Plotting the Lot: Which Cordless Lawn Mowers Cut the Most Grass

THE TEST

- ROY BEREND SOHN AND BRADLEY FORD

CORDLESS WALK MOWERS HAVE NEVER PERFORMED as well as they do right now—and according to our testing, they've reached parity with gas mowers in many cases. While we rate cut quality, ease of use, and other features, one of the most important data points in our testing is cut area. Running out of battery life in the middle of mowing is one of the biggest concerns people express to us about cordless mowers. (This is also known in the electric vehicle world as “range anxiety.") So for each model we test, we determine exactly how much lawn you can really cut on a single charge. We also looked at a typical yard to figure out how much grass, on average, you actually need to mow, so you can be sure a dead battery won't prevent you from finishing the job.

HOW WE TESTED

One thing we've learned from decades of mower testing: You've got to cut a lot of grass and mow under a wide range of conditions to get a sense of what a mower is worth. We test uphill and down, on flats and along hillsides. We've cut pristine areas planted with bluegrass and fine fescue, and tackled the weed-covered wall of a retention basin. We bag, side discharge, and mulch, evaluating handle comfort, the ease of raising and lowering the deck, and how intuitive mounting and dismounting the grass bag is. Every aspect gets a thorough analysis, from power and cut quality to battery life and total area cut. We even look at whether the tires have a tendency to pick up wet grass clippings. It's a lot of dogged, tiring testing. And it's the best way we know how to test a mower.