Cordless Lawn Mowers, Big Benchmarking Test
Cordless gardening equipment this season spreads with the speed of the Internet virus, and there are good reasons. The main reason is that for such a technique neither gasoline nor oil is required, hence the significant savings and the absence of harmful exhausts. To start the car it is enough to press the button, the manual starter will remain in the past, provided that you do not forget to charge the battery of course. You can also forget about the string of wires and extension cords that you have to carry around using conventional electrical equipment. Among other advantages of cordless gardening machines: they are lighter, they are quieter, they are much easier to use.
For our test, we got the 10 most popular models of cordless lawn mowers, with which you can get to know each other better and decide which one is best for you. We will study the width of the deck, batteries and the technical features of each of the lawn mowers. We will also test the equipment in practice, paying attention to the efficiency and quality of cutting, mulching and the operation of the grass catcher.
For testing cordless lawnmowers, a two-hectare site was at our disposal. Such an area may seem too large for hand-held lawn mowers. and it really is. A powerful garden rider is better suited for such a territory, but we will have more opportunities for testing equipment. A different type of terrain, grass of different heights, different soil. all this is just the way in our test.
Grass on the site. ordinary field plants, which, unlike lawn grass, are very hard and dense. Leave this area unattended for a week in good rains and your lawnmower will hate you. Insufficiently powerful mowers, or machines with blunt blades after working in such a section, will leave behind a lawn that will look like an overgrown hair of a tramp, trimmed with blunt scissors.
The cordless lawnmower is designed for use on small areas, with a maximum of 25 acres. As a rule, large utility rooms for the storage of equipment are not built in such areas. Most likely, the mower will be stored in a garage or a small barn, which means that its compactness matters.
Basically, there are three types of transformation of lawnmowers for storage. The first type is when the handle simply folds forward, thereby freeing up space on top of the mower, but at the same time, protruding beyond the dimensions of the deck. The second type. the handle folds two times in a zigzag pattern, protruding beyond the dimensions of the deck. The third type. the handle folds telescopically, as is realized in the EGO lawn mowers. The last method of transformation seems to us the most optimal. It should also be noted that some models allow you to store them in an upright position, occupying the smallest space. Naturally, such a trick will not work with a gas mower.
When testing the folding mechanism of the Greenworks 40V lawnmower, a small emergency occurred. When we pushed the handle forward to fold the lawnmower, the knives in the deck suddenly turned on, bypassing all the protective systems. Even after we returned the handle to its place, the knives did not cut off, moreover, when we tried to fold the mower again. everything happened again. Therefore, we recommend that you do not use the folding mechanism in the Greenworks Lawnmower, at least with the battery connected.
So, from the point of view of storage convenience, we can conclude that the leader in this indicator is the EGO cordless lawn mower, which is equipped with a telescopic handle, and the design also provides for the possibility of vertical storage.
When mowing the lawn, the simple principle always applies. the greater the width of the deck of the lawn mower, the fewer passes you will have to make with it to process the site. Currently, the standard grip width in cordless lawn mowers is 51 cm, and more and more machines with a grip of 53 cm are appearing. There are also mowers with a deck width of 35 and 40 cm, they are more suitable for those areas where not width but maneuverability is needed, which often in complex landscape design areas.
Lawnmowers Echo, Greenworks and Kobalt have a 53 cm deck in their arsenal. Even if the mowing is only two centimeters wider, this gives an increase in efficiency by 11%, while increasing the dimensions of the equipment by 5%. But keep in mind that the larger the mowing capture, the more powerful batteries are required by the technology. After our tests, it became clear that for lawn mowers equipped with 40V batteries, a 51 cm deck is the limit, because even gasoline mowers are equipped with a maximum of 56 cm decks.
Lawn mowers have the largest working width (53 cm) Echo, Greenworks 80 v and Kobalt.
Surely, many of our readers will ask: why do we need a lateral emission on lawn mowers? Indeed, two ways seem most rational: either collect the mowed grass in a container (grass catcher), or mulch it, turning it into fertilizer. But, as it turned out after our tests, the lateral ejection function is sometimes indispensable. And we realized this when we tried to mow the grass over the area where the septic tank was buried. Above this place the grass was much higher and tougher than in the rest of the territory. Lawn mowers with a grass catcher had to be emptied so often that it quickly got annoying, and cars that tried to mulch the grass and even went on strike, or worked so hard that it seemed that something was about to break down. This is where the side discharge came in handy. In the area above the septic tank, only lawn mowers equipped with this function could work effectively.
Video: Cordless Lawn Mowers, Big Benchmarking Test
Cordless Lawn Mower Sun Joe. the only machine in our group that is not equipped with a mulching function. Apparently, this model was created for small neat lawns, its grass catcher is also small in size, which is suitable for use only on areas up to 10 acres.
When it comes to mulching, it becomes clear that without exception, all cordless lawn mowers, when this function is turned on, drain their batteries very quickly. So consider this fact using mulching, because reloading, depending on the model, takes from 30 minutes to four hours.
Lawnmowers showed the greatest efficiency and duration of operation with mulching and side emission turned on. Kobalt and Greenworks 80V.
Most people do not attach much importance to such an indicator in the operation of lawn mowers as mowing the edges. But in vain, since the ability of the mower to cut grass as close to the curb or to the element of landscape design is quite important. It depends on how much work remains for the subsequent processing of the mowed areas with a trimmer. Therefore, we measured this indicator for all tested lawn mowers. The results are not too different for all models: from 25 to 42 mm. So it is unlikely that this indicator will be decisive when choosing a technique. Unless you hate working as a trimmer, and a strip of grass that is 12 mm wide will be across your throat.
The best indicator for mowing the edges was shown by lawn mowers: Greenworks, Kobalt and Worx.
A lot of controversy among owners of cordless lawn mowers raises the question: what is more important. the voltage of the battery of a lawn mower or the number of ampere hours. In fact, the answer is simple: the higher the voltage, the greater the output power of the lawn mower, and the more ampere hours, the longer the device will work on a single charge. In the Greenworks and Kobalt models, a bet was made on a voltage of 80V, and in the EGO lawn mower it was decided to stop at 56V, but increase the battery capacity to 7.5 ampere-hours. The efficiency of the mowers also largely depends on the ability of the electronics to control the output power, depending on the mowing conditions, i.e. increase power on “heavy” grass and lower it on “light”, thereby saving battery power.
We tested the lawnmowers for the duration of one charge, trying to get as close as possible to the actual operating conditions. They drove them both on tall, hard grass, and on gentle lawn, periodically allowing idle intervals. All models were tested with standard batteries that come with the kit. If the design of a lawn mower involves the use of two batteries, we used two fully charged batteries.
The Ryobi lawnmower showed the largest operating time on a single charge with standard batteries. 1 hour, 2 minutes.
Test results
- Model: CM2040
- Energy ratio: 40V; 2.5 amp / h battery (2 pcs)
- Coverage: 51 cm
- Knives: single knife
- Mowing Height: 4-10 cm
- Mulching: yes
- Grass catcher: 68 liters
- Side discharge: yes
- Edge mowing: up to 35 mm
- Claimed operating time: 30-45 min
- Actual operating time: 35 min.
- Weight: 19 kg
- Factory price: 400
- Warranty: 2 years
Features:
The lawn mower is equipped with the extolled Black company&Decker AutoSense technology, thanks to which, the electronics of the machine finely adjusts the required power for the most efficient operation and maximum battery life. The mower also uses EdgeMax technology, which is designed to maximize the ability to mow edges. Interestingly, in our test there were models that did not have technologies with beautiful names, but which had a better mowing rate.
Advantages:
Light weight and quality wheel bearings make this mower one of the leaders in terms of ease of pushing the machine. One of the testers even stated that sometimes it seems that this lawnmower is self-propelled.
Disadvantages:
During testing, there were several cases of battery overheating, so I had to give the car time to rest.
Conclusion:
This lawn mower will do an excellent job with frequent use, when the grass grows to a height of 5 cm. The compact size will come in handy on a lawn with a pronounced landscape design. Several girls took part in our test, so from their point of view, the Black lawn mower&Decker has the most beautiful design. Best suited for use in areas of up to 10 acres.
- Model: 98820
- Energy ratio: 40V; 2.5 amp / h battery (2 pcs)
- Coverage: 51 cm
- Knives: single knife
- Mowing Height: 4-10 cm
- Mulching: yes
- Grass catcher: 68 liters
- Side discharge: yes
- Edge mowing: up to 35 mm
- Announced uptime: no
- Actual operating time: 27 min.
- Weight: 27 kg
- Factory Price: 390
- Warranty: 2 years
Features:
Both in appearance and in equipment, the Craftsman mower is very similar to the Black model.&Decker. Craftsman does not give big names to the functions of his equipment, but all that the Black lawnmower can do&Decker can and Craftsman. Similarly, the electronics of the machine regulates the output power, depending on the operating conditions, and the same indicator for mowing the edges of this model.
Advantages:
Despite weighing almost 30 kg, it is still an easy-to-handle lawn mower that is not difficult to push and maneuver. The compact size is well suited for use in small areas.
Disadvantages:
Apparently some kind of flaw in the design of the lawn mower led to the fact that we got overheating of both batteries after 6 minutes of hard work. Therefore, we had to alternate the use of batteries to give them time to cool, and the total duration of work in this mode was 27 minutes. One of the testers noted that compared to Black&Decker, this lawn mower is slower and leaves behind more mowed grass.
Conclusion:
Reminds Black Model&Decker, right? And not surprising, because the assembly is carried out at the Black factories&Decker. Even warranty service is carried out at Black facilities.&Decker. We did not understand, however, why the Craftsman lawnmower is much heavier than its counterpart, other materials may be used during assembly.
And although on Black paper&Decker and Craftsman have the same characteristics, in practice, we still noticed some difference. Firstly, Craftsman’s batteries overheat faster. Also, rolling resistance is more noticeable here. To prevent the problem of overheating from interfering with work to a lesser extent, we can recommend mowing the lawn on cold days or cool evenings.
In general, if you close your eyes to the identified shortcomings, the Craftsman cordless lawn mower is well suited for use in small areas of up to 10 acres with a pronounced landscape design, the objects of which will not interfere due to the compact size of the lawn mower.