Filed under: Household

With the price of gas these days, it’s no wonder people are skittish when it comes to mowing lawns. What’s more, gas-powered mowers have been shown to pollute up to 7 times as much as vehicles. Sure, you could go get a manual mower and get some exercise, but why do that when you can convert your gas-powered mower into an electric one? This modification takes you through three steps to do just that, including: removing the engine and installing an electric replacement, converting the engine to one powered by solar panels, and installing the solar panel. Expect conversion costs to run around $1,500. Of course, you could always just buy a Huskvarna and skip all this tomfoolery.

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Filed under: Household, Robots

iRobot may own the market for autonomous indoor cleaning devices, but when it comes to taming that wild jungle you call a backyard, the new king of the hill may well be the LawnBott LB3500. This fourth-generation LawnBott from Kyodo America improves upon its predecessors in nearly every category: even though it weighs ten pounds less than the entry-level LB2000, it offers up a greater coverage area, increased cutting width, greatly improved incline climbing capability, longer runtime, and best of all, a Bluetooth radio for programming or direct control by cellphone. Of course, all these high-end features don’t come cheap, and when the LB3500 does come to market (date: unknown), we imagine that it’s gonna cost a good deal more than the current high-end, $2,500 LB3200. Check out the gallery below for some more angles.

Update: Wow! Reader John Locke somehow managed to send an email from the island notifying us that The Robot Store has the LB3500 listed at $3,699, on sale for “only” $3,249. Also available is the “Super” LB3500, which is really just a kit that includes two extra lithium-ion batteries and tacks almost $600 on to the price. Thanks, John, but we bet Jack and Kate won’t be too happy when they find out you have Gmail access.

[Via Slashgear]

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