Kobalt 80 Volt lawn mower review
The Kobalt 80 Volt range is made up of four cordless products, this is a review on the Kobalt 80v lawn mower.
The Kobalt 80 Volt mower is the sister to the Greenworks 80V (Victa 80v) mower, being designed in the USA and made in China. Woolworths is bringing it in and selling it exclusively in Masters hardware stores across Australia.
The kit comes with two 2amp-hour 80 Volt batteries and a fan cooled quick charger.
The Kobalt battery is a 80-Volt 2 Amp-hour lithium ion unit and lasts on average 25-30 minutes when used with the Kobalt 80 Volt mower.
The battery is made of hard plastic and has been sturdy and reliable so far. On the front it has a button and a 3 LED battery indicator which is handy to quickly gauge how much juice the battery has left, although I would have preferred a 4 LED indicator for better accuracy.
The included charger is the icing on the cake in this kit, it’s compact, fan cooled and can charge the 80v 2 Amp-hour battery in 30 minutes, due to the speed at which this charger chargers. You would be pushing to drain the battery in the lawn mower before the next battery is fully charged.
Now on to the mower. The Kobalt 80 Volt mower is a battery electric beast, weighing over 32kg it feels almost as heavy as a petrol powered model. This is partly due the large 21 inch steel cutting deck and large electric motor powering the large single piece steel blade.
Overall build quality is above average in the battery electric mower space, height adjustment is quickly changed with a single lever although it should be made to go lower (more on that later).
The handle and controls are comfortable and has 3 angle/height adjustments for optimal user geometry.
The blade is a single piece design with a good angle to create decent vacuum. The blade features unique arrow cut outs restricting the user to buying Kobalt branded blades only, which don’t seem to be stocked at my local Masters store.
The collection bag has a commercial look and feels similar to that found on high quality petrol powered mowers. Lawn clippings get thrown to the back of the bag reasonably well reducing the need to empty the bag as often.
My main beef I have with this machine is its lack of a decent low cutting height. To get around this I disassembled the height adjustment lever and had it bent to a lesser angle so when the lever is placed at its lowest height adjustment notch it is a lower than what comes out the factory.
Overall the mower performs well, has enough power for regular mowing and has been 100% reliable in the 4 months of ownership.
If I was to design the perfect battery electric mower it would be something similar to the Kobalt 80 Volt but with an aluminium deck, ball bearing wheels and self propelled function.
Update: This model is no longer available in Australia as the Australian supplier ‘Masters’ has gone out of business.
Jason
June 14, 2016 @ 7:17 am
Would you be able to give detailed instructions as to how you adjusted the height lever to be lower? Thanks
Saach
July 13, 2016 @ 8:21 am
I have the same issue. Poor low level cutting. Could you please share your technique to lower blade. Thanks.
Stuart
July 22, 2016 @ 11:48 am
Hi Saach, put the mower on its side then take the back wheel off on the side of the lever, then remove the split pin and the spring and slide the lever out. Once you have the lever you want to take the plastic cap off as to not melt the plastic when you go to heat the lever with an oxy torch and bend it like in the picture I have added into the post. If you print out this picture and enlarge it to scale it should be easy enough. Also take a photo of the assembly after you have taken the wheel off but before you take the split pin and spring off the lever mechanism, you don’t want to forget how this went together. Hope this helps.
Stuart
July 22, 2016 @ 11:44 am
Hi Jason, put the mower on its side then take the back wheel off on the side of the lever, then remove the split pin and the spring and slide the lever out. Once you have the lever you want to take the plastic cap off as to not melt the plastic when you go to heat the lever with an oxy torch and bend it like in the picture I have added into the post. If you print out this picture and enlarge it to scale it should be easy enough. Also take a photo of the assembly after you have taken the wheel off but before you take the split pin and spring off the lever mechanism, you don’t want to forget how this went together. Hope this helps.
Jack
November 7, 2016 @ 9:57 am
I hear this is the same product as the victa 80 v, I wonder if this battery would fit the victa
Stuart
November 7, 2016 @ 11:10 am
Hi Jack, yes the Kobalt and Victa 80v lawn mower is basically the same product with only slight variances in esthetics. The battery looks the same but not 100% sure if it is compatible. If you find out please let us know as I’m sure others would be interested.