Over at instagram a user by the name of tpro_by posted images of a new Makita DLM533 battery powered lawn mower from a Makita event. Makita is no stranger to battery powered lawn mowers but whats very interesting about the new cordless mower is that it accepts four 18V batteries!
When you open the battery compartment, youll notice the picture shows 4 batteries installed. Weve seen plenty of Makita X2 power tools including their mowers that use two 18V batteries to pump out 36 volts however this is the first time Ive seen a cordless power tool use 4 batteries. Is it possible that they are using all four of their batteries together to produce 72 volts? If so this means that Makita is headed in a new direction and opens the possibility of additional X4 high voltage cordless power tools. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough information to confirm that this mower is indeed a 72-volt model. It could also have four batteries, which is another possibility. It could be that the mower is using two sets of batteries to maintain 36 volts but increase amp hour (runtime capacity) or another possibility is that only two batteries are in use while the other two are storage slots for keeping the two extra batteries on hand to swap out manually when the two in use run out of juice. The advantage of the first is longer runtime per charge, the advantage of the latter is that you can hotswap batteries in the field without the need to go back to the garage and get another set of batteries.
Other than that we dont know too much as no specs are listed. We can however see some things just from the photos. The new DLM533 mower is self propelled and has what appears to be a metal deck. The battery compartment has what appears to have a red key. A knob can be used to select between 1 or 2, and each set is labeled 1 or 2. It’s most likely a 36-volt mower. I believe that once one set of batteries is exhausted, the other set can be selected by turning the knob.
I am 99% sure that this is a 36-volt mower after a closer inspection. What do you think? Do you think Makita should have made it a 72-volt mower using all four batteries in series? Or do you prefer the idea of a 36V mower that can be manually selected between different sets of batteries?
All credit for the source and images goes to instagram user, tpro_by. Cody Robertson is also to be thanked for finding his post!
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