Best Cordless Lawn Mowers in 2026: Why Volts Are the Wrong Spec

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Our quick picks

The rest of this page is the reasoning, the relevant specifications and the drawbacks.

Every cordless mower listing leads with a voltage number and a runtime figure, and both of them are close to useless for comparing two machines. Here is why, and what to look at instead.

Voltage first. A 40-volt mower and an 80-volt mower are not in a performance hierarchy the way the numbers suggest, because voltage on its own says nothing about how much energy the battery holds. What holds energy is watt-hours — volts multiplied by amp-hours. A 40-volt battery at 6.0 amp-hours holds 240 watt-hours. An 80-volt battery at 2.0 amp-hours holds 160. The lower-voltage pack in that comparison will mow longer, and no amount of “80V” on the side of the deck changes it. Higher voltage does help in one real way: it delivers a given amount of power at lower current, which means less heat and better sustained performance under load, so a high-voltage platform tends to bog down less in thick grass. But the runtime comes from watt-hours, and manufacturers put the volts in large type and the amp-hours in small type for a reason.

Runtime second. Published figures — “up to 60 minutes” — are measured under the most favorable conditions the marketing department can defend: dry grass, thin growth, level ground, no bagging, no self-propel, a high cutting height, and a fresh battery on a mild day. Real mowing is none of those. Wet or thick grass, a bag filling up, self-propel drawing power, and slopes can cut that figure roughly in half. The number you should care about is not minutes but area, and the only honest way to plan is to look at total watt-hours and buy more than you think you need.

So what does decide whether you like a cordless mower? Three things, in this order: the total watt-hours of battery you own, the deck width relative to your lawn, and whether the platform’s other tools are ones you will buy. That last point is the one people underestimate, and we will come back to it.

Safety first, because this is a spinning blade at ankle height

Walk-behind mowers cause tens of thousands of injuries a year in the United States, and the mechanisms are boringly consistent. None of this is complicated, and all of it is worth reading before your first cut.

Never put a hand or foot near the deck while the battery is in

This is the one that matters most. Before you tip the mower, unclog the chute, change the blade, adjust anything under the deck, or pick up an obstruction — remove the battery. Not “switch it off.” Remove it. Cordless mowers are silent when idle, which makes it dangerously easy to forget that the machine is live, and the safety key or bail handle is not a substitute for physically disconnecting the power. Blade inertia also means the blade keeps spinning for a few seconds after you release the handle.

Walk the lawn before you mow it

A mower blade turns at high speed and will throw a stone, a stick, a dog toy, a buried tent peg or a piece of wire with enough force to cause serious injury — to you, to a bystander, or through a window. Walk the whole area first and pick up anything that is not grass. This takes two minutes and prevents the single most common cause of serious mower injuries to other people.

Keep children and pets indoors, not nearby

Children are drawn to mowers and they move faster than you can react. The guidance from pediatric and orthopedic bodies is consistent and blunt: children should be inside, not in the yard, while anyone is mowing, and children should never ride on a mower. A quiet electric mower is arguably more dangerous here than a loud gas one, because a child cannot hear it coming.

Slopes: across, not up and down

For a walk-behind mower, mow across a slope, side to side, rather than up and down. The reason is that if you lose your footing going uphill, the mower can roll back onto you. (The advice is reversed for riding mowers, which should go up and down to avoid tipping sideways — do not mix the two rules up.) If a slope is steep enough that you cannot keep secure footing, do not mow it with a walk-behind at all; use a string trimmer from the top.

Eye and ear protection, and proper shoes

Safety glasses, because of thrown debris. Hearing protection is less critical on a cordless mower than a gas one, but a mower is still loud enough over a full afternoon to be worth protecting against. And closed, sturdy shoes with grip — never sandals, never bare feet. A large share of serious mower injuries are to feet.

Do not mow wet grass

Two reasons. Footing, which is a slip-and-fall risk near a blade, and clumping — wet clippings mat, clog the chute, feed back into the deck and both tear your lawn and force you to reach into the machine. Wait for it to dry.

Battery care is a fire-safety matter

Large lithium-ion packs deserve respect. Charge them indoors on a hard, non-flammable surface rather than on a wooden shelf or on carpet, not while you are asleep or out of the house for the first few charges of a new pack, and never a pack that has been dropped hard, punctured, swollen or soaked. Store batteries at moderate temperature and at a partial charge over winter rather than full or empty, and follow the manufacturer’s storage guidance. A damaged lithium pack is a fire risk and should be taken to a battery recycling point, not put in household waste.

Should you go cordless at all?

Short answer: for most residential lawns in 2026, yes, and the question is close to settled. Battery mowers have crossed the line where they cut as well as a comparable gas mower on normal grass, and the ownership experience is not comparable — there is no fuel, no oil changes, no spark plugs, no air filters, no carburetor to gum up over winter, no pull cord, and no fumes. You push a button. Several states and municipalities have also moved to restrict small off-road gasoline engines, which is a trend worth being aware of.

The honest exceptions:

• Very large lawns. Beyond roughly half an acre to an acre, you are into buying multiple large batteries and swapping mid-cut, and the calculation starts favoring a riding mower or gas.
• Heavy, wet, or neglected growth as a routine. A good cordless mower handles thick grass; it handles knee-high wet meadow worse than a strong gas engine does, and it will drain the battery doing it.
• Commercial use. Continuous all-day mowing is not what these platforms are built for.
• Cold storage without power. If the mower lives in an unheated shed with no outlet, the charging logistics are truly annoying.

And one thing worth saying plainly: a corded electric mower remains the cheapest way to mow a small lawn quietly, with unlimited runtime. The cord is a real nuisance and a real hazard if you are careless with it, but for a lawn under a few thousand square feet close to an outlet, it is an underrated option that nobody recommends because there is less margin in it.

The specification that actually predicts satisfaction: the platform

This is the part people get wrong, and it costs the most to fix. When you buy a cordless mower you are buying into a battery ecosystem, and those batteries are the expensive component. Over five years you are likely to also want a string trimmer, a leaf blower, and possibly a hedge trimmer or chainsaw. If those come from the same platform, you buy them as bare tools and share the packs you already own — which roughly halves the cost of each additional tool. If they come from different platforms, you own four chargers, seven incompatible batteries, and a shelf that looks like a punishment.

So before you compare two mowers, look at what else each brand makes at the same voltage, and be honest about which of those tools you will actually buy. A mower that is slightly worse on a platform whose trimmer and blower you want is a better purchase than a slightly better mower that strands you.

A second platform point: check whether the brand sells larger batteries in the same fitment. The upgrade path for a cordless mower is a bigger pack, and a platform that only offers one size is a platform you cannot grow into.

Deck width, and why bigger is not automatically better

Deck width sets how many passes your lawn takes, which is close to a linear relationship with how long mowing takes. A 21-inch deck covers roughly a third more ground per pass than a 16-inch one. For a typical quarter-acre suburban lot, 21 inches is the sensible standard and the reason almost every mid-range mower is that size.

But wider is worse in two situations. A wide deck cannot follow undulating ground as closely, so on a bumpy lawn it scalps the high spots. And a wide deck is physically harder to maneuver around beds, trees, play equipment and narrow side gates — measure your gate before you buy a 22-inch mower, because a mower that cannot reach the back garden is an ornament.

Rough guide: under about 3,000 square feet with obstacles, 14 to 17 inches. Three thousand to a quarter acre, 20 to 21 inches. Quarter acre and up, 21 to 22 inches with self-propel.

Self-propelled or push?

Self-propel drives the wheels so the mower pulls itself forward and you steer. It is worth it in three cases: slopes of any consequence, a lawn big enough that walking it is tiring, or a heavy mower — and battery mowers are heavier than they look, because the pack is heavy. It costs money, adds weight, adds a drive system that can fail, and consumes battery, which shortens your runtime.

On a flat lawn under a quarter acre, a push mower is lighter, simpler, cheaper, runs longer on the same battery, and has fewer things to break. Do not buy self-propel reflexively. Do buy it if you have a slope, because on a slope it changes the job completely.

If you do buy self-propelled, look for variable speed control on the handle rather than a fixed speed. A fixed-speed drive always walks either slightly too fast or slightly too slow for you, and the mismatch is tiring in its own way.

Mulching, bagging and side discharge: the lawn-health decision

Most mowers offer all three, and which one you use matters more to your lawn than which mower you bought.

Mulching recirculates clippings under the deck, chops them small, and drops them back into the turf, where they decompose and return nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil. Turf researchers and extension services broadly agree that returning clippings supplies a meaningful share of a lawn’s annual nitrogen needs, and the old belief that clippings cause thatch has been repeatedly contradicted — thatch comes from roots and stems, not leaf clippings. Mulching is the default you should use most of the time, and it is free fertilizer.

Bagging makes sense when the grass has gotten too long and clippings would smother the turf, when you are mowing up leaves, and when a lawn has a disease you do not want to spread. It also uses more battery, because the mower has to lift clippings into a bag.

Side discharge is for rough, tall growth where you just need the clippings out of the way.

And the other half of the lawn-health equation: cut height. The one-third rule — never remove more than a third of the blade length in a single cut — is the single most useful piece of lawn advice there is. Mowing tall grass down to a short setting in one pass shocks the plant, exposes soil, and invites weeds. Most cool-season lawns are healthiest cut at around 3 to 4 inches, which is considerably higher than most people set their mower. Higher grass shades the soil, suppresses weed germination and grows deeper roots. If your lawn struggles, raising the cut height is the cheapest intervention available.

Other things worth checking before you buy

• Brushless motor. On anything battery-powered, a brushless motor means better efficiency, more torque under load, and a longer life. It is standard on mid-range and up, and its absence on a mower is a sign of a budget build.
• Steel or composite deck. Steel is more durable and takes impacts better; composite never rusts and is lighter. For a mower that lives in a damp shed, composite has a genuine argument.
• Single-lever height adjustment rather than four separate wheel adjusters. You will change height across the season, and per-wheel adjustment means you often will not bother.
• Battery gauge on the pack, not just the tool. Knowing a pack’s state before you start is the difference between finishing and stopping halfway.
• Folding handle and vertical storage. A mower that stands on its end takes a fraction of the garage floor space. On a small garage this is the feature you will appreciate weekly.
• Two battery ports. Some mowers accept two packs and either run them sequentially or draw from both. Sequential use means you can carry a second pack in the mower and not walk back to the charger.
• Charger speed. A rapid charger changes the calculus on a lawn that needs more than one pack, and a slow charger on a big battery can mean an overnight wait.

The best cordless lawn mowers right now

Ratings below were verified on Amazon at the time of writing. We only included models at 4.3 stars or above.

1. EGO POWER+ LM2135SP Self-Propelled with Extra Battery — best overall

Rated 4.7 stars. 56V platform, 21-inch deck, self-propelled, bundled with an additional battery.

EGO has the strongest reputation in cordless outdoor power equipment and this is the configuration we would buy. The important part of that sentence is “with extra battery.” Batteries are the expensive component and the limiting factor, and a bundle that includes a second pack is worth far more than a slightly better deck with a single pack. Two packs means you can mow a larger lawn in one session, and it means you are not stuck when one pack ages.

The mower itself is a 21-inch self-propelled with a stated runtime up to around 60 minutes, which in real thick-grass conditions you should read as considerably less — but with two batteries the question largely goes away. EGO’s 56V platform is also the broadest in the category: string trimmers, blowers, chainsaws, hedge trimmers, snow blowers, even a pressure washer all take the same packs, which is the real long-term argument for buying into it.

• Why it works: two batteries out of the box, a mature 56V platform, and a 21-inch self-propelled deck that suits most suburban lots.
• Platform: EGO 56V, the widest tool range of any brand here.
• Best for: a quarter-acre lawn, slopes, and anyone who will buy more cordless tools.

The downside: it is heavy, which is what self-propel is compensating for — lifting it into a car or up steps is a real task. EGO packs are expensive to replace outside a bundle, so budget for that eventually. The stated runtime is a best case and thick spring grass will roughly halve it. And 21 inches is wide: measure your side gate before ordering.

Check the EGO POWER+ self-propelled mower bundle on Amazon →

2. EGO Power+ LM2122SP-2 with Two 4.0Ah Batteries — best for larger lawns

Rated 4.7 stars. 56V platform, 21-inch deck, Touch Drive self-propelled, two 4.0Ah ARC Lithium batteries, stated up to 65 minutes.

This is the same idea taken a step further: two 4.0Ah packs in the box, which is around 450 watt-hours of total energy, and that number is what actually determines how much lawn you can cut. Touch Drive puts the self-propel speed control on the handle so you set your own walking pace rather than matching the machine’s, which sounds like a detail and is the difference between a comfortable hour and an awkward one.

If your lawn is at the larger end of residential — a third of an acre and up — this is the configuration that gets it done in one session. Buy the two-battery version rather than adding a pack later; the bundle math is almost always better.

• Why it works: the most total battery energy of the mowers here, plus variable-speed self-propel you control by feel.
• Platform: EGO 56V.
• Best for: large residential lawns and anyone who does not want to stop and recharge.

What you give up: the heaviest and the most expensive option on this list, and with two packs aboard it is a really substantial machine to maneuver around tight beds. Charging two large packs takes time unless you buy a rapid charger. And as with all self-propelled mowers, the drive system is one more mechanism that can eventually need attention, whereas a push mower has none.

Check the EGO Power+ LM2122SP-2 on Amazon →

3. Greenworks 80V 21-Inch Push Mower — best push mower

Rated 4.6 stars. 80V platform, 21-inch deck, push (not self-propelled), brushless motor, 4.0Ah battery and charger included, LED headlight, stated around a quarter acre per charge.

For a flat lawn, a push mower is the smarter buy and this is the one we would choose. Greenworks’ 80V platform delivers power at high voltage and low current, which is the configuration that resists bogging down in thick grass, and the brushless motor means efficiency and longevity. A 21-inch deck on a push mower is about as wide as is comfortable to shove around without drive assistance, which makes this the sweet spot for an average suburban lot that does not slope.

The LED headlight sounds like a gimmick and is not, if you mow after work in spring or autumn. And because there is no drive system consuming power, a push mower converts more of its battery into cutting than a self-propelled one does on the same pack.

• Why it works: high-voltage brushless power in a simple push configuration, with no drive system to consume energy or fail.
• Platform: Greenworks 80V, with a broad tool range of its own.
• Best for: flat lawns up to about a quarter acre.

The part that annoys people: no self-propel, so this is the wrong mower for a slope or for anyone who finds pushing a loaded mower tiring. A single 4.0Ah pack is a modest amount of total energy on an 80V platform — budget for a second pack if your lawn is at the upper end. Greenworks runs several incompatible voltage families (24V, 40V, 60V, 80V), so check carefully that any other tools you buy match the same one. And the stated coverage per charge assumes favorable grass.

Check the Greenworks 80V 21-inch push mower on Amazon →

4. EGO POWER+ Select Cut Push Mower — best cut quality

Rated 4.6 stars. 56V platform, Select Cut multi-blade cutting system, push configuration, stated up to 60 minutes runtime.

The Select Cut system is the one interesting piece of engineering in this roundup. Instead of a single fixed blade, it uses a stacked multi-blade system you can swap to bias the mower toward mulching, bagging or high-lift cutting. In practice that means you can set it up to chop clippings very finely for mulching — which is what you want most of the year — and then swap to a high-lift configuration when you need to bag leaves or cut long spring growth cleanly.

Why that matters: mulch quality is the difference between clippings that disappear into the turf and clippings that sit on top of it in visible rows. A finer chop decomposes faster and returns nutrients faster, and it looks better immediately. If you care about how your lawn looks and you intend to mulch rather than bag, this is the mower to buy.

• Why it works: a configurable blade system that improves mulch fineness and bagging lift.
• Platform: EGO 56V.
• Best for: people who want a good-looking lawn and mulch their clippings.

Where it disappoints: swapping blade configurations is a job you do with the battery out and gloves on, and most owners settle on one setup and leave it — so be honest about whether you will use the flexibility. Push only, so not for slopes. The stated runtime is a best case as always. And the multi-blade system is more parts to sharpen and eventually replace than a single blade.

Check the EGO POWER+ Select Cut mower on Amazon →

5. SKIL PWR CORE 40 20-Inch Self-Propelled — best value self-propelled

Rated 4.5 stars. 40V platform, 20-inch deck, self-propelled, digital brushless motor, 6.0Ah battery included, stated up to 50 minutes.

This is where the watt-hours argument pays off. A 40-volt pack at 6.0 amp-hours holds around 240 watt-hours, which is more total energy than a single 4.0Ah pack on an 80-volt platform. So despite the lower voltage number on the box, this mower ships with more usable battery than several more expensive machines — and it is self-propelled, which is the feature that normally commands a premium.

SKIL’s PWR CORE platform also includes the cooling design the brand markets heavily, which is a real consideration on a mower: batteries that get hot under sustained load lose capacity and age faster, and a pack that manages its own temperature holds up better over seasons. A 20-inch deck is a sensible width that still fits through most gates.

• Why it works: a large-capacity pack and self-propel at a value price, with genuine attention to battery thermal management.
• Platform: SKIL PWR CORE 40.
• Best for: a sloped or mid-size lawn on a sensible budget.

The drawbacks: SKIL’s outdoor tool range is narrower than EGO’s or Greenworks’, so the platform argument is weaker — check that the trimmer and blower you want exist on PWR CORE 40 before committing. Forty volts at high load draws more current than 80, so very thick wet grass will bog it more than a high-voltage machine. And at 20 inches it is a touch narrower than the 21-inch standard, which means marginally more passes.

Check the SKIL PWR CORE 40 self-propelled mower on Amazon →

6. Greenworks 48V (24V x 2) 20-Inch Push Mower — best for small lawns and tight budgets

Rated 4.4 stars. Two 24V PowerAll batteries combining for 48V, 20-inch deck, brushless motor, two 4.0Ah packs and charger included, stated up to 45 minutes.

The clever thing about this design is the platform it puts you on. Greenworks’ 24V range is enormous and inexpensive — drills, trimmers, blowers, vacuums, inflators — and this mower runs on two of those same small packs in series. So the batteries you buy for the mower are the batteries that power a whole shed of cheap tools, rather than large expensive packs that only fit outdoor equipment.

It ships with two 4.0Ah packs, which is around 190 watt-hours total, and a 20-inch brushless deck. For a small to medium flat lawn, that is an actually sensible amount of machine, and it is the least expensive way onto a credible cordless platform.

• Why it works: it runs on the same small, cheap packs as a wide range of 24V tools, which makes the whole platform affordable.
• Platform: Greenworks 24V, used in pairs.
• Best for: small flat lawns, first cordless mower, and anyone who already owns Greenworks 24V tools.

The catch: 48 volts from two small packs is the least powerful configuration here and it will struggle in thick or damp growth — keep on top of the mowing schedule rather than letting the lawn get away from you. Both packs must be charged and healthy or the mower will not run, which is one more failure point. Push only. And the total energy is modest, so a larger lawn will need a second pair of packs.

Check the Greenworks 48V push mower on Amazon →

Worth a look

Greenworks 80V 21-Inch Self-Propelled

Rated 4.4 stars. 80V platform, 21-inch deck, rear-wheel drive with variable speed, brushless motor, steel deck, 4.0Ah battery included.

If you want the high-voltage Greenworks platform and you have a slope, this is the self-propelled version of pick number three. Rear-wheel drive with variable speed is the right configuration for hills — rear drive keeps traction when the mower is nose-up on an incline, which front drive loses — and the steel deck is more robust than composite if your lawn has hidden roots and stones.

It sits slightly below the EGO options on rating and ships with a single pack, so plan on a second battery. But for a hilly lawn on the Greenworks platform it is the sensible choice.

Check the Greenworks 80V self-propelled mower on Amazon →

How to narrow it down

• Start with the platform, not the mower. List the cordless tools you expect to own in five years and pick the brand that makes all of them well.
• Then count watt-hours, not volts. Volts times amp-hours. Buy a bundle with two packs if one exists; batteries are the expensive part.
• Any slope at all: self-propelled, and prefer rear-wheel drive with variable speed.
• Flat lawn under a quarter acre: push. Lighter, cheaper, longer runtime on the same battery, nothing to break.
• Measure your gate before buying a 21- or 22-inch deck.
• Bumpy lawn: a narrower deck follows the ground better and scalps less.
• Small lawn, tight budget: a dual-small-pack system on a cheap, broad platform, or honestly consider a corded mower.
• Over half an acre: price out multiple large batteries before assuming cordless is the answer.

Things you should buy alongside it

• A second battery. The most valuable accessory by a wide margin, and the one that determines whether you finish the lawn.
• A spare blade. A sharp blade cuts grass; a dull one tears it, which browns the tips and stresses the plant. Swapping a sharp blade in takes minutes and having a spare means you never mow on a dull one while the other is being sharpened.
• A blade balancer or a sharpening service. An unbalanced blade vibrates, and vibration destroys bearings and motor mounts.
• Safety glasses and grippy closed shoes. Cheap, and the injuries they prevent are not.
• A deck scraper. Clippings cake under the deck, wreck airflow (which is what creates the lift that makes a clean cut) and hold moisture against the metal. Scrape it with the battery out.

Getting the most out of it

Mow higher than you think

This is the single biggest lever on lawn quality and it costs nothing. Most cool-season grasses do best at around 3 to 4 inches. Taller grass shades the soil, which suppresses weed seed germination, holds moisture, and supports deeper roots that survive drought. Most people set their mower too low because short grass looks tidy the day it is cut, and then spend the summer fighting weeds and brown patches.

Follow the one-third rule

Never remove more than a third of the grass blade in one cut. If the lawn has gotten long, raise the deck, cut it once, wait a few days, and lower it a step. Scalping a long lawn in one pass removes the photosynthetic surface the plant needs to recover and exposes soil to weeds and sun.

Mulch, and stop bagging out of habit

Unless the grass is too long or you are clearing leaves, leave the clippings. They break down within days, return nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil, and they do not cause thatch — that belief has been contradicted repeatedly by turf research. Bagging every cut means you are removing free fertilizer and then buying it in a bag.

Change direction every time

Mowing the same pattern week after week trains the grass to lean and compacts wheel tracks. Alternate between horizontal, vertical and diagonal passes across the season. It takes no extra effort and visibly improves evenness.

Keep the blade sharp

Sharpen or replace two or three times a season if you mow weekly. The difference is easy to see: a sharp blade leaves a clean cut edge, and a dull one leaves a ragged, shredded tip that turns brown within a day and gives disease an entry point. If your lawn looks slightly brown a day after every cut, the blade is the reason.

Store the battery properly over winter

Do not leave packs fully charged or fully flat for months. Most manufacturers recommend storing at a partial charge in a cool, dry place indoors, and topping them up once mid-winter. A pack stored flat in a freezing shed is a pack you will be replacing in spring.

Frequently asked questions

Is a cordless mower as powerful as a gas mower?

On normal grass, yes, and that has been true for a few years now. The remaining gap shows up in sustained heavy load — tall wet grass, a neglected lawn, hours of continuous cutting — where a gas engine keeps delivering and a battery both bogs slightly and runs down. For weekly mowing of a maintained residential lawn, the difference is not something you will notice.

How many batteries do I need?

Work from area rather than minutes. As a very rough planning figure, budget somewhere around 200 to 250 watt-hours per eighth of an acre of normal grass on a push mower, and more if you are self-propelling, bagging, or cutting thick growth. Then add a margin, because packs lose capacity as they age. Two packs is the right answer for most lawns; one is the right answer only for a small one.

How long do the batteries last?

Lithium-ion packs degrade with charge cycles and with heat. Expect several years of seasonal use from a pack that is charged sensibly and stored properly, and much less from one left in a hot shed at full charge all summer. When capacity noticeably drops, you replace the pack rather than the mower — which is the entire argument for buying into a platform that will still sell you that pack in five years.

Can I leave the mower outside?

The mower, under cover, with the battery removed and stored indoors. Batteries should not live outdoors in heat or freezing cold, and the charger definitely should not. Water in a charging port or a battery terminal is both a failure and a hazard.

Do I need to do any maintenance at all?

Far less than a gas mower, but not none. Scrape the underside of the deck, keep the blade sharp, check that the wheel height mechanism moves freely, keep the battery contacts clean and dry, and clear the chute. There is no oil, no filter, no plug and no fuel system, which is most of the point.

Are robot mowers a better answer?

For a simple, fenced, roughly rectangular lawn, a robot mower solves the problem — it cuts a little every day, which means it is always mulching tiny clippings and the lawn never gets long. For a complex lawn with narrow passages, steps, multiple zones or lots of obstacles, they get stuck and frustrate people. They also cost considerably more than a good walk-behind and do not handle long neglected growth. They are a genuine alternative, not a strict upgrade.

What about mowing up leaves?

A mulching mower is one of the better leaf tools there is — running over a moderate leaf layer shreds it into the turf where it decomposes, and that is better for the soil than raking. For a heavy layer, bag it, and expect to use noticeably more battery, because lifting wet leaves into a bag is hard work for the motor.

Short version

Pick the platform first, because the batteries are the purchase and the mower is just the first tool on them. Then buy watt-hours rather than volts, and buy a two-battery bundle if one exists. Add self-propel only if you have a slope or a big lawn, measure your gate before you buy a wide deck, and then do the two free things that matter more than any of it: raise the cut height and leave the clippings on the lawn.

Ratings and product details were verified at the time of writing. Availability and specifications can change — check the retailer page before buying.

Also worth reading: our guide to the best hedge trimmers.