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Dear Dot,
I love my battery-driven leaf blower, string trimmer, and snow blower, but after what doesn't seem like that long (it's probably been five years of use), I've got a battery that will no longer hold a charge.
First question: How long should one of these batteries retain the ability to recharge? How much is that related to how it’s stored?
Second question (even though one was two): What is the responsible way to recycle or dispose of these batteries?
– Bob
The Short Answer: You can expect up to five years from your battery-powered garden tools. Ensure that you get the most out of them by adhering to proper charging, storing, and use. And when they come to the end of their lives, dispose of them responsibly either by recycling them or taking them to somewhere that will ensure safe disposal.
Dear Bob,
Dot is delighted that you are embracing battery-powered tools around your home, not only reducing carbon pollution (gas-powered tools emit more pollutants than a pick-up truck, according to a study!) but also noise. Gas-powered leaf blowers produce enough noise to damage hearing. And they most definitely annoy your neighbors.
Dot remains firmly in the leave-the-leaves camp, and so it falls (lol) to Mr. Dot to mow and blow (and, when the time comes, de-snow).
Thus, lacking expertise, I turned to Kevin Carroll, who is such a home gear enthusiast that he created an entire site dedicated to testing and reviewing what’s out there. Indeed, he pointed me to a comprehensive post about the best battery-powered lawn tools that anyone considering purchasing (or replacing) should check out.
But Kevin also weighed in on your particular dilemma, Bob, noting that the five years you got out of your battery is actually pretty darn good — and at the longer end of what we might expect. The typical lifespan, he says, is three to five years of regular use — or 500 to 1,000 charge cycles. Obviously, the more you use your tools, the quicker the battery will degrade, necessitating responsible disposal (we’ll get to that). First, let’s consider how to ensure you get the maximum lifespan out of your batteries.
- Charging: ”There is an unwritten or implied practice for best maintaining lithium battery life called the 80/20 rule,” Kevin tells us. Don’t charge to 100% or fully use up the charge. “Instead,” he says, “they should ideally be charged to 80% and discharged to approximately 20%.” However, he admits, it can be hard to do this when some of the batteries lack a meter letting us know what level the charge is at. Better brands, he says, such as EGO, do include an indicator.
- Storage: Extreme heat or cold reduces lifespan, according to Kevin, who says that the best place to store your battery-powered tools is cool (40–70°F) and dry. Move your batteries indoors after each mowing season, he recommends, and into a dry, climate-controlled storage room.
- Quality: Kevin already alluded to the value you get from buying a higher-quality battery-powered tool, noting that higher-end brands (he cites EGO, Greenworks, or DeWalt) typically have longer-lasting cells and better protection circuits. (For more detail, check out his post on what, specifically, to look for, including info on how charge is measured and more.)
Alas, however, your battery‚ no matter the quality, will eventually reach the end of its life. What then? Kevin, the battery undertaker, has some ideas. What we shouldn’t do, he says, is throw lithium ion batteries in the trash or the recycling bin, as they are a fire hazard if punctured or damaged. What we should do is seek out local recycling programs — many municipalities offer household hazardous waste collection or drop-off locations.
There are battery recycling programs (as Bluedot’s Guide to Getting Rid of (Almost) Anything notes), including Call2Recycle, which has drop-off locations at Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Best Buy in both the U.S. and Canada. Some manufacturers offer take-back programs, Kevin reports, so check that out, too.
To prepare batteries for disposal, Kevin says best practice requires that you discharge the battery as much as possible, tape the terminals (electrical contacts) with non-conductive tape (e.g., electrical tape) to prevent accidental short circuits, and place the batteries in a plastic or cardboard container, not metal.
But Bob, if I may, let me plead my case for laziness when it comes to dealing with leaves (snow, of course, must be removed, and feel free to whack at weeds, including invasive species that overtake our gardens. Dot recently wrestled with mugwort and emerged triumphant. For now.). By leaving your fall leaves where they … well, fall, you are creating habitat for many of the good insects that prop up our ecosystems, such as bees and butterflies, and even songbirds and small mammals can seek refuge there. As Dot has said, a tidy lawn is often an unhealthy one, previously noting that “By leaving leaves on the ground, you’re essentially putting out a buffet of nutrients — primarily carbon, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus — that nourish your grass and plants, and feed the worms that enrich your soil.” Dot is not anti-mulch, so you have my blessing to mulch those leaves with your electric mower or blow them into your garden, where those mulched leaves will act as nature’s blanket for your plants and a cozy refuge for overwintering bugs. (Though Dot’s copyeditor Laura will not put out the welcome blanket for bugs in her vegetable garden, noting “they are often the pests I spend so much time trying to get rid of.” Fair enough, Laura. Excluding veggie gardens.)
Lazily,
Dot
