UPDATE: MAKER OF REMINGTON SHAVERS AND LAWNMOWERS FILES CHAPT. 11
Note this review was originally posted in 2008.
Studies show that running a gasoline-powered lawn mower for an hour can produce about the same pollution as driving a car 100 miles. Well, Remington, an outfit best known for its electric shavers, has now come out with the Remington Cordless PowerMower, a rechargeable electric lawn mower that runs for about an hour on a charge, with no emissions.
some features:
- cordless operation
- removable 60 Volt Battery
- up to 1 Hour of runtime on a charge
- 17” cutting blade diameter
- plug-in mode power approximates gas mower power
- lighter in weight than comparable battery mowers
- no need for an external charging adapter
Just don’t use this baby on that beard.
$499 @ amazon.com
Related: Worx Cordless Electric Grass Trimmer (5.17.08)
RSS
You can see the company website for this at http://www.remingtonpowertools.com. I’ve seen the early production models and it’s a nice design. It cuts well, too.
Now if we can just convince them to make a larger version that fits two adults and a posse of pets…I’d buy one and take my family on road trips! :)
Called Remingtons customer service 800 number and asked these questions; Where are the lawn mowers made? Where would I take it to get serviced? Where would I buy parts for it?
The gal could not answer any of these questions and did not say she would find out and call me back later. She is just an order taker at and order taking business.
When she could not answer my questions, she still asked me if I wanted to order the lawn mower.
The Remington web site says Ace Hardware sales them. My local Ace Hardware did not know anything about the Remington lawn mower. When he did look it up he found out you could order from Ace Hardware.
He did say the only why his store would have one is if someone ordered it.
You can get extra parts fot it after warranty at http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com and you can also buy them at McClendon’s Hardware, they don’t have them at Home Depot or Lowe’s unfortunately, but you can also order it online at Amazon and get free shipping. All you have to do is spend like five minutes searching online and you can find all of the information you could ever need, including reviews for this product (which are all stellar and it seems to be the only cordless or corded mower that delivers the same quality in cutting as a gas powered). Happy Green Mowing!
Sara – I’m reading reviews trying to find the best cordless electric mower. I really want to like the Remington mainly because of the light weight, changeable battery and corded option. But I have only found 1 good review. Where are the sites with the good reviews that you have found?
Up to an hour hmmmm…. Try 22 minutes.
If you’re looking at this in terms of eco-friendliness, the big question is “How long does the battery last?”.
I purchased one of these Remington mowers. The battery appears to have lasted one summer. I bought it in May and it’s now dead in August.
Anyone else had experience with this?
Before this, I used a smaller B&D mower. Those batteries lasted about two years.
I also bought one in May. Also got a spare battery just in case. End of August and BOTH bateries are DEAD. Also the handle saftey bale and Key stoped working so I had to install an ON/OFF switch just to use it.
Setting the mode swith to Charge is an intermitant failure also. Soon I expect a wheel or two to just fall off this peice of junk.
I loved this machine and talked it up to family and freinds for the first couple of months. Then it started falling apart. Do not buy this poorly engineered machine or you will regret it.
I just bought the top rated rechargeable, Black and Decker CMM1200. It is heavier but I hope it is more dependable and that the batteries do last about two years as is reported.
I’ve owned one of these mowers for one summer, and it works as advertised. I mow my front, back, side and alley on one charge; it takes a good hour, and I’ve never ran the battery completely dry. I also tested the corded option, and it’s more powerful (although it won’t work on a GFI circuit). It’s now close to winter, so I need to remember to take out the battery and keep it in the basement so it won’t freeze. I’ve read reports about poor quality and undependability, but maybe the company has solved those problems by now. Anyway, so far I still love it.
I have had one of these for two years now and I really like it. It has no problem doing my whole lawn (about 1400 sq ft) on a single charge. I also did both of my neighbors yards one week just to test it with no problems. I think it’s important to leave it plugged in all the time when you aren’t using it, winter included.
This is my first electric mower and I’m pretty please with the results, overall. It’s the first time I am mulching and I miss the lift you get when you bag. But I don’t think that’s an issue with the mower, but with mulching in general.
What’s really cool is that the blade spins so quickly that it shreds leaves. We’ve all tried to use our mowers to pick up leaves… I’ve always found that the bag fills up very quickly with uncut leaves and you need to empty it so many times you might as well rake. With my electric I just started bagging when the leaves started falling and mowed weekly whether the lawn needed it or not. The bagged leaves got shredded so well that I ended up not having to rake at all. We also have diverse trees, so the leaves fall over a long period, which may be part of the reason that this worked so well for me.
Whether you get this mower or not, I’m convinced that electrics are definitely the way to go. No gas, no oil, essentially one moving part. I also like that I can mow during the day when gas mowers are discouraged because of ozone creation (Denver).
This mower worked fine for me last year. It ran about 1 hour on a charge. After storing it in the basement(it gets cold here) it will now run only about 20 minutes on a charge. The switch needs to be held in the charge position with duct tape. When I try to call DESA, Remington’s parent company, I get a message saying their phone lines are not working. I have learned that the company filed for bankruptcy in December. This is definitely a bad mower!
Same thing for me. I think they’re in trouble. I guess I’ll get another battery. I wonder if they’ll still acknowledge their warranty.
06/12/09
I ordered one of the Remington-Desa 18 volt cordless string trimmer on 05/18/09 from the Remington power tool website. Although they were quick to relieve my debit account of $181.00, they have not delivered the trimmer. All calls to the numbers and customer service links they list are fruitless. You get a canned message about technical problems with their phone system. There is no way to contact them. Now I have discovered that they have gone bankrupt! How can they still take my money AFTER they have filed for bankruptcy??!!
I’ve contacted my bank and am not left with a warm fuzzy feeling about getting my money back, or the trimmer I paid for. I thought theft was a crime in America?
Don’t fall into this trap from theiving disreputable people like these. Oh, and one reason I chose this brand is because it was made in America. So much for that thought pattern!
We bought this lawnmower last year, and although we found it to be somewhat cumbersome, and very loud for an electric, at least it worked. This year, after storing the battery in the basement over the winter, it will hold a charge for just a few minutes, forcing us to use the cord most of the time. Just before the warranty expired, we contacted Clean Air Gardening where we bought it, but they could not get us a battery. Now Remington went belly-up and I am told they are not honoring their warranties, so I guess we are just stuck with it. A good lesson for “Buyer Beware”! We never thought there would be a problem with Remington. It just goes to show you that it’s risky to try new products that have not been on the market very long, no matter what the brand. Live and learn……
I bought this model last year with high hopes that it would perform as well as my old BD model. It has not. Same problem, it starts to lose power after about 10 or 15 minutes. I have a small front and backyard and have to charge the mower between the two. The warrenty on the battery is 6 mos while the mower is months. Not satisfied with this product atall. They company should stick with shavers only.
One of the local surplus stores here had several of these in stock recently. Most likely left overs from the closing of the DESA plant that was located close to here. They all looked brand new and were selling them for $200.00. I went in the store later this week and they had only two left. The price had been marked down to $100.00 so I bought one. By the way I presently have a gas mower that is still operational and starts almost every time with only one pull of the cord, every season and is many years old. I purchased this mower as I thought it might be nice to see how I would like having an electric mower and at the $100 price mde it an easy choice since it lists for $450.00 I also thought it would make a nice backup mower for the days when the gas can was empty I didn’t want to get gas just for the mower. Ok…I’m also like new toys to play with that are kinda tech like. After getting home with the mower I decided to do some additional research on the web. There’s a lot of comments about the unit both pro and con.
After looking at all the remarks on issues customers were having I decided to take a closer look at my unit since the store has a 7 day return policy. I also understand that DESA had made some updates to this mower, but I do not have any way of knowing if the one I have has any of these. If anyone has a list of what they are and how to see if the mower has these, it would be nice to have it listed here. All of the mowers that were at the surplus store were already assembled. No boxes. Just Mower, manual and bagger. My first looks, the mower appears to be brand new, not a scratch anywhere except on the label at the Main control switch on top. Even the battery had a charge, so could start up the mower before purchase. Now a closer look. Knowing that DESA/Remington is no longer in business, I was concerned about the parts issue with the mower. I decided to first checked out the battery pack and was happy to find out that its just a very nice housing. Once opened you will find five standard 12 volt 5ah batteries. Each that can be purchased at a local battery store. I like that idea due to the fact it makes replacement easy to do and sometimes not all of the batteries may need replaceing at the sametime. Looking at the main control switch on top of the housing, I found that the one I bought had the same issues that others had. The knob would not stay in charge mode but would slowly move out of position and stop charging the batteries. The same held true for the 120v boost mode also. All other positions worked correctly. Now to resolved that issue, I had to remove the top cover, which found an easy task by only removing six screws. Here you will find the big orange knob switch, the motor and a circuit board with a large heat sink attached. Very clean layout, easy to get to all of the parts. The orange knob/main control switch is covered by another plastic housing that can be removed by removing three additional screws. Here you will find the answer to why the knob doesn’t stay in place. The knob can be removed by just pulling up on the knob and looking inside the knob you will find inside the center hold several groves or notches cut out to allow the knob to lock into place for each position. Now looking at the shaft that the knob came off of, at the top, you will see a small platic tab with a half moon molded into the top part, similar to like a ball bearing, but only pastic and fixed. I guess their idea was that the platic tab would push up against each one of the notches in the knob to hold it in place, but over time, heat and etc, the plastic curved looses tension and creates the issue of the slow movement of the knob. I looked at several ways to see if I could get the plastic tab stay up, but would only last a short time, before the issue came back. So my quick and simple solution was to take some electrician tape and wrap around the shaft, one time, due to thickness. This provided enough tension to keep the knob in place, a little harder to move, but stays in place even while mowing if using the 120 boost mode. Now over time, I may have to replace the tape, but an easy task. The ideal solution would be to replace the cheap plastic tab with a true spring loaded ball bearing to fit into each one of the notches in the knob. I was also happy to see that they had not used some speical made switch in case of a failure later on. Each one of the swtiches that the plastic knob comes into contact with is an easy part to find, standard cherry switches. Also the power cord for AC connections is nothing fancy, just a standard power cord in reverse. I was happy to see that they seem to do a good job on the mounting for the handle bars and goes all the way across the bottom frame of the mower. Checking out the motor, found it to be a 60 volt dc motor and is made by company that make treadmill motors. Was not too crazy about the mounting of the motor to the bottom frame, but since the frame is plastic, not much could be done there I guess. Under the main control switch and next to the motor is the AC to DC converter circuit board with a very large heatsink attached. The board has DESA logo on it, so not sure how easy it would be to replace, but appears to have mostly standard parts on the board. I may try to photograph it later and do some measurments and try to create a diagram of the board for later on, as a just in case something ever blows. There is a standard glass fuse on the circuit board, easy replaceable. Most likely to protect the charging circuit in case of a short. The circuit board appears to be well made and mounted ok. All in all, the inside is very clean, easy to get to everything and what I like about most, no oil or gas all over everything, being electric. While checking out the mower, turning it on the side, I did have another issue that others have mention, The front axel coming out of the frame. Looking closer, it appears that it is just wedged up into the frame being that in most cases the mower would always be laying flat to the ground. It was an easy fix, just pushing it back into place, but strange that there were not any kind of latch to hold it in place. I may look at bolting on some kind of flat metal pieces across the opening for the axel on each side under the frame to help keep it in place when raising or turning the mower over to clean. At this point in time, I haven’t tried the mower as I had just mowed the yard before buying, but from all the remarks I have read, every comment has been pro in that area compared to other mowers of the same type. I did make one addition to the mower and that was adding a cord that I attached to the key and the handle bar just so it would not get lost. Hopefully this review will help others that have the same mower and provide ways for them to keep the unit going without having feel that since DESA/Remington is out of business, the parts are no longer avail for the unit. It appears that DESA did a very good job of using standard parts that are at the moment easy to find under other brand names. In my opinon, for what I was able to purchase mine for, it was a great deal and hope to get many years of use. For the retail price of $450.00, there doesn’t look to be that much under the cover, but the same goes for a clothes dryer that sells for a whole lot more, so what do I know. By the way and I say this with much truth. Be very carefull when working around the electrial parts of this mower or any other of the same type. In most cases you will be in a garage or outside on the ground and the voltages can be dangerous enough to kill. Always make sure the AC cord is not attached and the battery pack has been removed. Always make sure someone else is close by that knows you are working on the mower as a just in case you didn’t take the warning I just provided. I cannot and will not be responible for anyone that gets hurt trying to work on this mower using any of the suggestions I have provided. The comments I have left here is for information purpose only and not to be used as training or actual methods of serviceing the mower. Otherwise enjoy your cordless mower. By the way I do not and have not every work for DESA or Remington. The review is strictly from what I found by looking at the mower I purchased.
OK….now that I have used the Remington Chargable Mower…all I can say is that I really like it! I review it earlier after buying it and my thoughts were to use it as a backup mower for the days that either the gas mower was out of gas and didn’t have any close by to refil it with or for doing some quick touch up in the yard. Now after using the Remington mower, I will have to say that it looks like my gas mower will become the backup mower instead. No fumes, no gas to spill or the smell of gas on the hands and clothes. I decided to give it a try on the front yard first and then see if it the charge would last enough to do some of the back yard. Was I fooled….It not only cut the front in record time, but also did the back yard. I even had one of the neighbor kids come over and beg, yes beg to mow the yard just so he could use the mower. I let he do a few turns in the yard and then it was almost like the kid had withdraws when I ask to take over. It was almost like I could ask the kids in the area to pay me to mow my yard instead the other way around. Even the other neighbors watch as I went thru all height of grass. The kids next door also wanted to rake the yard after mowing was done, guess what….nothing to rake. He said that wasn’t fair as my gas mower always left leaves in the yard. I can say at the moment I am please with the way the Remington Mower cut the yard. As time goes by will of course tell all, but for the moment I am one happy camper and glad I bought it. It’s really sad that DESA is no longer in business as it appears they had something good going for them. I haven’t tried any other electric mowers so I can not compare this one to others but would say if you could go with the cordless version, do it. Now this model allows you to do cordless, cord or both for extra boost of power. To me it not a major issue if the battery doesn’t last the whole yard as it always nice to take a break and refresh a little while the battery is charging except in mine case, the remington mower kept on ready to mow both front and back, along with sides and triming between drive ways and etc. Never did run the battery down, even thou at one time it did slow down just a little in some heavy grass, but then continued on. It was nice, mowed the yard with the electric mower and then used the electric weeder/trimer. Afterwards..no smell of gas on me when I came into the house. It does take a little getting use to in stoping to move something or pickup some trash and trying to hold onto the saftey bail so the mower doesn’t quit, then you remember… hey it an electric mower and I can let go of the bail as it will start right up once I push the button. No more pulling on the rope and priming the tank each time. I will have to say that my old gas mower always worked and started just about everytime on the first pull of the rope. It just nice to know that you can stop the mower and turn it off knowing that quickly it will start back up. There hardly any noise coming from the mower, almost like an electric trimmer. You can actually be in the yard mowing the yard and the neighbors would never know it unless they happen to look over and saw you mowing. They would think you just triming the yard. The mower being a 17″ cut wasn’t all that bad either compared to my 22″ gas mower. Didn’t even notice the time difference except that it seem to be quicker with the electric. Maybe new blades could have been the reason for that as the ones on the gas mower have not been sharpen recently. All in all….give a electric/rechargeable mower a try…you may never go back to gas. My next venture will be one of the robotic mowers if I could find one cheap enough. Just would worry that someone else might want it more than me and find it missing one day since it has to stay outside all the time. Again as mention before, I am not anyone that has work for DESA or remington, but just a customer that happens to be please with the purchased made. Like any tools, if taken care of, it should last many years. Its not like the old gas mower than many people have a trend to just leave outside all the time, never do any maintance to it and bang it into every rock and tree. This electic mower is not made of steel and doesn’t like rain. Its lightweight, making it easy to carry, move or even hang on the wall of your garage. See with no oil or gas, it can be placed just about anywhere as you would a bike. I do hope that this review will help others in deciding which type of mower to buy. The electric mowers have come a long way and still have more improvements coming. So if you are looking for a new mower, then be sure to look at the rechargeable models when looking at the electric series. This time, instead of having to refil the gas tank on my mower 2 to 3 times to do the yard which would equal to several dollars, and spilled gas somewhere in the yard, I just charged up the mower one time and mowed the yard.
I just learned of the bankruptcy of DESA and the out of luck status of Remington Mower owners like me. The plastic wheels on my mower are wearing out and no remedy is offered. Has any one else had this problem? Also I own 3 batteries and all 3 perform differently, so I am assuming there is a difference in quality which would explain the varying performances of posters on this site. The batteries will no longer be available, so it’s tough luck fellow owners. I was pleased with the mower and feel betrayed by the company.
We need to help each other in orde to exchange resources for batteries, repairs and troubleshooting. I was left with a 450 dollar machine which never worked correctly. It came from the factory on a ruined open box and they tried to console me with emais to later go backrupt. Where can we get the batteries, the blades, the plastic keys, etc
I agree with Alberto – we need to hear from each other about any sources for batteries, etc. And thank you, Jerry for your thoughts and the information about the battery.
I have had mine for two years and it has performed quite well for me. I haven’t had as many problems as others – no trouble at all with my control switch. The second summer, the battery didn’t hold as much of a charge, especially with our wet summer and the need to mow taller, wetter grass, but all in all, I’ve been very happy. I don’t mind mowing the front and back yard on different days to allow a charge in between.
We used to use a lawn service, so the mower paid for itself after the first half summer. Now, my front wheels are getting really wobbly and I think I’m going to have to figure out how to keep them from falling off. I bet my battery is not going to perform well once we get to this spring so I will look into replacing them as Jerry talked about.
I do have the problem of the front axle falling out, but have learned how to easily get it back in its slot. I think I might try installing a bar to help hold it in place.
Anyway, I heard that this division of Remington was bought out and that it was assumed and hoped that they would be back as usual eventually. Until, then, let the ideas come from each other! I do really like my mower and wish I could have bought another for $100 like Jerry found!
company is not honoring warranty due to bankruptcy. beware.
I’ve had my mower for about a year, with no serious problems, but I tried to turn it on one day and had no power. In checking it out with a ohm meter I found that the tabs on the battery had spread enough to break contact. I was able to bend them back in place with a screwdriver, but I’m sure that will need to be done again, with the tab snapping off sometime i the future,
The key must have popped out somewhere in my lawn and I can’t locate it. Can anyone help me in locating another one, or give me instructions on installing a on/off switch?
Everyone,
My battery quit holding a charge after two years so I took off the cover and replaced the five small batteries with new ones I found locally for around $13 each. Voila – works as good as new!
I used what was originally in there:
Power-Sonic PS 1250 F1 12 volt batteries
My back wheels fell off this year, too. I just took off the plastic liners to get a bare axle, drilled holes 1/4 inch from the end, slid on new 8-inch steel wheels, and put little metal clips through the holes to hold them on.
Original wheels are 9-inch, but I couldn’t find any so used 8-inch. Will just have to set the mower higher. You will need wheels with a 1.5 inch hub so I used offset hubs. I would have liked to use 10-inch wheels, but on wheels found locally the hubs were 1.75 inches which doesn’t fit.
Hope that helps anyone who needs it.
I just bought the last Remington mower @ Menards. I can take it back within 1 week but I want to get it to work because I got a great price on it. However my issue is that the battery seams to have charged but when I try to use the battery mode nothing happens. My volt meter shows 68 volts dc coming from the battery but when the handle is pressed voltage goes to zero and the motor doesn’t work. Anyone know what’s the issue?
Does anyone know the resistance value of the large 40 watt sandstone power resistor mounted on the mower chassis, and soldered to the board at one end, and connecting to the pair of microswitches on the mower chassis with a blue lead wire. Not the the smaller power resistor sitting in the plastic cover. Can’t find any info on the resistor other than the wattage being 40 watts. Help…………
I bought mine a year and a half ago. worked well for one summer, and the batteries wouldn’t hold the charge anymore. I called the Company that owns Remington. I was rudely told that the new company is not legally responsible to service or help the customers as the old company went bankrupt, and I would be free to sue them.
I bought new batteries that are similar from Batteries Plus, but I forgot to write down the way the old batteries were connected. Now, I don’t know how to connect them. Can someone tell me how to do it, or post a picture of the batteries connected to the charger? I very appreciate any response on this.
I own a Remington mower also. This is my third year. It has worked well until recently. One of the wheels is falling off and batter doesn’t hold charge as long.
I often thought I should attach a lanyard to the key and loop it around the handle. Thanks to you, Tom N., I have learned from your experience.
Thanks, Linda, for the wheel replacement idea. I just learned of the bankruptcy and inability to get repairs and parts. Too bad. Such a good environment friendly product.
Payed $450.00 + for this cordless mower, worked good for one season. Main circuit board is not protected, which debri’s will collect and short out the whole system. Had 2yr. warrenty in which Remington does not honor!!! So I’m out $450.00 plus dollars trying to do my part too help the enviroment!
How the batteries are connected in their enclosure.
The five 12 Volt batteries are connected in series(the negative-Black terimal of the first battery is connected to the positive-Red terminal of the next until all five are connected together – negative to positive). The positive terminal of the first battery is connected to the left battery enclosure terminal when looking at the battery enclosure and reading the Remington 60 Volt label. The negative terminal of the last battery is connected to the right battery enclosure terminal.
Just remember to not connect the negative to the positive teriminal on the same battery as this will short out the battery.
I would hope that there are none of these machines left for other unfortunate souls to purchase. Bought in August of 08 and was fine for a year. Stored this in the garage for the winter in 09 and now the battery holds a charge for about a minute. What used to take me 20 mins to mow the lawn with a gas mower now takes me over an hour due to having to plug in the machine to get it to work. Warranty is still “valid” but no one will work on it as MTD/Yard machines bought remington and are not honoring their warranties.
Ever since I got the mower, I have to go over the lawn twice due to the fact that the mower cuts the lawn very poorly, Even with Sharp blades and the increased power with the plug.
I’ll never buy another electric mower. Sorry mother nature. I was trying to be green, but I got screwed out of 400.00. I’ll be going back to a gas powered mower.
Thanks Bob for the info on battery connections. I will try them out as soon as I get the new batteries.
I connected the batteries as suggested by Bob. It worked perfectly. Thanks Bob for your help. You saved my lawnmower.
so I lost my key for this mower. can’t find a replacement part anywhere. can anyone help with an alternative solution?
Thanks.
my wire broke off one end of the resistor need to know if anyone knows where I can order one
THANKS
Back again requesting help. How do we find a blade for this toy? Why we have not thrown it away its because we paid so much…help on the blade fellows and gals???? Where and $$$$