Maintaining a nice looking lawn is easier with the availability of lawn mowers and shears which are battery operated. If you’re looking for lawn mowers, there are basically two kinds: the reel mowers and the rotary mowers. Reel mowers differ from rotary mowers by being either manually operated or power driven, and have blades that rotate in horizontal fashion, whereas the rotary lawn mowers are exclusively power driven, and have vertically rotating blades. Newer innovations, such as ride-on mowers, hower mowers, or robotic mowers, look set to be the wave of the future.
First let’s have a look at the two traditional lawn mower variants, and then look at the robotic version.
Reel mowers
Reel lawn mowers are relatively inexpensive, and safe to operate for those without much experience. Reel mowers have between 3-7 blades for cutting low grass. Some have 7 blades and some have 5 blades. The typical reel mower has 5 blades, and they all cut in a forward direction, the blades rotating in a downward fashion 
while cutting. Power driven reel mowers are good for mowing lawns on slopes because their motors power both the wheels as well as the blades, minimizing effort and energy when cutting up a slope.
Manual reel mowers are pushed by hand or in the case of the the gang reel mowers, pulled by tractors to mow large golf courses. The push mowers are the most basic lawn mowers, having no motor and powered by the action of their wheels driving gears which in turn spin the wheels.
Reel mowers are lightweight, quiet, and precise in their cutting of grass, enabling many people to take up lawn mowing as an exercise routine. Environmentally friendly, they don’t emit carbon dioxide either, and being easy to maintain, are easy on your pocket both in the short and long run.
Rotary mowers
Rotary lawn mowers are powered by engines that run on gasoline, other liquid fuels, or electricity. Rotary mowers will not cut down as low as reel mowers do, but they can cut higher up. They are robust, and can eject rocks, pebbles, or sticks; being preferred over reel mowers when cutting unknown, and overgrown territory.
Gasoline powered rotary mowers do chalk up bills as much as $10 per week, and they can cost as much as $1000. There are lots of second hand, reconditioned rotary mowers sold through discount stores though, these are a lot cheaper. Rotary mowers can last many years if taken care of, and are good for mowing large lawns – quickly.
The downsides of rotary mowers are mainly, their noise, pollution, and safety hazards. Some findings suggest rotary mowers pump out enough pollution in one hour equivalent to driving a car for hundreds of miles! And anyone who uses them often enough can attest to the oft hazardous sticks and stones being spewed by them.
Robot mowers
Robotic lawn mowers are now established as a viable, though relatively more expensive option – if you are looking for a lawn mower. It’s worth to keep in mind that this is an ever-improving technology, so it can be assumed that current models will lose a lot of their value in the near future – as technology improves. Most robot lawn mowers still need a charging station to charge them up, and for you to prepare their mowing boundaries. Mowing boundaries can be setup by digging and burying a wire that also connects to their charging station.
Nowadays, most robotic mowers are equipped with apps and sensors that enable them to detect barriers and obstacles to avoid bumping into them, and continue mowing around the obstacles. They also may have rain sensors that detect rain, and automatically shut down or go to sleep, should rain fall. Different brands will have different apps which can be downloaded and installed on your smartphone, and work on Android as well as iOS.
Robotic mowers are convenient, but still not a miracle solution for cutting your grass. Present models can do a relatively fine job, though a lot still depends on the brand and price tag. In short, they can do about 80-90% of the job for you, but you will still need to carry out finishing work on your lawn, such as manually trimming grass around the edges of obstacles or boundaries.
