Recently I talked about how I made a homemade battery for the mower, and today I will tell you about the mower itself.
There are two complete sets of this mower on sale - DLM380PM2 with two 4 Ah batteries and a charger (~ 19600 rubles) and DLM380Z without batteries and charger (I bought it last year at a sale for 3990 rubles).
Main technical parameters of Makita DLM380:
Mowing width: 38 cm
Cutting height: 25 - 75 mm (6 positions)
Grass catcher volume: 40 l
Mowing area: up to 6 ares with 4 Ah batteries
Dimensions (L x W x H): 1145 x 465 x 1070 mm
Weight with batteries: 15 kg
Power supply: 18 + 18 V, 1.5 / 3/4/5/6 Ah
Features: not self-propelled, not mulching, it is impossible to work without a grass catcher
Features: motor soft start, motor brake, overheating protection, overload protection, motor blocking protection, safety key, discharge indicators.
In appearance, the mower looks exactly the same as a conventional electric one. Only there is no wire.
The blade of the mower is exactly the same as that of a conventional, mains powered mower.
To start, you need to press the red button on the right, then press the wide red handle and hold it while working.
There is a safety key inside the battery compartment. Until it is inserted, the mower will not start. The photo shows my homemade battery (https://ammo1.livejournal.com/1146263.html).
Places for standard batteries (before rework).
The mowing height is regulated by a lever (it has six positions). The lever moves the rods that move the axles of all four wheels.
The grass catcher has a wide mouth, making it easy to empty the grass.
It is more or less convenient to install and remove the grass catcher. It is hung on the protrusions of the plastic housing.
It is very convenient that there is an indicator of the fullness of the collection box. It's simple: a blue plastic plate is hinged to the grass catcher. Until the grass catcher is full, engine cooling air flows through it and lifts the blade. As soon as the grass catcher is full, the air does not pass and the blade stops rising.
The battery compartment is closed with a grass cover. Below it are two discharge indicators that start blinking red when the batteries are running low.
For the operation of the lifting-lowering mechanism, the wheels are not fixed on a common axle, but on swivel plates. All these parts are metal.
But the rods that ensure the lifting and lowering of the wheels are plastic. From the experience of the previous mower, I can assume that they are the first to break.
My homemade 36 V 7.5 Ah battery lasts for 49-54 minutes of continuous mower operation depending on the grass height. This is quite a lot - one charge is enough for me to mow the entire plot (about 8 acres). It can be assumed that standard 4 Ah batteries will last 26-30 minutes.
In idle mode, the mower consumes about 5 A. In operating mode, judging by the battery consumption, 8-9 A. It turns out that the power of the mower motor is about 350 watts. This is three times less than that of mowers operating from the mains, but I did not notice any difference - it mows in the same way, including tall grass.
In general, this mower is designed for a flat lawn with small grass. The instruction even has a funny phrase: "Before mowing, clear the lawn of weeds." My "lawn" consists entirely of weeds and during the first mowing the grass was about 20 cm high. The mower coped well, but in some places it was hard (especially on dense sedge growing as a "bush").
The 40 l grass catcher is too small - during the first mowing it had to be emptied every 2-2.5 minutes, while mowing after a week - every 3-3.5 minutes.
I saw this picture when I arrived at the dacha a week after mowing.
An hour and a half of work and there are almost no dandelions.
Work without a grass catcher is not provided for the mower - the cover at the back tightly closes the "exhaust" and the mower becomes clogged with grass. If necessary, you can "pinch" some stick so that it holds the lid in a half-open state.
I had doubts if the power of the battery mower would be enough and if its operating time was sufficient. Doubts are dispelled, there is enough power, time too. Regular batteries will most likely be enough for 4-5 acres, but standard charging charges them in less than an hour, so it is quite possible to mow in two charges.
I shot a small video review of the mower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v = -IWt93AD31w
I don’t know how long the mower will last with my weeds and uneven terrain, but so far I’m very happy with it. Mowing without a wire is much more convenient and faster.
© 2020, Alexey Nadezhin
The main topic of my blog is technology in human life. I write reviews, share experiences, talk about all sorts of interesting things. My second project - lamptest.ru. I test LED bulbs and help figure out which ones are good and which are not so good.