Lawnmower reviews

Gardening
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Keep your garden looking healthy with best lawnmowers, which you’ll find in our latest tests. Start with our lawnmower buying guide to help you decide which type of mower you need. Then, take a look at our:

Free free to post your questions, comments or experiences below.

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Thanks for the old review. I’m thinking of getting a battery lawnmower but a couple of things weren’t covered. It’s a largish garden in a lot of bits with steps between, so weight is a consideration. Recharge times aren’t a huge consideration because we tend to mow in bits anyway, rather than all at once. The main issue is there’s quite a bit of sloping lawn [maybe 25 degrees at worst]. Are some battery mowers better than others for slopes or should we stick to petrol?
2021-11-10T13:00:00Z

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Welcome to the Community @shandy

The most recent update is Jul 2021 (member content) :slight_smile:

While Memebrs are asked not to infringe on Choice IP from tests, your practical questions might be answered.

As for myself, I have rockeries and gardens with zero grass making ‘mowing’ a memory from my distant past.

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We once had a home with multiple levels. We only ever used a petrol mower, and bemoaned the weight and bulk. When we looked at battery electric mowers recently there were a number that were smaller and lighter than the old 2 stroke. The Choice review might help sort the best from the worst. One can also remove the battery from an electric mower to make it even lighter to carry between areas.

Rather than use a mower for the steeper slopes, we use a brush cutter (line trimmer). It avoids the problems of wrangling the weight of a push mower. On our current property there are also slopes unsafe for the ride on. For a smaller yard a battery line trimmer might be a good option. There are brands that use the same battery system for mower and yard tools.

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At our previous residence after I built a wall beside the spoon drain at the back of our yard, it was no longer feasible to get the mower up the slope and over the wall.

I bought a Flymo manual push mower from Bunnings and it cut the strip at the rear of our place and our neighbour’s place in no time.

It was light enought to be able to lift and carry with one hand.

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I had the opportunity to mow a neighbours yard with a top end Ryobi battery mower yesterday, using the mulch function. My experience of the Ryobi is only against a 20 year old Masport mulching mower. some observations and comment are based on using the mower as a mulcher:

  • The battery mower cut at only a longer grass (>40mm) height. For some yards and grass types this might be okay, but with the lawn in question it didn’t look as neat as a traditional petrol mower.
  • The mulching action of the battery mower was better than the petrol mower. The battery mower had a spreading plate attached to the back of the mower which helped push the clipping back into the lawn, making them less pronounced.
  • The battery mower body was plastic, which might be okay where one doesn’t have garden or concrete edges to deal with. Regular knocks against hard surfaces may not serve the mover life well. Possibly look for a battery mower which is majority metal, rather than majority plastic which occurs in many brands.
  • The battery mower didn’t handle sticks or leaves as well as the petrol mower. If you have a lawn which has a lot of sticks/leaves, it may be worth finding one which handles such materials better.
  • The battery life (5Ah battery) was enough capacity to mow about 250m2 (estimated) of lawn. The battery did get quite hot. I also ran it out (over areas where the initial cut wasn’t perfect) to full discharge and it lasted another 5 minutes after finishing the lawn. I estimate that the 5Ah battery would do about 300m2 of lawn where the grass being cut is about 75mm (35mm cut off). I have included the height as the mower increases output under load and it is likely under harder cutting conditions, the battery life will be less.
  • I don’t know the charge time as it wasn’t my mower (it is the neighbours). She indicated that it takes several hours to charge the battery after a mow. If you plan to buy a battery mower, it is suggested that the battery life greatly exceeds the stated mow area…for two reasons, the first as outlined above output increases under load/longer grass which would reduce battery life…and one doesn’t want to have to wait some time or have the expense of buying multiple batteries to finish off a mow in one session.

The battery mower also had push assistance/self propel. I didn’t use this which would have resulted in an reduced battery life.

Would I buy a battery mower, if I had a smaller lawn which was mowed regularly, mostly free of sticks etc, I would consider one. For larger areas, I would need more evidence that they are a better option.

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We use the Ryobi 18V battery mower just below a self propelled model, it has capacity for 2 18V batteries (we use 2 5Ah ones) it gets our smallish yard done well with still about 45% capacity left. I like to mow twice and at square to previous run to get a neat finish. Takes about 2 hours on the express charger to get a flat 5 Ah back to full capacity, the non express is about 3 hours.

The EGO 56V models are what I think are commercial quality and are recommended for that type of use. The reason we chose Ryobi is because we have a lot of their 18V tools and the batteries are used throughout so no other battery system needed. Ryobi do have a more powerful 36V system that includes a mower in the choices. Any of those may or may not suit your needs. What suits us is no recommendation for anyone else.

Ryobi Lawnmowers including 18V 36V and 48V models and advice about what types are best in various situations

https://www.ryobi.com.au/technologies/category/lawn-mowers

Ryobi 36V system tools

https://www.ryobi.com.au/garden-tools/products/list/family/36v

EGO 56V system tools

https://egopowerplus.com.au/products

I have found all the battery models that I have used much lighter than the petrol powered ones, mostly because of large amounts of plastic in the builds. Slopes are much easier to mow with them than with a petrol model. Wet grass for some battery models present problems as they seem to choke up more easily than petrol models on the wet grass. Others seem to breeze through so it may be best to ask at a reputable mower place which ones do best on wet grass or may suit your particular budget and needs. There are lots of brands and choices within brands, cost varies.

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The latest lawn mower reviews proved useful in the large number of different products covered. Battery and petrol.

It was not mentioned whether all the mowers reviewed had rolling element wheel bearings. Prior experience of mowers at the lower end of the product price range is they may have a moulded plastic hub sliding directly on a steel shaft. More effort to push and shorter service life requiring a new wheel when worn?

Comparing recommended lawn mowers the 2 times or higher differences in pricing for mowers with the same or very close scores was an eye opener. Would it add value if there could be some further comment from the review team as to why the significant differences in pricing of the recommended models.
EG warranty, country of origin, grade of engine, deck material/durability.
Some models are likely more suited to a lighter duty smaller urban yard, while others will perform reliably and for longer on larger yards. A better suited for … suggestion.

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I used a ryobi battery lawnmower a few months back seem to be good. Not the cheapest when i looking it up. It went well over small twigs cut through grass easily. The person had a average front yard. Much quieter than petrol. I didn’t give it a full on testing.

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In my experience the thing that determines if you can get through heavy grass and gets the job done quickly is power.

Regarding Choice reviews, can somebody explain to me why the engine power is mentioned in the case of petrol mowers, and in some cases the lack of power is remarked on, but for battery mowers power is NA? It isn’t as if the concept of engine power doesn’t apply or isn’t important to battery mowers.

This seems common in makers’ data sheets too. Battery mower makers will tell you the energy storage of various battery packs, their recharge and running time but not the power available.

Another issue that I see also related to power is the testing procedure says nothing about the ability to cut heavy grass. The length or water content of grass used during testing is not mentioned.

It will not matter a bit to me if the mower does a good job on short dry grass if the magic smoke escapes from the motor the first time it sees long damp kikuyu.