My Inherited 90s Flymo (yuck) is on its last legs due to plastic fatigue, and i think i need a new lawn mower (i will certainly need one in the next few months)

Weve got a reasonable sized garden, but no particularly long runs to walk up and down. Maybe 6 or 7 areas of 5x5m, interspersed with trees, sheds, green house, patio etc.
I cant be bothered with petrol, noisy and i would have to start buying and storing petrol, 5L at a time.
Cabled mowers obviously are cheaper, more powerful and the power supply doesnt wear out, but they are a bit of a ball ache for dragging around the garden.

Can anyone recommend a battery lawn mower?
they are flippin expensive, and i dont particularity fancy forking out for the dewalt one to go with the rest of the tools.
Any recommendations, or avoids? Part of me suspects they might actually just be crap.

I went wild and got myself a Honda one (old petrol mower had been sat in a puddle thanks to a leaking/old shed) – not cheap but it’s bloody good. It’s a Honda Izy HRG 416XB.

It’s so good, I quite fancy a matching strimmer to use the same battery. They don’t seem to do an affordable domestic strimmer to go along with it (or really many other tools).

Summary – great mower but you may not be able to use the battery with many other things.

We’ve got a Viking (now part of the Stihl group and branded as such) and it’s great. Our garden is a bit like yours. Some patches of lawn spread around a bigger space. It’s great for that. Really easy to move around. The cutting is great. Handles long grass. Clean and quiet too. Not sure if it is much cheaper than a DeWalt but we got a good deal with a matching strimmer. Also got a chainsaw with the same battery.

I have a Bosch Rotak cordless and it’s been faultless for the last 5 years.
Great bit of kit.
Think they were on sale recently at Amazon.

I guess something to consider is batteries usually don’t like being left… and in the UK we have months where we don’t cut the grass.

I bought a Bosch one. Not having to manage the cable has halved the time taken to cut the lawn. I’ve not had any battery issues, they seem very well put together

I’m collecting a pro level sthil one soon. The batteries work throughout all the stihl range which i have already so it makes sense for me but I’ve been holding off as the mowers weren’t quite up to scratch but I’m hearing good things now. Not cheap but will last and no maintenance costs. The batteries will be fine to be left for the winter months as long as charged up and kept at ambient temperature.

I guess something to consider is batteries usually don’t like being left

Li-ion don’t mind not being used.

I have a cheap and cheerful Ozito battery mower, paid about £100 from Amazon a year or so ago.
Cuts well, long grass is not a problem. But battery life is poor. I have a tiny front lawn and a medium sized garden, I’ve got to be quick to get both front and back gardens done before the battery dies.
The battery is a 3.0Ah 18v Li-ion.

Li-ion don’t mind not being used.

Is what I was about to say – I have 10 yr old Bosch li-ion batteries still going strong and they sometimes don’t get used for months (cordless drill). I am so impressed I just bought a strimmer with the same fitting (although I did get another new battery as the deal was too good to pass up and if either of my older ones do fail I now have a back-up).

I got a Ryobi one with a 4ah battery off gumtree for £60, and I needed a drill anyway so bought a Ryobi one and the batteries are all interchangeable. V happy with both.

The battery is a 3.0Ah 18v Li-ion.

Pretty small for a lawnmover, so not suprising it doesn’t last. I’d expect it to use a pair of 4/5 Ah batteries for a modest lawn.

I recently bought a Makita DLM432Z mower. My garden is 20m x 10m with maybe 75% of that being lawn.

Mower comfortably does it on 50% of a pair of 5ah batteries, and was a pretty reasonable £190. Much easier to use than the previous Mountfield petrol jobby. However, I already had batteries and charger which was the main reason for picking a Makita mower. These are a substantial cost if you need to buy them.

I bought into the dewalt system for my drill, impact driver, circular saw etc and theyve been very solid. Noticebly better than erbauer stuff ive borrowed.

Ive also got the string strimmer and recently the hedge trimmer, both of which have been just the job.

Problem is the mower is 400 quid bare, and i would probably need to get some more batteries (the one 5Ah one i have lives on the strimmer, which would be getting used at the same time as the mower) and all my others are little 2Ah jobbers.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-dcmw564n-xj-18v-li-ion-xr-brushless-cordless-48cm-rotary-lawn-mower-bare/468hk
also probably quite heavy to push about, for a sloping lawn?

I was considering buying into a cheaper battery system for some of the bigger toys, but the erbauer hedge trimmer i borrowed was horribly plasticy, which put me off and i ended up shelling out for the yellow one instead.

If my garden wasnt so slopey and bitty i would leave it to a robomower.

Any opinions / experiences with the more budget end of the market? Looking at the WORX WG927E and this Spear & Jackson sets, both £200. We’ve not got any existing systems so starting from scratch. Worried that the cheaper models will prove to be a false economy, but would like to not have to spend absolutely loads on it.

This came up just four days ago

Does anyone have the Spear & Jackson Cordless Lawnmower & Strimmer?

Some positive reviews on the s&p from forumites. But the op spent a fortune on a stihl in the end 🙂

We have the slightly more expensive Worx. Bought that as a) it was available and b) we have a few worx tools so batteries are interchangeable.  Not used it that much because, well, weather but so far been impressed.

Sorted out long, wet grass without needing ‘turbo’ setting. Does stall occasionally if you have it set very low but I find 3 on the scale is about right. 2xBatteries last at least 40 mins on the one we have. Can’t imagine why I’d spend any more.

Very light even with the bats in. Way less hassle than the old IC one it’s replaced.

Got an Erbauer just this weekend, 400 quid, 46cm blade, 2 x 5ah batteries included – only one cut so far but seems great, plenty of power, super-quiet, super light and easy to manoeuvre, has a mulch insert and stows very neatly on one end so it has a tiny footprint in the shed. Very happy with it. 🙂

Top banana folks, that’s very useful. Our garden isn’t giant (7x19m based on a bit of striding) so don’t really need anything super powerful.

Good shout with the Worx; definitely an excuse to buy a powershot at a later date without “needing” a battery for it. 😉

Love my Bosch Rotak
The 4ah battery lasts 45mins to an hour usually, I’ve a spare on charge so I don’t have to wait to recharge, just swap them over

So much easier than working around an extension lead in an odd shaped garden

I jumped in on the Aldi Ferrex out this week.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/c/specialbuys/garden/garden-machinery-and-power-tools

got a mower, trimmer and hedge cutter, 2x 20/40 batteries and charger just over £200.

Detail is lacking but to my eye its out of the same factory as the spear and jackson, but has better (and cheaper) batteries, wider mowing width and overall cheaper.

I’ve just bought into the Bosch Power 4 all system for garden and diy tools and looked at a mower. However, in light of my garden size, I’m actually erring on a push along cylinder mower. No batteries, no cables. Should be convenient to tackle that, “oh look, I’ve turned my back, the lawn has grown while I wasn’t looking” frequency of mows needed in this weather.

I had a push-along mower for a while. Admittedly, it was a crappy one, and I have a pretty big garden, but the realities of how flat and short your grass needs to be for it to work at all quickly overcame my desire to be smugly self-reliant.

I jumped in on the Aldi Ferrex out this week.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/c/specialbuys/garden/garden-machinery-and-power-tools

got a mower, trimmer and hedge cutter, 2x 20/40 batteries and charger just over £200.

Detail is lacking but to my eye its out of the same factory as the spear and jackson, but has better (and cheaper) batteries, wider mowing width and overall cheaper.

Well that didn’t last long, my Aldi Ferrex mower has given up. Just powers up very briefly. I like it while it worked.

They are taking the lot back and refunding in full as they have no more stock.

£40! that Aldi one. Could buy 3 for the spare batteries 😀 (oh, except it’s not battery! 😆 )

Hard to find the enthusiasm to even type about lawn mowers, but I bought mine from Lidl 5 years ago.
this one- https://www.thegardentoolshed.co.uk/product-offers/florabest-36-volt-cordless-lawnmower-at-lidl/ was about £120
Battery power lasts for front and back garden, usually 2 goes over the back cos I leave it so long.
Not sure what’ll happen when/if the battery dies, haven’t investigated the availability of replacements, but it’s damn good for the money I paid.

I guess something to consider is batteries usually don’t like being left… and in the UK we have months where we don’t cut the grass.

Thats a very good point. So maybe those wanting an E-Mower should possibly choose a company where the batteries are used elsewhere, like on a drill,sander etc like Ryobi or makita/dewalt etc

Even as promotor of liquid fuels my next mower will be electric, BUT it will be a Robot one – who wants to faff around cutting lawns anymore when you can just set up robomow… they’re awesome. a little spendy for the really good ones, but i think most brnads do versions now..

sui

I guess something to consider is batteries usually don’t like being left… and in the UK we have months where we don’t cut the grass.
Thats a very good point.

Incorrect. Not an issue, to any reasonable degree, with lithium batteries. This was previously an issue with ni-cad etc.

I’m collecting a pro level sthil one soon. The batteries work throughout all the stihl range which i have already

There’s the AP and AK systems though. I’ve got a couple of tools that use the AK, but i think I’d want a larger mower than the one’s that use the AK. if only for the grass box size. it’s a pain emptying the little Izy every couple of lengths of the garden!

I got a second hand Ryobi one for £60 and it’s been great. I don’t have a huge garden though (maybe 6m x 9m?)

I wish my petrol mower would die but, despite my best offerts, it won’t. Its never been serviced, never had an oil change or top up, it is left outside with just a tarp over it all year round but it just carries on working.

It is now at least 15 years old. Surely it will break at some point?

My Dad’s Suffolk mower lasted over 30years! #dontmakethemliketheyusedto

This is 135 at the moment if you need another https://www.homebase.co.uk/powerbase-40v-cordless-lawnmower-34cm/12885540.html

I wish my petrol mower would die but, despite my best offerts, it won’t. Its never been serviced, never had an oil change or top up, it is left outside with just a tarp over it all year round but it just carries on working.

It is now at least 15 years old. Surely it will break at some point?

I have a 20 year old Mountfield petrol mower that won’t die! Same as you – never even opened the oil cap let alone put any in or serviced it, yet on it goes. Starts on second pull every time from cold.

Those with battery lawnmowers, are they self-propelling or do you have to push them?

And for those that are self-propelling, how long does the battery last.

Those robot mowers look awesome.

My sthil mower is awesome. Self propelled with 3 speeds, large box that hinges right open to empty easily. Takes up to 2 ap300 batteries but I’ve never used more than half of one battery. It’s pro kit though so expensive.

I sold my Honda Izy for the Murray mower sold on Amazon as we have downsized our lawn. I think it’s great and wouldn’t go back to petrol. The batteries are quality and the unit is light enough for my wife to use! Yes, it’s plastic, but the Izy would corrode and needed respraying.

Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07PX6YC9F/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&aaxitk=d1e5a7cfe4c3bda35e7a7b2e15ad2979&hsa_cr_id=9241041920102&pd_rd_plhdr=t&pd_rd_r=34e1bd2f-a762-421b-b199-28e5c86b0cbd&pd_rd_w=TUip6&pd_rd_wg=37Mr3&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_lsi4d_asin_0_img&th=1

For info – The Sprint brand seems the same as Murray as I bought the hedge trimmer and the batteries work (Owned by Briggs & Stratton).

My work tools are all Dewalt and Millwaukee, but buying the bare dewalt mower didn’t stack up…..

I asked this question a month or so ago. Ended up with a Makita DLM460Z which is twin 18V, 460mm blade. We have about 200 sqm – I used it for the third time today and the batteries finally ran flat. The mower has a metal body and the mower is built really solid – we have very stony ground here. It feels a lot more substantial than some of the plastic-bodied jobs I looked at in a DIY store – they’d blow away in a strong breeze. Extra batteries also gave me an excuse to buy an 18V circular saw…

We have the slightly more expensive Worx. Bought that as a) it was available and b) we have a few worx tools so batteries are interchangeable. Not used it that much because, well, weather but so far been impressed.

Sorted out long, wet grass without needing ‘turbo’ setting. Does stall occasionally if you have it set very low but I find 3 on the scale is about right. 2xBatteries last at least 40 mins on the one we have. Can’t imagine why I’d spend any more.

Very light even with the bats in. Way less hassle than the old IC one it’s replaced.

Basically this.

I *think* I have the same model as per the link but with the bigger batteries. I get around 50 minutes run time but leave it on ‘turbo’ mode (not sure it actually does anything).

Had mine since May 2018 and it has been spot on.

I wish my petrol mower would die but, despite my best offerts, it won’t. Its never been serviced, never had an oil change or top up, it is left outside with just a tarp over it all year round but it just carries on working.

It is now at least 15 years old. Surely it will break at some point?

I sold my (very well looked after) Mountfield on ebay for the same price I paid for it 12 years previously. I did get a decent discount on it when new, not once did it need the oil topping up.