear reader, escaped the crowds unscathed this Black Friday and got your hands on a new toy, erm...I mean a tool to help you in the garden.

Ryan Pankau is a Horticultural Instructor with UI Extension serving Champaign, Ford, Iroquois, and Vermilion counties. This column also appears on her Garden Scoop blog at go.illinois.edu/GardenScoopBlog.