He ain’t heavy, he’s my mower
If you check out Neuton Mowers, they're these battery-powered lawn mowers. I get the whole non-polluting, lower noise thing. But their comparison chart leaves something to be desired on the honesty scale.
Take a look at the graphic from their front page:
Neuton Mowers Comparison
Two things strike me as a bit odd. I currently have one of these "Old" mowers. Notice that they characterize my mower as "Heavy." They don't say how heavy, but I'd estimate mine between 40 and 50 pounds. Then notice that their mower is "Only" 69 pounds. There is no way my old skool mower is 69 pounds. It's obvious why they just said "Heavy," because if they gave a typical number or an average, they couldn't compare favorably.
The other thing they say is that the Neuton makes "less than half the noise." Now, noise is traditionally measured in decibels, and lawnmowers are typically estimated around 90 decibels. The decibel scale is a logarithmic one, which always makes it a bit unintuitive. Now, half of 90 dB would be 45, but they say it's "less than half." Refrigerators humming are estimated at 40 dB. I find it hard to believe that this thing is somewhere around as loud as a refrigerator humming.
Finally, there's the fallacy of "emissions-free." Nothing is emissions free. At best we can say it does not directly emit pollutants after you purchase it. However, consider how many pollutants were generated to produce it in the first place. Compare that to the traditional mower and they probably compare more or less equally. While Neuton mowers may be zero emissions when operating, they are not zero pollution. Your coal-fired electric plant provides the electricity that charges the batteries. And some day some really awful chemicals in the batteries have to be disposed of carefully when it has reached the end of its life. So zero emissions, yes. Zero pollution, no.
June 29th, 2009 - 11:22
Even if it is heavy, it’s usually self propelled, so who cares if it is heavy. Agreed that the Heavy vs 69 lbs is a silly argument.
Here’s where we part paths. Your noise level math sucks. The decibel scale is logarithmic, and thus less than half the noise of 90dB is more like 87dB. So maybe it is 85dB (less than half) of 90dB. Doubling the noise level as humans hear it is roughly +3dB.
In spite of your arguments, I’d still buy a Neuton, if I actually mowed my lawn. The fact that my electricity does come from less than clean sources, the pollution generated by the electricity I’d use is likely much less than the pollution generated by my gas mower, which are notorious polluters, for the same square footage of mowing. Additionally it is possible that in the next few years I could get my electricity from solar or wind at my own home, or from the grid, thus reducing my environmental impact while using an electric mower.
Even the EPA promotes the Neuton: http://blog.epa.gov/blog/tag/mowing-the-lawn/
Personally I realized a few years ago that my time is worth more than it costs for someone to mow, edge and whack my lawn, environmental costs excluded.
June 29th, 2009 - 11:37
Two people now have pointed out my erroneous math. But that’s simply because I didn’t show the right math alongside my (known) erroneous math. I pointed out how the logarithmic scale makes it tricky, and so a marketing person is likely to be doing some funny math here. Half of 90 dB is about 87dB, which is why I’m annoyed at the ad. If you told someone it was “half the cost” or “half the weight” or “half the time” or any other linearly measured value, they’d understand what you were saying. If the scientific numbers are right (they probably are), 90 dB and 87dB don’t compare so well, but “half the noise” sounds great.
Why do I care that it is heavy if it is self-propelled? It’s not a Roomba. You still put your back into it (ok, maybe you pay someone else to put his back into it) to turn corners, go into tight spots, etc. Weight matters a lot in those situations.
July 17th, 2009 - 08:00
Yup, there’s a heckuva lot of “salesmanship” in that ad copy. With that said, I’m curious if a) the “total pollution footprint” over say 5 years is favorable or unfavorable against a “traditional push mower”? and b) how long the life expectancy is on one of their batteries and c) whether the company provides facilities and/or support for recycling/disposing of the batteries.