Quality Garden Tools Blog

Green Power

Posted on 13/06/09 | Posted by The Fat Gardener

Green gardening is now firmly established in the country’s psyche. The BBC use organic products in all their TV shows and chemical solutions are mentioned less and less or not at all. We are also constantly told to recycle, compost, ‘grow-our-own’ and use FSC timber products.

I am a real believer in all of the above, but how many of these measures really make an impact on our environment, let alone our pockets?

For many years I have bought and used both electric and petrol powered garden tools. Battery powered electric gardening tools allowed the user to enjoy the mobility of a petrol powered tool with the convenience of electricity. However, using batteries often meant lower levels of power and ever decreasing battery performance.

Bosch Garden Tools have long been at the forefront of electric garden tool design and manufacture, but it wasn’t until 2003 that things got really exciting. This was the year they launched the Ixo drill, the first power tool on the market with lithium-ion battery technology. It proved an instant success and since then over eight million units have been sold worldwide.

Lithium-ion technology is now reasonably widespread, so what makes it so special? The main features are:
• A very high weight to power ratio.
• Very slow loss of charge when not being used.
• No reduction of charge over time (memory effect).
Along with the features listed above, lithium-ion batteries have much lower emmissions than petrol driven machines. For example, Bosch sat that a lithium-ion Bosch cordless lawnmower will emit 60g of CO2 while mowing an area of 300m², but a petrol mower cutting the same area will produce 780g of CO2 – 1300% more!

I have used a number of the Bosch range and have been really impressed with the level of power as well as the reduced weight, manoeuvrability, convenience and general ease of use. I particularly enjoyed using the hedgecutters which delayed the point when I have to stop due to arm fatigue by a good 15 minutes!

Bosch now offers their lithium-ion technology in a number of tools including: lawnmowers, hedgecutters, Ciso cordless secateurs and the Isio shape & edge. Quality Garden Tools are very excited with this range and the news that Bosch will be releasing more tools with lithium-ion technology over the coming months will be a boost for environmentally aware customers.

While many of these machines may seem initially expensive, they pay for themselves very quickly – even the 36volt lithium-ion Rotak battery only costs £0.01 to recharge. This means that a Bosch lithium-ion garden tool will start to repay its cost the minute you start using it – here’s to green power!

All our Bosch lithium-ion products are at: http://www.qualitygardentools.com/power-tools/imgview

Any comments? Please email us at info@qualitygardentools.com

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