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If you want to electrify your lawn, we tested 7 of the best battery powered mowers on the market side-by-side. We know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to narrow the field when shopping for a new lawn mower, we've put in the time, sweat, and sunburn to help you find the perfect fit. Our landscape experts spent months turning untamed yards into meticulously maintained lawns, dealing with overgrown and dew-soaked grass in both mulching and bagging modes. We tested these mowers to the max in sweltering summer temps. Keep reading to find out which ones racked up the highest scores.
For the past five years, we have tested an array of yard care tools ranging from hand tools to gas-powered machines and all sorts of battery-powered devices. If you live in a place with lots of trees, check out our list of our favorite leaf blowers. And don't forget to pick up a string trimmer to go along with your mower to fine-tune the edges of your lawn and the areas where a mower can't quite reach. For a list that includes gas, corded, and old-school reel lawn mowers, head over to our best lawn mower review.
Editor's Note: We updated the battery lawn mower review on October 28, 2024 to include more machines, including options from Toro and Ego.
If you've ever wished your lawn mower could pull its own weight, you're in luck, the Toro 60V Max 21″ Super Recycler makes mowing much easier with its “personal pace” drive. This self-propulsion mower adapts to your walking speed by responding to the amount of pressure you apply to the handle, making feel almost effortless, even when heading uphill. The support is seamless, requiring no mental effort while greatly reducing physical strain. And, most importantly, it cuts grass well, with an engine powerful enough to rival our top gas-powered options. It provides a consistent, clean cut and excellent mulching capability. The bagging system is also effective, featuring a large capacity bag. With two blades and cutting modes, you can choose to maximize the mower's power or its battery life.
The mower's battery, unfortunately, only lasted an average of 41.5 minutes during our tests. That's long enough to cover just over a quarter acre of grass if you're walking 3 mph. Fully recharging the battery takes around three and a half hours. So if you have a larger than average yard, you're going to have to take a break or two. This mower also tends to clog frequently in mulching mode, especially in long or wet grass, and when it's running in efficiency mode to conserve battery life. Despite these limitations, the Super Recycler is the best battery lawn mower we've tested, combining exceptional cutting performance with user-friendly operation.
Few lawns are too demanding for the Ego Power+ LM2102SP. With a 5 amp-hour, 56-volt battery and a mammoth cutting deck, this machine can mow down the toughest of turfs and mulch with the best of them. The Ego has all the important features you want in one of these products — like self-propulsion, a wide range of cutting heights, and easy folding and storing — to make cutting your lawn that much easier.
We have little to criticize this burly machine for other than its size — it's massive. This means it's going to require more storage space. Additionally, for those with smaller lawns, this is probably too much machine. And though it's not astronomically expensive, it's certainly not the cheapest model out there. These are minor gripes, and we feel that this electric marvel is far superior to its gas-powered relatives and rules the roost among cordless mowers. If you want a self-driven mower that handles like no other, check out the Toro 60V Max 21″ Super Recycler.
The Greenworks 25322 is a small, relatively inexpensive electric mower and is a great option for regularly-maintained, modestly-sized lawns. Unlike some affordable models, this mower is not burdened by a short runtime — it averaged 41 minutes in our tests. Nor does it suffer from a slow charging battery, taking around an hour, which is in line with the other options we tested. The light,16-inch deck is easy to move around, the foldable handle ensures convenient storage, and you and your neighbors will appreciate the quiet motor. To round things out, this machine packs enough cutting power to mulch well-managed lawns, and it's highly effective at bagging grass.
We have tested both the original and brushless version of this mower. Our latest data refers to the brushless motor.
This mower has less power than higher-priced options, often needing multiple passes for an even cut. Its lightweight plastic deck struggles on uneven ground and the wheels don't make it easy to pivot. Luckily, it's small and light enough to swing around anyway. The relatively narrow, 15.5-inch blade means it covers less area per pass, and the lack of self-propulsion makes it more challenging to push, particularly through dense grass or up a hill. Still, the Greenworks 25322 is a cost-effective electric mower for small, frequently maintained lawns. If you're a perfectionist, the Snapper 82V offers a cleaner mow for about the same price, it's much harder to move around though.
The Toro 60V Max Super Recycler has plenty of power to cruise through well-maintained lawns and is a pleasure to use.
Credit: Clark Tate
Why Trust GearLab
We're passionate about evaluating the full range of battery-powered tools, from string trimmers and pressure washers to chainsaws, leaf blowers, and drills. Our Senior Review Analyst Austin Palmer has been tearing apart electronics with an eye for quality design and engineering for most of his adult life in our laboratory and the field.
We tested these mowers in four different metrics:
We examined these lawnmowers using four key metrics:
Mowing tests (35% of overall score weighting)
Battery tests (25% weighting)
Handling tests (25% weighting)
Ease of Use tests (15% weighting)
Lead tester, Clark Tate, has a master's degree in environmental science and seven years of experience in product testing, Clark developed a rigorous approach to evaluating tools during a childhood spent building trails and barns on the family farm.
Senior Review Editor Nick Miley, drew on his research experience in university laboratories and 10 years of product testing to build our test protocol to analyze these machines.
Jake Holmes, a former electrician currently pursuing a master's degree in geophysics rounds out the test team. Jake, who grew up on farms and has been mowing lawns since childhood, brings a wealth of experience as a mechanic to the team.
Piling the grass cuttings side by side is a good way to gauge these mower's bagging skills.
We lined these mowers up side-by-side again-and-again during our tests.
We compared mulching results by raking up the cuttings and comparing their size.
Analysis and Test Results
To evaluate each machine, we run them through a barrage of tests across multiple categories or metrics. This allows us to systematically identify and quantify their strengths and weaknesses while amassing qualitative experience with the machines. Then we rank them accordingly.
What's the Best Value?
Products that provide exceptional value deliver outstanding performance without a corresponding price increase. Those that provide a good value work well enough while sacrificing a few bells and whistles to save you money. The Greenworks 25322 offers significant value over its peers. It doesn't offer a self-propulsion mechanism, and makes your work a little harder for a trim lawn, but it cuts reasonably well for a lot less than higher-scoring options.
Another way to look at value is to spend more money to get exactly what you need, like a tool that will last or one that will make your life significantly easier. If you find yourself dreading the drudgery of pushing a mower up a slope in your yard, springing for a self-propelling model may be worth it to give your body a break.
The compact Greenworks 25322 gets the job done for less.
Credit: Clark Tate
Mowing
A mower must, first and foremost, cut grass well. To find out which machines excel at the task, we mowed several strips of grass across a 220-foot-long yard, with each mower side by side. The course includes a hill, areas with thicker grass, divots, and flat, potentially perfect turf. We repeated the test in both mulching and bagging modes, racking up any cuttings left behind and looking for uneven cuts in their wake. We also measured the width of a single pass made by each of them and used every mower to maintain the entire one-acre test yard on its own, the battery recharges and all. Here's what we found.
Our evaluation focused on four criteria — the consistency of the cut, the mowers' ability to handle uneven terrain, and their effectiveness in mulching and bagging grass clippings.
Cutting
The Toro 60V Max 21″ Super Recycler and Ego Power+ LM2135SP provide the most powerful engines in the test by far, resulting in the cleanest cuts in the test. Though the Ego suffers from some handling issues that keep it from excelling in the field overall.
For a clean cut, the Toro 60V Max Super Recycler is our first choice.
Credit: Clark Tate
The Super Recycler offers two cutting modes. Auto mode automatically adjusts the blade's RPMs, increasing speed for dense grass and slowing down for lighter areas, which helps conserve battery life but may cause clogs. Max mode keeps the blade at high speed, providing a smoother mowing experience at the expense of faster battery drain. In Max mode, it is the most powerful battery lawnmower we've tested.
The Super Recycler is almost powerful enough to keep up with gasoline models.
Credit: Clark Tate
The slightly less powerful Ego Power+ LM2102SP isn't quite as burly as the LM2135SP, but it is still one of the strongest mowers in the lineup.
The Ego Power+ LM2102SP made quick work of this average-sized front lawn.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
The Greenworks 16-inch 25322 model offers less power, often necessitating multiple passes for the best results. Despite its power and reliable Briggs & Stratton engine, the Snapper 82V falls short in consistency and other performance metrics, keeping it from being a top contender.
The 25223 is a great option if you mow your lawn frequently. It can struggle with grass much taller than 6 or 7 inches though.
Credit: Clark Tate
Terrain Management
The large 21-inch decks of the battery-powered Toro 60V Max Super Recycler and Ego Power+ LM2135SP provide excellent ground coverage and manage terrain with ease. The Super Recycler's terrain management varies based on the blade and mode selected. In max mode, the performance blade navigates rough ground effectively, while the efficiency modes fall short in comparison. The plastic components of the Greenworks 16-inch cause it to tent to bounce over bumps in divots, resulting in an uneven cut.
The Power+ LM2135SP cuts grass wand hugs terrain changes well, it's just challenging to drive.
Credit: Clark Tate
Mulching and Bagging
In mulching mode, lawnmowers cut the grass at the base and then chop it into fine pieces that can be left on the lawn. Organizations like Oregon State University Extension Service say that it's great for your yard.
The Toro 60V Max Super Recycler and Ego Power+ LM213SP excel at mulching. The Super Recycler also performs well at bagging. The Ego's bagging scores are just average, though it does finely mulch any grass that escapes the bag, which is a significant amount.
After that, there's a noticeable decline in mulching quality. The Greenworks 25322 performs adequately, densely packing grass into the bag, though some still escapes.
The Greenworks 25322 is a good choice for bagging, but it can sometimes let grass clippings escape, especially around the right rear wheel.
Credit: Clark Tate
Side Shoot
Among the mowers we tested, the Snapper 82V, and BLACK+DECKER CM2043 include side shoot adapters. They are all simple to install and function adequately. In side shoot mode, the mowers discharge whole grass clippings to the side rather than mulching them into smaller pieces. If the grass is too long between mowings, this can leave you with a messy yard.
Setting up the side shoot is easy for the two mowers that provide it, just make sure the battery is not in the mower and your fingers don't drift beneath the deck.
Credit: Clark Tate
Battery
These battery lawn mowers run on lithium-ion cells, and the amount of power and mowing time they provide has an enormous impact on their effectiveness. We evaluated their cutting power in the mowing metric above. Here, we look at how long each one can run on a single charge. We tested runtime by putting these machines to work, using each until the battery died multiple times with similar grass heights and at similar temperatures. We also timed how long it takes to recharge each battery.
The Toro 60V Max Super Recycler, the Ego Power+ LM2135SP, and the 16-inch Greenworks 25322 each offer an operating time of approximately 40 minutes per chargeSince they have different deck sizes, that equates to around two-fifths of an acre for the Toro and Ego, and one-third of an acre for the 25322. The difference in their scores is also affected by how long those batteries take to charge. The Ego and Greenworks models require approximately one hour to recharge, whereas the battery-powered Toro requires nearly 3.5 hours.
The Toro has power modes to save battery or maximize performance. We tested the batter in efficiency mode. It won't last as long in max mode. You also need to consider that the Ego, Toro, and Snapper options are self-propelled, they take a lot less of your energy to use than other options in the test.
The batteries in these machines are easy to recharge and replace. Most slide and then click into place easily.
Credit: Clark Tate
It is also important to consider the time it takes the batteries to recharge. For those of you that have a small area that you'll only need to mow occasionally, a battery that takes several hours to recharge probably won't be a problem. However, if you're thinking about using a battery-powered version professionally or have a massive lawn, we'd recommend getting a model with a quicker charge time.
Handling
Although cutting performance is important, we often prioritize a mower's maneuverability. If it's difficult to push, mowing the lawn becomes a tiresome task. To test how well these machines handle, we compare their turning capability, how well they avoid obstacles, the process of starting and stopping their engines, and the effort required to keep the bail bar engaged.
The Toro model excels in this category, thanks to its responsive 'personal pace' auto-drive system, which adjusts the mower's speed based on the amount of pressure you apply to the curved upper handle. (You can avoid the self-propulsion by using the lower, straight bar.)
When you push harder to climb a hill, the wheels accelerate to provide extra support. As you slow down for turns, the auto-drive adjusts accordingly. This feature makes mowing almost effortless, making it feel more like a leisurely walk than a chore.
The auto drive feature of the Toro mower responds to the amount of pressure you place on the upper handle. If you walk faster, it will too.
Credit: Clark Tate
The Toro is not the most maneuverable machine in our tests, however. Their tires lack traction, and there is minimal size difference between the front and rear wheels, which decreases their overall agility. The self-propelling Snapper 82V mower suffers from similar issues, making it hard to move around.
The Ego LM2135SP is self-propelled but has a complex drive system that we never fully got the hang of during our testing period. It requires you to choose speed settings manually, making turns difficult. If you rev the engine too high when heading uphill, the LM2135SP can tip back and lift its front wheels, exposing the blade and posing a risk to anyone nearby.
We just never got the hang of the awkward self-propulsion mechanism used by the Ego Power+ LM2135SP.
Credit: Clark Tate
It occasionally shuts off unintentionally and starts unpredictably. The variable speed system causes jerky starts and turns, the handle is uncomfortable on hills, and the flexible plastic deck allows the blade to hit the deck on rough terrain. Due to these issues, we do not recommend it.
Without any self-propulsion, the remaining mowers are fairly similar to operate. The Greenwords 25322 is also easy to maneuver, thanks to its smaller deck and compact wheelbase, making it ideal for tight spaces.
We find it easy to move the compact Greenworks 25322 around.
Credit: Clark Tate
As far as starting goes, these machines are all very simple to start, you simply press the start button and pull the bail bar back, or follow the same steps in reverse order. Some mowers take longer than others. Only the Ego Power+ LM2102SP has struggled to turn on in our tests, working much less consistently in its second season of use than the first.
The bail bar is a spring-loaded lever connected to the handle. It's a safety mechanism, and the blade will only spin while you hold it against the handle. If you release it, the blade stops. The shape and resistance of the bail can cause discomfort, especially on larger lawns. The bail bars in this test work well enough to go unnoticed — which is a good thing.
It's less tiring to hold the bail bar in place if the handle it's self is wider, allowing your hands and forearms to stay relatively relaxed.
Credit: Clark Tate
Ease of Use
This metric evaluates the features that are less critical to a mower's performance but make using it more enjoyable. It includes how easy it is to adjust these machines by changing the deck height, which controls the cutting height, removing the battery, changing the handle height, or folding the mower for storage. We also consider maintenance needs like blade sharpening, but most of these tasks are very similar across the field.
The Greenworks mowers are the easiest to use that we've tested. You can quickly fold them for storage, adjust their deck height with one hand using a single lever, and replacing and recharging their batteries is a cinch. If you prize easy/breezy use over having the most pristinely cut grass on the block, either of the Greenworks models could be your best bet.
The Ego Power+ LM2135SP is similarly simple to use, but its difficult handling makes it hard for us to recommend. Most of the other options in the test split the field, with some easy-to-use aspects and others that are quite cumbersome. It's older cousin, the Ego Power+ LM2102SP handles substantially better and costs a bit less.
The Greenworks lawn mowers allow you to adjust the deck height by using a single handle.
Credit: Clark Tate
The Toro 60V Max is notable for its relatively low score in this metric. Some elements of this mower are annoying, including figuring out how to fold the handle down to store it and adjusting the deck height. We think the mowing and handling performance is well worth these smaller-scale challenges.
In general battery mowers need minimal care — keep them clean, monitor the battery, and sharpen the blade periodically. The battery will eventually need replacement, but that's the extent of the upkeep.
These mowers are easy to start, simply pull the bail bar back and press start, or vice versa.
Credit: Clark Tate
Noise
Electric, battery-powered mowers tend to be quieter than traditional gas models. If gas mowers roar, then electric mowers tend to purr — a significant difference. To compare the noise levels of these models, we used a sound pressure level meter to measure sound intensity in decibels (dBA) at head height.
Deciphering the Decibel (A) Scale
The A-weighted decibel (dBA) scale measures the pressure vibrations in the air, referred to as sound intensity. The decibel scale is not linear, like measurements of distance or mass. Instead, it's logarithmic and scaled so that an increase of three decibels represents a doubling of sound intensity.
The quietest models registered in the low 70s. The Ego Power+ LM210SP showed the lowest sound levels at 71 dBa. We measured the The Greenworks 25322 and Snapper 82V at 72 dBa. The Ego Power+ LM2135SP and Toro 60V Max Super Recycler came in at 73 and 74 dBa, respectively. The rest measured between the mid to high 70s.
The Federal Aviation Administration describes 80 dBA as what one can expect from a busy urban area during the day. The Center for Disease Control recommends keeping noise levels below 85 dBa to reduce the risk of hearing loss. The takeaway here is that these mowers shouldn't damage your ears.
The Snapper is among the quietest options in the test.
Credit: Jenna Ammerman
Conclusion
Battery mowers, with their minimal upkeep, are perfect for medium-sized lawns. We hope that this analysis provides all the information you need to confidently select the perfect batter lawn mower for your needs. We have had a great time testing and writing about these machines and hope that our work will help you better enjoy your time in the backyard. If you have some trees to trim, we have tested extensively tested chainsaws that will help you get the job done as efficiently as possible as well as handsaws for those that don't mind using some elbow grease.
