I I have childhood memories of standing in the large garden of a family friend in the countryside, trying to start an old gas-powered lawnmower, tugging fruitlessly on the pull cord for hours, only for the engine to rev lazily without turning over.
So there was no question that I was an early and enthusiastic adopter of electric lawnmowers, switching over from VHS tapes to Blu-ray at roughly the same time.
Since then, I’ve owned at least six electric mowers, some plug-in, some battery-powered. At one point, I even modified a Homelite mower that I liked except for its underpowered proprietary battery, soldering the connector to a better lithium battery (maybe I calculated it wrong; it melted). All of those electric mowers felt like I was sacrificing what I get from a traditional internal combustion engine mower: instant starts, reduced noise, and no smoke, in exchange for pesky extension cords and underpowered batteries.
That was until the Greenworks 60V 21″ Self-Propelled Mower came along, which I tested on my lawn this summer. After four months of testing, I found this Greenworks model to do everything I’d want in a mower for my Midwestern lawn, and do it with grace. Lawn enthusiasts should consider mowers with more options and features. But I don’t want to think too much about my mower. I want to push a button, walk around the yard, cut the top few inches of the grass, and then roll it back in the garage. This Greenworks mower is the first electric mower I’ve ever owned that can do that.
60 beats 40
The first thing I want to know about an electric mower is how easy it is to handle the batteries. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s tired of corded electric mowers, which until a few years ago offered the best balance of power and price. The Greenworks has dual battery ports that can hold one 60V battery each, but I only use one. The 5 Ah battery provides enough power to mow my small lawn twice in turbo mode and three and a half times in standard mode. However, my lawn is about 3,000 square feet, and according to Home Advisor, the average residential lawn in the United States is about 10,000 square feet (if you live in Vermont or Montana, you’ll probably need a second battery). The advertised range is up to 1 acre (43,560 square feet), but I don’t think it will get that far based on the range in my testing, even with both batteries fully charged.
Photo: Martin Chismar
Being a 60V system, it has more power than a typical 40V system, which makes a big difference when dealing with leaves. With a peak output of 3200 RPM when using turbo mode (near the top of the standard range for gas-powered lawnmowers), I found the Greenworks had plenty of power to cut through the leaves. However, long, wet grass drained the battery much faster than I expected; the remaining half charge on one battery was not enough to finish mowing my small yard.
