Proprietary chemistry in Kress batteries delivers high-current flow while minimising heat buildup – a key factor in extending battery life, maintaining peak performance, and enabling immediate recharging with no cooling time required. It’s a big part of why The Metropolitan Golf Club has embraced Kress equipment.
Landscape Contractor has been a big fan of Kress CyberSystem gear since it was first launched in Australia a few years ago. The super-fast charging and sturdy, well-designed equipment marked it as a very real option for pro property-maintenance contractors and landscapers, and of course, we loved the company tag line: ‘Our mission: zero emission’.
Just to cover off the high points of this gear – which we’ve covered many times now, and even in this issue:
• The technology enables a full charge in just eight minutes (for KAC804 / KAC810 CyberPack batteries when used with the CyberTank)
• The batteries are backed by an eight-year or 3000-cycle limited warranty
• The CyberPack KAC804 delivers up to 6.5kW peak and 3.2kW continuous power, while the KAC810 delivers up to 10kW peak and 5.8kW continuous – designed to match or exceed the performance of petrol-powered tools, particularly in torque and responsiveness, and
• The Kress CyberSystem includes a range of advanced charging solutions, including CyberTank, CyberLiteCharger and CyberPlug Charger, all offering fast charging in on- and off-grid situations.
Kress Commercial Tools
Naturally enough, the batteries are designed to work with a big range of tools.
Kress offers a comprehensive suite of 60V battery-powered outdoor power equipment designed for professional landscapers, councils, and contractors. The tools are built to deliver petrol-like performance with zero emissions, reduced noise and lower maintenance requirements, and include equipment like grass trimmers, edgers, brush cutters, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, blowers, and lawn mowers – all powered by the same 60V battery platform.
Time saver
Victoria’s Metropolitan Golf Club is a ‘sandbelt’ course at Oakleigh in Melbourne’s south-east. The club’s been on the site for 118 years and is an international-standard course which has hosted, among a very impressive list of tournaments, seven Australian Opens.
The point of that little nugget of club history is that the Metropolitan Golf Club takes the care of its grounds very, very seriously. And the man who shoulders that responsibility is Course Superintendent, John Mann.
With the quality of the links and surrounds under daily scrutiny by professionals around the world, John and his team are very fussy about their choice of equipment.
“Our playing surfaces are surrounded by heathland plants and native eucalypts, so leaf blowing and debris removal is a daily exercise for us,” he told a very attentive Landscape Contractor magazine. “One of the great features of the CyberPack battery system is the interchangeability across a number of different tools. We have Kress electric backpack blowers, lawn edgers, whipper-snippers, and a pole saw.”
Rugged and durable
While fast recharging is a huge plus for the Kress gear, and a major consideration for a site as big as the Metropolitan Golf Club, the durability and performance of the equipment is, of course, just as important.
John explained: “The way we transport the Kress equipment around the site is typically in the back of an ATV. It gets thrown in the tray, runs around on maintenance tracks, gets bounced around everywhere…but it’s so robust. We have no issues at all with the Kress equipment.”
“And the performance we get out of the Kress blowers is equal to petrol blowers. We lose nothing in terms of performance with any of the Kress gear.”
The sound barrier
Another aspect of the Kress equipment which finds favour with John and The Metropolitan is the low sound level during operation.
“Having the Kress fleet allows us to perform work all around the site,” he said quietly, “any time of the day, including in sensitive residential areas and around members and guests as they’re playing.
“We’re a 364-day-of-the-year operation,” he birdied. “We start early – at 5.30 am – so being able to perform the tasks we need to do before the golfers arrive, without upsetting nearby residents and while staying environmentally compliant, is really important to us.”
The comfort zone
John also pointed out the staff in general were more comfortable due to not needing hearing protection and with their work environment being free of emissions, among other benefits.
“We’ve noticed the batteries don’t get too hot,” he explained, “and in Victoria in Summer that’s a big thing for operator comfort.”
“We’re really proud to be making a difference by choosing Kress equipment,” he said with obvious satisfaction.
See the video with John and the Kress equipment at work at landscapecontractor.com.au.