Posted 4 days ago

Lawnmower best buy advice

Hello! We need a lawnmower but I can’t decide on petrol or electric. It’s a large lawn which is bumpy and uneven.

I just want something reliable and easy to use. I have no idea what to look for. I inherited my last mower when I bought the house. It was a Flymo but it packed up last year. The wire was really annoying so I’m aiming for the luxury of cordless.

Thanks for the replies.

I haven’t ever measured the lawn so I added a picture for reference.

I’m worried about the environmental impact of a petrol. I read that using a petrol mower is the equivalent of 10 cars. I thought electric would be better but the battery life might be an issue with the lawn size.

I think goats might be the only option at this rate.

Help me make a decision please.

Thanks

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26th Mar
For a large uneven lawn you’re probably better off with a petrol mower - especially if you’ve got areas where the grass grows really high.

i hate petrol mowers - dirty, smelly noisy things. But they cut through long grass, work on uneven surfaces & you can use them in all weathers. I replaced my mine with a cordless model & it’s useless on anything not resembling a bowling green, struggles on long grass, can only use when it’s dry & you’re always worried about the battery going flat.

If you want to go cordless buy an expensive powerful one, get spare batteries, buy a cordless strimmer for the uneven areas & pray for good weather. (edited)
26th Mar
Oh goodness. If I had to cut my lawn with an electric mower I would probably cause my local wind-farm an outage.

We have acres of land but we have a 'garden' which is about 1/3rd an acre. It is flattish and easy to mow. We would never contemplate anything other than a petrol (self propelled) mower to cut.

So the question is possibly more helpfully answered if you want to share the size of the area and what type of lawn (Wimbledon tennis or Dartmoor!)

Our non garden is 'serviced' by animals; so that is an option for you maybe?
26th Mar
I have a Ryobi cordless and we've had it since 2016.
I have 2 batteries.
My lawn is 10 metres wide but over 150 metres long. Its also very bumpy and uneven as well as on a slope.
My experience is that this is just as good as the petrol one that it replaced.
I really like it.
26th Mar
which ryobi was that. mine is terrible
28th Mar
I'd agree with Jimbo, counting the panels the entire garden is at most 10m x 5m, grass about half of that.

You could buy a corded one and be happy or even a cheap 18v battery based mower would crunch thro that with capacity left to spare. Especially as it's a flat garden - which I'm massively jealous of btw!

You won't need one that is self propelled but consider a mulching one so that you don't have to collect/deal with it. The cuttings just go on the lawn to feed it

Have you any battery based tools currently? - how about buying the bare mower (i.e. no battery) to match what you have at the moment? Otherwise, you'll want a strimmer so I'd say decide decide if you need any other tools (leaf blower? screwdriver, pressure washer etc) and go all in with one manufacturer and share the battery between them. Just be careful they are all the same voltage as otherwise the battery wont work.

I come from a garden of about an acre, about 75% of that is lawn and have just moved from petrol to greenworks battery based and am very impressed.
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28th Mar
Thanks, I don’t have any other tools to use with the battery. It doesn’t look like it from the picture but the garden is actually sloping in the middle. There’s a far few pot holes under that long grass.

We had a cable mower, the cord is just annoying. Plus we have the land beyond the fence too. So it’s just not practical for us.
26th Mar
Id second the Ryobi One cordless suggestion. You can get larger capacity batteries or spare batteries for it to keep going if your garden is huge.

Just try to avoid the cheapest model if you’re going to be on long or uneven thick grass. The cheap one is fine for small and simple gardens but I quickly learned that it’s not up to the task for much else. The One+HP Brushless or One+ Max Power ones so far seem pretty solid however.

If you think it’s a really tough job though, you’re not going to beat the power of a petrol mower. You’re right they aren’t great for the environment but when it comes to true heavy duty use cases there’s not too many electrical alternatives.
26th Mar
Yes. Most likely the cheap one I have. It struggles with most tasks. Thankfully that is the Mrs department to deal with
26th Mar
A petrol mower could potentially be the equivalent of 10 modern cars in terms of the trace pollutants that pack a large impact for small amounts. They don't have catalytic converters, particulate filters and so on.

But for bulkier stuff like CO2 emissions that run into the kilograms and can't be captured/burned you'd need to be using close to the same amount of fuel as 10 cars, which is not the case. (edited)
26th Mar
You can go battery powered but may need two batteries.
Don't leave the batteries in shed or garage subject to the summer heat or winter cold and don't leave on charge longer than is required.

If you go with petrol mower then get it serviced every year.

Pros and cons for either. (edited)
26th Mar
I'd go with a petrol one, as long as it's regularly used & looked after. It should go on for years.
26th Mar
OP - what size is the lawn?
27th Mar
Having seen the picture I would think a petrol mower is a bit ott.

I would buy a corded mower and highly recommend a Webbs one.
3 m ago
You can store a lawnmower upright saving floor space in a shed