REVIEW – Mowing grass is a necessary chore for many people which they may or may not enjoy. I don’t mind mowing but I do mind dealing with gas and oil due to the smell, mess, and of course, there’s the expense. One solution is to buy an electric lawn mower like the PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower. Let’s check it out.
What is it?
The PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 is a battery-powered lawn mower that doesn’t require any gas or oil changes.
What’s in the box?
- PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower
- Battery
- Battery charger
- Grass clipping bag
- Grass side chute attachment
- Manual
Hardware specs
Battery type: 40V 4.0Ah Lithium-ion
Charger time: 90mins
No-load speed: 2700 RPM
Cutting width: 17 inch
Height adjustments: 5 Position
Grass catcher capacity: 11.8 Gallon
Weight (with battery): 42lbs
Design and features
The PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower comes about 95% assembled right out of the box. All you need to do is lift it out of the box, unfold the handle, and tighten the two red plastic knobs to secure the handles in the open position. Then you use the included bolts to secure the handles to the mower’s base. This is the step where I ran into an issue…
The included bolts fit fine in the holes in the handles, but…
They were too short to actually allow me to screw them into the mower base no matter how hard I tried. So I contacted PowerSmart and they sent me another set of bolts.
The bolt on the left in the image above is one of the bolts included with the mower and the bolt on the right is the replacement that they sent. There’s a big difference in length as you can see. The new bolts worked fine, but it makes me wonder if the problem was a one-off or if all PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mowers ship with bolts that are too short.
With the mower assembled, let’s take a look at the rest of its features.
The top of the handle has a start button in the center and battery/warning status LEDs below it. On either side of the start button is a squeeze switch that you have to keep pressed in order to keep the mower running. Starting the mower requires that you press/hold the start button in the center and then squeeze the handle. The last time I used a push mower, I had to use a pull start, so the PowerSmart was a joy to use in that regard.
Instead of gas, the mower runs on battery power. The battery compartment is located under a plastic cover on top of the mower deck.
It can take up to 2 hours to fully charge the battery using the included charger. A large LED on the front of the charger blinks red while the battery is charging and then turns green when the battery is fully charged.
The charged battery slides into the battery compartment in the mower. A push button on the battery itself shows the charge status by lighting up a row of LEDs.
The PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower can be used with the included grass catcher bag or with the side chute which is also included. Both are easy to attach and remove without the need for any tools.
The image above shows both the grass catcher bag and the side chute installed. Of course, you wouldn’t want to attach the side chute while using the grass catcher bag, but I wanted to show both options.
The 17-inch wide mower deck is made of steel while the battery compartment and wheels are made of plastic. In my opinion, the look and feel of the PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower is a bit on the cheap side due to all the plastic. But let’s try it out and see what it’s like to mow with it.
See it in action
You can watch the video above to see in real time, how long it took to fill the grass clipping bag to about 75% full. Spoiler, it didn’t take long at all. I then changed to the side chute and continued mowing until the battery died at 30 minutes of total mowing time.
I was a bit disappointed that I could barely finish mowing my smallish front and side yard before the battery died.
I have 12 acres of property with probably 1-1.5 acres in total to mow (the rest is wooded). After the first mowing session, I recharged the battery, and the next day, I mowed the other side of my property. Again, the battery only lasted 30 minutes.
I’ve outlined the area that I was able to mow on one charge of the PowerSmart’s battery. As you can see, there is a LOT more grass left to mow (and even more that you can’t see in this image). Unless you have a collection of 5 or 6 batteries, you would never be able to mow all my grass in one day with the PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower.
During my mowing sessions, I noticed a few things worth mentioning. First of all, I found that it was easy to maneuver this lightweight mower even on inclines. I also noticed that the motor seemed to slow down and speed up while pushing it. I wasn’t sure if this was some type of power-saving behavior. It didn’t seem to affect how well the mower cut the grass.
Another nice thing about the PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower is that it’s not as loud as a traditional lawn mower. I wouldn’t say that it’s quiet, but it’s significantly less noisy than a regular mower.
What I like
- No gas, no oil, no maintenance
- Easy push button start
- Grass catch bag or side grass chute
What I’d change
- Needs a longer lasting battery
- The back flap kept falling off and needs a better way to attach it
Final thoughts
The PowerSmart Electric 40V F4017 Lawn Mower was my first experience using an electric lawn mower. While I wasn’t super impressed with the build quality of the mower due to the use of plastic, it mowed just fine. If you have a small yard, this electric mower will get the job done as long as the job only takes 30 minutes.
Update 06/24/23
Even though this battery-powered mower feels a bit cheap, it continues to perform. Lately, I’ve assigned it the task of mowing steep ditches or other areas where a riding lawnmower would be dangerous to use. It’s also being used by my better half Jeanne to mow her fenced-in raised bed garden area. She likes the PowerSmart because it’s lightweight and easy to maneuver compared to its larger brother, the 80V PowerSmart (PS76826SRB).
Price: $279.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by PowerSmart.
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In the bulleted list beneath the first photo, it’s “chute,” not “shoot.”
You need a proper twin-blade mulching mower for that amount of lawn. Those grass clippings should be left on the lawn for fertilizer and ground cover to keep the soil from drying out.
I never use a grass-clipping bag on lawn mowers… it was just a test for the review. 🙂
With a really good mulching mower I don’t bother raking leaves, I just mulch them into the grass and don’t bother with fertilizer as the mulched leaves work well. The only downside is that you need to do it often in the fall.
We don’t rake either. We just mow with our Cub Cadet lawn tractor once or twice after the leaves are down and then let the wind do the rest of the work 😉 You can tell that we aren’t that concerned about our yard if you watch the video and see a bunch of leaves on the side of the house 😉
What was the area mowed on one battery?
I have talked about 2 mowing sessions. For the first session, I did my front yard. If you watch the video linked in the review, I show you the area that worked with one battery charge, and if you look farther down in the review, you can see where I mowed my side yard and show an image with a red outline around the area that was done with one battery charge.