Leaving your lawn to develop naturally into a meadow of pollinator-friendly wild flowers is thebest option from an ecological perspective, but many of us still like to have at least a small area of grass, whether it’s to break up your flower beds or provide a space for the kids to play. And every lawn needs a mower.
The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.
Your family’s lawnmower might have been a fossil fuel-guzzling petrol beast, but today, an electric model is far more energy-efficient and kinder to the planet. I’ve tested electric mowers from five manufacturers to find out which are the best.
Best overall and best cordless lawnmower:Makita DLM432PT2£415 at Alan Wadkins ToolStore
Best budget lawnmower:Einhell GC-EM 1600/37£130 at Argos
Best value cordless lawnmowerand bestfor small gardens:Worx WG737E£259.99 at Amazon
I’ve been mowing lawns since I was tall enough to be dragged around the garden by my father’s noisy and smelly petrol mower in the 1980s. Apart from a short period in early adulthood when accommodation didn’t really come with gardening responsibilities, I’ve been mowing my own lawn through the summer months for decades.
I’ve managed to sometimes wrap that into my professional work, not as a gardener but as a product reviewer. I’ve tested and written about plenty of lawnmowers in recent years, and have picked up a thing or two about what makes a good one. Few things are quite as satisfying as being paid to test a mower on your own lawn on a sunny Friday afternoon, knowing that you’re simultaneously ticking off one of your weekend chores.
A new patio was being laid in my back garden, so when the lawnmowers arrived at the front door, I gazed in despair at the builders’ yard of cement mixers, sand piles and pallets of slabs that were occupying my intended testing zone. Fortunately, the builders moved out as the last mower arrived, leaving a patchy and challenging space on which to test the mowers, with plenty of longer grass in places and bare earth in others.
I assigned each mower a zone and tested them first with a relatively high setting to deal with longer grass, then took them down to 40mm or so. I find this is about right for mowing my slightly lumpy lawn without grounding the blade on its undulations.
I also tested how long the mowers could run by mounting them on a makeshift rig, bypassing their safety features with a bootlace (don’t try this at home), and timing how long it took for the batteries to expire. I performed a similar test on the chargers to see how long the batteries took to charge. The mower with a cable was plugged into a power meter so I could see how much power it drew from the mains.
I also measured how noisy they were with the freeDecibel X appon my smartphone, and noted any special mower features, such as the size of the grass box and how well they cut to the edges.
All of the five mowers tested were loaned by the manufacturers, and we expect them to be returned after testing. Any that aren’t collected will be donated to the British Heart Foundation.
£415 at Alan Wadkins ToolStore£461.70 at Amazon
You’re more likely to know Makita for its power tools than its garden equipment, but this cordless lawnmower slots into the range well, coming with two 18V 5Ah batteries that work in parallel, and a large charging unit that can refill them both at the same time.
Why we love itThe best thing about it is the large cutting blade of 43cm. In practical terms, that means you can spend less time mowing, as each time you traverse your lawn, it cuts a wider strip than the other mowers we’ve tested. The downside is that it’s a bit heavier – there’s simply more steel involved.
When it came to cutting, the mower powered through the jobs I set it, whether it was the longer grass of an initial first cut, or simply strimming a week’s growth off the top of the lawn. I found it easy to move around, and selecting the cutting height (from 20 to 75mm) was easily done with the clearly labelled lever.
The two batteries lasted for more than 57 minutes during my test, which was the longest lasting of all the battery-powered mowers in this group. It only took 51 minutes for the large, fan-cooled charger to take them back to full power.
It’s a shame that …the join between the grass box and the rear of the mower is a bit finicky, the manufacturer’s warranty is only a year, and the fan-cooled charger makes a bit of a racket.
Cutting width:43cmCutting height:20-75mmWeight:15.6kgGrass capacity:40lCorded/cordless:cordlessBattery life/charge time:57mins 25secs/51mins 44secsSpare batteries available:yesWarranty:one year
£130 at Argos£136.95 at B&Q
If the other lawnmowers in this group look a bit pricey, it’s worth considering a corded model. Without the added cost of batteries and chargers, corded mowers such as the Einhell GC-EM 1600/37 are much more affordable.
Why we love itThe main thing to love about the Einhell GC-EM 1600/37 is its price. It’s half the price of the most affordable battery mower tested here. It doesn’t have the same build quality that you might expect from a more expensive unit, but we can live with that considering the low price.
Without batteries to faff about with, the mower is really easy to use. Once you’ve plugged it into an extension lead (which you’ll almost certainly need in any size of garden, despite the included 10m lead), you just press the start button and hold down the cutoff lever. The height of the cut can be adjusted between 20 and 60mm using a sturdy gear-stick-like notched lever, and its large rear wheels make it easy to manoeuvre.
I found the quality of the cutting to be absolutely fine, and easily on a par with the cuts I saw from more expensive mowers. It also doesn’t suffer from a drop in power after being used for a time. Battery mowers tend to experience a steady drop in power as their batteries are drained.
It’s a shame that …mowing with a trailing cable is trickier than using a cordless model because you have to keep moving the cable around to ensure you don’t mow over it.
Cutting width:37cmCutting height:20-60mmWeight:11.8kgGrass capacity:38lCorded/cordless:cordedCable length:10mWarranty:3 years
£259.99 at B&Q£259.99 at Amazon
The Worx WG737E is phenomenal value for money. Despite being the most affordable of the battery mowers, there’s little to distinguish the quality of its cutting from its more expensive rivals.
Why we love itI was impressed with the Worx WG737E. Although it won’t win any design awards, plenty of thought has gone into its core functionality, including an easy-to-see charge indicator that most rivals haven’t bothered with.
Its 37cm cutting blade is smaller than the Makita’s, which makes this more suitable for smaller gardens, though its 40-litre grass box is the same size, so you won’t have to empty it more often. The blade extends out as far as the outer edges of the wheels, so it’s good for cutting right up to the edges of your lawn, and it did a great job at slicing through the grass in my garden.
It’s also the only mower in this group that comes with a mulching accessory – a plastic insert that slots into the back of the mower and stops the cut grass from escaping the cutting area. The trimmings are left on the ground and can help feed and nourish the lawn, though you will end up with grass clippings on your shoes if you cross the lawn soon after mowing. Other mowers offer this as an accessory, but this is the only model we tested to come with one in the box.
It’s a shame that …batteries took more than four hours to recharge.
Sign up toThe Filter
Get the best shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.
after newsletter promotion
Cutting width:37cmCutting height:20-70mmWeight:14.9kgGrass capacity:40lCorded/cordless:cordlessBattery life/charge time:50mins 46secs/4hrs 10mins 32secsSpare batteries available:yesWarranty:3 years
£419 at Just Lawnmowers
Best for:easy storage
Most of the lawnmowers here fold up into a relatively small space, but the Stihl RMA 239 C takes this a step further. It has a single arm, hinged from a sturdy metal clip, so getting it from stowed to ready for action can be done in a matter of seconds. Unscrewing the handle bolts on all the others isn’t an enormous chore, but this is markedly better.
I also liked the grass collection box because it has a chute that extends out of the box and down into the mower’s internals. When you remove the box, this is already holding all the grass that usually spills out, which normally you’d have to pick up and chuck into the box yourself before carrying it over to the compost.
It didn’t make the final cut because …I found the starting process more awkward than on the other mowers, and it didn’t wheel around as smoothly, particularly at the end of a line.
Cutting width:37cm;cutting height:20-70mm;weight:16.3kg;grass capacity:40l;corded/cordless:cordless;battery life/charge time:43mins 3secs/2hrs 35mins 26secs;spare batteries available:yes;warranty:5 years
£510 at Argos£439.99 at Amazon
Best for:infrequent emptying and a quieter mow
With a 50-litre grass box, the Bosch AdvancedRotak 36V-40-650 offers you the fewest trips to the compost bin, with 25% more grass clipping space than its rivals. It can also leave your grass longer than the others, with an option to leave it at 80mm, though I suspect most people will prefer a shorter cut. When testing the noise levels of the mowers, this was the quietest, only showing 70dB of sound pressure on the Decibel X app, while the noisiest in the group (the Einhell GC-EM 1600/37) measured 78dB.
On the downside, it’s also the most expensive of the mowers here. I didn’t get on well with the safety cutoff feature, which uses buttons instead of a bar. There are four of these to choose from, distributed across the handlebar in different locations and at different angles, but they aren’t as easy to keep hold of as the handlebar levers on the other mowers.
It didn’t make the final cut because …it’s expensive, and I wasn’t fond of the way the handle extends or the cutoff buttons on the handlebar.
Cutting width:40cm;cutting height:25-80mm;weight:16.7kg;grass capacity:50l;corded/cordless:cordless;battery life/charge time:55mins 11secs/2hrs 4mins 2secs;spare batteries available:yes;warranty:2 years
Broadly speaking, there are two types of lawnmower: cylinder and rotary.Cylinder mowersuse a set of long blades attached to a cylindrical frame, which is rolled over the lawn to slice the top off the grass as it goes.Rotary mowersare now more common and use a rotating blade that spins around underneath the mower, like an upside down helicopter blade, slicing the grass as it goes. Rotary mowers may have wheels to keep them above the grass, or may create a cushion of air underneath them, like a hovercraft. The latter type is known as a hover mower, and is particularly useful if you need to manoeuvre around a lot of tricky areas, such as around trees.
Mowers tend to be powered by either petrol or electricity, with the latter using either batteries (cordless) or plugged in to a domestic power supply (corded). The engines on petrol mowers tend to be quite heavy and will often drive the mower forwards as well as spinning the blades. Electric mowers are more likely to save their power for spinning the blades and require the user to push the mower around manually.
Petrol lawnmowers benefit from annual servicing, just like your car. If you’re mechanically minded, you can do this yourself; otherwise, there are plenty of mechanics and mower servicing companies around that will do it for you.
All types of mower can benefit from being wiped down with a damp cloth after they’ve mown the lawn to take off any loose clippings, which helps keep the blades rust-free and keeps them from clogging up with dried grass. Take care around the blades, particularly the sharp edges.
During the winter, it’s worth having your mower blades sharpened, ready for spring. Check your mower’s manual to see if it can be removed and taken to a high-street sharpener, or get it included in an annual service.
Yes. Not everyone needs to own a lawnmower, particularly if you don’t intend to mow that often. Leaving the grass to grow longer and cutting less frequently provides a better environment for wildlife, including pollinating insects. Those with smaller gardens and little space to store bulky machinery can also benefit from renting a mower every now and then.
There are plenty of tool hire services, such asHSSandSpeedy Hire, that operate across the country. Most of these nationwide services tend to rent out heavier-duty petrol mowers, best suited to larger gardens and bigger jobs. Prices start at about £35 a day.
If you live in the Greater London area, you can rent the Stihl RMA 339 lawnmower fromLibrary of Thingsfor £15 a day and pick it up from a central storage area. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a similar service that operates elsewhere (please let us know if you know of one). If you think you’ll mow the lawn once a week from mid-March to mid-October, which is at least 30 weeks, then it’ll cost £450 for the year. If you haven’t got anywhere to store a mower or are thinking of cutting less frequently, then using a rental service could work to your advantage.
For even better value, you could also hire a mower from an owner who lends their equipment out.Fat Llamafacilitates this, taking a cut of the fee for bringing people together. Mowers typically cost about £10/day or £40/week. It operates across the country, though there tends to be more choice and availability in higher-populated areas.
Andy Shaw is aconsumer journalist and technology addict. Having reviewed tech products professionally for more than 30 years, his favoured working environment is a small desk surrounded by big boxes. His greatest weakness is that he never, ever remembers how things came out of their packaging, so they rarely fit back in again when it’s time to return them