Battery technology isn’t new to the industry, but if you’ve been mulling over making a shift in recent years, you might still be hesitating due to confusion over the various specs. Determining the power of a battery product isn’t as clear-cut as looking at the horsepower on a gas product.
“Every manufacturer is boasting about different things like voltage,” says Jack Easterly, a product manager at the Husqvarna Group. “You should never look at just voltage-specific battery tools, for example.”
Easterly will give attendees a better understanding of battery technology during his session “Battery Tools and Technology: Nothing is New, Except Everything” during LANDSCAPES 2021 on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Easterly says he understands the upfront cost of batteries is significant and says his session will help landscape operators feel more confident in their buying choices.
In this session, you will learn the difference between voltage, capacity and energy, and find out which specification tells you the most about product performance.
“With battery, there’s a lot of variables that are new to a lot of people, such as weight without the battery,” Easterly says. “Make sure you’re looking and you’re reading between the lines more than gas products.”
As for runtime, he says many factors will affect a battery product’s runtime, such as the thickness of a string trimmer’s line.
A common misconception is to associate a high voltage with more power.
“You have to look at the nominal voltage times the amp hour, which is all public information available on the product,” Easterly says.
Easterly will break down in layman’s terms what specs really matter so you can make more informed buying decisions when looking for battery solutions.
He will also cover the history of battery technology, how it had developed and how it might work (or not) for your lawn and landscape business. He says while battery power has a number of environmental benefits, many companies are switching due to less maintenance and improved operator comfort.
“Most companies really care about their employees and that’s becoming more obvious with the tools they provide,” Easterly says.
He will also cover how different battery construction impacts how batteries are built and why the industry shifted to lithium-ion. Easterly says there is a method to the madness of all the different voltages on the market. The voltage and how the battery cells are arrayed limits the size of the batteries.
Easterly says an example of this is when Oregon introduced its 120v system in 2017. Because of the voltage and the way the cells were laid out, they could not make the batteries smaller than a backpack battery for every tool and as a result, they discontinued their 120v system in 2020.
This session is worth 1 CEU credit. You can earn up to 13 CEU credits by attending sessions at LANDSCAPES 2021.
Want more information about battery-powered equipment? Register for LANDSCAPES 2021 and we’ll see you in Louisville!
