We’ve had mixed results with our Craftsman V60 Mower (CMCMW270) after a little over two years of ownership.

UPDATE: After a back and forth on a response to a review on their page, I appear to have gotten a check for the cost of the larger battery that’s still available (5.0Ah, though, not the original 7.5Ah). Still trying to decide whether to get a couple of batteries or upgrade mower.

The Good – V60 battery beats gas fumes

While we’ve had plenty of cordless lawn equipment such as trimmers and blowers, this was our first lawn mower that wasn’t gas powered. Being able to mow without breathing in gas fumes for an hour is a huge benefit to an electric mower, and not having a cord attached seems like the only way to go.

Another huge benefit is that it starts and stops pretty easily. The initial battery life on the V60 was only about an hour or so for our cutting needs, but you could start and stop the mower in an instant in cases in which you might keep a gas mower running just to not have to fight with starting it back up again.

The bad – Declining V60 battery life and no availability

The biggest drawback is that the battery life of the 7.5AH battery now only lasts long enough for at most 2/3rds of the yard to be cut. This is only 2 years after purchase. You’ll also notice that if you search for CMCB6075 (the 7.5AH battery) or go to the above link, there are no sellers of the brand new battery, only the occasional eBay listing. We did get a decent discount over brands that weren’t dying out, but didn’t expect the support for this thing to disappear so quickly.

The CMCB6025 2.5AH battery is still available on Amazon (affiliate link) or Lowes, but it’s a whopping $150 for 15-20 minutes of battery life. Still, we manage to juggle the CMCB6025 for our blower with the CMCB6075 to get the job done.

A similar nuisance that is compounded by the abysmal battery life is the fact that the blade doesn’t quite spin up to the speed of a gas mower, which left us with missed blades of grass everywhere, even when the blade was fresh and sharp.

Conclusion

I’ve liked the experience enough with this mower to not really want to go back to gas-powered, but I don’t look forward to paying the premium and being on the hook for replacement batteries.