Masport 60V ST19” Review
Tim the Lawnmower Man [@timthelawnmowerman & @turfandtools] and Carthic [@obsessivelawnie] offering their opinions of the Masport 60V ST19 mower.
Please view the video, link above, or read the transcript below:
“So I have Carthic [@obsessivelawnie] here with me again. Okay, we’ve got the ice cream man coming,” Tim
“Actually they don’t sell single ones now.” Carthic
“Noooo… Carthic wouldn’t let me get an ice cream, but we’ve been driving around for a couple of hours, actually looking for somewhere overgrown to do. We haven’t been able to find anywhere. Saw this very early on and we have the Masport 60V battery mower here so we thought we might as well throw that in the semi-deep end and see how it goes. I’m going to have a go with it, Carthic’s going to have a go and, yeah I don’t know how it’ll go. I guess it’s not really made for that sort of stuff but we’re going to tidy this up and get out of here. “ Tim
“If it handles this and that’s really good for it as well, because it’s kind of the ideal domestic scenario, isn’t it? “ Carthic
“Well that’s what I want to test it in a bit more sort of realistic domestic scenarios because I’ve tried it on my lawn, which I mow twice a week and it’s got a nice cut on it, but I want to see how it goes on stuff that’s been left for a month, two months, whatever. So only a little section, but let’s get it done.” Tim
“So this is the Masport 60 volt ST 19. It’s a battery mower with a 5ah battery. It’s currently priced at $999 AUD with the 5ah battery and charger. I mean there’s definitely cheaper options out there. I don’t think this is aimed at people looking for cheaper options. I guess if you’re talking about a premium, sort of domestic 19 inch push mower like I’ve got at home. a HRU19, you’ve got an old one back there. I think they're about 850/900 bucks so it's a little bit more expensive than even, you know your premium Honda domestic mower but it's obviously a different market. That's a 5 amp hour battery, they feel quite light. Masport has a normal charger and a fast charger. What you're cutting obviously determines how hard it's working and is going to determine actual run time. Now the thing I like most about this, for what I do and probably, we'll try it out on this lawn here. So it's also got this flap here which they call a smart chute. “ Tim
“Nice little nifty thought process there. “ Carthic
“Well, a lot of these mowers sometimes have a side discharge feature, so this can do without that because you just flip this up and then it will discharge neatly out the side. I've been sworn to by the rep that I can mow in white pants and not get any grass on me so that sounds pretty positive. So good for this sort of stuff. When you want to get the stuff just straight out the chute but you know not having the danger of the old school - getting an ockey strap and holding it up and then exposing yourself. “ Tim
“It's got two swing back blades on it as you can see there. It's kind of cool just being able to lift this stuff up and put it upside down. Not worry about oil or anything like that. I'm not sure exactly I'd have to look up the specs about the height of cut but that's dropped on its guts there and literally that I mean that looks like two mil off the concrete doesn't it?” Tim
“Yeah, that's going to scrape the deck though.” Carthic
“Yeah and then uh looks like it goes up, I don't know what's that 70 mil from the bottom of the deck?” Tim
“At least a couple of inches” Carthic
“Oh more than that, please!. So it tells you on the side of the mower what height you've got to have it at for catching or the Smart Chute or heavy or mulch whatever. Another cool feature is uh how you collapsible handlebars or just push that down that goes up for storage. Also comes with a neat little hook. If you want to pass me that. It comes with a neat little hook that goes on there, holds the catcher so you can store it nicely in your garage. Like that, against a wall. I don't know. Do you like that?“ Tim
“It’s the little touches but for the domestic market, I think for the normal person with a small shed or a garage, it's useful stuff.” Carthic
“Yeah definitely. Adjustable handlebars, great for midgets like myself. There we go, so with quick release which is obviously lovely.
“Is that your speed controls there?” Carthic
“Uh no speed control, just one speed. it will detect how thick it is and how hard it's working, then it'll ramp it up. So pretty easy to use. I mean, they're not crazy heavy-duty wheels, like on the commercial mower or anything. But I was told by the rep that they're coated in some sort of rubber. It's not all just plastic. It feels like very hard rubber but um you know not a bottom-of-the-range wheel, I'm told. “ Tim
“A very traditional-looking sort of mower if you're looking for something that you know. Some of them out there look quite spacey which some people just don't like, from a cosmetic point of view.” Tim
“It almost feels like it's the same sort of chassis. It's just either a petrol or a battery sort of unit attached to it.” Carthic
“Very much a traditional chassis, as you said. One adjustment point too, so you don't need to follow around with individual wheels or anything. What do you think about it?
“I like it, I’d be curious, if it can handle the height like this, I mean yeah no doubt that it will.” Carthic.
“Yeah.” Tim
“It's just whether you want to put it through this stuff all the time.” Carthic
“Exactly” Tim.
“And how comfortable it is dealing with it.” Carthic.
“Well, I worked that out when I did the cheapest mower Challenge and we bought the cheapest mowers, like a 16 inch mower or something and then went and mowed that overgrown place. Anything will get through it, it’s just how much. effort you’re going to go through. How many times it'll stall out.” Tim
“This is not the self-profiled model?” Carthic.
“No that's the other thing. Yeah, there's multiple models in this. There's 16 and a half inch which comes with a cloth catcher. This one obviously has the plastic one. I believe there's in a 18 inch also and I think an 18 inch self-propelled but yeah but there is a self-propelled version of this and there is a smaller version with less power as well. Um, all right so I'm going to mow this section here. Karthik's going to have a go there”. Tim
[Music]
“That was easy” Tim
[Music]
“Do you want to try the side chute thing on it?” Carthic
“Good Point” Tim
[Music]
SMART CHUTE REAR DISCHARGE
“That worked well, it’s pretty cool”. Tim
BAGGING, SLIGHTLY LOWER
“I honestly don’t think it even kicked up to its..” Tim
“Next setting” Carthic.
“Well, yeah, max power. I heard at the end there it sort of ramp up a little bit but I don't feel like it was truly sort of tested. And, I think, at some stage, we're going to have to find, heavier. Look at that, zero clogging. That filled that, all the way up, and not even close to clogging. All right, so Karthik's gonna have a go now. We've left it on this sort of low level that we had here, so we're gonna sort of rip into this. See if you can clog it up.“ Tim
[Music]
“So Carthik's going to see how close it can cut to the edges.” Tim
[Music].
“Pretty impressed with that.” Carthic
[Music]
So again that's a very small front yard but a bit of growth there,clover, which you know is usually a bit difficult to get through. My initial thoughts were it would only be for a small, you know small yards. But I think, just going from, and it's very early days but just this small yard here and how easily it got through that wet clover, I think it felt comparable to a petrol mower of that size.” Tim
“Yeah 100% and I think that kind of explains that price range we thought it was sitting at.” Carthic
“Yeah well, that was the next thing I was going to say. I was surprised how easily it got through it uh but at that price point, it should be doing that.” Tim
“Yeah” Carthic
“So for the price point, it's doing what it should be.” Tim
“It's not that it got through it, it's the manner in which it did, yes there was literally nothing.” Carthic
“Yeah, it didn't feel like it was much under load at all.” Tim
5AH BATTERY RUNTIME TEST
“There's generally two main concerns when people are talking about battery equipment. Number one is power but what we're going to test right now is run time. We've got a fully charged 5 amp hour battery here. I'm gonna slot it in here. We’re in a big open field. I'm just going to run this cut off about 10 mils. So it's going to be under some sort of load. Obviously load determines how long it's going to run for but it will be under a realistic load here. I'm going to be operating without the catcher mainly because I don't want to be picking up grass. There's no point here. We're going to be using the smart Chute which is the rear discharge feature. The safe rear discharge feature which throws it out to the side there safely away from me.
10 MINUTES
20 MINUTES
30 MINUTES
35 MINUTES
I don't know the exact run time yet as I said I've got to go and look at the tape but covered a lot of ground. 30-40 minutes. I don't know but that's a lot of constant mowing and again if you're doing bigger areas than that you're not going to be looking at that sort of mower.
So that is the Masport ST 19 60 volt battery mower.” Tim
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Link to video here.