The Complete Guide to help you choose the Best Electric Lawn Mower
by the Real Experts of Gardening Equipment

1. Electric lawn mower cutting width

Let’s classify electric lawn mowers by size, or rather by cutting width:

The most popular and best-selling type are small electric lawn mowers, which have a market of hundreds of thousands of units each year. The sales volume slowly decreases as we move up to higher-end machines, up to the models with the largest cutting width (42 / 48 cm), which have a very limited market because they belong to a very specific category, as for these cutting widths and cutting surfaces (400/600 metres), consumers tend to lean more towards 2/4-stroke (or even battery-powered) models, due to the greater inconvenience of the cable on larger areas.

2. Power of the electric lawn mower

The power of the electric lawn mower is measured in Watts, and not in HP as for lawn mowers with 2/4-stroke engines.

Below is classification based on power levels:

Power levels are almost always proportional (not to say progressively corresponding) to the size of the machine.

3. Types of electric lawn mower housing

There are mainly two types of housing:

• ABS (plastic) housing – hobby range
• Enamelled steel housing – semiprofessional

The ABS plastic housing is generally found on the first 3 categories listed above, hence electric lawn mowers starting with 30 cm of cutting width, up to max 40/42 cm.
It is an cost-effective type of housing mainly designed for hobby use, but it still has advantages:

• It is generally sturdy, despite being made of plastic
• It does not have the oxidation problem typical of sheet steel housing
• It is made of cast, so it has a well-moulded shape that ensures proper flow of the cut grass and generally good collection efficiency in the grass collector.

The steel housing is almost always found on medium electric lawn mowers, therefore with a cutting width of above 40 cm. It is of a semi-professional type and has a higher cost. The main feature is the greater strength and size compared to the plastic housing.

4. Cutting height adjustment types

There are 3 types:

• Wheels on handle knob nut screw (the less expensive and least comfortable to operate – generally has 3 heights available)
• Adjustment with 4 levers, one per wheel (more comfortable and structured than the previous one – generally has 4 or 5 adjustments available)
• Centralised adjustment with a single lever (the most comfortable and fastest – usually has 4 or 5 adjustments available)

All three types generally allow you to adjust the cutting height from a minimum of about 3 cm to a maximum of 7 cm, from 3 to 5 available heights (depending on the brand and model).

5. Cutting systems

There are essentially three cutting systems that can be found on electric lawn mowers:

• Grass collection system with grass collector (generally available on all models)
• Rear discharge thanks to the deflector (almost always present)
• Mulching cutting system (only available on some higher-end models)

The only aspect worth mentioning is the difference between rear discharge and mulching cutting: both types release the cut grass onto the ground, but what changes is the degree of grass shredding, from minimum with the rear discharge to maximum with the mulching cutting system.
The rear discharge therefore leaves a slightly rougher job, but allows you to cut taller grass without the lawn mower straining or clogging up, the mulching system only needs to cut short to medium-height grass, but performs a much finer job (if done regularly it may seem that the grass has been collected and disposed of, when in fact it has only been shredded and left there).

6. Self-propelled or hand-pushed

Electric lawn mowers are all hand-push machines, without a drive system, due to their limited size and intended use for small lawns, which therefore do not require a self-propelled system, which also does not fit in with the management of the power cable.
However, there are also self-propelled models on the market, but they are increasingly rare and we would not recommend their purchase.
If what you are looking for is a self-propelled model, it is best to move towards a 2/4-stroke engine (or battery-powered) model.

7. Maintenance

The maintenance of an electric lawn mower is really limited to the basic operations. There is basically only one real maintenance that needs to be carried out: blade sharpening

When the lawn mower has just been purchased, the blade is clearly already sharpened, but with use, especially if frequent or intense, the sharpening can wear out and the blade needs to be resharpened, an operation that can easily be carried out at home.

8. Main brands

The number of brands is very large, opinions vary widely, and there is a risk of making personal judgements about the quality of the brands that may not reflect the reality of the situation, the constant evolution of the technologies of the various brands, or simply the advice of other experts.

We therefore simply wish to mention some of most renowned brands in terms of reputation and quality, and these are as follows (in alphabetical order):

• Al-Ko
• Black & Decker
• Bosch
• Gardena
• Makita
• Stiga

There are actually dozens of other more or less important brands on the market (e.g. Apina, Castelgarden, Einhell, Mowox, MTD, Wolf Garten, etc.), some of which have a level of quality that is as good as the above-mentioned brands.
We therefore invite you to take this purchasing guide as a starting point and carefully analyse all the various models on the basis of the information we have given you, in order to make the best choice suited to your needs.