There’s no denying it, the better weather – or, at least, more consistently better weather – is upon us and thoughts will be turning to lazy days sat sipping sangria or some sparkler in the garden.
We can picture it now: the sun slowly arcs over your perfectly pressure-washed patio, bounces off your gleaming gas BBQ and glistens across your meticulously manicured lawn. Wait, what? You’ve neglected to cut the grass and now you can barely bring yourself to look at the wildly overgrown wasteland that should be your lawn? Well, talk about amateur hour.
But fear not, for given the average British summer spans at least a week, there is still time to get your garden in prosecco-drinking pristine order, but you’ll need to move quickly. So, first things first, cut down on all unnecessary, time-consuming complications; and by that, I mean cut down on tangled power cords.
Life, as the saying clearly doesn’t go, is too short for knotted cables and, indeed, cables that do not lend themselves to letting your lawn mower reach the outer limits of your grass-covered garden boundaries, so do away with them completely and go cordless.
Clever, convenient and more than capable of cutting both grass and your grass-cutting time, free yourself from all the fuss and frustration with one of these cutting-edge bladed beauties…
Best cordless lawn mowers at a glance
- Best for small- to medium-sized lawns: Einhell 18V - ££169.99, Amazon
- Best for medium-sized lawns: Greenworks 48V 36cm with Line Trimmer - £259.99, Robert Dyas
- Best for no-nonsense cordless mowing: Karcher LMO 18-36 - £329.99, Karcher
- Best for larger-sized lawns: Bosch UniversalRotak 36-550 - £299, Amazon
- Best for quick cutting coverage: Greenworks 48V Cordless 41cm Lawnmower - £349.99, Amazon
- Best for showcase lawns: Flymo EasiStore 300R 40V - £221.65, Amazon
- Best for larger-sized lawns: Titan 36V - £249.99, Screwfix
Einhell 18V
Best for: small- to medium-sized lawns
- Battery System: Power X-Change Battery System - versatile battery which can be used in all devices from the series
- Included: 1x 4.0AH Battery and 1x Fast Charger for easy re-charging
A big battery packer, the Einhell 18V is good to go over 200m² of grass thanks to its 4.0Ah lithium-ion Power-X Change battery, which offers enough electric oomph to sharply sort out most sodded stretches.
Featuring five level cutting height adjustment (25-65mm), a height-adjustable long handle with three settings for people of most heights and a 30L grass box with fill level indicator, the Einhell comes armoured with high-quality impact-resistant plastic housing to let it take on and defeat overgrown areas. The large, lawn-friendly wheels minimise impact on your green and it’s a lightweight option (10.75kg) for easy handling.
Okay, the 33cm cutting width rotary blade does mean that you might have to make slightly more passes to get the job done, but this also means the Einhell has a relatively small footprint, thus making storage less of an issue even in the smallest of sheds.
Featuring a level indicator to keep you constantly on top of battery life, this solidly built smaller cordless mower has been cut in price from £300 down to just £170, so if you want to bag yourself a bargain, stop listening to me chatting my rubbish now and hit the link below!
Buy now £169.99, Amazon
Greenworks 48V 36cm with Line Trimmer
Best for: medium-sized lawns
- Battery System: GreenWorks modular battery system means one battery for multiple tools
- Included: Dual 24v batteries provide longer run time
- Charge Time: Full charge in 60 minutes, or 80 per cent in just 25 minutes
Part of a twin pack from Greenworks that bundles a 25cm line trimmer into the cordless mower bargain, this twin 2.0Ah battery turf tamer can conquer up to 250m² of garden between charges, which is impressive, you have to admit.
To help you do this in a timely fashion is a 36cm rotary blade and a large 40L grass clippings bag, meaning you can slice through grass with a broader stroke and have to empty the bag less as you do so, or you can use the mulching function to avoid any emptying at all and just have the recut clippings fed back into your lawn to help fertilise it.
Big wheels equate to big manoeuvrability over even badly uneven terrain, five cutting heights (25-70mm) help you achieve that lawn bowls finish and single lever height adjustment saves tall people, such as myself, from crippling backache afterwards.
Even without the addition of the – admittedly very handy – 25cm line trimmer to help tidy edges after cutting, the Greenway 48V offers excellent value for money and an extremely easy way to reclaim your overgrown grounds in time to fire up the BBQ.
Buy now £259.99, Robert Dyas
Karcher LMO 18-36
Best for: no-nonsense cordless mowing
- Battery System: 18v battery with integrated LCD display to communicate remaining charging time
- Included: 18v battery and fast charger not included but available for purchase
Cutting-edge stuff from Karcher, this cordless lawn mower has the looks of a kid’s ride-on car (Note: do not let your kids ride on the mower). The slickly designed, lightweight (13.3kg), bright yellow beast comes with an integrated handy for convenient carrying, four cutting height settings from 30- to 70mm and a nice big 36cm rotary blade to teach that turf who’s boss.
A 45L grass catcher box lets you mow like the devil between emptying or you can whip it off altogether and switch to the mulching function if you want to feedback, whilst the battery gives you around 24 minutes, enough time to reasonably cover 350m² of ground before you’ll need to stick in back on charge for 134-minutes to get it back to full power.
Again, the ability to steer easily and freely around all objects or hold an unfailing straight line for perfect lawn stripes is all in the large wheels and that aforementioned lightweight and, when all done, the collapsible grass box means storage is made much simpler.
To make light work of lawn maintenance, you really can’t go wrong with the Karcher LMO 18-36 and you can have it any colour you like… as long as it’s yellow.
Buy now £330.00, Homebase
Bosch UniversalRotak 36-550
Best for: larger-sized lawns
- Included: 36V lithium-ion rechargeable battery
- Charge Time: full charge in 125 minutes, or 90 per cent in 96 minutes with quick-charge
Okay, we’re upping the price of ownership ante now quite considerably (and this is the price cut by £100 too), but then we’re also going big in other areas too, so brace yourself. It’s a Bosch, it looks like something you might expect to see in The Mandalorian or Boba Fett riding through the desert, and it means business.
Firstly, the 4.0Ah rechargeable battery can deliver enough juice for you to cover a whopping 550m² of land which, if you’re trying to picture that in your head, is almost hire-a-gardener territory, but you’ll still want to take on the challenge yourself when armed with the Bosch and its commodious 40L grass catcher.
Hitting you up with six height-of-cut settings (25-70 mm) and boasting a 36cm rotary blade, the Bosch can make short work of some of the longest grass and let you get your lawn cut level quickly and free from fuss. Plus, its cunning LeafCollect blade can – as the name might have given away – not just shorten stems to Wimbledon levels of sublimity but also be used to collect leaves for effortless disposal.
With ErgoFlex handles designed to reduce strain on the arms and back by providing a perfect mowing posture as well, the Bosch UniversalRotak 36-550 literally has your back, making mowing a much more pleasant experience all around.
Buy now £299.00, Amazon
Greenworks 48V Cordless 41cm Lawnmower
Best for: quick cutting coverage
- Battery System: GreenWorks modular battery system means one battery for multiple tools
- Included: Dual 24v batteries provide longer run time
- Run Time: 4 Amp Hours < 46 minutes
The bigger bladed variant of the Greenworks I looked at earlier, for those who are either time-poor, hate mowing or are just really, really lazy, I’ve also included this model due to the sheer breadth of its rotary blade.
Yes, contrary to what you may have been told, size matters, especially when it comes down to rendering an overgrown area croquet-qualified (yes, some of our readers love a good pegging-out) in next to no time, which is where this Greenworks’ whoppingly dimensioned 41cm blade comes in very handy.
Naturally, the wider the blade, the greater the area you can cut simultaneously, so thanks to the 41-incher, combined with dual 24v batteries, you can easily slice down 300m2 of unruly green on a single charge, while the ludicrously lightweight (given the larger scale) of 18kg allows for excellent manoeuvrability.
Add to this five easily adjustable cutting heights (25-80mm), a mahoosive 50L cuttings bag (plus mulching plug) and even an immobiliser key to keep the big cutty thing safe around children, and the Greenworks 48V Cordless 41cm is the swift, smart, safe way to get and keep your garden sunny day set.
Buy now £349.99, Amazon
Flymo EasiStore 300R 40V
Best for: showcase lawns
- Included: Dual 20v batteries provide longer run time
- Run Time: 35 minutes
A name as synonymous with gardens as Percy Thrower, Charlie Dimmock or Monty Don, depending on how old you are, Flymo have been the market leader in garden care kits for the best part of 60 years, so they know a thing or two about what makes a lawn mower work.
Take for a timely example the EasiStore 300R, a minuscule mower that, as the name states, stores easily away due to its size. But despite its scale, this Flymo still features a 30cm rotary blade, has a 30L capacity clipping box, can cut at heights between 25- and 65mm and even includes a rear roller should you fancy giving your grass some classy football pitch-style stripes.
Battery-wise, the EasiStore 300R is good to go for up to 35 minutes, which is ample time for the sort of size garden it was clearly designed to service, and recharge time in 180 minutes.
Solidly built and perfect for whipping out whenever the lawn needs a quick trim, the Flymo EasiStore 300R is the pinnacle of almost 60 years of lawn mower design perfection and it shows.
Buy now £221.65, Amazon
Titan 36V
Best for: larger-sized lawns
- Included: 1x 4 Amp Hour Lithium Ion Battery
- Charge Time: full charge in 60 minutes
Titan, the mightiest of Saturn’s moons, the pre-Olympian gods of Ancient Greece… and the pre-eminent name bestowed upon the manufacturers of this cunningly constructed cordless mower. Charging to full in just 60 minutes, the Titan’s sizeable 4.0Ah battery gives you ample time to tackle even the trickiest turf (up to 400m²), while the nicely broad 37cm rotary hardened steel blade takes out more grass peer sweep, helping reduce time and effort on your part.
A capacious 45L grass bag, complete with indicator level, allows for less emptying and lets you know when you’ve hit clipping capacity, and seven cutting heights (20-70mm) allow you to trim your lawn to pure perfection depending on the look and feel underfoot that you want.
Easy to manoeuvre thanks to the chunky plastic wheels, another massive tick in the Titan’s box is its ability to be stored vertically, meaning you can collapse it down and lean it flush against the wall of your shed or garage when not in use, so it takes up considerably less space than other lawn mowers of its ilk.
Powerful and perfect for those who want to get the job done as expediently as possible so as not to miss a moment spent lounging in sunlight, the Titan 36V 4.0Ah LI-ION TXP Brushless Cordless 37cm Rotary Lawn Mower, to give it its full name, is truly a giant of garden grooming.
Buy now £249.99, Screwfix
Ryobi 36V MAX POWER 40cm
Best for: Cost-efficient cutting
I’ve had the pleasure of mucking around with a few of Ryobi’s fine power products of late, such as its cordless garden loppers and, most recently, its cordless angle grinder, so given how impressed I was left by those battery-sharing beasts, taking to the great green outdoors with Ryobi’s 36V Max Power grass-punisher seemed like a no-brainer.
With a cutting deck of 40cm, this is not the largest option you’ll find, but then this Ryobi has been designed to create the perfect balance of size and manoeuvrability, so the slight size loss you suffer is compensated for by greater control, so if your garden has demanding sweeps, curves, complicated bed shapes and other such features, look no further.
With seven-position single-point adjustments between 25 and 75mm, you can cut to the exacting lengths you desire, while the cutting can either be mulched back into your lawn or chucked into the capacious 50-litre grass catcher, meaning either no emptying out or considerably less than most other models.
That powerful 36V battery will help you motor through the tallest and toughest areas, while also giving enough juice to cover areas up to 550m2 between charges, so no need to worry about ending up with a drained battery and a job only half-done.
Finally, with Eco, Smart and Power modes available, you can choose between enhanced runtime and performance to suit cutting conditions, and a handy interface panel lets you switch between them with ease and also keep a keen eye on battery status and any alerts that pop up concerning blade condition.
A powerful performer that’s packed with features, the Ryobi 36V MAX POWER 40cm is a bargain-priced end to vast areas of overgrown grass.
- Power: 36V
- Cutting width: 40cm
- Cutting height: 25-75mm
- Lawn area: 550m2
- Mulching: Yes
- Grass catcher capacity: 50L
- Weight: 20kg (with battery)
Buy now £377.99, Amazon
Verdict
As I’ve illustrated throughout, the ideal cordless lawn mower for you is very much dependent on the size of the grounds of your ‘estate’ and how much time and/or effort you’re willing to put into grooming your grass. For me, an epic avoider of physical graft with a small garden and scant storage space in my equally small shed, the Einhell offers exactly the right balance of performance, practicality and price.
But you may ask, what would your top pick be if you had an endless expanse of verdant vistas to keep from becoming unkept? Well, that’s obvious, I’d get a ride-on lawn mower.
