BBC Gardeners World Magazine 2026-10-19T13:44:22.000Z https://www.gardenersworld.com/author/oliverparsons/feed/atom Oliver Parsons <![CDATA[The best buys of 2026: every product we tested and awarded a Best Buy badge]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/the-best-buys-of-2026-every-product-we-tested-and-awarded-a-best-buy-badge/ 2026-10-19T13:44:22.000Z 2026-10-19T13:25:01.000Z It's been a busy year for the Gardeners’ World Magazine testing team. We’ve put everything from robot mowers that map your lawn for themselves to cordless push mowers, scarifiers and aerators through their paces, plus hoses, hose reels and spray guns for the watering season, compost tumblers, pressure washers and cleaners, garden shredders and solar security lights – plus all sorts of handheld tools.

Each product we test is assembled and used on real jobs in real gardens, from mowing slopes to scarifying mossy lawns and shredding woody prunings, and marked on ease of use, performance and value for money, with the pros and cons set out in a full review.

So whether you want to hand the mowing over to a robot or simply find a spray gun that will last, this page is designed to give you a glance at which products impressed us most in the 2026 testing season.

Robot mowers

Mammotion Luba mini 2 AWD 1000

Manufacturer: Mammotion

Category: Robot mower

Award: Best Buy - Our best robot mower for bumpy or hilly ground

Rating: 5/5

All four wheels are powered, which makes this one of the best off-road mowers we've tested. It happily mows slopes of nearly 40° and copes with little steps and garden borders, and a second, smaller cutting disc underneath gives sharp edges. Three forward-facing cameras use AI to spot objects such as discarded toys and delicate flowers. Set-up is easy, with no boundary wire or antenna, and the app lets you choose different mowing patterns and cutting heights for each lawn. The only real downside is the modest 20cm cut width, so it takes a while to cover a large lawn.

For all robot mowers, go here.

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Segway Navimow i2 LiDAR (i208)

Manufacturer: Segway

Category: Robot mower

Award: Best Buy - Our best robot mower for easy set-up on big lawns

Rating: 4.5/5

Forget boundary wires and antennae. This robot maps your garden using LiDAR, taking 200,000 laser measurements a second, so it works under trees and when the satellite signal is poor. We charged it, connected it to Wi-Fi and agreed to 'auto map', and it mapped a 100 sq. metre lawn almost instantly. It suits gardens up to 800 sq. metres and is very quiet at 59dB. However, it's two-wheel drive, so it's not as capable on slopes as an AWD robot, and the centrally mounted cutting deck can't reach the lawn edges, so you'll still need a trimmer.

For all robot mowers, go here.

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Ecovacs GOAT O600

Manufacturer: Ecovacs

Category: Robot mower

Award: Best Buy - Our best value robot mower for medium-sized lawns

Rating: 4.5/5

The entry-level robot in the GOAT range packs in cutting-edge technology at a keen price. It's guided by an RTK station, which means putting a pole in the ground, but set-up is simple and the connection is stable. Small and nippy at just 40cm across, it can get down paths as narrow as 70cm, and it's rated for 600 sq. metres. It mows in parallel lines that change direction each week, or in a chequered effect, and you can dial in to the front camera through the app. With a cut width of just 19cm, it won't mow huge gardens quickly.

For all robot mowers, go here.

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WORX Landroid Vision Cloud WR303E/WR305E

Manufacturer: WORX

Category: Robot mower

Award: Best Buy - Our best value robot mower for small lawns

Rating: 4.5/5

Getting this robot ready for its first cut is reasonably straightforward. You pair the Landroid app with your phone, connect to Wi-Fi and let the auto-mapping function use its camera to find the lawn edges, which was surprisingly accurate first time around. It combines RTK GPS with a front-mounted camera, so there's no antenna to install in the garden, and the standard WORX 2.5Ah battery works across the brand's tools. It's best for lawns up to 300 sq. metres. The anti-theft and cut-to-edge modules aren't included as standard, and it's timid around bushy borders, leaving a few tufts at the edge.

For all robot mowers, go here.

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LawnMaster OcuMow AMB16-400

Manufacturer: LawnMaster

Category: Robot mower

Award: Best Buy - Our best budget self-charging robot mower

Rating: 4.5/5

This is a proper robot lawnmower that recharges itself for less than £400. It's literally 'drop and go': there's no app to download and no map to build. It simply drives until it hits a border, then turns and heads off in another direction. It copes with lawns up to 400 sq. metres and slopes up to 19°, and at just over 6kg it's easy to pick up. A spiral-cut button gives tricky spots extra attention. As it relies on a camera and ultrasonic sensors, it needs clearly defined lawn borders and mows in a random pattern, but at this price it's seriously hard to fault.

For all robot mowers, go here.

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Manufacturer: LawnMaster

Category: Robot mower

Award: Best Buy - Our best basic robot mower

Rating: 4.5/5

At first, this little machine didn't look like it would impress, but it turned out to be one of the easiest robot mowers to use. Charge the battery, plug it in and press 'Auto Mow'. There's no schedule to set, no map to draw and no GPS antennae or Wi-Fi to worry about, and no docking station either: you simply pop the battery out and charge it like a drill battery. It's designed for lawns up to 150 sq. metres and didn't get stuck under a garden bench that has defeated pricier robots. It only works on lawns with clearly defined boundaries, though, and can't mow to a schedule.

For all robot mowers, go here.

Cordless lawn mowers

Ryobi RLM18X33B50C

Manufacturer: Ryobi

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Our best lightweight cordless mower, under £300

Rating: 4.8/5

This little mower assembles in just five minutes and weighs just over 8.5kg with the battery in place, so it's light enough to mow with one hand. The soft-grip handle has dual triggers for left- and right-handed gardeners and three height settings. The 33cm cut width suits small lawns, and the 18V, 5.0Ah battery, which fits more than 200 Ryobi tools, ran for just over 30 minutes. You also get a mulching plug and a grass box with a fill indicator. The 35L box will need emptying often on a larger lawn, and the cutting height adjustment is a bit fiddly.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

Einhell RASARRO 36/34

Manufacturer: Einhell

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Our best cordless lawn mower for ease of use, under £300

Rating: 4.8/5

Arriving fully assembled, the RASARRO is ready to mow straight from the box. It has a sturdy folding handle with three heights, ambidextrous controls and a comfortable soft grip, and it feels well made from solid materials. The 34cm cut width is narrow enough for tight spots, and five clearly labelled cutting heights run from 25-65mm. Two 18V, 3.0Ah batteries give 30 minutes of mowing and work in hundreds of other Einhell tools. At a little over 12kg it's not the lightest, the 30L grass box fills quickly, and there's no mulching plug.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

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COBRA MX4340VX

Manufacturer: Cobra

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Our best push mower for larger gardens, £300-500

Rating: 4.8/5

Ideal for larger lawns, this Cobra has a 43cm cut width, five heights from 25-75mm and runs for up to 45 minutes on its 40V, 4.0Ah battery. Assembly took just a few minutes and needed no tools. At 14.5kg it's substantial and feels built to last, with a very comfortable, grippy handle, and it feels more premium than some of the competition. There's a mulching plug, front and side grass combs for an even cut, and a huge 50L grass box with a fill indicator. The handle folds down neatly for storage. The only drawback is that there's no safety key.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

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Webb WEV2012RB4 20V 30cm cylinder

Manufacturer: Webb

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Best Buy - Best cordless cylinder lawn mower

Rating: 4.8/5

A proper cylinder mower, but battery-powered. If you want an ultra-short lawn with crisp stripes without the fuss of a petrol machine, this is a marvellous and affordable choice. The cut height adjusts between 13-23mm in fine increments, and the electric motor keeps the cylinder at a constant speed however fast you walk. The 20V, 4.0Ah battery should run for up to 60 minutes and charges via USB-C. The 30cm cut width is for smaller lawns only, assembly is a bit fiddly, and the cylinder needs levelling before the first cut. It's not designed for long grass.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

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Webb 40V 47cm brushless self-propelled (WEV20X2LM47SPB4X)

Manufacturer: Webb

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Best Buy - Best self-propelled cordless mower for easy charging

Rating: 4.5/5

A powerful yet easy-to-handle mower for medium to large lawns. It arrives fully assembled, and the brushless motor cuts through thick, wet grass while the adjustable-speed rear wheels take the effort out of pushing. It runs on a pair of 20V, 4.0Ah batteries that charge via USB-C, and they double as power banks for your phone. The 65L grass box, mulching plug and side discharge chute give you three ways to mow, and it stands on end for storage. Runtime is the catch: around 20 minutes with the drive engaged at low speed, though there's room for four batteries. At 25.5kg it's heavy to lift.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

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LawnMaster CLMF4841E

Manufacturer: LawnMaster

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Our best push mower for stripes

Rating: 4.5/5

This is a lot of mower for the money. The wide cut suits larger lawns, the handle is height- and length-adjustable with a soft grip, and the onboard roller creates stripes. Unusually at this price, you can choose from three power levels or an auto mode, so you can save battery or crank up the revs in long, thick grass. A charge-level indicator on the handle and a 'full' indicator on the 42L grass box are both useful, and it stands on its end to save space in the shed. A pair of 24V batteries runs for 25 minutes. At 14kg it's not the lightest, and it's awkward to carry between different areas of grass.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

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Stihl RMA 235

Manufacturer: Stihl

Category: Cordless lawn mower

Award: Our best push mower for a quality cut

Rating: 4.5/5

Robust and well engineered, the RMA 235 gives an excellent quality of cut, even on substandard lawns, thanks to a powerful motor and a curved blade. At 13kg with the battery in place, it's not the lightest 33cm mower, but that weight adds to the quality feel, and the ergonomics make it well balanced and easy to manoeuvre. It's ideal for small to medium lawns, with five heights from 25-60mm and a 30L rigid grass box. The recommended battery isn't included ,and buying one separately with a charger costs just under £360, so it's best value if you already own Stihl batteries. There's no safety switch.

For all cordless mowers, go here.

Lawn aerators and scarifiers

WORX 36cm Scarifier and Aerator WG855E.9

Manufacturer: WORX

Category: Lawn aerator or scarifier

Award: Best Buy - Our best cordless scarifier and aerator

Rating: 4.5/5

If you want to improve your lawn without the back-breaking effort of doing it by hand, this powerful 2-in-1 does the hard work for you. It feels like a quality piece of kit, with a sturdy handle and large front wheels, and setting it up was as easy as a lawnmower. Swapping between the scarifier and aerator cartridges is tool-free. It brought up plenty of moss, and the aerator left clean furrows even at the lowest of four depth settings. At just over 10kg without batteries, it's easy to carry. The 40L collection box fills in under a minute, and the batteries last around 15 minutes of scarifying, so it's best for smaller lawns.

For all lawn scarifiers and aerators, go here.

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Greenman R1710 Scarifying Rake

Manufacturer: Greenman

Category: Manual scarifying rake

Award: Best Buy - Our best traditional lawn scarifying rake

Rating: 4.5/5

A traditional-style manual tool with a handsome ash handle and stainless steel head. It oozes quality from tip to tip, is nicely balanced and is comfortable to use, if a touch heavy. Its trick is a set of pivoting tines, which make removing dead matter and aerating the soil that much easier, and the reasonably sharp tines cut into the top few centimetres to stimulate grass growth and prepare for over-seeding. At 155cm long and just over 1.4kg, it's fine for taller gardeners. There's no getting around the effort of scarifying a thick, mossy lawn by hand, but this rake makes it as easy as possible. It has a 10-year warranty.

For all lawn scarifiers and aerators, go here.

Garden hoses

Claber Kiros Kit 20m

Manufacturer: Claber

Category: Hose reel

Award: Best Buy - Our best garden hose reel for versatility

Rating: 4.8/5

A very neat, compact and low-key hose reel, boxed complete with a spray nozzle and a universal, multi-size tap fitting. The black and silver hose has a 12.5mm bore for a good volume of water, and the subdued colours don't shout in the garden. The reel runs freely when you pull it out and winds in nicely without tipping or dragging on the ground, and you can attach the handle on either side. A snap-on grip is great for wet hands. It comes with wall fixings and a two-year warranty, although the wall brackets look a bit lightweight.

For all hoses, go here.

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Hozelock Wonderhoze 30m

Manufacturer: Hozelock

Category: Expandable hose

Award: Best Buy - Our best expandable hose for flexibility

Rating: 4.8/5

The perfect choice if you can't manage a hose reel or don't want the clutter. The 12.5mm fabric hose expands to 30m, three times its original length, and doesn't kink. It comes out of the box ready to use, complete with a five-setting spray gun and a universal, multi-size tap attachment, so you can literally pop it on and get watering. It's lightweight and incredibly flexible, which is kind to plants where it brushes against them. The downside is that it's distinctly floppy and slightly unwieldy, and with no storage or wall mounting supplied, it can end up as a messy pile. Five-year warranty.

For all hoses, go here.

Claber Basic Spiral Hose Kit 10m

Manufacturer: Claber

Category: Garden hose

Award: Best Buy - Our best spiral garden hose

Rating: 4.5/5

With a wildly different design to most hoses, this spiral kit makes a statement as a funky addition to the garden as well as a useful bit of kit. It's perfect for small gardens such as courtyards, as the hose tucks neatly against the wall in its low-key bracket and needs very little storage space. The 10mm-gauge hose is the smallest our tester has used, but it does deliver. The kit comes complete with wall fixings, a spray nozzle and a universal tap fitting, plus a two-year warranty. The spiral is springy, so it takes some effort to pull out.

For all hoses, go here.

Hose spray guns

Claber Multi-Jet Confort

Manufacturer: Claber

Category: Spray gun

Award: Best Buy - Our best all-round hose spray gun, under £30

Rating: 4.8/5

A step up from the simple shower pistol and only a fraction more expensive, this offers four spray patterns (shower, jet, fan and mist), a classic twist flow control and a lockable on/off trigger. It's beautifully lightweight, and the rubber handle is perfect for gripping with wet hands or gloves. Changing the pattern is easy with a twist of the head, although this exposes a greased section that could become worn with grit, or even seize as the grease wears away. It comes with a two-year guarantee.

For all hose spray guns, go here.

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Hozelock Multi Plus Spray Gun

Manufacturer: Hozelock

Category: Spray gun

Award: Best Buy - Our best lightweight spray gun

Rating: 4.8/5

A sturdy, versatile spray gun with seven easy-to-switch settings, including a fine mist for delicate plants, a powerful jet for washing off dirt, shower and aerated settings for seedlings, and a fast-fill setting for watering cans. A slider on the body reduces the flow by up to 50 per cent and is easy to adjust with your thumb. The mix of metal and plastic hits a sweet spot of being robust but lightweight, and there's a lockable trigger and a two-year guarantee. The thumb flow adjuster could be awkward for some.

For all hose spray guns, go here.

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Hozelock Ultramax Multi Spray Gun

Manufacturer: Hozelock

Category: Spray gun

Award: Best Buy - Our best spray gun for durability

Rating: 4.5/5

Something of a Rolls Royce of spray guns: sturdily made, heavy and built to last. It has a die-cast metal body and seven spray patterns that are easy to switch between by twisting the clearly marked head, from fine rose and mist to powerful jet, cone, fan, aerated and fast fill. A flow control adjusts from 50 to 100 per cent, and the trigger locks for long periods of watering. It's pricey and heavy to hold, so it's not for the weak of limb, but a five-year warranty makes it a good choice if you have a lot of watering to do.

For all hose spray guns, go here.

Compost bins

Maze 180 litre compost tumbler

Manufacturer: Maze

Category: Compost bin

Award: Best Buy - Our best compost tumbler

Rating: 4.5/5

A well-made, thoughtfully designed tumbler with two chambers for a rotation of compost making, large opening doors for easy filling and emptying, and a geared turning mechanism. The sturdy handle and gearing make turning easy even when full, and lock the tumbler in position for emptying. Ground clearance is a good 35cm. The UV-protected barrel holds 180 litres and is made from 90 per cent recycled plastic, with a powder-coated zinc frame. Assembly took an hour, but the instructions are clear. At 109cm tall and with bright green trim, it's hard to hide in the garden. Three-year warranty.

For all composters, go here.

Pressure washers and cleaners

Ryobi RY18PWX41A-140 cordless pressure cleaner

Manufacturer: Ryobi

Category: Cordless pressure cleaner

Award: Best Buy - Our best cordless pressure cleaner for tough cleaning jobs

Rating: 4.5/5

A pressure cleaner that provides plenty of power while staying completely off-grid, with a maximum of 41 bar of pressure. The grip is well designed, with plenty of rubberised sections and a comfortable front hold for two-handed use. In the box, you get a two-litre bottle adapter, a siphon hose with filter for drawing water from a bucket, and a net bag to keep everything together. Three power levels let you match the pressure to the job and get the most from each battery, and the nozzle includes a rotating 'turbo' mode for stubborn grime. It's chunky, at 2.65kg the heaviest cordless model our tester has used, and you get just over 20 minutes at full power. Accessories are Ryobi-only.

For all pressure washers and cleaners, go here.

Garden shredders

Makita UD2500 electric shredder

Manufacturer: Makita

Category: Garden shredder

Award: Best Buy - Our best powerful garden shredder for tough jobs

Rating: 4.5/5

If you want unlimited shredding power, this is an ideal choice. It's a corded 'crusher' style machine, using a steel cylinder with six curved blades to shred garden waste up to 45mm in diameter, and it happily dealt with anything that would fit in the hopper. The huge 67-litre collection box means fewer stops to empty, and the 10-metre power cable makes it handy almost anywhere in a smallish garden. Assembly is minimal, just the wheels, but at 27kg it's hard to move around, especially up and down steps. There's no push stick, and it doesn't fold for storage, so it will take up lots of vertical space in the shed.

For all shredders, go here.

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Husqvarna GS 340is battery shredder

Manufacturer: Husqvarna

Category: Cordless garden shredder

Award: Best Buy - Our best cordless garden shredder

Rating: 4.5/5

If you want to tackle woody garden waste away from easy access to power, such as in a big garden or at the allotment, this cordless shredder is an ideal choice. It runs on Husqvarna's 36V BLi-X battery system, and its slow-turning 'crusher' mechanism uses a steel cylinder with seven curved blades to deal with branches up to 40mm in diameter. The motor folds down into the collection box, so it takes up little space in the shed, and there's an automatic reverse for jams and an onboard safety key. It's not too noisy at 86dB, and our tester shredded for just under an hour per battery. It weighs more than 24kg, and the small 45-litre box needs emptying often on big jobs.

For all shredders, go here.

Solar lights

Dover Solar Double PIR Light

Manufacturer: Dover

Category: Solar security light

Award: Best Buy - Our best solar security light

Rating: 4.5/5

Compact, functional and easy to set up with clear instructions, this is a sturdy yet affordable solar-powered security light. A central light pivots 90° up and down, and two side lights adjust 360° up and down and 120° side to side, covering a 180° field. Two PIR sensors detect movement at 8m, lighting up a front door, side path or driveway with 800 lumens. There are three modes of use, the third switching off after 20 seconds and recommended for winter. It's highly weatherproof with an IP65 rating, has a well-protected on/off switch and comes with a 12-month warranty.

For all solar lights, go here.

]]> Kay Maguire <![CDATA[Best electric lawn mowers in 2026 as tested by our expert team]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/lawn-care/best-electric-lawn-mowers/ 2026-07-13T10:44:39.000Z 2026-07-08T18:22:10.000Z

Jump to our 4 top-rated corded electric lawn mowers

Lawn mowers – if you've got a garden, chances are you need one, even if you don't really like gardening at all. So it's a big market, with a lot of different products in different categories available, from basic hand-push mowers all the way up to modern cordless lawn mowers and robotic lawn mowers.

Despite all this, bang in the middle of the market still lies the classic lawn mower type that perhaps most sheds still house an example of – the corded electric lawn mower. And no wonder – corded mowers are cheap, lightweight and easy to use, so they're absolutely perfect if you want to stay within budget and keep things simple.

But even though this category is not as big as it used to be, there's still a ton of choice, and ample opportunity to get this purchase wrong. So that's why we have created this rundown of the best corded electric lawn mowers available to buy today.

From 2026, you’ll only see newly awarded Best Buy badges on corded electric lawn mowers that score 4.5 out of 5 or higher. Anything rated 3.5 or above will still feature in our ‘Best of the rest’ list. Oliver Parsons

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Jump to:

• Best electric mowers
• Best of the rest
• How to choose an electric mower
• How we tested electric mowers

Our best electric mowers to buy at a glance

• 4.8 stars: Our best budget electric mower for small gardens, under £100 – Webb WEER33 RRP £99.99
• 4.5 stars: Our best electric mower for large gardens – Mountfield Electress 38 RRP £159
• 4.5 stars: Our best electric mower for a stripy lawn – Cobra GTRM34 RRP £122.99
• 4.5 stars: Our best electric mower for small gardens, £100+ – Ryobi RLM13E 33S RRP £119.95

Comparison table: best electric lawn mowers

In every review, we award outstanding products our coveted Best Buy award. To see these and the others we recommend, browse our pick of the best corded electric lawn mowers, below:

Our 4 best corded electric lawn mowers

1: TOP RATED: Webb Weer33 electric lawn mower

Our best budget electric mower for small gardens, under £100

RRP: £99.99

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£94.48), Robert Dyas (£99.99) and Tool Station (£94.48)

Reasons to buy:

• Comfortable, light & easy to use
• Five cutting heights & easy to adjust
• Cuts efficiently & to the edge

Reasons to avoid:

• Black cable hard to see

I was impressed by the superb design of this mower. It’s extremely easy to assemble and folds for storage with a comfortable foam handle that can be adjusted to various heights. There are five cutting heights to choose from ranging from 25-65mm, and a single lever enables easy adjustment. It has a cutting width of 33cm, and the black cable is 10m long, with cable tidy hooks to keep it wound up and in one place in storage. The fabric grass collection bag has a generous capacity of 35L, and the full indicator lets you know when it needs emptying.

The handle on this mower is easily unscrewed to fold in half over the body of the mower and if necessary, you can also slip the handles out of the deck to help it fold completely flat and squeeze into a tight storage space. The mower is relatively quiet, and it cut well, right up to the edges of my lawn. It’s also lightweight and comfortable to manoeuvre. My only quibble is the black mower cable, which could be a brighter colour so it'd be easier to see. For just £99.99 and with a warranty of two years, this is a great value mower. Kay Maguire

RRP: £99.99
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 8.8kg
Noise: 89dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 10m
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 35L

Read the full Webb Weer 33 review

• Buy the Webb Weer 33 from Amazon (£94.48), Robert Dyas (£99.99) and Tool Station (£94.48)

Latest Deals

2: Mountfield Electress 38

Our best electric mower for large gardens

RRP: £159

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£159)

Reasons to buy: 

• Long cable
• Good choice of cutting heights
• Choice of handle heights
• Wide cutting width

Reasons to avoid:

• No cable safety clip

This sturdy electric mower felt really robust out in use on the lawn, and I liked its relatively wide cutting width of 38cm, which made for fewer passes up and down the lawn. I found it simple to put together, with three handle heights to suit different users, and it has a useful six heights of cut, from 25-75mm, which are easy to change with a single lever. It manoeuvred well around the lawn despite its weight and was pleasingly simple to use, producing a neat cut. It comes with a large grass collection box of 40L too, so you're not constantly emptying clippings on the compost heap.

When you've finished mowing, it's easy to store, with a handle that folds flat over the body of the mower, so it takes up very little room, and a detachable cable that can be hung up or stored in a drawer. It has such a long 15m cable that I was able to pack my extension lead away completely. Only its black colour and lack of cable safety clip let it down. Kay Maguire

RRP: £159
Cutting width: 38cm
Weight: 11kg
Noise: 95dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 15m
Cutting height range: 25-75mm
Grass box: 40L

• Buy the Mountfield Electress 38 from Amazon (£159)

Latest Prices

3: Cobra GTRM34 electric mower with rear roller

Our best electric mower for a stripy lawn

RRP: £122.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£114.99) and Just Lawnmowers (£106.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Simple to assemble
• Comfortable & easy to use
• Cuts efficiently
• Cable relief clip for safety
• Rear roller
• Folds for easy storage

Reasons to avoid:

• Doesn't cut to the edge
• Heavier than some

It's always a good start when a mower is as easy to put together as this one. Very little assembly is required, you just need to attach the handle with its easy-to-use clips and finish fixing the grass collector. The illustrated instructions are clear, but unfortunately, they haven't included a diagram. There's a very helpful, easy-to-follow video guide on the Cobra website that shows what to do.

This Cobra mower has a 34cm cutting width and a rear roller if you're on the lookout for those ever-desirable stripes. Although it's reasonably heavy and may be harder to lift and carry than some of the mowers in our test, I found it well-balanced, and it cuts and collects long grass very well. There's a choice of seven cutting heights, and it's easy to change them with a single lever on the deck. The handle has only one height, but I liked the cushioned padding, and it has a cable relief clip, which helps to keep the electric cable tucked out of the way.

The fabric grass bag has a capacity of 35L, which folds flat for easy storage. The mower itself also took up little storage space in the shed, double-folding down nicely, thanks to the two sets of easy-clip levers on the handle. Overall, it's easy to use and manoeuvre, cuts and picks up well and at just over £100, with a two-year warranty, it's excellent value for money. Kay Maguire

RRP: £122.99
Cutting width: 34cm
Weight: 13kg
Noise: 96dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 10m
Cutting height range: 20-75mm
Grass box: 35L

Read the full Cobra GTRM34 electric corded mower review

• Buy the Cobra GTRM34 electric corded mower from Amazon (£114.99) and Just Lawnmowers (£106.99)

Latest Prices

4: Ryobi RLM13E 33S

Our best electric mower for small gardens, £100+

RRP: £119.95

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: OnBuy (£119.95) and B&Q (£119.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Comfortable foam handle
• Light & easy to move
• Cuts to the edge
• Best cable relief clip
• The orange cable is easy to see

Reasons to avoid:

• Noise high-pitched

The Ryobi corded electric mower has a 1300W engine, a cutting width of 33cm and a 10m long, orange cable. I found it simple to assemble, with clear instructions and no extra tools needed. Its handle folds for storage, the blade can be adjusted to a choice of heights, and, best of all, it was light to use. There are five cutting heights to choose from, ranging from 20-60mm, and these are easy to change with a simple lever. The foam handle feels comfortable, and a double drive lever gives you the choice of mowing with both hands or just one. The height of cut is simple to adjust, it cuts cleanly and well, and the grass combs on the deck allow it to cut right to the edge, so there’s no need to go back and tidy up the edges with a grass trimmer after mowing.

A mulching plug is supplied so you can shred the clippings and leave them on the lawn where they will break down, feeding the grass as they do. Otherwise, the fabric grass bag has a collecting capacity of 35L as well as a full indicator that flaps up when the bag is ready to empty. But I was most impressed by the convenient, effective cable relief clip, which keeps the cable tucked out of the way while you mow. At 9kg, this mower is easy and smooth to turn and manoeuvre around furniture and borders in the lawn. It comes with a three-year warranty, and we think it’s great value for money. Kay Maguire

RRP: £119.95
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 9.9kg
Noise: 89dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 8m
Cutting height range: 20-60mm
Grass box: 35L

Read the full Ryobi RLM13E 33S review

• Buy the Ryobi RLM13E 33S from OnBuy (£119.95) and B&Q (£119.95)

Latest Prices

The best of the rest

Although this model didn't quite achieve a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy award, it still has features that make it worth recommending.

Stihl RME 235 electric lawn mower

RRP: £179

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£196) and Just Lawnmowers (£159)

Latest Prices

Reasons to buy:

• Sturdy & robust
• Quick-empty grass box
• Long warranty

Reasons to avoid:

• Long assembly time
• The drive lever is very stiff
• The black cable is hard to see

If you're after a solid, no-frills mower, this Stihl electric lawn mower does the basics very well. It takes 205 minutes to fully charge – one of the slowest charge times on test, but cuts approximately 250 square metres on a single charge. I found its design well thought-out with an adjustable, folding handle for storage and a handy cable relief clip. It features a cutting width of 46cm, which is one of the widest on test. It has five cutting heights from 25-65mm, and they're simple to change with a single lever. The grass box opens right up for easy emptying, and there's an indicator that lets you know when it's full.

This mower is intended to deal with larger lawns quickly rather than cutting smaller, more intricately shaped gardens. I loved the eco-mode that slows the blades down automatically when it’s tackling short grass, and speeds them up to cut longer lawns. The cut is clean, and the grass is sucked up into the grass box, leaving the lawn clear of cuttings – one of the great advantages of buying a rotary mower. It felt sturdy and moved smoothly across my grass, but I found the drive lever a bit uncomfortable and stiff. It also took me the longest to assemble out of all the mowers I tested. Kay Maguire

RRP: £179
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 13kg
Noise: 93dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 17m
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 30L

• Buy the Stihl RME235 from Amazon (£196) and Just Lawnmowers (£159)

Latest Prices

Einhell GC-EM 1600/37 electric lawn mower

RRP: £136.95

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Argos (£130) and Homebase (£99)

Reasons to buy:

• 37cm cut width ideal for smaller gardens
• High torque motor doesn’t get bogged down
• Three-position height adjustable handlebar

Reasons to avoid:

• No dedicated cable storage solution
• 10m of cable isn’t quite enough
• No mulching plug or safety key

Forget having to check batteries, annoyingly slow chargers and high prices for lawn mowers. There’s still a strong use case for good old-corded mowers, and the Einhell GC-EM 1600/37 is an excellent example of how to do, most of it, right. While most garden power tools are now cord-free, some gardeners don’t want to navigate the hundreds of different batteries and their various chargers. This mower is a true plug and go machine. If you’ve got a plug socket nearby, you’re up and running in seconds.

As the name suggests, this mower takes its power from a 1,600W motor and cuts a handy 37cm wide swathe. Connecting the mower to the mains is a 10m bright red power cable. It’s quite a lot bigger than other more compact battery mowers I’ve tested before, with three handle heights to choose from and a big chunky handle section. At the handle end there’s a wide metal trigger that’s operable with either hand, as well as a big red safety switch on top to keep things safe. There’s no sign of a safety key like you’d find on a cordless battery powered mower, but it does include a clever cable strain relief hook. This should stop pulling on the base of the cable to avoid damaging the connection.

Choosing from a neat 20mm cut height in five steps up to an almost meadow-like 60mm is simple. The rather car-like height “shifter” handle is sprung, making choosing a height nice and easy. And weighing a shade under 11kg, carrying it around with the big handle on top isn’t too taxing. Setting this corded lawnmower up for its first cut did take me a little while though. Unlike a lot of budget friendly machines, I needed to install the wheels as well as the handle. The wheels are held in place by stiff hairpins that took quite a lot of force to get in place, then covered over by plastic hubcaps. Then I had to attach the bottom and tops sections of the handle to the chassis, and the carry handle to grass collection box. Again, it wasn’t difficult but might put off some users. It took me around 15 minutes to put the whole package together.

The 38L grass collection box is a semi-rigid one. These are my favourite because they fold down flat when not in use yet still manage to pack the grass in before needing to be emptied. 38L isn’t much, but when you’re tethered to a 10m cable, you can’t mow huge gardens anyway. Bear in mind that’s there’s no mulching plug, so you need to collect all the grass trimmings. Measuring 136cm in length, this is a surprisingly large piece of garden kit. Even though it comes in a small-ish package, I felt like I had to peer down at the front wheels because they seemed quite far away. On my first test cut, it was obviously quicker to get started as I didn’t need to charge up any batteries. But I soon found out my small back garden is big enough to run out of 10m power cable. It wasn’t a big deal. I simply dug out a 10m extension cable and got back to work. However, you’ll need to factor in this inconvenience if the far end of your lawn is any more than 10m from a power point. Happily, the motor didn’t struggle, even when I pushed it into long, thick grass and weeds. It didn’t even slow down, unlike some battery-powered mowers that bog down too easily.

Storing this mower away is easy enough. The handle folds down neatly, but it lacks dedicated cord storage. I would have expected to see a hook or cleat somewhere on the handle to coil the cable round. Instead, I coiled the cable and tied it with some garden twine. Not exactly elegant but it works. Also, this mower doesn’t stand up on its end, so takes up more floor space than necessary. Overall, I can’t find anything particularly wrong with the Einhell GC-EM. It cuts the lawn well and doesn’t get bogged down thanks to its constant supply of power. If you hate charging up batteries and have a small enough garden, this is a sensible investment. Harry Duncton

RRP: £136.95
Cutting width: 37cm
Weight: 10.75kg
Noise: 96dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 10m
Cutting height range: 20-60mm
Grass box: 38L

• Buy the Einhell GC-EM 1600/37 electric lawn mower from Argos (£130) and Homebase (£99)

How to choose an electric lawn mower

Not all budget electric mowers are basic machines. Consider the following points to help you choose the right electric mower for you:

• Where are you mowing? A convenient power socket is essential for an electric mower, but you may need an extension lead too. Check that the cable is long enough to reach all parts of your lawn. If your lawn runs right up to walls, fences, or raised beds, look for a model that cuts to the edge, or you’ll need to invest in a grass trimmer to neaten them up afterwards. Mowers typically offer between three and seven different cutting heights to choose from, depending on where you're mowing and the time of year. Changing height should be easy, preferably with a simple lever
• What size mower do you need? The wider the cutting width, the quicker the mower will cut your lawn. However, there is a trade-off. Mowers with a wider width have a bigger deck and are heavier and less easy to manoeuvre around trees or furniture. A wider cutting width is therefore best for large expanses of grass, while smaller models are ideal for nipping up and down little lawns and negotiating beds and borders. Bigger mowers typically have larger grass collectors, which will save you time going back and forth to the compost to empty the clippings. Either plastic or fabric, many have a window or indicator that lets you know when they’re full. Plastic boxes can be tricky to assemble, and even less easy to dismantle; fabric collection bags take up less room in storage
• Is it safe? Electric mowers have a two-stage start for safety – pressing a push button and grasping the drive lever, but the electric cable is an obvious safety hazard. If you’re concerned about tripping over the cable or cutting it accidentally when you’re mowing, look for a model with a brightly coloured lead that’s easy to spot. A cable relief clip will help to keep it tucked out of the way of the blade and will also prevent it from being snagged and ripped out. For safety, always use an RCD (Residual Current Device) plugged into the electric socket before plugging in your mower
• Where will you store it? No matter the model, these are fairly bulky machines. However, the handles of most mowers can be partly unscrewed to fold over the body of the mower; others are designed to unclip and double fold completely flat. If you need to lift the mower up steps into storage or onto a shelf, make a note of its weight and whether there are carry handles to make this easier
• What do you get for your money? The quality of materials is often relative to the price. Lightweight plastic is unlikely to last as long as a metal deck, and brushless motors are more powerful, efficient, and longer-lasting. Warranty length also varies, with some brands offering a longer warranty if the mower is registered

Budget Mowers Buyer's Guide - video

Follow our tips on choosing a budget mower to find the right one for your garden.

How we test the best lawn mowers

When we test lawn mowers, we follow the whole process from start to finish without any shortcuts. We unpack the mower from the box, put it together following the instructions (sometimes these are clear as mud, sometimes not!), and then get started, cutting grass over a wide area.

We mow over rough grass, smoother grass, slopes and bumps – whatever is in our way – just as you would with your own mower. And after that, we also take notes on how easy the mower is to fold down and put away, because if a mower is annoying in that regard, you'll always hate using it.

Then, we score each model against these four criteria, with equal marks attributed to each one:

• Set-up and storage. We assess how easy the mower was to put together and fold up, or store afterwards
• Handling. We also judge the mower for how comfortable it is to use and how easy it is to control. Handle-height adjustment, cut-height adjustment, overall weight and noise levels all make a big difference here
• Mowing. Also important, we look at the cutting width and the range of cutting heights that can be selected. The capacity of the grass box, AKA collection bag, also makes a big difference here, and can save you from making constant trips over to the compost heap. We also look out for neat extra features such as cutting to the edge, or mulching modes
• Value for money. Tricky but super-important: how well does the mower weigh up when you balance the quality, features, warranty and overall package of benefits against the price?

For more on our testing process across all the different gardening product categories, see How we review

Why you can trust BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews

As trained gardeners and seasoned users of all sorts of garden tools, Kay Maguire, I, and the rest of the team at BBC Gardeners' World Magazine have reviewed shedloads of lawn mowers literally over the years, using our trusted testing matrix to make sure we're giving balanced, fair judgments.

We test lawn mowers in varied, real-world conditions, cutting the sort of grass most of us actually have in our gardens. Because we're real-world gardeners with lots of experience, we know what to look out for and the sorts of things that will make all the difference once you're using a mower week in and week out.

We give each mower an at-a-glance list of pros and cons for clarity, and a rating out of five. We also don't share product reviews with manufacturers or retailers before they're published, and we don't accept payment in exchange for positive reviews either.

Meet our testing panel

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects Editor
Oliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which?, as a freelance gardener and with the gardening team at Down House in Kent. He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Kay Maguire, Magazines Editor
Kay trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has been writing and making films about gardening ever since. She has written for websites and magazines, including The Garden and Amateur Gardening, was Horticultural Editor on BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for five years, and has also written several books on a range of gardening topics from growing house plants to making the most of a small space. After several years as Reviews Editor, building up our reviews section into a leading resource for UK gardeners, she has now become Magazines Editor for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, responsible for all print output.

Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools Tester
Harry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening. A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them.

Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden Writer
Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker. Sue writes regularly for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, GardenersWorld.com and Garden Answers magazine. She has written 10 books on subjects including container gardening, plants for small gardens and designing with colour, and she has co-authored other books with some of the biggest names in gardening.

Emma Crawforth, Horticulture Editor
Emma holds the Kew Diploma in Horticulture and has been working in horticulture for 18 years, including roles in public gardens, a plant nursery supplying plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a training college for young horticulturists. She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. She is the author of the Kew Publications book, Things to Do with Plants.

Jane Moore, Freelance Garden Writer
In a horticultural career spanning 30 years, Jane has been a head gardener at a Benedictine Abbey, a writer for national gardening magazines and newspapers, a researcher on BBC gardening programmes and a TV presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World. Among her many accolades are a Chelsea Flower Show medal, several awards from the Garden Media Guild and her books are published worldwide. She has spent 30 years working as a hands-on head gardener, using tools on a daily basis.

This review was last updated in March 2026. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.

]]> Harry Duncton <![CDATA[9 best leaf blowers in 2026 – as tested by our expert reviewers]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/tools/power-tools/best-leaf-blowers-vacuums/ 2026-07-01T13:51:48.000Z 2026-05-20T16:44:09.000Z

Jump to our 5 top-rated cordless leaf blowers

Jump to our top-rated leaf blower vacuum

These days we're all a lot more relaxed about fallen leaves in autumn, but I still find there lots of times when they need shifting – when they're on the grass (too many there, sitting for too long will damage the lawn), when they're on the patio (slipping is never fun) and when they're making it dangerous for the delivery drivers coming to the front door (no one really wants to get sued).

So, a leaf blower or leaf blower vacuum can be a great purchase, and these days they don't even have to cost that much. But get the wrong one, and you'll regret it. And that's why my colleagues and I at GardenersWorld.com have tested literal shedloads of the things. And the result is this page, crammed full of leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums that we think are worthy of your hard-earned cash.

If you're lumbered with lots of leaves, check out our test of the best gardening gloves to collect them in comfort, and why not learn how to make leaf mould – a super compost and soil conditioner – as well as how to make your own leaf mould bin. Our expert testers trial hundreds of garden tools to work out which will do the job well and offer the best value, comfort and quality. We’ve tested essentials like the best garden spades and best hoes as well as more specific kit like the best hedge trimmers, the best garden shredders, the best pressure washers and the best trimmers.

Oliver Parsons, GardenersWorld.com

Our best leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums to buy at a glance

Our 5 top-rated cordless leaf blowers

• 5 stars: Our best cordless leaf blower for value – Worx WG543E LeafJet RRP £149.99 (kit)
• 4.8 stars: Our best leaf blower for ease of use, £200+ – Husqvarna Aspire B8X-P4A RRP £209 (kit)
• 4.8 stars: Our best leaf blower for performance, under £100 – Makita DUB186Z 18V cordless leaf blower RRP £84.99 (bare tool)
• 4.8 stars: Our best leaf blower for features – Einhell GP-LB 36/210 Li Turbo blower RRP £128.95 (bare tool)
• 4.8 stars: Our best lightweight leaf blower – Stihl BGA 30 cordless blower RRP £99 (bare tool)

Our top-rated leaf blower vacuum

• 4.5 stars: Our best blower vac all-rounder – Bosch UniversalGardenTidy 3000 RRP £108.99

Also recommended: cordless leaf blowers

• 4.5 stars: Our best leaf blower for performance, £100+ – Bosch Advanced 36V-750 RRP £142 (bare tool)
• 4.5 stars: Our best leaf blower for ease of use, under £100 – Yard Force LB G18 leaf blower RRP £129.99 (bare tool)
• 4.5 stars: Our best budget leaf blower – Vonhaus G-series cordless leaf blower RRP £46.99 (kit)

Comparison table: best leaf blowers and leaf blower vacs

Our expertise

We've tested a range of cordless and corded leaf blowers and leaf blower vacs to help you find the right one for your garden. We cleared lawns and borders and paths and patios, blowing and vacuuming both wet and dry leaves. Each one has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to ease of use, handling, performance and value for money.  In every review category, we award the outstanding products our coveted Best Buy award. From 2026, you’ll only see newly awarded Best Buy badges on leaf blowers and leaf blower vacs that score 4.5 out of 5 or higher. Anything rated 3.5 or above will still feature in our ‘Best of the rest’ list. 

Jump to the best leaf blowers:

• Our 5 top-rated leaf blowers
• Our top-rated leaf blower vacuum

Jump to leaf blower advice:

• What's the difference between a leaf blower and a leaf blower vacuum?
• How to choose the best leaf blower
• How to use your collected leaves
• How we tested leaf blowers
• Meet our testing panel

View Affiliate Playlist on the source website

Our 5 top-rated cordless leaf blowers

1: Worx WG543E LeafJet

Our best leaf blower for value

RRP:£149.99 (kit)

Our rating: 5/5

Available from: Amazon (£79.99 - bare tool)

Reasons to buy:

• No assembly
• Simple and powerful
• Lightest on test
• Choice of speeds
• Blasts wet leaves
• Part of Worx 20-V Power Share system

I found this light, powerful leaf blower easy to use and ready to go right out of the box. The 20V battery takes just 60 minutes to charge and delivers 23 minutes of runtime. It also has a handy battery level indicator so you can check how much time you have left while you work.

The blower offers the choice of two nozzle lengths, which are easily adjusted by flicking a button and sliding the nozzle up and down the tube, and two speeds for gentle or more powerful blowing – it coped brilliantly, blasting damp leaves off paths in our test. It has a hard-wearing, brushless motor, and for its power and features, I think it’s excellent value. Plus, it comes with a two-year warranty.

It's ideal for medium to small gardens, and the LeafJet is also part of the Worx 20-V Power Share cordless battery system, which means you can use the battery in other Worx tools, saving you money if you invest in the future. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Worx WG543E LeafJet leaf blower from Amazon (£79.99 - bare tool)

Latest Deals

2: Husqvarna Aspire B8X-P4A

Our best leaf blower for ease of use, £200+

RRP:£209 (kit)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£198)

Reasons to buy:

• Well thought-out design
• Easy to use and store
• Comfortable and well-balanced
• Clearly visible battery charge on the handle
• Choice of speeds

Reasons to avoid:

• Relatively heavy
• No speed indicator

The Aspire leaf blower is very easy to put together – I had no problems attaching the nozzle with this blower; it simply clipped in with the push of a button and breaks down just as easily for storage. Plus, it comes with its own storage hanging hook.

It only has one nozzle, but this is a good size for blasting away on large areas like lawns. It also works reasonably well when you need more focus in beds and borders or when blowing leaves into piles, although it wasn’t the best at this in my test. It has a clearly visible battery charge indicator on the handle and offers three speeds, also controlled via buttons on the handle. However, there’s no indication which speed you’re in at the time, and I also found I had to stop blowing to change speed.

Thanks to the weather at the time of testing, I know that the blower handled primarily wet leaves very well, and although it didn’t blow them into as neat piles as some, it cleared paths, beds and lawns well. It feels powerful yet controlled, and it is ideal for quickly clearing large areas. The blower is quiet, has a comfortable, easy-grip handle, and feels well-balanced. Although this is a heavy blower once the battery is loaded, it’s not the heaviest I tested.

The 18V battery took the longest to charge in our test, at well over an hour, but it lasted the longest too, blowing wet leaves on full power for over 12 minutes. The battery is also part of the Power For All Alliance, which means it’s compatible with other 18V tools in the Flymo, Gardena, and Bosch tool ranges, as well as the Husqvarna Aspire range, saving you money if you invest in them in the future. The Aspire blower comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Husqvarna Aspire B8X-P4A leaf blower from Amazon (£198)

Latest Deals

3: Makita DUB186Z 18V cordless leaf blower

Our best leaf blower for performance, under £100

RRP: £84.99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£52.99) and Tool Station (£86.98)

Reasons to buy:

• Long, narrow nozzle for directional blasts
• Three speed settings
• Fast charge time
• Compact, comfortable and lightweight

Reasons to avoid:

• No charge level indicator on the battery

I found this cordless leaf blower light, compact and easy to use. It has one of the narrowest nozzles in the range I tested, which meant it delivered a powerful but focused blast of air that tackled wet and dry fallen leaves very effectively, particularly on paths and in awkward corners. Generating an impressive air speed of 68m/s, I also like the three speed settings – low, medium and high – they allowed me to increase and decrease the power according to need. This gave me plenty of control to manage wet and dry leaves, and I found it even shifted compacted debris in between paving and compressed wet leaves that had been trodden into the pavement.

While you must hold the pressure trigger to operate, it’s in an accessible position so it doesn't feel tiring, even with smaller hands. The soft-grip handle, together with the position of the battery, which slots in at the base, helps balance the leaf blower in a downward direction, making it comfortable to use for longer periods of time. It has a run time of up to 80 minutes (on the low setting – 12 minutes on high) and a relatively short charge time of 45 minutes, so you can use this in larger gardens with lots of leaves to clear. It’s part of the Makita LXT 18V cordless tool system, so the 5Ah battery and charger are compatible across the range, and it comes with a three-year warranty. Kay Maguire

Read the full Makita DUB186Z leaf blower vacuum review

• Buy the Makita DUB186Z cordless leaf blower from Amazon (52.99) and Tool Station (£86.98)

Latest Deals

4: Einhell GP-LB36/210 Li Turbo blower

Our best leaf blower for features

RRP: £128.95 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: OnBuy (£128.95) and Tooled Up (£117.95)

Latest Prices

Reasons to buy:

• Well balanced
• Turbo setting
• Choice of nozzle lengths and speeds
• Long run time
• Wall hook and carry strap

Reasons to avoid:

• Battery and charger sold separately

This well-thought-out blower is packed with features. It has a whopping six speeds to choose from, plus a Turbo boost, so I found it easy to adjust the power of the blast according to what and where I was blowing. The tough nozzle has a metal end for scraping debris, the blower can't shift on its own, and it adjusts with a twist to three different lengths, so no matter your height, you can get the nozzle to the perfect length to suit you. Powered by two 18V batteries, which take just 60 minutes to charge, the blower has a run time of 92 minutes on the lowest setting. However, the batteries and charger are not included with the blower and do need to be bought as a kit separately, but once bought, they can be used with any of the tools in the Einhell Power X-Change system, saving money if you invest in these in the future.

The blower is well-balanced and felt comfortable when I used it, but it also comes with a carry strap, so if you’re blowing for a while, this will help balance the load. The nozzle and tube break down for storage, and there’s a handy hanging hook to keep the blowers stored up and out of the way. It has a brushless motor and comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Einhell GP-LB36/210 Li Turbo leaf blower from OnBuy (£128.95) and Tooled Up (£117.95)

Latest Prices

5: Stihl BGA 30 Cordless Blower

Our best lightweight leaf blower

RRP: £99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£144)

Reasons to buy:

• Variable speed trigger works well
• Two batteries included
• Quiet operation is possible
• Very well balanced

Reasons to avoid:

• No leaf scraper
• Short run time on full power

New last year, the Stihl BGA 30 cordless blower is an excellent addition to their small garden tool line-up. It’s an undeniably handsome little blower that works on their reliable AS compact battery platform. It comes bundled with a pair of miniature-sized 2.0Ah batteries, and you'll need them too, because the run time on full power is just eight minutes at maximum power. However, what I think makes this one of the best small leaf blowers is the variable speed trigger. You can easily control the blowing force to clear stubborn stuff and save battery when you want to.

The air speed maxes out at 43m/s, and even on full power, it only produces 73dB, which is very quiet for a blower. On low speed, the volume is even lower, just in case you need to do some discreet garden clearance. At this low blowing speed, you can extend the useful working time to around 25 minutes.

There’s a comfortable moulded rubber grip that's just about big enough for large hands in gardening gloves, and it features a slick battery charge level indicator built into the top, showing the remaining charge in three green bars. Weighing 1.5kg without the tiny, lightweight batteries, the blower doesn’t feel heavy thanks to clever ergonomics and a finely tuned balance between the battery and the nozzle end. An excellent handle design makes it easy to manoeuvre around, and the slightly flattened nozzle tip helps direct the air horizontally while remaining accurate.

Although this blower is at the pricier end of the market for lightweight leaf blowers, its handling, two batteries, and ability to be used across Stihl’s AS range of tools make it worth the money. Harry Duncton

• Buy the BGA 30 from  Just Lawnmowers (£144)

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Our top-rated leaf blower vacuum

1: Bosch UniversalGardenTidy 3000

Our best blower vac all-rounder

RRP: £108.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Argos (£63) and Currys (£75)

Reasons to buy:

• Simple assembly
• Powerful at both sucking and blowing
• Good value for money

Reasons to avoid:

• Doesn’t break down easily for storage
• No on/off switch
• Heavy, particularly when the vacuum bag is full

I found this leaf blower vacuum ideal for clearing up large areas of leaves quickly. The blower is powerful, if a little heavy for me, and great at blasting leaves, with a narrow nozzle that helps you funnel and direct them into piles and out of tight corners. The vacuum mode has good suction with a well-shaped nozzle and a large collection bag. Initial assembly was simple, with clear instructions, and all that was required was to attach the handle and build the vacuum nozzle, which comes in three parts. For blowing, the nozzle simply slots into place and, when you need to swap into vacuum mode, no tools are required.

However, the vacuum tube is large and once built, I found it difficult to break down, so it took up a reasonable amount of room in storage. It blows and sucks at variable speeds via a dial that sits under the handle, and this dial is also the on/off switch. This does mean you have to scroll around the dial to turn the blower off, which is not fast if you’re on the highest setting, and so from a safety point of view, this could be a problem. It also requires the use of two hands.

It has a 10m-long cable and is reasonably noisy but not jarringly so, but it's heavy, and in vacuum mode feels quite unbalanced, especially once the bag starts filling up. There’s a padded shoulder strap, which helps take some of the strain, but it's in the wrong place to completely take the weight. However, I'd say it's a powerful, well-made machine that performs well and is great for the general clearing of gardens. It’s also great value and comes with a three-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Bosch UniversalGardenTidy 3000 from Argos (£63) and Currys (£75)

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Also recommended: cordless leaf blowers

Bosch Advanced 36V - 750 blower

Our best leaf blower for performance, £100+

RRP: £142 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Robert Dyas (£134.99) and Tooled Up (£114.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Easy assembly and storage
• Good control of different speeds
• Quiet & powerful
• Quick charge time

Reasons to avoid:

• Heavy and lacks a shoulder strap
• Short run time on full power

This leaf blower is simple to put together. I just twisted and clicked in the tube, and I was ready to go. It’s therefore equally easy to store, as the tube comes off quickly, and it takes up little room on a shelf. There’s only one wide nozzle, but this is very effective at both the powerful blasting of wet leaves and more focused blowing in borders and into piles. I felt in control when using this blower and was able to direct leaves wherever I wanted them to go. It has a variable speed control, delivering 100 to 200km/h, and it’s easily adjusted with a dial on the handle. I found it simple to scroll up or down as I worked. It has a comfortable handle and is well-balanced, but it does feel heavy, noticeably so compared to others in the test, and I felt it would really benefit from a shoulder strap if using it for a prolonged period.

However, the battery run time is quite short on full power. Despite having a run time on a low setting of 35 minutes, on full power, the battery only lasted seven minutes, compared to 12 minutes with the Husqvarna Aspire, so it was the shortest in my tests. It does charge quickly, though, taking just 65 minutes to get up and running again. The 36V battery has a charge level indicator on the end that helped me see how much charge was left, and it's compatible with all 36V tools in the Bosch cordless range.

This leaf blower is ideal for fast clearing of lawns with lots of leaves. It has a long-lasting brushless motor and feels sturdy and well-made. The Bosch Advanced blower comes in cardboard packaging with just a little plastic wrapping and comes with a generous three-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Bosch Advanced 36V-750 from Robert Dyas (£134.99) and Tooled Up (£114.95)

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Yard Force LG G18 40V blower

Our best leaf blower for ease of use, under £100

RRP: £129.99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£89.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Two-nozzle choice
• Three speeds plus Boost
• Cruise lock lever

Reasons to avoid:

• Bulky for storage
• Loud

This powerful blower comes with a large 40V battery and charger. It takes just 60 minutes to charge, and the battery has a 30-minute run time, making it ideal for medium-sized gardens. It also has a battery level indicator so you can check how much charge you have on the battery as you work. I found the blower balanced, comfortable and well-thought-out with the choice of three speeds, plus a Boost button to give an extra powerful blast when I needed it. A cruise control button allows me to set the speed without having to constantly hold the trigger down, making it easy to use this blower for longer periods of time. It has a brushless motor, and it also comes with an extra flat-end nozzle for concentrated power.

However, it's quite large and doesn’t compact down, so it will take up room in storage, and I also found it comparatively loud, although it’s still nothing like the volume you would get with a petrol blower. Part of the Yard Force GR40 battery system, it comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Yard Force LG G18 leaf blower from Amazon (£89.95)

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Vonhaus G-series cordless leaf blower

Our best budget leaf blower

RRP: £46.99 (kit)

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Vonhaus (£44.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Lightweight
• Powerful
• Cheap
• Compact for storage

Reasons to avoid:

• Handle vibrates
• 12-minute runtime
• Single speed

This simple, compact leaf blower packs a punch. Despite weighing just 1.7 kg, I found it very powerful, and it made short work of both wet and dry leaves on paving, shrub beds, and gravel, though it struggled a little with both wet and dry leaves on grass. Thanks to its lightweight construction and narrow nozzle, it’s easy to manoeuvre around the garden and put leaves exactly where you want them. This blower is ideal for nipping around a small patio, terrace or front drive.

It’s a reasonable price, and great value as its G-Series battery is also compatible with the Vonhaus hedge trimmer, pole trimmer, and grass trimmer. However, although the grip on the handle is soft, the handle vibrates a lot in use, which gets uncomfortable. Its 12-minute runtime is also short, but it takes just an hour to charge. Kay Maguire

Best Buy review video - the Vonhaus G-series cordless leaf blower

View Green Video on the source website

• Buy the Vonhaus G Series cordless leaf blower from Vonhaus (£44.99)

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Best of the rest

Although some models didn’t quite achieve a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy award, they still have great features that make them worth recommending. Browse our pick of the best of the rest.

Ryobi 18V ONE+ cordless brushless axial blower

RRP: £82.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: B&Q (£99)

Reasons to buy:

• Variable speed trigger
• Interchangeable nozzle tips
• Excellent grip shape
• Battery charge level indicator

Reasons to avoid:

• Can only be locked on full power
• Will only run for 7 minutes on full power with the supplied 2.5 Ah battery

The drill-style handle on this blower is familiar from many other Ryobi tools, and I found that helpful. It’s comfortable to use one-handed and is probably the most ergonomically shaped blower handle I’ve tested yet. I found it easy to set up, and it weighs just 1.5 kg with the battery installed. This blower comes with a pair of different nozzle tips. There’s a standard round nozzle with a flexible tip for accurate aiming and a wide nozzle that looks like a vacuum cleaner head, helping to sweep a wider path in front of the blower. You can also adjust the shaft length by clicking two separate pieces into place.

Ryobi’s cordless blower uses a brushless motor to achieve impressive blowing power. The air speed is controlled by the variable speed trigger, so you can choose the power you want. The trigger can be locked on, but only at full speed, which is quite noisy. This bundle comes with a 2.5 Ah battery that can be used in more than 200 other Ryobi tools. The 2.5 Ah battery is on the small side if you want to blow leaves for more than a few minutes at a time, but larger Ryobi batteries are available. This blower is covered by a three-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Ryobi 18V ONE+ Cordless Brushless Compact Blower from B&Q (£99)

WORX WG583E Cordless Blower Vac Mulcher

RRP: £299.99

Our rating: 4.3/5

Available from: Amazon (£179.99) and Homebase (£299.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Supplied with a pair of 4.0Ah batteries
• Triple action blower, vacuum & mulcher
• Plenty of blowing & suction power

Reasons to avoid:

• Drains batteries quickly
• Detaching nozzle sections can be a pain

The WORX WG583E cordless blower and vacuum is a dual-purpose machine that makes short work of garden clean-up. And rather than lugging around separate tools, you only need to swap the nozzles to convert it from blow to suck. It’s a mighty 40V tool that uses a pair of WORX’s 20V batteries to run. There are handles on both the top and bottom of the tool: one way up it’s a blower, the other way up it’s a garden vacuum with a 36L fabric collection bag attached to the rear.

When in blower mode, it’s quite a slick-looking garden tool. The nozzle tapers to a flattened point at the end that gives plenty of leaf-blowing focus. In vacuum mode, it’s a little more cumbersome with a big bag slung over your shoulder. It doesn’t feel too heavy, though, at just under 5kg with both batteries installed. The blower is a powerful piece of kit that does a great job of blowing leaves around, and the vacuum made short work of the constant drift of camellia flowers that stick to the patio slabs in my garden. You can even select between two blower speeds to help conserve battery power. And you’ll need to because I only managed 15 minutes of vacuuming before the batteries died.

Attached to the impeller fan inside the brushless motor is a pair of sharp steel blades that mulch everything before it reaches the collection bag. It helps to effectively reduce the bulk of debris on its way in. The only drawback was that damp material clogged up the chamber containing the blades. I found myself clearing out the little section quite often. All the nozzles and collection bags snap into place easily, but undoing the nozzle sections is a pain. They’re a tight fit, and there’s nothing much to hold on to when you need to take them apart. And to keep the vacuum nozzle close to the ground at the optimum height, there’s a set of plastic wheels that attach to the bottom. This is a clever 3-in-1 blower that does a great job but isn’t perfect. It certainly saves room in the shed, though.

Blower/vacuum stats: In blower mode, this tool produces just under 90m/s air speed. There are two speed settings, plus an eco mode, to make the most of the brushless motor. In vacuum mode, it produces plenty of suction. It picked up leaves, twigs, and debris without leaving anything behind on the grass. And it’s rated with a 12:1 mulching ratio. That means, in real terms, that it should reduce 12 bags of garden waste down to one. It helps to pack out the 35L collection bag and make what you’ve vacuumed into fine mulch for composting.

It comes with a pair of WORX’s large capacity 4.0AH batteries as well, which is an excellent addition. These Powershare batteries are compatible with dozens of other useful garden tools; they have a charge level indicator on them for quick reference. When you need to recharge, WORX have handily supplied a dual charger as well. It takes around two hours to fully top off both 4.0Ah batteries, which is to be expected. Overall, this is a powerful and versatile tool. It works effectively as both a blower and a vacuum, with plenty of uses around the garden to blow leaves around or turn them into mulch. The only downside is that you only get 15 minutes of work before the batteries need to be recharged. Harry Duncton

• Buy the WORX WG583E Cordless Blower Vac Mulcher from Amazon (£179.99) and Homebase (£299.99)

LawnMaster MX 24V cordless axial blower

RRP: £59.99 with battery and charger

Our rating: 4.3/5

Available from: B&Q (£59.99) and Amazon (£49.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Inexpensive
• Lightweight
• Simple to use
• Leaf scraper on the end of the nozzle

Reasons to avoid:

• No charge level indicator on the battery
• Only one speed setting

I found this lightweight and affordable leaf blower from LawnMaster an uncomplicated and straightforward tool to use. Weighing in at a shade over 1.5 kg, it’s easy to use one-handed for long periods. The ergonomic handle features a comfortable rubberised grip on the underside, and the power is easy to reach. The position of the battery underneath the handle is well thought out because it didn’t rub against my hand during use, and the large handle size is ideal for larger hands, even when wearing thick gardening gloves.

Although it only has one speed, it’s fine for blowing dry leaves around. And when the leaves are wet or stuck to paving slabs, the integrated hanging hook on the tip doubles up as a handy scraper. The removable nozzle thins down at the end to help direct a narrow jet of air, although the air flow rate was a little lower than expected.

This blower comes with a 2.0Ah battery that will give you around 15 minutes of work and a charger that will take around three hours for a full charge. Even if this basic blower doesn’t feature a variable speed trigger or the fastest charging time, for the very low price, I'd say it’s a capable tool for blowing leaves, sawdust, and other light bits around the garden. This blower comes with a two-year warranty. Harry Duncton

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• Buy the LawnMaster MX 24V cordless axial blower from B&Q (£59.99) and Amazon (£49.99)

BLACK+DECKER 18V cordless axial blower

RRP: £79.99 with battery and charger

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Tooled Up (£84.95)

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Reasons to buy:

• Plenty of air flow
• Two speed settings
• Available as a bare tool

Reasons to avoid:

• Slightly awkward battery placement
• 2.0 Ah battery doesn’t last for long

This comfortable and well-balanced 18-volt blower weighs just 2.1 kg, even with the battery installed, so it made it easier for me to point around with just one hand. A leaf-scraping tip on the bottom of the nozzle helped me tackle wet leaves stuck on the paving slabs, and the wide-diameter removable nozzle tip is handy for directing the air where you need it. There are two different speeds to choose from: eco mode or boost mode. There’s enough air speed on eco mode to deal with small piles of leaves and sawdust, so we left it on that setting mostly to conserve some battery life. Boost mode produces a prodigious amount of blowing power, but drains the battery in around 8 minutes.

Although the handle doesn’t feature grippy, rubberised sections, it’s spacious enough to accommodate large hands, even in thick gardening gloves. The speed setting switch is easy to operate with gloves on, too. The only problem I encountered was that the battery slots in right at the base of the handle, and rubbed against my wrist while I was using the blower, especially when a larger capacity battery was in use. This version comes bundled with a 2.0 Ah battery that promises around 16 minutes of run time on low speed, and a charger that takes two hours to fully recharge. That run time is enough to tackle a small garden, but a larger capacity battery would be more appropriate. If you already have a compatible, larger-capacity battery, it would be best to buy this blower tool-only, saving you a bit of cash and helping you achieve a longer run-time. This blower comes with a two-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy the BLACK+DECKER 18V cordless axial blower from Tooled Up (£84.95)

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Flymo powervac 3000

RRP: £89.99

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Robert Dyas (£93.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Powerful blower
• Excellent shredding
• Good-sized collection bag

Reasons to avoid:

• Doesn’t break down easily for storage
• Unbalanced
• The vacuum nozzle is too wide
• Awkward handle shape

This large blower vac is reasonably easy to assemble, and no tools are required, but I found the instruction diagrams very small, so it took a little time. Once I'd put the suction tube together, it was almost impossible to break down again, which made the Powervac bulky for storage. To change modes, you also need to take it apart, so it’s simpler than the Bosch GardenTidy. It’s heavy as both a blower and a vac, and I thought the handle design was a little over-fussy and doesn’t help with the balance of the machine, especially in vac mode. It has a carry strap to help lighten the load, but this feels like it's in the wrong place. Thankfully, the collection bag is smaller than some, which makes it easier to use.

It has a variable speed dial on the handle, although I didn’t notice too much difference between these; the blower is powerful and great for blasting leaves across large lawns. Unfortunately, the vac is far less efficient with a nozzle shape that's too wide to suck up leaves well. However, once it’s got the leaves, the shredding power of the Powervac is excellent, with a ratio of 16:1 that reduces a bag full of leaves down to a tiny pile. The Powervac has a 10m cable, feels well-made, is built to last, and comes with a two-year warranty. It's good value for money for blowing and clearing leaves in a small garden, but the vacuum’s performance doesn't match the blower's. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Flymo Powervac 3000 from Robert Dyas (£93.99)

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Webb ECO WEV20ABB4 cordless axial blower

RRP: £79.99 with battery and charger

Our rating: 3.75/5

Available from: Mowers Online (£79.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Affordable blower
• Comes with a large battery
• Decent 22-minute run time

Reasons to avoid:

• Only single speed
• Slow battery charging
• Loud

Webb’s answer to the lightweight garden blower is a robust and happily affordable piece of kit. The tool's three-piece design allows for compact storage while offering two different nozzle lengths, although it lacks a leaf scraper on the tip that I found so useful on other models. Weighing in at 2.9 kg, it’s not the lightest by a long way, but much of the heft is taken up by the large capacity battery. You could swap it out for one of Webb’s smaller batteries, but it’s worth the extra bit of weight for a longer run time. Supplied with a generous 4.0 Ah battery with a handy battery charge indicator on it, it can run for 20 minutes. That’s plenty of run time for a medium-sized garden or driveway, and it’s a good thing, too, because recharging the battery is a bit slow at 160 minutes.

They haven’t skimped on the handle; the rubberised grip is huge and has plenty of space for the biggest hands in thick gardening gloves. The only thing that gets in the way is the position of the battery, which sticks up above the base of the handle and can dig into the wrist at certain angles. It’s a well-balanced blower, especially with the nozzle at its full length. It’s easy enough to point around the garden, and the wide-diameter tip replaces pinpoint accuracy with a wider air stream for blowing leaves around. It’s just a shame that you can’t vary the blower speed because it’s loud at 96 dB during operation. This blower comes with a three-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Webb ECO WEV20ABB4 Cordless Axial Blower from Mowers Online (£79.99)

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Flymo 18V Easiclear

RRP: £109

Our rating: 3.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£130)

Reasons to buy:

• Light and easy to use
• Variable speed
• Long battery run time
• Visible battery charge

Reasons to avoid:

• Lacks power, and the lowest speed is very weak
• Hard to break down for storage
• Long charge time

The quiet 18V Easiclear 100 is available as a bare tool or as a kit with an 18V 2.5Ah battery and charger. These are both part of the Power for All Alliance, so if you already have other Bosch, Flymo, Gardena or Husqvarna cordless tools or plan to, investing in these will save you money. The blower comes with one nozzle tube, which I found reasonably easy to put together, but once built, it was hard to take apart for storage. It’s a good length and width and has a ridged end which helps lift stubborn material. This is particularly handy as this isn't a very powerful blower. It offers variable speed, adjusted by a dial on the handle, but the lowest setting is very weak.

The 18V battery has a 13-23 minute run time, depending on speed, and it takes 154 minutes to charge. Unlike the other leaf blowers in my recent tests, the Easiclear has a battery charge display on the handle, which is very useful. This simple blower comes with a two-year warranty and is best for gentle blowing in small gardens. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Flymo EasiClear 100 leaf blower from Amazon (£130)

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Other best of the rest cordless lawn mowers, tested before 2023

• 4.3/5 stars: Stiga SAB 100AE cordless leaf blower £99
• 4/5 stars: Worx WG547E Leaf Blower £120.54

What's the difference between a leaf blower and a leaf blower vacuum?

Quite simply, a leaf blower will lift wet and dry leaves from paths, grass, borders and pavements. The wind speed it generates blows leaves into a pile, which you can either leave as a habitat for wildlife, or collect and put on the compost, in your green waste recycling, or store in bags to make leaf mould.

A leaf blower vacuum not only lifts wet and dry leaves, but sucks them up too, passing them through a blade, which cuts and mulches them and then deposits them into the bag that attaches to the machine. You can dispose of them the same way, but they have the added advantage of being shredded, so they decompose more quickly when added to the compost or used to make leaf mould. However, leaf blower vacuums can get blocked up, may need more maintenance, and also tend to be expensive, but they are more efficient when it comes to keeping your garden leaf-free.

Before you decide which of these you need, think about how many leaves you have to collect - if you can manage blowing leaves and debris into a pile to gather up by hand, then a blower will do the job and is a cheaper option. However, for larger gardens with more trees and shrubs, being able to suck up leaves will save time, especially if you go for models with a mulching option.

How to choose the best leaf blower and leaf blower vacuum

There are three types of leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums available, each with its own pros and cons:

Cordless leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums: There are lots of pros with this type of blower – in addition to being lightweight, quiet and environmentally friendly, they don’t need messy petrol or a restricting power cable. However, they can be more expensive if you’re buying batteries and chargers as extras to the cost of the tool, and you’ll need to check the run time if you have a larger garden.

Electric leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums: Often at the budget end, these are low maintenance and, like cordless types, also lightweight. However, the power supply cable can be limiting as well as potentially hazardous.

Petrol leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums: These deliver plenty of power and, just like cordless types, can be used anywhere, but their environmental impact is a consideration, as is the hassle of buying and storing petrol. They’re often heavy and noisy and will need more in the way of maintenance, too.

Think about the following features before you buy:

• Variable speed controls - air speed (measured by metres per second or kilometres per hour), and airflow (measured by cubic metres per hour). Dry leaves are light and easy to shift, but wet, compacted leaves and other debris will need more power. Variable speed control is a useful feature as it allows you to change the speed and power depending on where you’re working – you’ll want to be gentle around plants, whereas more oomph will help on lawns
• Nozzle size – in general, the narrower the better, as the air flow is more concentrated, giving more control when it comes to corralling the leaves into a pile
• Mulching blades - Metal blades are tougher than plastic, as well as more durable, so are the preferred choice
• Collection bag - While not essential, a waterproof collection bag makes things a lot more comfortable if you’re working in wet weather, as it prevents moisture from soggy leaves dripping through the bag and onto your legs
• Comfort features - Soft-grip handles and a padded shoulder strap will help make it more comfortable to use the leaf blower or leaf blower vacuum for any length of time

Buyer's Guide to budget leaf blowers - video

Buyer's Guide to leaf blower vacs - video

Many thanks to Sue Fisher and Rosie Yeomans for their help in making these videos. Thanks also to Sparsholt College for their generous assistance.

Are leaf blowers bad for wildlife?

Leaf blowers and vacuums can accidentally suck up or blast away insect pollinators, and their noise can disturb and distress small animals like birds or bats. It’s best not to use leaf blowers indiscriminately, and to consider wildlife and neighbours. Leaves on lawns and paths are easily raked or swept out of the way, but other tasks, like clearing leaves from gravel paths or from well-stocked beds and borders, require the power and precision of a good leaf blower. Always check for wildlife before starting work.

How to use your collected leaves

If you’d like to make leaf mould with your leaves, you’ll need a bin separate from your compost. Leaf mould is created when leaves are broken down by fungi, rather than the bacteria that decompose the ingredients in your compost bin. By piling leaves up separately, in a leaf mould bag, bin or cage, you’ll create the perfect material for mulching and potting.

Different leaves break down more quickly than others, but all deciduous trees will make good leaf mould. Small, thin leaves, such as birch, will break down quickly, but larger leaves, like chestnut, might need shredding first. Evergreen leaves and conifer needles will take much longer and should be chopped before they are added. Avoid adding evergreens in large quantities.

For more help, see our guide to creating a leaf mould bin.

How we tested leaf blowers and leaf blower vacuums

The BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews team tested different leaf blowers and leaf vacuums across a range of garden situations – removing leaves from lawns, in borders and on gravel paths and paving, in both dry and wet weather. Before we started, we checked for any wildlife in the leaf matter and were cautious around plants to avoid disturbing insects and other creatures. The following criteria were used to calculate the scores, with equal weight given to each:

• Ease of use: Looked at the assembly needed, ease and clarity of instructions, any storage features and, where relevant, the battery charge time
• Handling: Assessed ease of use, weight, noise levels, comfort and safety features
• Performance: Focussed on the power and air flow control, plus run and charge time (where applicable)
• Value for money: Considering all of the above, plus quality and design, the RRP including battery and charger (where applicable) and the length of warranty

Meet our testing panel

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects Editor
Oliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which?, as a freelance gardener and with the gardening team at Down House in Kent. He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Kay Maguire, Magazines Editor
Kay trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has been writing and making films about gardening ever since. She has written for websites and magazines, including The Garden and Amateur Gardening, was Horticultural Editor on BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for five years, and has also written several books on a range of gardening topics from growing house plants to making the most of a small space. After several years as Reviews Editor, building up our reviews section into a leading resource for UK gardeners, she has now become Magazines Editor for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, responsible for all print output.

Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools Tester
Harry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening. A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them.

Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden Writer
Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker. Sue writes regularly for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, GardenersWorld.com and Garden Answers magazine. She has written 10 books on subjects including container gardening, plants for small gardens and designing with colour, and she has co-authored other books with some of the biggest names in gardening.

Emma Crawforth, Horticulture Editor
Emma holds the Kew Diploma in Horticulture and has been working in horticulture for 18 years, including roles in public gardens, a plant nursery supplying plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a training college for young horticulturists. She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. She is the author of the Kew Publications book, Things to Do with Plants.

Jane Moore, Freelance Garden Writer
In a horticultural career spanning 30 years, Jane has been a head gardener at a Benedictine Abbey, a writer for national gardening magazines and newspapers, a researcher on BBC gardening programmes and a TV presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World. Among her many accolades are a Chelsea Flower Show medal, several awards from the Garden Media Guild and her books are published worldwide. She has spent 30 years working as a hands-on head gardener, using tools on a daily basis.

This review was last updated in May 2026. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.

]]> Harry Duncton <![CDATA[The best 10 hedge trimmers to buy in 2026 – tested by our reviews experts in real-world conditions]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/tools/power-tools/best-hedge-trimmers/ 2026-08-26T11:38:47.000Z 2026-05-20T16:26:06.000Z

Jump to our 4 top-rated cordless hedge trimmers

Jump to our 2 top-rated petrol hedge trimmers

If you have a hedge of any size, a powered hedge trimmer is a must-have step up from a good old pair of hand shears. The best of them will soon become an indispensable part of your garden armoury, but the wrong one for your needs will be frustrating. If it's too heavy, too weak or too uncomfortable to use, you'll dread doing the job, and your hedge will likely get out of control.

To find out what to look for when choosing a hedge trimmer, watch the video above. So that's why my colleagues and I – and especially my predecessor on the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews desk, Kay Maguire – have created this selection of the best hedge trimmers available to buy right now, all tested by our experts. 

Oliver Parsons, GardenersWorld.com

Before cutting your hedge, it’s important to avoid the main breeding season for garden birds, between March and August. Always check for nests before trimming, even outside these months, as it’s an offence under law to intentionally damage or destroy active bird nests.

Our best hedge trimmers to buy at a glance

Our 4 top-rated cordless hedge trimmers

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best budget cordless hedge trimmer – Vonhaus 20V Max Hedge Trimmer RRP £59.99 (kit)
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best hedge trimmer for small gardens – Flymo 18v EasiCut 450 Hedge Trimmer RRP £149.99 (kit)
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best lightweight cordless hedge trimmer – Ryobi ONE+ OHT1845 Cordless Hedge Trimmer RRP £100.99 (bare tool)
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best cordless hedge trimmer for large gardens – Stihl HSA 50 Cordless Hedge Trimmer RRP £239 (kit)

Our 2 top-rated petrol hedge trimmers

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best value petrol trimmer – Webb HC600 Petrol Hedge Trimmer RRP £159.99
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best premium petrol trimmer – Husqvarna 122HD60 Petrol Hedge Trimmer RRP £349

Also recommended

• 4.5/5 stars: Our best lightweight cordless hedge trimmer with integrated battery – Stihl HSA 30 Cordless Hedge Trimmer RRP £149 (kit)
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best cordless hedge trimmer for long run times – Einhell GE-CH 1846 Li Cordless Hedge Trimmer RRP £113.95 (kit) (bare tool)
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best cordless hedge trimmer for ease of use – Stiga SHT 100 AE Cordless Hedge Trimmer RRP £99 (kit)
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best mid-price cordless hedge trimmer for woodier growth – Greenworks G40HT61K2 Cordless Hedge Trimmer RRP £99.99 (bare tool)

Comparison table: best hedge trimmers

Our expertise

Each hedge trimmer has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to set-up and storage, handling, performance and value for money. Every Best Buy hedge trimmer in our round-up below has scored a minimum of 4.5 out of 5 stars, so you can buy with confidence. From 2026, you’ll only see newly awarded Best Buy badges on hedge trimmers that score 4.5 out of 5 or higher. Anything rated 3.5 or above will still feature in our ‘Best of the rest’ list. To see these and the others we recommend, browse our pick of the best hedge trimmers below:

Jump to best hedge trimmers:

• Our 4 top-rated cordless hedge trimmers
• Our 2 top-rated petrol hedge trimmers

Jump to hedge trimmer advice:

• How we test the best hedge trimmers
• What are the different types of hedge trimmer
• How to use a hedge trimmer safely
• Why you can trust BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews
• Meet our testing panel

Our 4 top-rated cordless hedge trimmers

1: VonHaus 20V Max G-Series cordless hedge trimmer

Our best budget cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £59.99 (kit)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£49.99) and VonHaus (£49.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Excellent performance
• Good value
• Lightweight
• Long runtime

Reasons to avoid:

• Small hand-guard

This is an excellent price for a hedge trimmer that I found very easy to use. It’s well balanced and light, with little vibration as it cuts through all but the thickest branches. I was also impressed by its 50-minute runtime, which is one of the longest on the test. Not only does it offer great performance at a reasonable price, but its battery is compatible with other Vonhaus G-Series tools, saving you money if you buy any of these in the future. Its only drawback is that the hand guard is a little small. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Vonhaus G-series cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£49.99) and VonHaus (£49.99)

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2: Flymo 18V EasiCut 450 cordless hedge trimmer

Our best hedge trimmer for small gardens

RRP: £149.99 (kit)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Wickes (£87)

Reasons to buy:

• Light & easy to use
• Easily visible battery level indicator
• All packaging recyclable

Reasons to avoid:

• A screwdriver is needed to attach the handle
• Over two hours of battery charge time

I was pleased to see that this compact hedge trimmer came almost ready to use, and all its packaging is recyclable. Everything is wrapped in either cardboard or brown paper, which I love. Unlike others in our test, it needs the handle to be attached with a screwdriver, but this is very easy and takes just a couple of minutes. With a 45cm cutting length, the hedge trimmer is easy to use with a comfortable wrap-around handle and a two-stage start for safety. There’s also a hand guard to protect the hand as you work. At 2.2kg, it feels light and well-balanced, and it’s easy to use and manoeuvre around a hedge.

A blade tip protector prevents damage when cutting close to walls or the ground, and this trimmer cut cleanly through the privet hedge, brambles and yew that I was trimming. It’s powered by an 18V battery and has a good runtime of around 55 minutes, and the battery charge is clearly visible on the trimmer as you work, so it's easy to see if you're nearly running out. However, the battery takes just over two hours to charge, so you'll have to wait if you've still got trimming to finish.

Overall, this is a simple, light, and high-performing hedge trimmer, just the thing for everyday cutting and trimming in smaller gardens. I think it's good value for money, particularly as Flymo 18V batteries are also part of the Power4All Alliance, which means they can be shared across all the Flymo, Bosch and Gardena cordless tools in the Alliance and will save you money if you invest in further tools in the future. It also comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Flymo 18V EasiCut 450 cordless hedge trimmer from Wickes (£87)

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3: Ryobi ONE+ OHT1845 cordless hedge trimmer

Our best lightweight cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £100.99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£79.69) and OneBuy (£103.01)

Reasons to buy:

• Quite light yet efficient
• Compact, lightweight battery
• Long warranty
• Stout blade guard

Reasons to avoid:

• Power indicator is hard to view

For its compact size, I felt this hedge trimmer offers surprisingly impressive performance and trims a variety of materials well. The blade guard is sturdy and feels built to last, though I found the battery power indicator difficult to read. The tool is lighter than previous Ryobi models and is ideal for sculpting hedges and shrubs. The battery and charger cost extra but can be used with other tools in the Ryobi ONE+ System, making it a long-term money-saver. Kay Maguire

Read the full Ryobi ONE+ OHT1845 hedge trimmer review

• Buy the Ryobi ONE+ OHT1845 cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£79.69) and OneBuy (£103.01)

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4: Stihl HSA 50 cordless hedge trimmer

Our best cordless hedge trimmer for large gardens

RRP: £239 (kit)

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£219)

Reasons to buy:

• Efficient wide blade
• Well-balanced & comfortable to use
• Top-loading battery
• Blade tip protector & stout guard
• Fully recyclable packaging

Reasons to avoid:

• Cutting capacity is small for the price
• 80-minute charge time

With a top-loading battery and improved balance, this hedge trimmer has a 50cm blade and a cutting capacity of 16mm.  I found it comfortable to hold, and the updated design of the front trigger handle made it easier for me to use at different angles. With a run time of around 50 minutes, it copes well with even mature, woody growth and is pleasantly quiet, with good safety features, including a neutral locking position and a tip protector over the blade. The blade guard also feels sturdy and built to last. It takes 80 minutes to charge and comes with a two-year warranty. The battery and charger are compatible with other Stihl tools in the AK system. Kay Maguire

• Buy Stihl HSA 50 cordless hedge trimmer from Just Lawnmowers (£219)

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Our 2 top-rated petrol hedge trimmers

1: Webb HC600 petrol hedge trimmer

Our best mid-priced petrol hedge trimmer

RRP: £159.99

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from Mowers Online (£174.99)

Reasons to buy:

• 5-position rotating handle
• Widest tooth spacing
• Tip guard
• Easy to start
• Handles and cuts well

Reasons to avoid:

• Louder than others in our test

An impressively easy-to-start model with a five-position rotating handle, this mid-priced petrol hedge trimmer is versatile, suiting most hedge sizes and shapes, while the wide tooth spacing makes it tough on wider, mature stems. The tool is heavy, but it felt well-balanced to hold, and it cut powerfully through hedges. A well-placed tip guard protects the blade against walls and fences. It's good value and comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

Read the full Webb HC600 hedge trimmer review

• Buy the Webb HC600 hedge trimmer from Mowers Online (£174.99)

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2: Husqvarna 122HD60 petrol hedge trimmer

Our best premium petrol hedge trimmer

RRP: £349

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£285) and Husqvarna (£349)

Reasons to buy:

• Powerful with a brushless motor
• Rigid guard with hanging option
• Fast, efficient cut
• Three-position handle
• Lowest noise level of petrol models

Reasons to avoid:

• Quite an investment at this price

This petrol hedge trimmer is compact and felt light, but still delivers a powerful and efficient cut. The rotating handle makes awkward angles easier, and the anti-vibration system means it’s comfortable to manoeuvre. The tool is quiet, so there’s minimal disruption for your neighbours, and I found it best for high hedging and large shrubs. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

Read the full Husqvarna 122HD60 hedge trimmer review

• Buy the Husqvarna 122HD60 hedge trimmer from Amazon (£285) and Husqvarna (£349)

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Also recommended: hedge trimmers

Stihl HSA 30 cordless hedge trimmer

Our best lightweight cordless hedge trimmer with integrated battery

RRP: £149 (kit)

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Stihl (£109)

Reasons to buy:

• Light & well-balanced
• Simple to use
• Quiet
• Fully recyclable packaging

Reasons to avoid:

• Only designed for young growth

No assembly is needed with this easy-to-use hedge trimmer from Stihl, which is always a bonus. It comes with clear instructions and is ready to go straight out of the box. The battery takes just 70 minutes to charge to full power and has a good 50-minute runtime, plus there’s a clear battery level indicator on the side of the trimmer, though you need to stop trimming to push the indicator on to see how much charge you have left. It has a three-stage start for safety with buttons on the handle and grip, and the trimmer feels well-balanced in use. Thanks to the small AS 2 battery, it also feels very light, weighing just 2.4kg.

The 45cm blade has a cutting capacity of 8mm and a tip protector on the end so you don’t damage it on walls or fences as you trim, and it cuts fresher growth on box, privet and laurel easily and smoothly. I did find it struggled with thicker, woodier stems, but it's not designed for tougher trimming jobs. It's easy to manoeuvre and shape with this trimmer, so it's ideal for the tight trimming of smaller shrubs and the annual trimming of your hedges. It comes with a blade cover for storage, and there’s also a hanging eyelet on the handle of the trimmer so you can hang it up out of the way in the garage or shed after use. It comes with a two-year warranty, and the battery and charger can also be used in any other AS machine in the Stihl range, saving you money if you already own these or if you plan to invest in the future. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Stihl HSA30 cordless hedge trimmer from Stihl (£109)

Einhell GE-CH 1846 Li cordless hedge trimmer

Our best cordless hedge trimmer for long run times

RRP: £113.95 (kit)

Our rating: 4.5 /5

Available from: Power Tools Direct (£64.13) and Tooled Up (£67.95)

Reasons to buy:

• The battery charge level is clearly visible
• Fast charge time
• Long run time

Reasons to avoid:

• Narrow cutting capacity
• Short blade

This efficient cordless trimmer has a steel blade with a cutting length of 46cm and a 15mm cutting capacity. I particularly liked the tip protection and hanging hole on the end, and I felt it cut well. The 18V 2.0Ah battery charges in just 40 minutes and delivers an impressive 80 minutes of runtime. The charge is visible while you work, and both the battery and fast charger are compatible with a wide range of Einhell Power X-Change tools. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

Read the full Einhell GE-CH 1846 Li cordless hedge trimmer kit review

• Buy Einhell GE-CH 1846 Li cordless hedge trimmer from Power Tools Direct (£64.13) and Tooled Up (£67.95)

Stiga SHT 100e cordless hedge trimmer

Our best cordless hedge trimmer for ease of use

RRP: £99 (kit)

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£99) and B&Q (£99)

Reasons to buy:

• Soft comfortable handle
• The handle rotates into three positions
• Quiet
• The battery charge level is easily visible

Reasons to avoid:

• Snags on some wood
• The blade cover is tricky to fit

This versatile trimmer has a hardened steel blade with a cutting length of 55cm and a cutting capacity of 18mm. I think it's a great value trimmer with generous features, including a hanging hole for easy storage, a visible battery charge indicator while you work, and a comfortable, soft-grip handle that rotates 180° for easy cutting. As it's part of the Stiga 100 battery tool range, you’ll save money if you buy additional tools in the future. The 20V 2.0Ah battery has a charge time of 70 minutes and a runtime of 40 minutes. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

Read the full Stiga SHT 100e cordless hedge trimmer kit review

• Buy Stiga SHT 100e cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£99) and B&Q (£99)

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Greenworks G40HT61K2 cordless hedge trimmer

Our best mid-price cordless hedge trimmer for woodier growth

RRP: £99.99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£109.44)

Reasons to buy:

• Light, easy to use & quiet
• Long for size & weight
• Blade tip protector and hanging facility
• Stout, sleeve-type blade guard

Reasons to avoid:

• Poorer cut quality on woody stems
• The battery indicator is hard to see

I found this fast and efficient machine lightweight and easy to use, particularly overhead or at shoulder height. The jam function prevents the blade from clogging, while 20mm tooth spacing allows it to cut through woodier growth. The handle rotates to three positions for easy handling, though the hand guard feels a little thin. Both the battery and charger can be used with other tools in the Greenworks G40V cordless range if you decide to expand your kit. Kay Maguire

Read the full Greenworks G40HT61K2 hedge trimmer review

• Buy the Greenworks G40HT61K2 hedge trimmer from Amazon (£109.44)

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Best of the rest

Although some models didn’t quite achieve a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy award, they still have features that make them worth recommending. Browse our pick of the best of the rest on test.

Mitox 600DX petrol hedge trimmer

RRP: £169

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£149) and Mowers Online (£149)

Reasons to buy:

• Five-year warranty
• Anti-vibration system
• 4-point rotating handle
• Cuts efficiently

Reasons to avoid:

• Hard to start
• Thin plastic guard

The Mitox 600DX is a heavier petrol-powered trimmer. Despite its weight, I thought it was well-balanced and liked the handy rotating handle and anti-vibration system, which makes handling comfortable. The trimmer was harder to start than other models we tested, and the plastic hand guard felt quite flimsy, although it does come with a generous five-year warranty. The long blade is great for tall hedges and offers an almost professional cut. Kay Maguire

Read the full Mitox 600DX hedge trimmer review

• Buy the Mitox 600DX hedge trimmer from Just Lawnmowers (£149) and Mowers Online (£149)

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Webb Eco WEV20HTB2 50cm cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £99.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£89.99), Robert Dyas (£89.99) and Tooled Up (£89.95)

View Gallery on the source website

Reasons to buy:

• Lightweight & well-balanced
• Affordable

Reasons to avoid:

• Small 16mm cut capacity
• Quite loud during use

A lightweight and affordable hedge trimmer from Webb Eco, this machine proved ideal for smaller garden hedges. I didn't need to assemble anything before getting to work, and as the tool weighs just 3.4kg, it wasn't too hard on the hands and back. The 50cm blade can tackle a range of leaves and even thin branches without struggling. It comes with a 2.0 Ah battery and charger that promises up to 48 minutes of work on a single charge.

Although the D-shaped front handle is a bit small, this hedge trimmer is still easy to handle. This, and the general ease of use, are thanks to an excellent balance between the blade and the battery end. The machine’s 16mm cut capacity is quite small, and it’s a bit loud during use, but otherwise, this is a capable and lightweight hedge trimmer that's a pleasure to use. Like all Webb products, this hedge trimmer is covered by a three-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Webb Eco WEV20HTB2 50cm cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£89.99), Robert Dyas (£89.99) and Tooled Up (£89.95)

Worx WG261E.1 cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £129.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£109.98)

Reasons to buy:

• Spare battery
• Comfortable handle
• Cuts smoothly & easily

Reasons to avoid:

• Long charge time
• Fiddly hand-guard attachment
• No battery level visible

The hand-guard needs to be attached to this trimmer, which I found a bit of a faff. But a generous handle meant it was comfortable to use, and it has a 45cm long blade with a 16mm cutting capacity and tip protection. It takes a relatively long time to charge - 230 minutes - and although the run time of just 20 minutes is very short, it comes with two batteries, so if you’re organised and keep the second battery charged, you can get 40 minutes of continuous use. The batteries and charger are part of the Worx PowerShare system, so you'll save money if you invest in further tools. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t have a battery level indicator, which I found unhelpful. It comes with a three-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy Worx WG261E.1 cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£109.98)

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Husqvarna Aspire™ H50-P4A battery hedge trimmer

RRP: £219

Our rating: 4.3/5

Available from: Amazon (£192) and Husqvarna (£219)

Reasons to buy:

• Efficient 50cm blade
• Comfortable handle & large trigger
• Power button & charge level indicator on the handle
• Removable leaf brushing attachment
• Highly versatile batteries shared between brands

Reasons to avoid:

• Flimsy blade guard is hard to attach
• Quite front-heavy

This quiet 18-volt battery-powered hedge trimmer is powerful enough to chop through woody branches up to 23mm in diameter, and I felt it left an excellent finish on hedges and trees. The handles are hard, but comfortable, and the overall length of less than a metre meant I could use it in tight spaces. With the 4.0Ah battery attached, it can work for up to 80 minutes on a single 95-minute charge, which is perfect for gardens with large privet hedges. I found packing the hedge clippers away easy, too, thanks to the integrated storage hook that can attach to a rail system. Both the battery and charger are compatible not only across the Husqvarna Aspire range but with the Power For All Alliance of cordless tools, which includes Flymo, Gardena and Bosch and will save you money if you invest in any of those tools in the future. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy Husqvarna Aspire™ H50-P4A battery hedge trimmer from Amazon (£192) and Husqvarna (£219)

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Mountfield MHT 20 Li cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £99

Our rating: 4.3/5

Available from: Amazon (£95.53) and Just Lawnmowers (£89)

Reasons to buy:

• Battery charge visible
• Light
• Comfortable & simple to use

Reasons to avoid:

• Struggles with thicker wood
• Lacks features for the price

Part of the Mountfield Freedom 100 cordless range, this cordless hedge trimmer has a hardened steel, laser-cut blade with a cutting length of 55cm and a cutting capacity of 18mm. It has tip protection and a hanging hole at the end of the blade. The 20V 2Ah battery takes 70 minutes to charge to full power, has a runtime of 40 minutes, and shows the charge level at the touch of a button while you work. The trimmer is light and easy to use, and it cuts most wood smoothly. Compared to other trimmers in my tests (particularly the Stiga, which shares its battery system), I felt it lacked features for the price. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Mountfield MHT 20 Li cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£95.53) and Just Lawnmowers (£89)

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VonHaus 40V cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £89.99

Our rating: 4.1/5

Available from: Amazon (£74.99)

View Gallery on the source website

Reasons to buy:

• 180° rotating handle for comfortable vertical trimming
• 40-volt battery provides good power & 60-minute run time
• Affordable

Reasons to avoid:

• Balance favours the battery end
• The safety guard in front of the D handle is a bit flimsy

Vonhaus have added to their growing collection of garden power tools with this upgraded 40-volt battery hedge trimmer. I was impressed by its 51cm blade and 22 mm cut width. It made short work of leaves, stems, and reasonably sized branches, and is comfortable to hold thanks to a rubberised grip and a large rear trigger. The large front D-shaped handle is big enough for large hands wearing gloves, too, which is always useful. Something I liked about this trimmer is the rotating handle, engaged by pressing a large orange button on the top of the rear handle. By adjusting the blade angle, you can neatly cut vertical or horizontal hedges without having to hold the trimmer awkwardly. And when it’s running, it only makes 92dB of noise.

The large-size 40-volt battery powers the trimmer for up to 60 minutes and can be fully recharged in the same amount of time. And although it provides plenty of cutting power, the balance is slightly biased towards the battery end. It’s not uncomfortable to use, seeing as it only weighs 3.7kg, but it’s still noticeable. Overall, you get a powerful hedge trimmer for under £100, covered by a two-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy VonHaus 40V cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£74.99)

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WORX Nitro 40V Cordless Hedge Trimmer WG286E

RRP: £239.99

Our Rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£179.99)

Reasons to buy:

• 61cm-long bar cuts a lot of hedge with one sweep
• Large 27mm cut capacity
• Supplied with two batteries
• Good run time of up to one hour

Reasons to avoid:

• Pitched as more 'traditional petrol trimmer' replacement than most models, so it may be too heavy and pricey for some

Setting up the WORX WG286E isn’t taxing, but you do need to do up six screws to attach the D handle and safety guard. I found it quite comfortable to use as it features a rubberised back handle, a big trigger and a large front handle. The enormous 61cm bar makes this an ideal hedge trimmer for ornamental box hedges, and its huge 27mm-cut capacity means it chops through branches as well. Weighing 3kg with the batteries in place, it’s not the lightest, but it feels well-balanced and was easy enough to sculpt rounded shapes in a few shrubs.

It takes its power from a pair of 20V, 2.0Ah batteries, making this a 40V monster. It’s seriously powerful, and I got around 50 minutes of trimming time from a single charge. You can see how much is left via the bright charge level indicator on top of the handle, and the power this hedge trimmer produces is impressive. It happily chews its way through leaves, twigs and even quite sizeable branches. During testing, it sliced through just about everything that fit into its jaws and left clean cuts behind. The laser-cut teeth are nicely shaped to allow even thick branches in.

I really like how easy it is to change the angle of the trimmer head as well. Inside the trigger guard is a bright orange catch. When you pull it, you can rotate the handle to four positions for cutting horizontally, vertically and halfway in between. Although it’s a bit on the heavy side, this solidly built hedge trimmer is ideal for getting through lots of hedge, and even quite thick branches, quickly. Using it to cut close to the body was fine, but the weight was noticeable when working on higher branches.

It feels like this hedge trimmer has been designed to take the place of a powerful petrol trimmer. It’s certainly easier to maintain than a petrol version, but it might be a bit heavy and cumbersome for some gardeners. What makes this hedge trimmer good value for money, considering its high initial price, is that you get two large-capacity batteries included. WORX make dozens of useful tools for the home and garden, so having extra batteries is always a good idea. Harry Duncton

• Buy the WORX Nitro 40V Cordless Hedge Trimmer WG286E from Amazon (£179.99)

EGO HT2000E 56V cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £299

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Mowers Online (£299)

Reasons to buy:

• Plenty of power to cut thick branches
• Large cut capacity of 25mm between the teeth
• Battery provides a long run time of up to 75 minutes

Reasons to avoid:

• Expensive when bought as a kit
• Uneven weight distribution makes it harder to handle

Everything about this hedge trimmer seemed big to me. It’s a chunky machine with a big battery and impressive cut capacity. Each gap between the teeth on the 51cm blade is 25mm wide and 20mm deep, meaning it can happily chew through decent-sized branches without slowing down. The front and rear handles are big enough for large hands wearing gloves, and the safety switch is easy to operate at most angles.

Running on EGO’s hefty 56-volt battery system, the trimmer delivers tons of power, and I was impressed by its long runtime of up to 75 minutes. However, there’s more weight at the back of the machine, which makes the tool feel somewhat unbalanced, so it’s not the most comfortable to use with your arms extended. On the plus side, there’s not much vibration, so it’s fine for close-up work, and it comes with a high-quality hard-plastic blade cover and a hole in the top for hanging it on the shed wall. The price tag is on the high side, but you can use the battery with more than 50 tools in the range. The tool is covered by a five-year warranty, while the battery is covered for three years. Harry Duncton

• Buy the EGO HT2000E 56V cordless hedge trimmer from  Mowers Online (£299)

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Gardena EasyCut Li 14.4, 40cm cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £123.99

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£123.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Very light & well-balanced
• Cuts well

Reasons to avoid:

• Slightly awkward to hold & use
• Integrated battery
• No battery level indicator

I like the fact that this compact hedge trimmer requires no assembly and has an integrated battery, so you simply plug the whole trimmer in to charge it. However, this does mean that, unlike most other cordless trimmers, there’s no interchangeable battery you can swap among tools. I also found it a little tricky to get the charging cable in. The trimmer has a three-stage start on the grip and a shaped handle for safety, but it is a little awkward to hold, especially if you’re manoeuvring between shrubs.

However, it’s well-balanced and weighs just 1.9kg, making it efficient and easy to use for regular light trimming. It cut all newer growth easily and well in my test, and the battery lasts around 60 minutes on a full charge. There’s no charge level indicator on the trimmer, so it’s tricky to know how much power you have left while you’re working. The 40cm-long blade has a 16mm cutting width and a tip protector to prevent damage when trimming close to the ground or a wall, and the trimmer comes with a three-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Gardena EasyCut Li 14.4, 40cm cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£123.99)

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Bosch EasyHedgeCut 18-45 cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £99.99

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£80) and Currys (£80)

Reasons to buy:

• Light & well-balanced
• Cuts cleanly
• Battery system includes garden & DIY tools

Reasons to avoid:

• Long charge time
• Uncomfortable handle/grip position
• Battery level not visible
• No hanging hole

This trimmer has a 45cm blade and comes with an 18-volt 2Ah battery. While it has an above-average run time of 50 minutes, the charge time can take around 124 minutes, which is among the longest of the models we tested. We also found the handle design awkward and uncomfortable to grip. However, it’s part of the Bosch Power For All 18V Alliance system, which powers around 40 Bosch home, garden and household tools, so this may be something to bear in mind. We liked that it features blade sensors to prevent snagging and a decent cutting capacity of 15mm. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Bosch EasyHedgeCut 18-45 cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£80) and Currys (£80)

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Kärcher HGE 18-45 cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £99.99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£148.98 kit) and Kärcher (£59.99 bare tool)

Reasons to buy:

• Great value
• LCD battery display
• Excellent performance

Reasons to avoid:

• Heavy
• Short runtime
• Expensive

I loved the performance of this trimmer from Kärcher. Unlike other trimmers on test, this model has an LCD battery display that shows exactly how long you have left to cut. I was also impressed with the value of this model, because its battery is compatible with 16 other Kärcher tools, including mowers, grass trimmers, and chainsaws. However, it’s quite heavy, and I found that the skin of my fingers could easily catch between the ‘dead man’ switch and the handle. Though I love the helpful battery screen, its 35-minute runtime is below average. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Kärcher HGE 18-45 cordless hedge trimmer from Amazon (£148.98 kit) and Kärcher (£59.99 bare tool)

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LawnMaster MX 24V cordless hedge trimmer

RRP: £69.99

Our rating: 3.9/5

Available from: Amazon (£69.99) and Robert Dyas (£69.99)

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Reasons to buy:

• Incredibly light for ease of use
• Well-balanced & easy to handle
• Affordable

Reasons to avoid:

• The front handle takes some getting used to
• Loud at 102dB
• Small 15mm cut capacity

I found the LawnMaster MX 24V an affordable but capable hedge trimmer, delivering a surprising amount of power for a light piece of kit. Decked out in bright orange, it’s not going to get lost easily in the garden. It has a pleasant, soft-grip back handle, and it’s nicely balanced from front to back. You get a 52cm blade with a rather small 15mm gap between each tooth, which means you’re limited to smaller branches. It’s all powered by a 2.0Ah battery weighing less than 500g, helping the entire setup to come in at under 3kg in weight. An impressive feat, meaning almost anyone could use it without putting too much strain on the arms and back. It will run for about 40 minutes on a single charge.

The front handle is the only thing that lets this trimmer down a little. Rather than a D-shaped handle that you can hold at any angle, this one is more like a ball grip with safety switches you engage with the palm of your hand. It still works, but a more traditional grip is easier to work with. For a budget-friendly hedge trimmer, it’s good to see it come with a hard plastic blade cover rather than a flimsy sleeve that’s hard to put back on. Overall, it’s an impressive little tool for not a lot of money, and it’s covered by a two-year warranty. Harry Duncton

• Buy the LawnMaster MX 24V from Amazon (£69.99) and Robert Dyas (£69.99)

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How we test the best hedge trimmers

When we test hedge trimmers, we use them across various hedges with different stem thicknesses.

Then, we score each model against these four criteria, with equal marks attributed to each one:

• Set-up and storage: We assess the assembly needed, the ease and clarity of the instructions provided, the battery charge time on cordless models, and any storage features
• Handling: Vital for the tool to be enjoyable to use, we look at each hedge trimmer's ease of use, overall weight, weight distribution, noise levels, comfort and safety features
• Performance: We also look at the quality of the cut, blade length, the maximum stem thickness the trimmer can handle, and, for cordless models, the battery run time
• Value for money: We look at all of the above, plus quality and design in relation to the RRP (including battery and charger where relevant), and the length of warranty

For more on our testing process across all the different gardening product categories, see How we review

What are the different types of hedge trimmer?

There are three types of hedge trimmer available, each with its own pros and cons:

• Cordless hedge trimmers: These are lightweight, quiet, environmentally friendly, and require no petrol, engine maintenance, or electricity, plus there are no trailing cables to worry about. Without the cord or a petrol tank, you aren’t limited to where you can cut, and although these were traditionally pretty pricey, recent advances have lowered their price. Expensive batteries and chargers, however, can increase costs. Read our best cordless tools buyer's guide for more information on cordless tool systems
• Electric corded hedge trimmers: Affordable, low-maintenance and lightweight, these trimmers require a power source and have potentially hazardous cables. Depending on their length, you may also need an extension cord for extra reach
• Petrol hedge trimmers: These are powerful and, like cordless versions, can be used anywhere. However, petrol has an environmental impact, is expensive and messy, and trimmers are heavy, noisy and require regular maintenance

How to use a hedge trimmer safely

Check the weather forecast
It can be dangerous to cut your hedges in the rain, especially when using an electric trimmer. So make sure the hedge is dry, and no rain is forecast while you’ll be working.

Check your equipment
It’s always worth giving your tool a once-over to check that it’s in working order and has not been damaged.

Wear the right clothes and shoes
Ensure your clothes offer you enough protection while cutting your hedge, and avoid loose-fitting clothes that might snag on branches as you work. Wear sturdy, non-slip shoes so that you feel steady on your feet. You might also like to wear goggles and gloves.

Remove dead leaves and debris
Old, dead leaves or debris in your hedge could jam the hedge trimmer, so make sure you check the hedge before you start.

Check that the area is safe
It’s worth just checking your surroundings before you start. Make sure there are no children or pets running around. If you’re using a corded trimmer, make sure the cable isn’t creating a trip hazard for yourself or others.

Why you can trust BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews

As trained gardeners and seasoned users of all sorts of garden tools, the testing team at BBC Gardeners' World Magazine have reviewed scores of hedge trimmers over the years, using our trusted testing matrix to make sure we're giving balanced, fair judgments. We test hedge trimmers in varied, real-world conditions, cutting a variety of hedge plants with different characteristics. Because we're real-world gardeners with lots of experience, we know what to look out for and the sorts of things that will make all the difference once you're using a particular hedge trimmer regularly.

We give each hedge trimmer an at-a-glance list of pros and cons for clarity, and a rating out of five. We also don't share product reviews with manufacturers or retailers before they're published, and we don't accept payment in exchange for positive reviews either. Oliver Parsons, gardenersworld.com

Meet our testing panel

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects Editor
Oliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which?, as a freelance gardener and with the gardening team at Down House in Kent. He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Kay Maguire, Magazines Editor
Kay trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has been writing and making films about gardening ever since. She has written for websites and magazines, including The Garden and Amateur Gardening, was Horticultural Editor on BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for five years, and has also written several books on a range of gardening topics from growing house plants to making the most of a small space. After several years as Reviews Editor, building up our reviews section into a leading resource for UK gardeners, she has now become Magazines Editor for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, responsible for all print output.

Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools Tester
Harry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening. A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them.

Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden Writer
Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker. Sue writes regularly for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, GardenersWorld.com and Garden Answers magazine. She has written 10 books on subjects including container gardening, plants for small gardens and designing with colour, and she has co-authored other books with some of the biggest names in gardening.

Emma Crawforth, Horticulture Editor
Emma holds the Kew Diploma in Horticulture and has been working in horticulture for 18 years, including roles in public gardens, a plant nursery supplying plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a training college for young horticulturists. She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. She is the author of the Kew Publications book, Things to Do with Plants.

Jane Moore, Freelance Garden Writer
In a horticultural career spanning 30 years, Jane has been a head gardener at a Benedictine Abbey, a writer for national gardening magazines and newspapers, a researcher on BBC gardening programmes and a TV presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World. Among her many accolades are a Chelsea Flower Show medal, several awards from the Garden Media Guild and her books are published worldwide. She has spent 30 years working as a hands-on head gardener, using tools on a daily basis.

This review was last updated in February 2026. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.

]]> Harry Duncton <![CDATA[The 12 best cordless lawn mowers in 2026 – as tested and rated by our reviews experts]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/lawn-care/best-cordless-lawn-mowers/ 2026-07-14T15:09:07.000Z 2026-05-08T14:09:09.000Z

Jump to best mowers under £300

Jump to best mowers £300-500

Jump to best mowers £500+

Cordless mowers, once derided as weak, low-performance novelties, can do it all these days – some covering many hundreds of square metres in one charge, with plenty of power for when things get tough. Best of all, prices have really come within reach of the everyday gardener. Even my allotment association, once cynical about cordless mowers, has invested in two shiny models for hire… and the old petrol mowers have become the temperamental, tricky-to-start, high-maintenance poor relations.

But picking the right cordless mower for you can be tricky. That's why my colleagues and I at gardenersworld.com have pulled together this big list of the models available to buy in 2026 that we think really deserve a good look. We've tested them all thoroughly, and in strict accordance with our renowned testing matrix against these four critical factors: set up and storage; handling; mowing; and value for money.

Interested in other types of mower? Don't worry, we've also done thorough reviews of the best lawn mowers in general, the best robotic lawn mowers, the best electric lawn mowers and the best push mowers. We've loved testing these mowers, and we really do want to help you make the right choice for your needs – so read on, and happy shopping. Oliver Parsons

View Affiliate Playlist on the source website

Best cordless mowers to buy at a glance

Our 3 top-rated mowers, under £300

• 4.8 stars: Our best lightweight cordless mower, under £300 – Ryobi RLM18X33B50C RRP £220
• 4.8 stars: Our best cordless cylinder lawn mower – Webb Electric Cylinder Mower WEV2012RB4 RRP £249.99
• 4.8 stars: Our best cordless lawn mower for ease of use, under £300 – Einhell RASARRO 36/34 RRP £283.95

Our 4 top-rated mowers, £300-500

• 4.9 stars: Our best lightweight cordless mower, £300-500 – Husqvarna Aspire LC34 P4A RRP £349 (kit)
• 4.8 stars: Our best push mower for larger gardens, £300-500 – COBRA MX4340VX RRP £329.99
• 4.5 stars: Our best self-propelled cordless mower for easy charging, £300-500 – Webb WEV20X2LM47SPB4X RRP £399.99
• 4.8 stars: Our best self-propelled cordless mower, £300-500 – Worx Nitro WG749E 40V 46cm RRP £449.99 (kit)

Also recommended, under £500

• 4.5 stars: Our best budget cordless mower for small gardens – Greenworks GD24LM33 RRP £149.99 (bare tool)
• 4.5 stars: Our best push mower for a quality cut – Stihl RMA 235 RRP £184 (bare tool)
• 4.5 stars: Our best push mower for stripes – LawnMaster CLMF4841E RRP £329.99

Our 2 top-rated mowers, £500+

• 4.5 stars: Our best user-friendly self-propelled cordless mower – Ego LM1702E-SP 42cm self-propelled mower RRP £619 (kit)
• 4.5 stars: Our best self-propelled cordless mower for stripes – Stihl RMA 448 RV rear roller RRP £829 (bare tool)

Comparison table: best cordless mowers

Our expertise We reviewed the most popular cordless mowers on the market, putting them through their paces to bring you a list of the best. Each model has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to set up and storage; handling; mowing; and value for money. From 2026, you’ll only see newly awarded Best Buy badges on cordless mowers that score 4.5 out of 5 or higher. Anything rated 3.5 or above will still feature in our ‘Best of the rest’ list.

Jump to best mowers: 

• Our best cordless lawn mowers, under £300
• Our best cordless lawn mowers, £300-500
• Our best cordless lawn mowers, £500+

Jump to mower-buying advice: 

• What are the benefits of a cordless lawn mower?
• How to choose the best cordless lawn mower
• What can I expect to pay for a cordless mower?
• How long will the batteries last?
• Why you can trust Gardeners' World reviews
• How we test cordless mowers
• Meet our panel of testers

Our best cordless mowers, under £300

Ryobi RLM18X33B50C

Our best lightweight cordless mower, under £300

RRP: £220

Our rating: 4.8

Available from: Ryobi (£219) and B&Q (£219)

Reasons to buy

• Lightweight and easy to manoeuvre
• 5.0Ah battery gives long mowing time
• Mulching plug included
• Grass box with fill indicator

Reasons to avoid

• Fiddly height‑adjustment handle

This little mower assembles in just five minutes. Weighing just over 8.5kg with the battery in place, it’s extremely light and portable, making it great for just about anyone to use. The handle boasts a superbly comfortable soft grip and dual triggers for left and right-handed gardeners. You can set three different handle heights for different-sized users, too.

The 33cm cut width makes this an ideal mower for small lawns. And the 25-65mm cutting height adjustment, although a bit fiddly to change, means you can mow to a precise height during the growing season.

You can use the included 18V, 5.0Ah battery in more than 200 different tools in the Ryobi range. I mowed for just over 30 minutes before it ran out of power, which is plenty of time for a small or even medium-sized garden. The 35L grass box will need emptying a lot on a larger lawn, though – but then, this is a small mower, so that goes with the territory. It includes a mulching plug, a “full” indicator on the grass box, and a safety key. Harry Duncton

RRP: £220
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 8.5kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Mowing area: 225 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 35L with fill indicator
Warranty: 3 years

• Buy the Ryobi RLM18X33B50C from: Ryobi (£219) and B&Q (£219)

Webb Electric Cylinder Mower WEV2012RB4

Our best cordless cylinder lawn mower

RRP: £249.99

Our rating: 4.8

Available from: Webb (£249.99) and Mower Magic (£250)

Reasons to buy:

• A proper cylinder mower, but battery powered
• Fine cut height adjustment with consistent mowing speed
• USB-C charger

Reasons to avoid:

• 30cm cut width is for smaller lawns only
• Assembly is a bit fiddly
• Doesn’t fold down for easy storage

The thing about this mower is that it’s a precision instrument compared with a standard rotary lawnmower. If your goal is to create a precision cut, ultra-short lawn with crisp stripes, but you don’t want to mess around with an expensive petrol mower, this is marvellous mower. And it’s affordable, too.

Setup and ease of use: Rather than a basic rotary mower, this little cylinder mower takes a fair bit of work to get it ready for its first cut. It comes in a surprisingly small box, meaning that more assembly is required compared to other mowers. The handle comes in several pieces that need to be bolted together, and the manual isn’t quite as user friendly as some others I’ve tested out. It took around 20 minutes to attach the handle, adjust the angle and wrestle the little grass collection box into place. But before the first cut can begin, the cylinder needs to be levelled and adjusted. It’s not difficult, but takes a fair bit of crouching down. Each side of the cylinder can be moved up and down in tiny 0.5mm increments with little handles, and the cut height in a similar manner.

Mower statistics: It’s not designed for cutting down overgrown grass like a rotary mower. The way the blades work are more like scissors, with each curved blade on the cutting cylinder passing close to a fixed bed knife. Because this is a roller mower, don’t expect it to tackle grass longer than a few centimetres. Unlike a rotary mower that sucks grass up into the blades, this does the opposite. If the grass on your lawn is long, you’ll need to cut it down first before this mower creates the best results. The cut height can be adjusted between 13–23mm, and the dual rollers in front and behind the cylinder are designed to create crisp, clean stripes in the lawn. It’s powered by a 20V, 4.0Ah battery that should run for up to 60 minutes, an impressive amount of mowing for any type of lawn mower.

The constant cylinder speed that comes from the electric motor is what makes this little cylinder mower better than a manual version. Where manual mowers rely on your walking speed to adjust the cutting speed, this one runs at a stable pace however fast or slow you go. The small grass collection bag sits on the front of the mower and can hold up to 18L. It might be the only weak link on this mower because the material feels quite thin.

Top features: The handle has eight height positions to choose from, so it’s suitable for almost anyone to use, and the handles are easy to hang on to. Because of its short length and good balance, it’s easy to manoeuvre around the garden as well. Something I really like about this mower is its clever mix of traditional and contemporary technology. It looks and feels like a classic cylinder mower, but it’s powered by a highly modern battery system. Forget smelly petrol, this mower is powered by Webb’s new battery that comes with a special feature.

It’s charged via USB-C, which makes it incredibly handy. Rather than using a proprietary system that fills up valuable space, you could charge the battery up wherever you like. In the car, beside the bed, or even using a power bank. And what’s even better is that it comes with a 65W fast charger with three ports on it. A standard USB-A, a USB-C1, and a USB -C2. As a bonus, you can super-fast charge your phone with the included USB-C to USB-C cable. Overall, this is a fantastic cylinder mower for the price. The rollers flatten the grass without adding too much weight, it can cut grass really short, and the battery gives plenty of power and working time. An excellent garden tool from Webb. Harry Duncton

RRP: £249.99
Cutting width: 30cm
Weight: 12.5kg
Type: electric cylinder mower
Charge time: 80 mins (1 battery), 160 mins (2 batteries)
Run time: 60 mins
Cutting height range: 13-23mm
Grass box: 18L
Warranty: 3 years (machine), 2 years (battery)

• Buy the Webb Electric Cylinder Mower WEV2012RB4 from Webb (£249.99) and Mower Magic (£250)

Einhell RASARRO 36/34

Our best cordless lawn mower for ease of use, under £300

RRP: £283.95

Our rating: 4.8

Available from: Amazon (£308.95) and Toolstation (£299.99)

Reasons to buy

• Ready to mow straight from the box
• Feels sturdy and made from robust materials
• Comfortable handle with ambidextrous controls

Reasons to avoid

• Small grass box fills quickly
• No mulching plug included

Sporting a sturdy folding handle with three heights, ambidextrous controls, and a comfortable soft grip, the RASARRO arrives fully assembled straight from the box.

This mower's 34cm cut width is narrow enough to get into tight spots, but it can still mow a small lawn quickly enough. And with a cutting height from 25-65mm in five precisely labelled heights, you can be as accurate as you like. The 30L grass box has a “full” indicator on it, too. This mower comes with a pair of 18V, 3.0Ah batteries that provide 30 minutes of mowing time. The versatile batteries work in hundreds of other Einhell tools, which is always a bonus. Weighing in at a little over 12kg, it’s not the lightest mower, but it makes up for it by being sturdily made from solid materials. Harry Duncton

RRP: £283.95
Cutting width: 34cm
Weight: 12kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 60 mins
Run time: 30 mins
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 30L with fill indicator
Warranty: 3 years

• Buy the Einhell RASARRO 36/34 from:Amazon (£308.95) and Toolstation (£299.99)

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Our best cordless mowers, £300-500

Husqvarna Aspire LC34-P4A

Our best lightweight cordless mower, £300-500

RRP: £349

Our rating: 4.9

Available from: Husqvarna (£349)

Reasons to buy:

• Quiet
• Cuts long grass with ease
• Battery level visible while mowing
• Small and compact for easy storage

Reasons to avoid:

• Only four cutting heights
• 95 minutes charge time

This lightweight 34cm mower is part of the new Husqvarna Aspire cordless range, which includes a hedge trimmer, pruner and leaf blower, and it's powered by an 18V POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE battery and charger. It's useful that these are interchangeable with tools in other leading brands such as Flymo, Gardena and Bosch, so if you also invest in tools in these ranges, you’ll only need to buy the bare tool and won’t have different batteries and chargers taking up space in the shed. Also, the two-year warranty on this mower is a good sign that the investment will last.

I found this mower great for small gardens for several reasons: the mower comes ready to go; there’s no assembly needed or handles to attach, and it folds down to a compact size when you’re finished, with a telescopic handle that folds completely flat over the body of the mower. It can then be stood up against a wall or hung up, and it even comes with a handy hook. The 30L grass bag also flattens down to take up very little room and can be hung on the mower. I liked the fact that the Aspire is so light, with a carry handle so that lifting it up steps or into other areas is easy, and it has an adjustable handle to suit different heights.

It’s comfortable and easy to manoeuvre around the garden and has just four cutting heights to choose from, ranging from 25-65mm, and they were easy to change with a single lever on the body of the mower. It cuts grass quietly and smoothly and has an automatic boost that increases blade speed when you’re mowing in tougher, longer areas, which works well. You can hear it kick in when you push the mower into longer grass, and unlike other cordless mowers that can cut out, it just carries on cutting the grass.

I also really liked being able to see the battery charge level while mowing, so I could gauge how much power there was left, and when the battery needed charging. Kay Maguire

RRP: £349
Cutting width: 34cm
Weight: 11.8kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 95 mins
Run time/Mow area: 500 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 30L
Warranty: 2 years

• Buy the Husqvarna Aspire LC34P4A from Husqvarna (£349)

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COBRA MX4340VX

Our best push mower for larger gardens, £300-500

RRP: £329.99

Our rating: 4.8

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£299.99) and Lawn and Power (£329.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Wide cut for larger lawns
• Front and side grass combs for an even cut
• Cuts for up to 45 minutes on one battery
• Large grass box

Reasons to avoid:

• No safety key

Ideal for larger lawns, this COBRA boasts a 43cm cut width and 25-75mm height adjustment in five steps. Assembly took just a few minutes, and no tools were necessary. Compared with some of the lightweight mowers I have tested, this one is substantial at 14.5kg and feels built to last.

Its 40V, 4.0Ah battery provides the power. There are three adjustable handle heights for different-sized gardeners, and although you can’t adjust the handle length, this mower makes up for it with a very comfortable, grippy handle.

This feels like a more premium mower than some of the competition. There’s a mulching plug, a huge 50L grass box with fill indicator, and a sprung height adjustment control. And although there’s no safety key, the handle folds down neatly for storage. Harry Duncton

RRP: £329.99
Cutting width: 43cm
Weight: 14.5kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 85 mins
Run time: 45 mins
Cutting height range: 25-75mm
Grass box: 50L with fill indicator
Warranty: 2 years

• Buy the COBRA MX4340VX from: Just Lawnmowers (£299.99), Lawn and Power (£329.99)

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Webb WEV20X2LM47SPB4X

Our best self-propelled cordless mower for easy charging, £300-500

RRP: £399.99

Our rating: 4.5

Available from: Homebase (£419.99) and B&Q (£399.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Wide 47cm cutting deck for medium to large lawns
• Adjustable speed self-propelled rear wheels
• Versatile USB-C charged batteries

Reasons to avoid:

• Runtime of less than 30 minutes when self-propelled
• 25.5kg mower hard to lift over obstacles and up steps
• No grass collection box full indicator

A hugely powerful yet easy to handle lawnmower that’s perfect for medium to large size lawns. You’ll love the powered rear wheels and the versatile USB-C batteries, but you’ll need to buy two more to get the full runtime from this big mower.

Setup and ease of use: A substantial mower like the Webb WEV20X2LM47SPB4X luckily came fully assembled. I found the best way to get it out of the huge box was to cut one end off and roll it out. And that was about it. I charged the batteries, plugged them in and got on with mowing. First off, the build quality feels solid and it doesn’t rattle or bend anywhere. The large wheels help it glide over uneven terrain and the brushless motor provides enough power to mow through thick, wet grass.

I found this mower to be well balanced and blessed with a very comfy foam-like grip. The secret weapon behind this mower’s smooth action is the adjustable self-propelled drive system though. The rear wheels are powered to help take the effort out of pushing the mower around, from slow up to a fast walking pace. It means you can match the motor speed to your natural mowing pace, although the batteries drain quickly at full speed.

To maximise battery life, the power assist can be turned off. It makes pushing a little harder, but it’s not a chore. You might even just want to use the powered wheels to help mowing up slopes or on uneven ground. There are three ways to mow with this hefty machine. Firstly, there’s the large capacity 65L grass collection box. Or for leaving the cuttings on the lawn, a mulching plug can be installed. And lastly, a side discharge chute can be attached to the side of the cutting deck. This allows for faster mowing and less clogging in long, wet grass.

Mower stats: The substantial 40V output this mower uses comes from a pair of 20V batteries. Supplied with a pair of 4.0Ah batteries that work in series, they provide plenty of power for both the blade and the rear wheels. The only downside I can see with this mower is the relatively short runtime. With the two batteries installed I managed around 20 minutes of mowing with the drive engaged at low speed. That’s not enough for a large lawn, especially if you want to go faster. The battery life extends to 30 minutes without assist, but it’s too heavy to push around manually all the time.

However, if you look inside the battery compartment there’s space for four batteries. By adding two more, it solves any runtime issues. By fully loading up the battery compartment, this mower can run for long enough to tackle large gardens with the powered wheels engaged. You can select from 30-75mm cutting height in seven steps. The sprung handle on the side of the cutting deck makes changing heights simple. It’s a good range to work long grass down over time to a manageable height. Any shorter and the wide deck could get caught on mounds or undulations.

Top features: I like the little control panel found on the top of the handle. You can see the charge level on all four battery slots at a glance, control the speed with the drive lever, and emergency stop the mower with the red power button. One of the best new features from Webb’s X-Series is how you charge the batteries. Forget proprietary chargers, Webb have embraced USB-C charging. So versatile that you’ve probably got several at home already, it’s a simple solution but a gamechanger for powered garden tools.

And when you’re not recharging the 4.0Ah batteries with the included 65W three-port plug, you can super-fast charge your phone instead. And because they’re USB-C they work in both directions: each battery works like a portable power bank, perfect for charging your devices at the bottom of the garden. This might be a big and heavy mower, but it stores away as small as possible. When you’re finished mowing, it stands up on its end and takes up barely any space at all. The quick release levers on the handle lock it into place at two different working heights, or flat for storage. Harry Duncton

RRP: £399.99
Cutting width: 47cm
Weight: 25.5kg
Type: electric self-propelled mower
Charge time: 80 mins (1 battery), 160 mins (2 batteries)
Run time/Mow area: 30 mins
Cutting height range: 30-75mm
Grass box: 65L
Warranty: 3 years (machine), 2 years (battery)

• Buy the Webb WEV20X2LM47SPB4X from Homebase (£419.99) and B&Q (£399.99)

Worx Nitro WG749E 40V 46cm

Our best self-propelled cordless mower under £500

RRP: £449.99

Our rating: 4.8

Available from: Amazon(£604.24)

Reasons to buy:

• Battery power is visible when you mow
• Cutting power adjusts to grass length

Reasons to avoid:

• The collection bag is fiddly to assemble
• Heavy

This easy-to-use mower needs no assembly and has a quick-release, collapsible handle, so it’s very simple to store, even in a packed shed. One thing that really helped when I was testing this machine is that it stands up vertically, with the handle folded over and the front wheels in the air – that meant it only took up about a third of the usual floor space in storage.

The Nitro requires two 20V, 4Ah PowerShare batteries, which give a 40-minute run time, and it was a relief that the battery power level is clearly visible while you mow – it's such an important thing when you're tackling a large area of grass. The batteries and the charger are also interchangeable with all other Worx PowerShare tools. It offers seven cutting heights, 20-80mm, which are easy to adjust with a simple lever. It also has a cutting width of 46cm, making it ideal for medium-sized lawns.

I liked the mower's simple speed control, plus it adjusts its cutting power according to grass length and conditions, which helps save on battery. It has a safety key and a 55L collection bag, so there's plenty of room for the cuttings, but there's also a mulching option, so you can choose to let the cuttings fall back on the lawn to feed the grass rather than worry about emptying the bag. Considering the wealth of features this mower offers, this is a great-value option. It also has a three-year warranty, plus two more years if registered. Kay Maguire

RRP: £449.99
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 28.7kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 40 mins
Cutting height range: 20-80mm
Grass box: 55L
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the Worx Nitro WG749 from Amazon (£604.24)

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Also recommended, under £500

Greenworks GDG24LM33

Our best budget cordless mower for small gardens

RRP: £199.99 (with 2Ah battery)

Our rating: 4.5

Available from: Amazon (£117.99) and Greenworks (£129.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Easy to assemble and use
• Comfortable padded handle
• Choice of mulching or collecting clippings
• Battery is interchangeable with Greenworks 24V family

Reasons to avoid:

• Short handle for taller users
• Struggles with longer grass

I found this sturdy, great-value cordless mower easy to put together, well thought out, and simple to use – superbly suited to small gardens. Thanks to a padded handle, it's comfortable to push, although this could feel a little short for taller people, and it's light and easy to manoeuvre around trees and lawn edges.

There are five cutting heights to choose from, adjusted with the simple lift of a lever, and you can collect clippings in the 30L fabric grass bag or insert the mulching plug and leave them on the lawn to break down and feed the grass. It mowed well, helped in part by the specification of a long-lasting brushless motor, but it didn't like mowing very long grass. The battery cut out on me occasionally, but the decent runtime of 46 minutes made up for that a bit, and it charged in just two hours.

Plus, as part of the Greenworks 24V family, both the battery and charger are interchangeable with all the other tools in the range, saving you money if you invest in more Greenworks tools in the future. Kay Maguire

RRP: £199.99
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 9.5kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 280 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-70mm
Grass box: 30L
Warranty: 3 years

• Buy the Greenworks-GDG24LM33 from Amazon (£117.99) and Greenworks (£129.99)

Latest Prices

Stihl RMA 235

Our best push mower for a quality cut

RRP: £184 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£174) and Stihl (£184)

Reasons to buy:

• Solidly built from premium materials
• Excellent quality of cut
• Good value if you own batteries already

Reasons to avoid:

• No safety switch
• Handle is length- but not height-adjustable

The RMA 235 is a robust and well-engineered lawnmower. Weighing in at 13kg with the battery in place, it’s not the lightest 33cm mower, but that weight adds to the feel of quality. With its compact size and 25-60 mm cutting height in five steps, it’s ideal for small to medium-sized lawns. The handle lacks a comfortable grip, but the excellent ergonomics make it well-balanced and easy to manoeuvre.

Although it doesn’t include some features like a safety key or a height-adjustable handle, it makes up for it on the lawn. The motor is powerful, and the cut quality is excellent. The curved blade underneath leaves a pleasantly clean cut. There’s no mulching plug, but it works well with the flap down anyway. And there’s a “full” indicator on the 30L rigid plastic grass box.

The RMA 235 doesn’t come with the recommended AK20 battery, which runs at 36V, 4.0Ah, but buying one separately with the charger comes to just under £360. It ran for almost 25 minutes on a single charge, which is plenty for a small lawn. Harry Duncton

RRP: £184 (bare tool)
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 13kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 150-180 mins
Mow area: 300 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-60mm
Grass box: 30L with fill indicator
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the Stihl RMA 235 from: Just Lawnmowers (£174) and Stihl (£184)

LawnMaster CLMF4841E

Our best push mower for stripes

RRP: £329.99

Our rating: 4.5

Available from: LawnMaster/Cleva (£329.99) and Amazon (£329.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Three selectable power levels or auto mode
• Battery charge-level indicator on the handle
• Roller for creating lawn stripes

Reasons to avoid:

• Awkward to carry between different areas of grass

The LawnMaster CLMF4841E is a lot of mower for the money. The 42cm cut width makes it suitable for larger lawns. The height and length adjustable handle with a soft grip make it ideal for gardeners of all shapes and sizes.

Weighing in at 14kg, it’s not the lightest, but the extra weight helps the onboard roller to create stripes in the lawn. Supplied with a pair of 24V batteries and a matching pair of chargers, it will run for 25 minutes, and the safety key keeps it safe when not in use. This mower is a little unusual at this price point for having selectable power settings. Choosing from 1-3 or on auto, you can opt to save battery or crank up the rpm and tackle long, thick grass if you want. The battery charge level indicator on the handle is also useful, as is the “full” indicator on the 42L grass box. And it even stands up on its end to save space in the shed. Harry Duncton

RRP: £329.99
Cutting width: 41cm
Weight: 14kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 60 mins
Run time: 25 mins
Cutting height range: 22-72mm
Grass box: 42L with fill indicator
Warranty: 2 years

• Buy the LawnMaster CLMF4841E from: LawnMaster/Cleva (£329.99) and Amazon (£329.99)

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Best Buy cordless lawn mowers tested before 2023, under £500

• 4.8/5 stars: Worx WG779E £175
• 4.8/5 stars: Yard Force LMG37A £250
• 4.5/5 stars: Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li £191.06
• 4.5/5 stars: Gardena Handymower £141.95
• 4.5/5 stars: Husqvarna LC 247iX £499

Our best cordless mowers, £500+

Ego LM1702E-SP 42cm self-propelled mower (kit)

Our best user-friendly self-propelled cordless mower

RRP: £619

Our rating: 4.5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£559) and Mowers Online (£559)

Reasons to buy:

• A big range of cutting heights, all adjustable with a single lever
• The folding handle makes it easy to get out and put away

Reasons to avoid:

• No mulching option
• Only available as a kit

This well-thought-through mower requires no assembly out of the box, so I was able to get mowing almost as soon as it arrived. It has a quick-release, telescopic handle, which offers a bespoke handle height and also makes it very easy to fold down and store.

Once folded, it can also be stood up vertically, so it took up even less space in my storage area. It offers a wide choice of cutting heights, 20-80mm, and the wider-than-average 42cm cutting width makes it ideal for mid-sized gardens. It runs on a 56V battery, which can mow 300 sq. metres on a single charge, and is compatible with other Ego Power+ tools. The battery level is also clearly visible whilst you mow.

There's a handy safety key that can be stored away from the mower to ensure only the user can operate it. It's easy to operate and handle, with easy speed control, a 55L grass bag, and even headlights. It comes with a five-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £619
Cutting width: 42cm
Weight: 24kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 80 mins
Run time/Mow area: 30 mins
Cutting height range: 25-80mm
Grass box: 55L
Warranty: 5 years (tool), 3 years (battery)

• Buy the Ego LM1702E-SP from Just Lawnmowers (£559) and Mowers Online (£559)

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Stihl RMA 448 RV rear roller cordless mower

Our best self-propelled cordless lawn mower for stripes

RRP: £829

Our rating: 4.5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£759) and Lakeland Power Tools (£797.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Energy-saving mode increases run time
• Rear roller for stripes
• Easy to switch to mulching
• Low cutting height for a neat finish

Reasons to avoid:

• Large, fiddly plastic grass box
• No safety key

This distinctive mower is ready to use straight out of the box; only the grass box needs assembly, and this was pretty tricky. The unusual one-sided mono handle makes it easy to access the grass box, which makes a big difference when you are tackling a large lawn and emptying the clippings often. The handle also adjusts in height very easily, and it can be folded flat over the mower, making it easier to store. When I folded the mower up, I was able to stand it vertically with its front wheels in the air, so it saved a lot of space – always a good feature.

It lacks a safety key but has other good features, including speed control and a mulching option that's as simple as a flick of a switch. It has a cutting width of 46cm and offers a wide range of five cutting heights, from 15-60mm, so you can get a neat, tight clip. This is particularly useful as this mower also has a rear roller to create beautiful stripes on the lawn. It requires a 36V, 5Ah battery, which gives you enough power to mow a lawn up to 340 sq. metres on a single charge, plus there's space for a spare battery, if you have one. It's also compatible with all Stihl AK cordless tools, saving you money if you invest in the future. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £829
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 30kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 150 mins
Run time/Mow area: 340 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 15-60mm
Grass box: 52L
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the Stihl RMA 448 RV rear roller cordless mower from Just Lawnmowers (£759) and Lakeland Power Tools (£797.99)

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Best Buy cordless lawn mowers tested before 2023, £500+

• 4.8/5 stars: Ego LM1701E £529
• 4.5/5 stars: Makita DLM460PT2 £608.95
• 4.5/5 stars: Stihl RMA 248 £699

The best of the rest

Although some models didn't quite achieve a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy award, they still have features that make them worth recommending. Browse our pick of the best of the rest.

Stiga Collector 140e

RRP: £269

Our rating: 4.3

Available from: ManoMano (£239) and Just Lawnmowers (£239)

Reasons to buy:

• Comfortable soft‑grip handle
• Feels solid and is made from good-quality materials

Reasons to avoid:

• No mulching plug or safety key
• No fill indicator on the grass box

A mower with a proud Italian bloodline, the STIGA Collector 140e Kit looks good and mows well too. Similar in design to the Mountfield Electress, it adds a couple of welcome extras like a comfortable grip and better fittings for the folding handle. It has a 38cm cut width and generous cutting height of 25-75 mm in five steps. The car-gearstick style cut height adjustment is handsome, and the soft grip handle and two handle height settings makes it comfortable to push around the lawn. It weighs a little over 11kg and the handle folds down for storage.

The power comes from two 20V, 4.0Ah batteries that provide around 25 minutes of runtime, more than enough time to fill the 40L grass collection box.  It’s about the right size grass box for a mower of this width. And it comes with a handy dual charger to juice up both batteries at once. This mower doesn’t boast a “full” indicator on the grass box or a mulching plug, but I found the motor is powerful enough to plough through long, damp grass without slowing down. It’s a solid little mower that comes with an impressive five-year warranty. Harry Duncton

RRP: £269
Cutting width: 38cm
Weight: 11kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 140 mins
Run time/Mow area: 25 mins
Cutting height range: 25-75mm
Grass box: 40L
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the STIGA Collector 140e Kit from ManoMano (£239) and Just Lawnmowers (£239)

Husqvarna LC 142iS self-propelled cordless lawn mower with battery and charger

RRP: £699

Our rating: 4.3

Available from: Husqvarna (£699)

Reasons to buy:

• Compact and light to manoeuvre
• Energy-saving mode increases run time
• Compatible with the Husqvarna 36V system

Reasons to avoid:

• No mulching plug included
• No speed control
• Smaller grass bag

This mower requires assembly on arrival, and I didn't find the instructions very clear. It's powered by a 36V Husqvarna system battery, which provides enough power to mow an area of 500 sq. metres. It has a 42cm cutting width and offers a range of seven heights of cut, from 25-75mm, which are simple to adjust. Overall, I found this mower easy to use, and it felt smooth and efficient when cutting; however, I'd have liked a speed control option as it feels a little slow, particularly on slopes. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £699
Cutting width: 42cm
Weight: 22.5kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Run time/Mow area: 100 mins
Cutting height range: 25-75mm
Grass box: 50L
Warranty: 2 years

• Buy the Husqvarna LC 142iS from Husqvarna (£699)

Flymo EasiStore 340R KIT 2.0

RRP: £299 (kit)

Our rating: 4.3

Available from: Amazon (£216.60), Currys (£264) and Tooled-Up (£281.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Roller on rear for precise lawn stripes
• Clever storage features
• Shares batteries with other brands

Reasons to avoid:

• Slow charging
• No mulching plug
• Assembling rigid grass collection box is fiddly

Setup and ease of use: Setting this cordless lawn mower up wasn’t too much of a chore. I did need to assemble the handle and its various bolts and levers, but it was the grass collection box that took the most time. The rigid box snaps together with various little tabs but getting them all to line up at once was a bit of a pain. However, once set up, this mower showed itself to be a highly capable machine with plenty of neat tricks up its sleeve. Starting with the big, comfy handle, it has safety levers on both sides for left or right-handed gardeners. In the middle of the handle is a little LED readout that displays the current charge level as well as a power button. You’ll need to keep an eye on the charge level too, as this version of the mower comes bundled with relatively small capacity batteries.

Mower stats: The 340R has a 34cm cut width which makes it well suited to small to medium size gardens. It’s a bit small for wide expanses of grass but means it can get into tight corners easily. The 35L grass box on the back is quite small, but features a handy full indicator that’s easy to see, unlike the dark one on the bigger UltraMow version. I found it nice and easy to manoeuvre, weighing just over 11kg with the batteries in place. Changing the cutting height from 20-60mm in five steps is easy with a little handle down by the front wheels. And inside the battery enclosure is a safety key for keeping it out of harm’s way. The only thing missing is a mulching plug.

I was really impressed by the power this little cordless lawnmower has. I mowed through plenty of long grass in my test garden and the blades didn’t bog down or stall. And if you like your lawn stripes, this is a pleasing little mower to play with. It’s not too noisy either, running at just under 90dB. I managed about 25 minutes of mowing before the batteries ran down. You get a pair of 18V, 2Ah batteries that work together to produce 36V of working power. Something I love about Flymo is that they have joined the impressive sounding POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE. This means that you can use the same batteries in a range of brands, including Bosch and Husqvarna. So rather than splashing out on expensive kits, you can buy the tool only.

Top features: It lives up to its EasiStore name rather well. It stands up on its end for storage, something I think is essential for all good mowers. And it solves the problem of where to store the grass box as well. There’s a hook on the underside of the handle that neatly stores the grass box. Locking the handle into forward position means you can wheel it around like a wheeled suitcase as well, which is preferable to picking it up every time you want to move it.

Now for the thing that I didn’t enjoy so much. The brilliant batteries are slowed down by low-speed chargers. These tiny little trickle chargers don’t take up much space, but you’ll be waiting 90 minutes for them to reach 100%. Not ideal if you have more than 150 sq. metres to mow per gardening session. But overall, this is a brilliant little lightweight and easy to store mower. The dual batteries are powerful; they work in a whole range of other tools and it’s not too loud during use. My only criticism is that it comes with annoyingly slow chargers. Harry Duncton

RRP: £299 (kit)
Cutting width: 34cm
Weight: 11.32kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 90 mins
Run time: 25 mins
Cutting height range: 20-60mm
Grass box: 35L
Warranty: 2 years (can extend to 3 years)

• Buy the Flymo EasiStore 340R from Amazon (£216.60), Currys (£264) and Tooled-Up (£281.95)

Stiga Collector 48 S AE self-propelled cordless lawn mower kit

RRP: £445

Our rating: 4.3

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£399)

Reasons to buy:

• Anti-scalping feature
• Long warranty

Reasons to avoid:

• Long 220-minute charge time
• No speed control
• No mulching option

This mower was really simple to assemble, apart from the large 60L grass box, which needed a screwdriver and was fiddly. It has an impressively long-lasting steel deck, a cutting width of 46cm, and six cutting heights, from 22-65mm. It runs on a 48V battery, which is part of the Stiga ePower 48V System, and can cut 400 sq. metres in one charge.

Unfortunately, it takes a lengthy 220 minutes to charge. But I liked the fact that there's space on the mower for a spare battery if you have one, which is handy when you're stuck down the end of a long lawn with a flat battery in the main slot. It has an anti-scalping feature to help prevent lawn damage, but no speed control, so I found it a little slow. It comes with a generous five-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £445
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 25kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 220 mins
Run time/Mow area: 550 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 22-65mm
Grass box: 60L
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the Stiga Collector 48 S AE Kit from Just Lawnmowers (£399)

Vonhaus 40V

RRP: £179.99

Our rating: 4

Available from: Argos (£180), B&Q (£179.99) and Robert Dyas (£189.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Mulching plug and grass collection indicator included
• Easy to assemble and fold away for storage

Reasons to avoid:

• Not very robust in terms of build
• Motor struggles in long grass
• Small 30L grass box

A decent little mower for the money, this one is a good choice for small lawns. The 30L grass box fills up quickly, so the “full” indicator is an always useful, as is the mulching plug, which I almost always use. The handle folds down neatly, and although it doesn’t have a soft grip handle, it’s comfortable enough for most mowing sessions.

You can change both the handle height and length to five different settings, but it doesn’t get quite high enough if you’re on the tall side. The cut width is a smaller-lawn-happy 33cm, and the power comes from a single 40V, 4.0Ah battery that provides 25 minutes of work. Changing the cutting height from 25-65mm is achieved with a chunky handle.

I appreciated the light weight of just over 11kg; it makes it easy to store and move around the garden. On the downside, this extremely cheap mower lacks the premium feel of some others. It was easy to manoeuvre this mower around the lawn, but the motor bogged down when pushing into longer, damp grass. For regular maintenance mowing it would be ideal, though. Harry Duncton

Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 11.5kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 60 mins
Run time/Mow area: 25 mins
Cutting height range: 25–65mm
Grass box: 30L with fill indicator
Warranty: 2 years

• Buy the Vonhaus 40V from Argos (£180), B&Q (£179.99) and Robert Dyas (£189.99)

Mountfield Electress 38Li

RRP: £269

Our rating: 4

Available from: Amazon (£214.97) and Tesco (£179)

Reasons to buy:

• Good range of handle height and length adjustment
• Six easy-to-change cutting heights
• 40L bag folds down neatly

Reasons to avoid:

• Handle lacks soft grip
• No safety key or fill indicator

This handsome little mower looks great with a curved body and racing-car inspired cut height adjustment handle. It feels premium and well balanced; however, it lacks a grip on the folding handle. The handle folds down for storage, but it’s held together by annoying butterfly bolts that don’t want to stay on. Fuelled by a pair of 20V, 4.0Ah batteries, there’s plenty of power when pushing through long grass. And when it comes to recharging, the dual charger handles both batteries at once.

The 38cm cut width makes it ideal for smaller lawns while the 25-75mm cutting heights in six steps mean you can dial in a precise lawn height. Weighing a little over 11kg, it’s light enough to carry around, but doesn’t stand up for storage. It ran for almost 25 minutes of mowing before needing a recharge, while the semi-rigid grass collection box picks up 40 litres at a time. There’s no “full” indicator or a mulching plug included, but it performs well on the grass, and I found the quality of cut to be clean and tidy. Harry Duncton

RRP: £269
Cutting width: 38cm
Weight: 11kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 140 mins
Run time/Mow area: 25 mins
Cutting height range: 25–75mm
Grass box: 40L
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the Mountfield Electress 38Li from Amazon (£214.97) and Tesco (£179)

Greenworks 24V+24V 46cm SP self-propelled cordless lawn mower

RRP: £479.99

Our rating: 4

Available from: Amazon (£409.99) and On Buy (£479.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Comfortable and quiet
• Long run time
• Good value for the features
• Compatible with the Greenworks 24V battery system

Reasons to avoid:

• Feels heavy, especially when changing the cutting height
• Slow speed control
• Fiddly to build and store

This mower took me a while to put together and is not as easy as some to store, as in order to fold the handle flat, you need to unscrew it almost completely. It also felt heavy and lacked a carry handle, making it difficult to get up steps or in and out of the shed. It has a cutting width of 46cm and offers seven cutting heights, from 25-80mm, which are easy to change, and a 55L collection bag. There's also the option to mulch the clippings or choose side discharge, which I found useful.

It requires two Greenworks 24V system batteries, which give enough power to cover an area of 480 sq. metres. It has a speed control, and, although it's slow, it felt comfortable to handle and was quiet to use. It's definitely good value for the features, and comes with a three-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £479.99
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 27.5kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 53 mins
Run time/Mow area: 480 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-80mm
Grass box: 55L
Warranty: 3 years

• Buy the Greenworks 24V+24V cordless lawn mower from Amazon (£409.99) and On Buy (£479.99)

VonHaus 18V Mini Cordless Lawn Mower

RRP: £134.99

Our rating: 4

Available from: Amazon (£124.99) and Vonhaus (£129.99)

Reasons to buy

• Lightweight and easy to carry at just over 5kg
• Large handle makes it easy to handle
• Three cutting heights

Reasons to avoid

• Tall gardeners may trigger the handle shutoff mechanism
• Small cut width makes it useful for small gardens only
• Sluggish two hour recharging

If you’re short of storage space and you don’t have acres of lawn to mow, VonHaus have come up with a small but mighty solution. Lightweight and easy to handle, it’s ideal for gardeners with mobility issues.

Setup and ease of use: I was happy to find that the VonHaus mini cordless lawn mower comes almost ready to go, straight from the box. Apart from screwing on the handle and charging the batteries, there’s no assembly at all. This mower is radically different to most rotary mowers. Although over miniature mowers exist, this one feels like a proper mower, just shrunk down in size. What feels different is how you handle it. It’s more like using a hoover than a traditional mower.

There are a pair of large wheels on the front that take the weight, and two smaller wheels hidden underneath that control the cutting height. Because of the large front wheels, it can’t mow quite up to the edge of a wall or fence, but it gets close enough. To help reduce size, there’s no grass collection box to contend with. This is a mulching mower that leaves the grass cuttings behind on the lawn. And if you mow often enough, you don’t need to worry about collecting anyway. Although lightweight and manoeuvrable, I didn’t find it very comfortable to use. The handle has an automatic cut off feature when it’s raised to the upright position which kept turning it off when in tight spaces. This might be because I’m over six feet tall, so for slightly smaller gardeners it shouldn’t cause the same issue.

Mower stats: This pint sized cordless mower is small but surprisingly mighty. It runs on VonHaus’s 18V battery system and is supplied with a 4.0Ah battery. It provides plenty of mowing power and up to 30 minutes of working time. Seeing as this mower is designed for small spaces, that’s more than enough run time. And you’ll want to make sure you mow everything in one go because it takes two hours to fully recharge the battery. It’s a bit on the slow side compared with other mower brands.

The cut width of 21cm isn’t going to mow a football pitch, but it’s ideal for tight corners and in-between bushes and shrubs. There are even three cutting heights to choose from between 25, 35 and 48mm. As you might expect, this mini mower doesn’t weigh too much either. At just a little under 5kg, it’s in reach of most gardeners and is easy to carry up steps or over low walls. But even though it’s light it still makes plenty of power. The little blade whips around at 6,000rpm and doesn’t stop too easily, even in longer grass.

Top features: The most obvious bonus of a mini mower is its size. If you have limited storage space or can’t cope with a big, heavy mower for your small lawn, this is an ideal solution. If, for example, your lawn is up several steps or you have an awkward patch of grass that’s hard to get to, this little mower will fill in the gaps for you. I like that even though this mower is tiny, it has a large and comfortable handle to hold on to. It makes it ideal for gardeners with limited mobility and allows for full control with just one hand.

The tiny little mowing blade underneath has two cutting edges. Compared with other micro mowers that rely on a single blade, this one should offer higher efficiency of cut. And the quality of cut is good too. Each blade cuts neatly through grass leaves without tearing. Another feature that will keep your neighbours happy is the lack of harsh noise this mower makes. Rated at 86dB, it’s not too loud and shouldn’t disturb them too much. And something this mower has that others lack is a safety key. Stowed away in the battery compartment, it won’t work unless the key is installed. This should keep small hands and curious children out of trouble. Harry Duncton

RRP: £134.99
Cutting width: 21cm
Weight: 4.9kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 30 mins
Cutting height range: 25, 35 and 48mm
Grass box: mulching mower
Warranty: 2 years

• Buy the VonHaus 18V Mini Cordless Lawn Mower from Amazon (£124.99) and Vonhaus (£129.99)

WORX WG745E 40 Volt Lawn Mower

RRP: £359.99 (kit)

Our rating: 4

Available from: Amazon (£359.99) and B&Q (£359.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Batteries work in dozens of other WORX tools
• Variable mowing speeds to preserve battery life
• Three height settings & comfortable handle

Reasons to avoid:

• Recharging both batteries takes two hours
• Doesn’t stand on its end for storage very well
• No safety key

A big and powerful dual battery mower, the WORX WG745E is a solid replacement for a petrol mower. It’s built to last, but lacks a few features; however, it just about lives up to its hefty price tag.

Setup and ease of use: Getting the WG745E ready for its first cut isn’t a huge chore. All I needed to do was attach the handle, charge the batteries and get to work. I particularly like the comfy, foam-like handle. It’s easy to grip onto and helps to reduce any vibrations sent up from the motor. Happily, the brushless motor on board doesn’t produce much vibration anyway. This mower is designed to make short work of larger lawns. It’s quite well balanced between the handle and motor end, but its wide cut width and long length make it hard to get into tight corners and between shrubs. The batteries live inside an enclosure that keeps them free of dirt and grass clippings, but it lacks a safety key. Designed to keep curious fingers away from a powerful tool like this, it’s a shame that it hasn’t been included.

The batteries both have charge level indicators on them, and down near the battery compartment is another one to test the overall charge level. It’s not visible all the time, but much easier than taking both out to check how much juice is left. When it comes to storing the mower away, it just about stands on its end. The problem is that it uses the nice soft grip handle as a support, which will probably get damaged over time.

Mower stats: This brushless lawn mower has an impressive range of cutting heights from 25–80mm in six stages. The 41cm cut width makes it ideal for medium to large gardens, but you do lose a bit of manoeuvrability. Weighing 15.3kg with both batteries installed, it’s not the lightest mower I’ve tested, so carrying it up steps or over obstacles could be an issue for some gardeners. Something that does work in its favour, though, is the height-adjustable handle. By loosening the lower handle, you can choose between three working heights to suit gardeners of different sizes.

There are two ways to deal with grass clippings left behind. The first is via the 50L grass collection bag. It has a rigid top and fabric underneath and comes with a handy grass box full indicator flap as well. The collection box folds flat for storage. Secondly, if you want to drop the cuttings back into the lawn, it comes with a mulching plug that replaces the bag. I was impressed with how long this mower cuts for before needing a charge. It can mow for up to 45 minutes on a single charge, provided the grass isn’t damp or too long. That’s plenty of time to mow up to 600 sq. metres.

Another bonus is the dual-battery charger included with the pair of 20V, 4.0Ah batteries. It means you can charge them both at the same time, but be prepared for some downtime, as a full charge takes 2 hours. And bear in mind that to make this mower run, it needs both batteries installed to make the 40V working power.

Top features: A real positive feature of this lawn mower is the wide range of cut heights available. Easy to change with the big sprung handle, you can drop the height of your grass gradually to avoid shocking it. The highest setting of 80mm is generous, while the lowest setting of 25mm will leave the lawn looking neat and tidy. WORX has put a lot of thought into making the WG745E as energy-efficient as possible. To counter the heavy weight, the brushless motor squeezes every bit of power out of the included batteries.

Coupled with a variable speed motor that detects grass resistance, the mower changes blade speed to avoid using too much battery power. When pushing through damp or thick grass, the mower speeds up, but not for too long. And because this mower comes with a pair of large-capacity 4.0Ah batteries, you can add them to your collection. WORX make a vast range of DIY and garden tools that all work on the same battery platform, so this is a good investment for someone starting or building a WORX tool collection. Harry Duncton

RRP: £359.99 (kit)
Cutting width: 41cm
Weight: 15.3kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 45 mins
Cutting height range: 25-80 mm
Grass box: 50L
Warranty: 5 years

• Buy the WORX WG745E Lawn Mower from Amazon (£359.99) and B&Q (£359.99)

Greenworks MO48L422‑01

RRP: £294.99

Our rating: 4

Available from: B&Q (£289.99) and Tooled-Up (£289.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Ambidextrous controls
• Long run time
• Wide 41cm cut for larger gardens

Reasons to avoid:

• Not manoeuvrable for smaller lawns
• No safety key

This is a mighty mower that sits well on medium-sized lawns but might not be ideal for a tiny garden. The generous 41cm cut width means you can mow in fewer passes, but it’s not the most manoeuvrable of mowers on our list. One of my favourite things about this mower is on the handle, with its ambidextrous controls.

Set-up took less than 10 minutes as half of the handle is already attached, and it comes with almost all the features you’d want on a mower like this. There’s a mulching plug and a “full” indicator on top of the 40L grass box. The only thing missing is a safety key inside the battery compartment. Inside the compartment, the mower is powered by a pair of beefy 24V, 4.0Ah batteries. The power is impressive and I managed to mow for around 40 minutes before needing to recharge.

Changing the cut heights is made easy as the deck is spring- loaded. Pressing the green button on top of the deck unlocks the deck where you can choose from 30-80mm in six steps. Harry Duncton

RRP: £294.99
Cutting width: 41cm
Weight: 15.5kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 40 mins
Cutting height range: 30–80mm
Grass box: 40L with fill indicator
Warranty: 3 years (mower), 2 years (battery)

• Buy the Greenworks MO48L422‑01 from B&Q (£289.99) and Tooled-Up (£289.95)

Flymo 36V UltraMow Duo 460

RRP: £449.99 (kit)

Our rating: 3.8

Available from: from Amazon (£297.80), Currys (£409) and Wickes (£450)

Reasons to buy:

• Clever design cuts right to the edge
• Stands up on end for storage
• Batteries shared across multiple brands

Reasons to avoid:

• Only cuts for 20 mins with supplied 2.5Ah batteries
• Two batteries included but only one charger
• Small front wheels not great on rough grass

Setup and ease of use: Setting up for the first mow was simple. All I needed was a Philips screwdriver to connect the handle to the telescopic shaft. This infinitely adjustable handle also makes it comfortable for users of all heights.

Mower stats: A sleek, black lawnmower that looks muscular and aerodynamic, Flymo have gone for a futuristic finish in their flagship mower, the 36V UltraMow Duo 460. Cutting a 46cm swathe, it’s just right for medium gardens up to 375 sq. metres with a pair of 2.5Ah batteries included. You can change the cut height setting from 25-65mm in five steps with a little button on top of the mower body. And the grass collection box holds 50L of clippings. There’s a handy full level indicator on top of it, but because it’s a black flap on a black background, it’s not the easiest to see.

The rear wheels are huge – measuring 25cm in diameter. However, the front wheels are tiny. Pushing the mower through long grass was a bit of a chore and a few sticks and leaves got stuck in the plastic surrounding the mini front wheels. Another thing that doesn’t quite add up is the size of the batteries included with this mower. A big, capable 36V mower is necessarily power hungry, especially when it needs to spin two separate blades.

So, I’m not sure if this version supplied with small 2.5Ah batteries is such a good idea. I was only able to mow for around 20 minutes before needing to recharge. Luckily, I had a pair of big 4Ah batteries to hand and managed a good 40 minutes of mowing with those on board. I recommend splashing out on the other kit with a pair of 4Ah batteries for maximum mowing capabilities. The batteries live inside a compartment on the chassis with a flap to cover them. They slide in with a clunk, next to the big grey safety key that disables the mower when not in use. It’s good to see a fast charger included, but only one is included. It means that once the 20 minutes of mowing is up, you’ll be charging for two hours before getting back out onto the lawn.

I don’t want to detract from the brilliance of the POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE though. Flymo have teamed up with the likes of Bosch and Husqvarna to share battery technology. It means that the same battery in this mower can be used in hundreds of other tools. Buying into this is a clever investment for all sorts of gardeners.

Top features: This a cordless lawnmower with a big benefit hidden underneath its chassis. Instead of a single rotary blade, it uses a pair of smaller blades. These smaller blades reach almost to the very edge of the lawnmower, meaning less grass is left behind at the base of fences and walls. It also promises to create a strong vacuum under the blades, pulling grass up for an even cut, a bit like a barber’s comb. The smaller blades rotate more quickly, providing a finer mulch than a single rotary blade can.

The angular handle gives you plenty of different ways to hold this mower, and the charge level indicator shows battery the battery life left. Oddly, it doesn’t stay on during mowing and only shines for a few seconds after starting up the mower. To check, I needed to stop and start the mower again. There’s a little boost button on the handle to help when the grass gets thick. It increases the rpm for a few seconds to ensure no grass is left uncut. A useful feature if you’re blessed with patches of stubborn weeds and thick grasses.

Something that Flymo have done right across their range of cordless lawn mowers is folding down for storage. The handle locks into place, which is great for pulling the mower around like a wheeled suitcase. Weighing just over 16kg, it’s useful when pulling up steps or out of the shed. And, because it stands up on its end, it takes up minimal floor space. When it was time to empty out the collection bag, the opening is a bit too narrow. Grass became easily clogged in this section and the extra “tongue” at the entrance is only held on by plastic clips. This fell off a couple of times when emptying the bag, so I’m not sure if I’d keep it for long.

Overall, this is a powerful and innovative cordless lawnmower from Flymo. It had enough torque to push through thick grass and weeds, especially with the turbo button engaged. The tiny front wheels struggled a bit on uneven grass though and the pair of 2.5Ah batteries just didn’t power it for long enough. If you upgrade to the kit with a pair of 4Ah batteries, this is a handy mower, but it really should be at this price. Harry Duncton

RRP: £449.99 (kit)
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 16.7kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 60 mins (per battery in rapid charger)
Mowing area: 375 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 50L
Warranty: 2 years (can extend to 3 years)

• Buy the 36V UltraMow Duo 460 from Amazon (£297.80), Currys (£409) and Wickes (£450)

Flymo 36V EasiHover 300

RRP: £299.99 (kit)

Our rating: 3.5

Available from: Argos (£300), Currys (£299) and Wickes (£300)

Reasons to buy:

• Effortless mowing, even on slopes
• Lightweight & easy to carry around
• Batteries work in range of tool brands

Reasons to avoid:

• Doesn’t cut very close to edges
• Changing cut heights is a pain
• Power hungry but very slow charging

A radically different but still familiar type of lawnmower, the Flymo EasiHover 300 is a capable, lightweight and easy to use garden power tool. It’s the first cordless collector hover mower they’ve produced. It works well in some areas, but struggles in others.

Setup and ease of use: Before mowing, I needed to attach the handle to the chassis. It was easy enough but bear in mind you need a Philips head screwdriver to complete the job. The handle is comfortable, features an ambidextrous safety trigger, and telescopes in and out. It makes it ideal for gardeners of any height.

Changing the cutting height is nowhere near as easy as a standard wheeled mower. Rather than simply moving a handle, you need to remove the blade assemble and add spacers to the underside of the mower. It comes with a special wrench tool, but it’s not a job I’d like to do often. It’s fine if you only ever cut to one height anyway.

Mower stats: I was really impressed by how light the mower is. Weighing just under 10kg with both batteries in place is quite a feat. Compared with a wheeled version, it’s remarkably easy to pick up and carry around. And what makes it even easier is the inclusion of a little roller underneath. Hover mowers have one distinct advantage over their wheeled rivals. Once switched on, the curtain of air underneath makes pulling and pushing effortless. Flymo recommend not strafing side to side as it interferes with grass collection, but it still works if you need to get into a tight spot.

It’s an ideal cordless mower for anyone with mobility issues, and the hover action even works on slopes. It’s a clever alternative to a self-propelled lawnmower with a 20L grass collection basket that pops out of the mower chassis. It doesn’t quite cut to the edges as the hover skirt is wider than on wheeled mowers. One drawback of the hover action, in my test garden at least, is the dust that flies out all over the place. If you have nice soil that retains moisture it’s not a problem, but the fine dusty topsoil on my test lawn went everywhere.

Powered by a pair of big 4Ah batteries, the EasiHover 300 is a power-hungry piece of kit. It needs these mighty batteries to keep it off the ground during mowing. I managed around 15 minutes of mowing before the batteries were completely drained. It will cut up to 100 sq. metres, which isn’t a particularly large lawn, but the real problem starts with recharging. You get two high capacity 4Ah batteries, which is great, but they’re supplied with annoyingly slow trickle chargers. They can take up the three hours to recharge, which is not great. Faster chargers are available, but you’d need to buy them separately.

Top features: On the plus side, there’s a huge advantage of choosing this mower. The POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE means that the included 18V batteries work in tools from Bosch, Gardena, Husqvarna and more. It’s a great thing knowing that you can buy into a massive range of tools with just one battery type. And when it’s time to stow the EasiHover 300 away, Flymo have thankfully designed this mower so that it stands up on its end. It makes storage a lot easier, and you can lock the handle in place for pulling it around, a bit like a wheeled suitcase. Harry Duncton

RRP: £299.99 (kit)
Cutting width: 30cm
Weight: 9.7kg
Type: hover cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time: 15 mins
Cutting height range: 10-30mm
Grass box: 20L (vacuum-powered collection)
Warranty: 2 years (can extend to 3 years)

• Buy the EasiHover 300 from Argos (£300), Currys (£299) and Wickes (£300)

Other best of the rest cordless lawn mowers, tested before 2025

• 4.3 stars: Mountfield Electress 30 Li Kit £179
• 4.3 stars: Worx WG737E £259.99
• 4.3 stars: Greenworks 48V 36cm £299.99
• 4.3 stars: Kärcher LMO 18-36 Battery Set £299.99
• 4.3 stars: Honda IZY-ON 416XB £540

What are the benefits of a cordless lawn mower?

There are a variety of benefits to buying a cordless lawn mower in comparison to the more traditional petrol or electric models, including:

• Easy to manoeuvre: Without a cord, these mowers are typically easy to move around the lawn and can get to parts of the garden a cord may not reach. Without an engine, they're lightweight, and there are a wide variety of models to choose from, so you can be particular about weight, handle size and ease of storage
• Quiet: Powered by lithium-ion batteries, they're much quieter than petrol-engine mowers. It's worth noting that the bigger the mower, the more noise it will likely make, so if you're looking for a very quiet mower, keep this in mind
• No emissions: Cordless mowers don't use petrol, so they don't emit emissions. Being battery-powered, cordless mowers are also better for the environment, as they use electricity rather than fuel
• Minimal maintenance: Cordless mowers don't need the typical upkeep of petrol mowers. You don't need to refill cordless mowers or worry about engine problems. They are typically easier to start up as well, requiring just the push of a button

How to choose the best cordless lawn mower

Your budget and the size of your lawn will be pivotal in deciding which brand and model of cordless lawn mower best suits your needs. Think about the following points before you buy:

• Where are you cutting? The type of lawn you’re cutting will dictate the mower features you’ll need. Push mowers require you to provide momentum, so manoeuvrability is key, particularly if your lawn slopes or you have play equipment, beds and trees to navigate. A mower that cuts to the edge gives a neat finish and saves time with the shears or trimmer later. For a sharp, neat look, opt for a low cut height, but if you lack time to mow regularly, a higher cut will tackle longer grass. A rear roller gives neat stripes, while a mulching plug lets you choose between collecting clippings or mulching them. It saves you from emptying the collection box, but mulching only works if the lawn is cut regularly
• What’s the battery charge and run time? Lithium-ion batteries vary in size, from 18V to 40V and from 2Ah to 5Ah in our test, and this determines the cutting power and run time on a single charge. Match the run time to the size of your lawn. Most mowers have a recommended maximum lawn size or run time (although this depends on the conditions on the day), and, ideally, a fully charged battery will last long enough for you to finish the job. Some models use two batteries at the same time, so you can mow for longer, and most brands also sell batteries separately. Fast charge times allow you to get mowing again quicker
• Is it easy to use? Most mowers should just need the handles attached and the grass box assembled, with fabric bags simpler to construct than plastic box-style collectors. Switching between cutting heights should be easy. Some mowers need to be turned over, and the entire axle moved, but a single lever that  simply moves through the range is ideal
• Is storage space limited? If you don’t have much room, check how far the handle folds down and how easily. Most can be partly unscrewed to fold over the body of the mower; others are designed to unclip and double fold completely flat or can be hung or stood up vertically. Fabric bags also collapse, while plastic grass boxes are tricky to take apart. If you need to lift the mower up steps into storage or onto a shelf, check its weight and whether there are carry handles to make this easier
• What do you get for your money? The quality of materials often relates to the price. Budget models made from lightweight plastic, as opposed to higher-end machines with metal decks, are unlikely to last long. Brushless motors are powerful, efficient and longer lasting, and buying another mower later rather than one robust model now is bad for your wallet and the environment. Warranty length can vary – some brands require the mower to be registered to get the longest warranty period, and some differ between the mower, battery and charger

How long will the batteries last?

How long the battery lasts on a single charge depends on the model, the terrain and mowing conditions on the day and some mowers have an eco or power saving mode to help extend the battery life. A battery can take anywhere from 45 minutes to over two hours to charge, although lithium-ion batteries can be used when partly charged if you're in a rush. Always check the charge time, too, as these can also vary widely. Many brands have fast chargers, which are usually available separately but can cut the waiting time down considerably and are useful if you need to get back to the job quickly.

Lithium-ion batteries typically last between three and five years (or 500 charges) before they need replacing. Always check with the manufacturer if they will take back their batteries for recycling rather than putting them into landfill.

How does the weather affect your lawn’s growth rate?

Different weather conditions will speed, slow, or even stop grass growth, and therefore, how often you need to mow. Find out how it works here:

Hot, dry weather
During hot and dry spells, in which the daytime temperature is consistently at 25°C or above, grass growth tends to slow down significantly. The lack of moisture and high temperatures dry out the soil, making it difficult for grass to absorb the water it needs. Lawns may turn brown and become dormant, conserving energy until conditions improve. Don’t worry, though. The roots will still be perfectly healthy and will put on strong growth as soon as the rain comes back and temperatures decline. Mowing is required less often during these periods; you may find that this period of time extends to several weeks.

Warm, wet weather
When the weather is warm and wet, with daytime temperatures around 18 to 24°C, grass can grow very quickly. Warm temperatures combined with regular rainfall create ideal conditions for rapid growth. Lawns often need to be mown more frequently, sometimes as often as twice a week, to keep them looking neat and healthy. Don’t try to cut more off each time with infrequent mowing – this will stress the machine and your lawn, and lead to clumpier, patchier growth.

Dry, cold weather
In dry, cold conditions, with daytime temperatures lower than 8 °C, grass growth slows dramatically. Low temperatures put grass into a state of dormancy, and the lack of rain means the soil is often too dry to support new growth. Lawns will require little to no mowing during these periods.

Wet, cold weather
Wet, cold weather also slows grass growth. While the soil remains moist, low temperatures prevent the grass from actively growing. The ground may become waterlogged, making mowing difficult and risking damage to the lawn and your mower. If you do need to mow during a period such as this, wait until a dry afternoon when the grass is dry enough to be cut and collected without clogging up the mower.

Top tips for mowing your lawn

1. Mow when it’s dry. If you mow when the ground is sodden it can lead to compaction, the mower will smear and rut the soil and wet grass clippings will clump and smother your lawn
2. Remove any obstacles. Make sure furniture is moved off the lawn to make it easier to mow, and check for any items in the lawn that could damage the blades
3. Adjust the cutting height of your mower and aim to only reduce the lawn height one-third every time you mow
4. Start around the edge so you can clearly see how much lawn needs mowing. Then mow up and down in straight lines, overlapping slightly, to achieve a neat finish
5. Empty the clippings bag regularly so material doesn’t build up around the mower blades. You can compost them or deposit them in small piles around the garden, such as at the back of borders, to help earthworms. To compost your grass clippings, see our review of the best compost bins
6. For a neat finish, re-cut your lawn edges each spring with a half-moon tool and trim overhanging grass after mowing with edging shears. To keep edges looking neat, browse our pick of the best strimmers, garden shears, and lawn edging

If your lawn needs a bit more attention, our experts have tested a range of the best manual and powered aerators and scarifiers. And if you're thinking about somewhere to store your new mower, our comprehensive guide to choosing the best garden shed will be helpful.

Why you can trust Gardeners' World reviews

As trained gardeners and seasoned users of all sorts of garden tools, Kay Maguire, myself, and the rest of the team at BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviewed literally shedloads of lawn mowers over the years, using our trusted testing matrix to make sure we're giving balanced, fair judgements.

We test lawn mowers in varied, real-world conditions, cutting the sort of grass most of us actually have in our gardens. Because we're real-world gardeners with lots of experience, we know what to look out for and the sorts of things that will make all the difference once you're using a mower week in and week out. We don't share product reviews with manufacturers or retailers before they're published, and we don't accept payment in exchange for positive reviews, either.
Oliver Parsons, gardenersworld.com

How we test the best cordless lawn mowers

When we test cordless mowers, we follow the whole process from start to finish without any shortcuts. We unpack the mower from the box, put it together following the instructions (sometimes these are clear as mud, sometimes not!), and then get started, cutting grass over a wide area.

We mow over rough grass, smoother grass, slopes and bumps – whatever is in our way – just as you would with your own mower. And after that, we also take notes on how easy the mower is to fold down and put away, because if a mower is annoying in that regard, you'll always hate using it.

Then, we score each model against these four criteria, with equal marks attributed to each one:

• Set-up and storage. We assess how easy the mower was to put together, fold up, or store afterwards. We also look at how long the battery takes to charge. This makes a big difference when you want to get the job done but realise the battery's flat from last time
• Handling. We also judge the mower for how comfortable it is to use and how easy it is to control. Handle-height adjustment, cut-height adjustment, overall weight, noise levels and run time on one charge all make a big difference here
• Mowing. Also important, we look at the cutting width and the range of cutting heights that can be selected. The capacity of the grass box, AKA collection bag, also makes a big difference here, and can save you from making constant trips over to the compost heap. We also look out for neat extra features such as cutting to the edge, or mulching modes
• Value for money. Tricky but super-important: how well does the mower weigh up when you balance the quality, features, warranty and overall package of benefits against the price?

For more on our testing process across all the different gardening product categories, see How we review

Meet our testing panel

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects Editor
Oliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which?, as a freelance gardener and with the gardening team at Down House in Kent. He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Kay Maguire, Magazines Editor
Kay trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has been writing and making films about gardening ever since. She has written for websites and magazines, including The Garden and Amateur Gardening, was Horticultural Editor on BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for five years, and has also written several books on a range of gardening topics from growing house plants to making the most of a small space. After several years as Reviews Editor, building up our reviews section into a leading resource for UK gardeners, she has now become Magazines Editor for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, responsible for all print output.

Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools Tester
Harry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening. A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them.

Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden Writer
Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker. Sue writes regularly for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, GardenersWorld.com and Garden Answers magazine. She has written 10 books on subjects including container gardening, plants for small gardens and designing with colour, and she has co-authored other books with some of the biggest names in gardening.

Emma Crawforth, Horticulture Editor
Emma holds the Kew Diploma in Horticulture and has been working in horticulture for 18 years, including roles in public gardens, a plant nursery supplying plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a training college for young horticulturists. She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. She is the author of the Kew Publications book, Things to Do with Plants.

Jane Moore, Freelance Garden Writer
In a horticultural career spanning 30 years, Jane has been a head gardener at a Benedictine Abbey, a writer for national gardening magazines and newspapers, a researcher on BBC gardening programmes and a TV presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World. Among her many accolades are a Chelsea Flower Show medal, several awards from the Garden Media Guild and her books are published worldwide. She has spent 30 years working as a hands-on head gardener, using tools on a daily basis.

This review was last updated in May 2026. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.

]]> Oliver Parsons <![CDATA[My easy tips for growing the best tomatoes, with expert Holly Farrell]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/my-easy-tips-for-growing-the-best-tomatoes-with-expert-holly-farrell/ 2026-07-23T17:03:52.000Z 2026-04-18T09:00:09.000Z Tomatoes are a staple of the British garden, tempting us each spring with the promise of heavy trusses and sun-warmed fruits. Yet, for many, growing tomatoes can feel like guesswork.

To cut through the confusion, we invited Holly Farrell, author of The Tomato Grower’s Handbook, onto the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast to give us her secrets to a bumper crop. Here's an edited transcript of exactly what she had to say.

Oliver Parsons (OP): Are tomatoes a good crop for beginners?

Holly Farrell (HP): Absolutely. If you’ve never grown anything before to eat, you are not going to start with cauliflower – it’s a bit complicated. But tomatoes, you can pick them, you can eat them straight off the plant, and they really are pretty straightforward and trouble-free to grow.

OP: What’s the difference between growing tomatoes indoors and outdoors?

HP: There is a difference, although with the caveat that your ‘outdoors’ varies hugely depending on where you are in the country.

An outdoor balcony or courtyard in the middle of a city is going to be very different from an outdoor plot on a windswept hillside in the Lake District or in Scotland. If you’re growing in the middle of a city, it’s almost the same as growing in a greenhouse sometimes. There are some varieties that will do better outdoors and some that will do better undercover.

Tomatoes come from South America originally, so they like a long, warm, sunny growing season to do well. If you can give them a sunny spot that’s nice and warm, that has good air circulation, and obviously water them, then really you should be laughing and picking loads of tomatoes.

Holly's top tomatoes… #1: Gardener’s Delight

Type: cordon, cherry “The nostalgia tomato. It does have quite a lot of side shoots, but it performs reliably, with lovely tangy, slightly sweet, red cherry tomatoes.”

OP: What equipment do you need to get started?

HP: The bare minimum would be to buy a packet of tomato seeds and grow them in the ground, but obviously, lots of people don’t have ground these days. Sometimes it’s actually easier to grow things in pots, or you might want to grow your tomatoes in your courtyard or on your patio, which is sunnier and warmer than in your main bit of garden.

But really, you need some seeds, some compost or soil to grow them in, and a cane or stake of some description to tie them into if you are growing a cordon variety.

OP: What’s the difference between cordon and bush tomatoes?

HP: Cordon varieties, which are also sometimes called indeterminate varieties, are the ones that are going to grow tall and in a straight line upwards. They need tying in, and they won’t stop growing upwards until you stop them, and they are the ones that basically you grow them as a single stem. Those are the ones where you have to do the pinching out of the side shoots.

Bush or determinate are the ones that will basically have a few more stems and be a bit floppier. These ones are suitable for sprawling over the top of a pot, or even growing in a hanging basket, where the fruits can drape down the side of the basket.

Holly's top tomatoes… #2: Crimson Plum F1

Type: cordon, Roma “Plum tomatoes are the classic tomato used in tinned tomatoes that are sold in supermarkets. They have very few seeds and lots of flesh, and so they will cook down well into making a nice smooth sauce. It's a good blight-resistant plant as well.”

OP: Which type is best for growing outside?

HP: Bush varieties tend to be slightly hardier, a bit more blight-resistant on average. Also, they’re easier to cover outdoors because you can then put a cloche or a tunnel or something over the top of them to protect them from frost or heavy rainfall.

OP: Are beefsteaks and other varieties with larger fruits harder to grow in the UK?

HP: Yes, absolutely. If you’re going to try growing tomatoes for the first time, I would definitely recommend choosing a cherry tomato variety rather than the beefsteak ones, which are the big, ribbed, delicious-looking heirloom types.

Cherry varieties are the smaller ones. They’ll ripen faster, and you’ll get much more picking off them overall as well. If you are in a cooler, damper area, cherries are the best ones to go for.

OP: What are the essentials for sowing tomatoes?

HP: You need to start them off somewhere warm indoors. The first thing is to make sure that you’ve got enough space to sow your own seeds, because you can’t plant out your tomatoes until after the last frost, so you’re going to need a windowsill in order to first sow the seeds and then prick them out into larger pots and grow them on in larger pots.

If you haven’t got that space, think about whether you can grow seeds this year or whether it’s actually better to buy young plants from the garden centre or nursery.

Holly's top tomatoes… #3: Tigerella

Type: cordon, bicoloured salad “You can see the stripes from very early on the skin, then as they ripen, they end up as red and orange stripes. It has a really good tangy flavour to it, and also an AGM (Award of Garden Merit). This means the RHS have trialed it and found it to have performed really well in average garden conditions.”  

OP: What’s the best way to sow and grow on tomato seedlings?

HP: You can use multipurpose compost to start off. Just make sure you give it a sieve first, so you haven’t got any big lumpy bits. They’re a very small seed, so sow them at a very shallow depth and then cover it with a sheet of glass or a plastic cover just to keep the humidity and keep them warm and moist until they’ve germinated.

If you haven’t sown them in individual little pots, you need to be very careful when pricking them out. Hold onto a leaf, not the stem, and lever up from underneath the roots with a pencil or a plant label.

OP: When should you plant out tomatoes?

HP: Watch the weather forecast. There is really no substitute for just paying attention to your local weather. And of course, you’re going to harden them off before you plant them out anyway.

You will give them a chance to get used to the conditions outdoors, just by putting them outdoors for the daytime to start with, bringing them back in overnight, do that for a few days, then leave them outdoors overnight, and then you can plant them out.

Holly's Top Tomatoes… #4: Sungold

Type: cordon, cherry “Generally known as the cherry tomato to which all other cherry tomatoes are compared. The sweetness and the flavour of it are, they're just unparalleled. It's delicious.”

OP: What are the key tasks once the plants are growing?

HP: When you plant them out, you need to make sure you put your stake in at the same time. The two things now that you need to be doing are tying it into the stake, and also to be taking out any side shoots of cordon varieties. If you don’t take off those side shoots, you are going to end up with a really, really heavy plant that’s just going to fall over with stake and all. It’s diverting all that energy to those side shoots to grow new foliage when you want it focused on making those lovely tomatoes nice and ripe.

OP: How do you improve the flavour of home-grown tomatoes?

HP: The one thing that will stop you getting watery tomatoes when you pick them is to not overwater them. As the fruits start to ripen, you want to be tailing off your watering. So all throughout the growing season, you’ve kept a nice, even regular watering regime because that’s going to stop your fruit from splitting. At the end of the summer, when you’ve got those last lots of fruit ripening on the vine, that’s when you start tailing off your watering. That’s then going to really concentrate the sugars and the flavour in those tomatoes.

OP: Is there a trick to finishing off the crop as the season ends?

HP: A plant is going to keep on growing until it can’t grow any more, and it’s going to think, ‘I’ll just put out another truss.’ But we, the gardener, know different. We know that the end of summer is coming, and it’s not going to have time to ripen these new trusses of tomatoes that it’s putting on at the top. You need to be taking the top of the plant off completely. When it gets to the top of the cane, two metres thereabouts, sometimes three, but certainly no taller than that, because then all of the energy that it had been putting into growing will then go into ripening the existing fruit.

OP: What about pests and diseases?

HP: Tomatoes are remarkably trouble-free as a crop compared to many other fruit and veg crops that you can grow. They really don’t suffer that much from pest infestations or diseases, apart from blight.

I would just grow plenty of colourful flowers around them, especially if you’re growing cordons. Grow some marigolds; the roots exude a toxin, which puts off any soilborne pests from coming in. The flowers will attract pest predators such as hoverflies and ladybirds, and they will come in and they’ll munch up any aphids or whitefly that might be hovering around your crops.

OP: How do you know when to pick tomatoes?

HP: A tomato has got a little joint where it joins onto the truss, like a knuckle. If you lift the tomato with your thumb on the knuckle and lift up the tomato, it should snap away nice and easily. That’s a really good sign that it’s ripe to eat. If you are growing a variety that’s red, orange or yellow, wait until it’s developed the fullest colour before you pick it, because that’s when it’s going to be its most flavourful.

Holly's Top Tomatoes… #5: Yellow Pear

Type: cordon, cherry/salad “Apparently, the oldest tomato variety in existence today. A really vigorous plant. Grows well outdoors or indoors. And they're delicious as well.”

OP: And what can you do with unripe fruit?

HP: You can pick the truss or even the whole plant and hang them inside in a nice, warm place, and they should ripen. Ripening fruits like bananas and apples will help the tomatoes ripen if you put them close by. Even just on a sunny windowsill, they should ripen eventually. Or, of course, you can use them green and make chutney, or even green tomato jam.

OP: Should gardeners try saving their own tomato seed?

HP: If you save seed from the best-performing plants on your plot year after year, what you are essentially doing is a bit of natural selection. You are creating a particular strain of that variety that is particularly suited to your plot. You can only save seed from heirloom or heritage varieties.

To save tomato seed, scoop out the seedy innards into a glass of water, let them ferment on a windowsill for about three days, then wash them through a sieve, get rid of all the goo and the gunk, tip them onto a piece of kitchen paper, leave them to dry until they’re completely dry, and then you can store them for next year.

Holly Farrell’s The Tomato Grower’s Handbook is published by Bloomsbury, RRP £14.99.
To hear the whole podcast, click here. 

]]> Oliver Parsons <![CDATA[Are you really never more than six feet from a rat? Here's the 'science' on that]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/news/are-you-really-never-more-than-six-feet-from-a-rat-heres-the-science-on-that-2/ 2026-07-28T05:47:03.000Z 2026-03-07T12:06:45.000Z If you feed birds, have a compost heap or have decking in your garden, there’s a good chance that rats are on your mind.

But how much of our fear is based in reality, and how much of this fear is just misconceptions bouncing around inside our heads? Here’s our reality check on some of the biggest myths (and some of the most chillingly little-known facts) on the world’s most unloved rodent.

• Weird plant facts that you need to know

1. “You’re never more than six feet from a rat”

First, relax: this one is false, although it may have been not far from the truth once, and in only the most deprived locations.

Part of the problem is the assumption that populations (human and rodent) are consistently distributed, when they’re highly varied, and that localised rat numbers are not dependent on numerous environmental factors, when they obviously are.

Whatever the actual figure, there’s no doubt that rats do like to be relatively near to humans – and particularly the ample shelter and food that we offer, usually by accident. Most urban rats will be living in the comparative comfort of drains and sewers, and will emerge only at night, but they’ll happily break that habit if we make things comfy for them in the garden or allotment.

2. “There’s one rat for every person in the UK”

Disturbingly, we just don’t know about this one; modern estimates from the British Pest Control Association put rat populations at between 10 and 120 million, against the UK’s human population of 69 million.

According to Robert Sullivan, author of Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants (Granta, 2005), this claim goes back to an estimate made in WR Boelter’s The Rat Problem in 1909.

Following what would today seem a profoundly unscientific method, Boelter surveyed inhabitants of the English countryside on whether they thought one rat per acre of cultivated land was a reasonable estimate.

Based on the conclusion that this was in fact the case, the figure of roughly 40 million acres of cultivated land equated to roughly 40 million rats, which in turn roughly equated with the population of England at the time; and thus ‘one rat for every person in the country’ was born as a lasting rule of thumb.

However, the lack of certainty on total rat numbers probably doesn’t really matter, as it’s where they are in relation to us that really counts.

Their encroachment on our space tends to be driven by the availability of food, and the relative lack of human footfall to disturb them.

For this reason, Britain’s gardeners may be best served to keep a particular eye on their allotments rather than their gardens as we head into winter; warm, dry compost heaps make for a cosy retreat from winter cold, as do the foundations of semi-derelict sheds, seldom visited by humans between the final planting of garlic in autumn and the first pre-season clear-up.

3. “Rats will attack if cornered”

Not usually. Wild rats are wary animals that will avoid humans whenever possible. Bites are rare and tend to happen only when an animal is trapped, injured or handled.

For gardeners, the bigger risk is startling one in a compost heap or under a shed, but rats will almost always bolt to escape in such situations. Still, thick gloves are always a good idea when clearing overgrown corners or shifting old timber, to protect against general injuries and infections – as well as the far less likely outcome of a rat bite.

4. “You can catch nasty diseases from rats”

This one is true — but the danger is often overstated or misunderstood.

Rats can carry a number of pathogens that affect humans, including leptospirosis (Weil’s disease), hantavirus and rat-bite fever. In the UK, the most relevant is leptospirosis, spread through contact with rat urine in water or damp soil.

Gardeners are advised to wear gloves, cover cuts, and wash their hands after contact with compost heaps or work inside and around ponds. For most of us, the risk remains small, but it’s real enough to merit good hygiene.

5. “Certain smells or gadgets keep rats away”

Maybe – a bit. Peppermint oil, ultrasonic buzzers and home remedies are the talk of social media, but the evidence is mixed.

Rats quickly adapt to new stimuli, and unpleasant smells or sounds – unless implemented with real zeal and consistency – won’t deter them for long if they’re strongly motivated by the possibility of food and shelter. It’s a bit like using moss killer on a shaded, damp lawn; you may get rid of the moss for a while, but the cause is still there, and the moss will probably return.

The proven methods are boring but effective: seal up access holes under sheds, keep bins closed, clear bird-seed spills and avoid leaving standing water.

Video: Alan’s ultimate guide to keeping rats out of your garden

View Green Video on the source website

6. “Rats breed like… rabbits”

They can, if conditions allow. Female brown rats are capable of producing six litters in a year, each with up to 12 pups. The gestation period is just three weeks.

Rat pups grow fast and can themselves breed three months from birth, so a population of two rats can become hundreds within half a year – considerably faster than even the most amorous of rabbits.

In reality, reproduction and survival is governed by environmental factors such as temperature, predation and the availability of food, so reproduction rates are unlikely to be quite as high in most instances.

Conditions for rodent reproduction and survival are best in the warmer months, so numbers are likely to be at their highest in late summer into autumn; the reason we humans become so aware of rats in autumn is precisely because these populations are seeking warmth from encroaching cold, and food where supplies are running down.

7. “It might just be mouse droppings”

This one is easy: if it’s larger than a grain of rice, about 1-2cm, then it’s rats. If it’s smaller, it’s mice.

Another sign to look out for is the presence of greasy residues. Rats are extremely short-sighted, so they use vertical surfaces such as walls as a guide, as well as an instinctive protection against predation, leaving telltale staining on these surfaces.

8. “Rats will get worse with climate change”

This is probably true. Milder, later winters mean greater access to food, reduced hazardous exposure to freezing temperatures and longer breeding seasons.

A 2025 study led by Johnathan Richardson of the University of Richmond, in Virginia, USA, reported a significant rise in complaint calls to city pest control departments, using data going back as far as 17 years. The study linked climate change as a cause, noting that cities where temperatures were rising fastest had larger increases in rat activity and sightings.

This research has since been criticised for its use of messy proxy data rather than actual rat populations, but whatever the precise truth, the logic that longer summers and shorter, warmer winters would make life easier for rats to survive and reproduce is hard to dispute.

9. “A big rat can weigh six kilos…”

Yes, but only if phrased in the past tense. This is the now-extinct Timor giant rat, which has been estimated to weigh up to 6kg, a little more than the average house cat.

This was one of 13 species uncovered by excavations in 2010 on the island of East Timor, a location known to palaeontologists as a global hotspot for rodent evolution.

The Timor giant rat survived until as recently as the 10th century AD, so it may have been a reasonably common sight for the island’s human inhabitants, who arrived 40,000 years ago.

UK readers may be relieved to hear that the brown rat, by far our most common species, rarely exceeds 500g.

]]> Oliver Parsons <![CDATA[From the Pod: the science of why (and how) gardening really does make you happier and healthier]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/premium/science-of-gardening-and-health-richard-claxton/ 2026-07-27T15:42:28.000Z 2026-03-05T16:39:21.000Z Most gardeners know that time outdoors makes them feel better – but they don’t really know exactly why. Increasingly, however, there is specific scientific evidence that the link between gardening and wellbeing (Premium) is very real, and could be significant for our mental state, cognitive abilities and long-term health.  

So, we invited expert Dr Richard Claxton to the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast studio to find out more. 

A GP, founder of therapeutic gardening charity Gardening 4 Health, and Chief Executive of the National Garden Scheme, Richard has spent much of his career exploring the relationship between gardening and health (Premium).

His interest began, he says, in his small North London garden. As a junior doctor working long, stressful hours, he found that growing plants kept him fit and mentally steady. That personal experience led to a wider professional question: if gardening helped him, could it help patients, too? 

One of the clearest areas of research concerns stress. When we are under pressure, our bodies release cortisol, a hormone linked to the evolutionary ‘fight-or-flight’ response.  

In short bursts, it’s useful, but if chronically elevated, it’s associated with poorer immune function and a higher risk of illness. Studies suggest that spending time in natural environments can reduce cortisol levels within as little as 20 minutes. Research from Japan on “forest bathing” – intentionally spending relaxing time in forest settings – has also shown an increase in natural killer cells, which play a role in immune defence. 

How nature affects our wellbeing

There are several possible explanations for these effects. Trees and plants release aromatic compounds into the air; soil emits geosmin, the distinctive scent we notice after rain. Exposure to these compounds appears to influence heart rate and blood pressure, as well as stress hormones.  

Soil may also play a part in mood regulation. In our podcast, Richard pointed to studies involving a naturally occurring soil bacterium, heat-treated and administered in clinical settings, which appeared to improve mood in patients with serious illness. While this does not mean that handling compost is a substitute for medical treatment, it adds to a growing body of research exploring the gut-brain connection and the role of serotonin, a neurotransmitter strongly associated with mood. Many antidepressants act on serotonin pathways; evidence suggests that contact with soil organisms may influence similar systems. 

Podcast episode: The real science of health, wellbeing and gardening, with Dr Richard Claxton

Want to find out more? Listen to the whole episode here. 

Gardening Vs cognitive decline

Gardening’s impact is not confined to stress and mood. Richard describes the activity as a ‘cognitive gym’, with particular benefits for those experiencing memory problems or dementia. 

Planning a planting scheme, rotating crops on an allotment or working out how to fit seedlings into a greenhouse requires strategy, memory and problem-solving. Observational studies suggest that gardeners are, as a group, less likely to develop dementia than non-gardeners. In care settings, horticultural therapy sessions have been linked to reduced agitation and confusion later in the day. 

Gardening for all?

While the health benefits of gardening are relevant for anyone, access to those benefits is limited for many; one in eight people in the UK have no private outdoor space, a figure that rises to one in five in urban areas.  

For those without gardens, house plants and community growing projects are more than decorative. Contact with plants and greenery can improve concentration and academic performance among schoolchildren, studies have suggested. Allotments and community gardens, meanwhile, offer social connection – another key determinant of health. 

This broader approach to the benefits of exposure to nature has potential in the context of healthcare economics, Claxton argues. As part of this, he points to the increased profile of green social prescribing, in which GPs and link workers direct patients to gardening groups, therapeutic gardens, and outdoor activities, alongside conventional treatments.  

For Richard, the most important gardening advice is simple: relax and embrace inevitable garden failures or failed allotment crops, because gardening always does you good, however you do it. 

 Want to find out more? Listen to the whole episode here. 

]]> Harry Duncton <![CDATA[7 best pressure washers in 2026 – as actually tested by our experts]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/tools/power-tools/pressure-washers-buyers-guide/ 2026-05-20T12:42:18.000Z 2026-02-11T11:28:42.000Z

Jump to our 3 top-rated pressure washers

Jump to our 2 top-rated pressure cleaners

I know it's the done thing these days to let it all hang out and go for the natural look in your garden – but for me, there are certain aspects of the 'neat-and-tidy' approach that still really work – a nice clean patio, deck or path is not only pleasing, it helps the plants around it in borders and pots to really pop and look their best.

Enter the pressure washer – your best pal when it comes to cleaning up the patio and other parts of your plot, especially after a grimy, wet winter. But how do you get the right one for your needs? Relax – I am here to help.

My colleagues and I on the GW Reviews Team have been busy testing, testing, and testing literal shedloads of pressure washers and pressure cleaners over the years, and this page is where we've collated our absolute favourites across a number of price points and specifications.

What's more, we've been keeping abreast of things and have also been testing the new wave of cordless pressure washers and pressure cleaners – the coming thing in this product category, and we're betting the only type anyone will want in two or three years' time. AND, we've put together a buyer’s guide filled with advice on key features to look out for, the different sizes available, and suggestions on which models are best for cleaning a car and a patio. Oliver Parsons

View Affiliate Playlist on the source website

Our best pressure washers and cleaners to buy at a glance

Our 3 top-rated pressure washers

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best pressure washer all round – Bosch Universal Aquatak 135 Pressure Washer RRP £184
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best compact pressure washer – Nilfisk Core 140 RRP £185.99
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best pressure washer for tough cleaning jobs – Stihl RE110 Plus RRP £329

Our 2 top-rated cordless pressure cleaners

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best lightweight pressure cleaner – Worx 20V Powershare Hydroshot WG620E RRP £139.99
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best pressure cleaner for tough cleaning jobs – Ryobi RY18PWX41A-140 RRP £179.99

Also recommended: pressure washers

• 4.5/5 stars: Our best budget pressure washer – AVA Go P40 large bundle RRP £149.90
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best lightweight pressure washer – Black and Decker BEPW2000 RRP £169.99

Comparison table: best pressure washers and pressure cleaners

Our expertise

We tested a range of pressure washers and cordless pressure cleaners, using them for different jobs in the garden to help you find the right one for your needs. Each pressure washer has a detailed list of pros and cons for clarity and has been rated according to ease of use, handling, performance, and value for money. From 2026, you’ll only see newly awarded Best Buy badges on pressure washers and cleaners that score 4.5 out of 5 or higher. Anything rated 3.5 or above will still feature in our ‘Best of the rest’ list.

Jump to the best pressure washers and cleaners:

• Our 3 top-rated pressure washers
• Jump to our 2 top-rated pressure cleaners

Jump to pressure washer advice:

• How to choose the best pressure washer
• Pressure washers vs pressure cleaners
• What's the best pressure washer for a patio?
• What's the best pressure washer for cars?
• What to wear when pressure washing
• How we tested pressure washers and pressure cleaners
• Meet our testing panel

Our 3 top-rated pressure washers

1: Bosch Universal Aquatak 135

Our best all-round pressure washer

RRP: £184

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£135) and Tooled Up (£163.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Simple, with no nozzles to swap
• Comfortable to use
• Powerful, effective cleaning
• Excellent stability

Reasons to avoid:

• Accessories expensive

Some simple assembly of the Bosch Universal Aquatak 135 Pressure Washer is needed, but it doesn't take long as the parts just need to be clicked into place. I found the washer strong and robust, with no vibrations in use and a fairly quiet engine. The single lance and nozzle means you don't need to undo and replace the pencil, jet and fan nozzles every time you change job, which saves time. Just twist and click when you need a change of spray, and each one delivers powerful cleaning.

There's a long hose reach of 7m and, in my opinion, it's the ideal washer for bigger gardens. The sturdy wheels and two handles made it easy to move around the garden as I cleaned. I was pleased to see the upright handle folded down for easy storage. It's a well thought out washer with great cleaning power and it has a two-year warranty. Additional accessories such as a wash brush or patio cleaner can be bought, although they are a little expensive. Kay Maguire

Read the full Bosch Universal Aquatak 135 Pressure Washer review

• Buy the Bosch Universal Aquatak 135 Pressure Washer from Amazon (£135) and Tooled Up (£163.95)

Latest Deals

2: Nilfisk Core 140

Our best compact pressure washer

RRP: £185.99

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Toolstation (£213.98) and Amazon (£186)

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Reasons to buy:

• Easy to assemble
• Responsive trigger gun
• Compact design for easy storage
• Solid and sturdy

Reasons to avoid:

• Limited accessories

This is a fast, efficient pressure washer, which tackled my patio, decking, furniture and car with ease. I found the assembly straightforward, though I did need a screwdriver to attach the handles and some of the accessory holders. Once it's up and running, the nozzles simply click into place. A 6m flexible hose and long lance make it easier to get into nooks and crannies, and the trigger gun mechanism that activates the stop/start feature is comfortable to grip and doesn’t vibrate.

Three different power levels, combined with two nozzles, provide plenty of variation to suit delicate tasks as well as those tougher jobs. It combines impressive manoeuvrability and sturdiness, and doesn’t topple over during use, even if you have the hose at full stretch. It also tidies away easily with an internal reel storage system. Small and compact, this pressure washer has great storage features, while the sturdy wheels and handle make it conveniently portable. Kay Maguire

Read the full Nilfisk Core 140 Pressure Washer review

• Buy Nilfisk Core 140 Pressure Washer from  Toolstation (£213.98) and Amazon (£186)

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3: Stihl RE110 Plus

Our best pressure washer for tough cleaning jobs

RRP: £329

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: MowersUK (£270)

Reasons to buy:

• Lots of features, including a winding hose reel
• Good onboard storage
• Excellent cleaning performance
• Good stability

Reasons to avoid:

• Heavy

Getting this pressure washer set up was so easy. All it took was attaching the crank handle to the hose reel and slotting the cable, lance and nozzles into place, and it’s a very well-designed piece of kit. Both the 7m hose and the 5m cable are good lengths, and this pressure washer has a sturdy handle and large wheels that help make moving it around the garden and into place easy. At 20kg, it is heavy, though, so getting it up and down steps might be an issue for some. It has very well-designed onboard storage, with a wind-up reel for keeping the hose stored away, a compartment for the cable and nozzles, and the handle is telescopic, so it takes up less room in the shed.

It comes with a detergent bottle and two nozzles – a rotary jet nozzle and an adjustable fan jet – and the lance has a soft-grip handle, so I found it comfortable during prolonged use. Even at the highest setting, when the lance pushed against my hand, it didn’t vibrate like some models. Performance-wise, this is a very reliable machine. With an operating pressure of 110 bar, it tackled all my outdoor cleaning jobs well and blasted away the stubborn stains on our patio with relative ease. This is a well-thought-out and consistently performing machine. Accessories for cleaning the car and patio are available to buy for this pressure washer, and it comes with a three-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Stihl RE11o Plus from MowersUK (£270)

Our 2 top-rated cordless pressure cleaners

1: Worx 20V Powershare Hydroshot WG620E

Our best lightweight cordless pressure cleaner

RRP: £139.99

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Argos (£130) and Very (£140)

Reasons to buy:

• Easy to assemble and store
• Multi-spray nozzle
• Comes with an extension lance
• Good run time
• Battery level indicator display

Reasons to avoid:

• Limited accessories
• 3-5 hours charge time
• Unsuitable for jobs requiring very high pressure

I'd say this cordless pressure cleaner from WORX is a super option if you don’t have an outside tap for a garden hose or would find a portable pressure cleaner useful. It has an impressive ability to self-prime, meaning it can draw water from a bucket, pool or river rather than requiring a mains supply – it has a water inlet filter on the end of the hose to prevent debris from clogging up the system. It comes with a multi-spray nozzle, which features five settings - 0°, 25°, 40°, shower and mist, an extension lance, as well as a 6m hose.

Lightweight, weighing just 1.7kg, it operates at 22 Bar pressure, which delivers a 120-litres-per-hour flow rate. It uses a 20V 2AH MAX lithium-ion battery, and I like the fact that there’s a battery level indicator to show how much charge is left. While it doesn’t come with the range of accessories that the WORX WG629E.1 and the Yard Force Aquajet do, it’s part of the WORX Powershare family, which means the battery can be used across the other power tools in this range. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

Read the full Worx Pressure Cleaner WG620E review

• Buy Worx Pressure Cleaner WG620E from Argos (£130) and Very (£140)

Latest Deals

2: Ryobi RY18PWX41A-140

Our best cordless pressure cleaner for tough cleaning jobs

RRP: £179.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Ryobi (£179.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Maximum 41 bars of pressure
• Three power levels to choose from
• Comfortable grip ergonomics

Reasons to avoid:

• Heavy and chunky design
• Maximum of 22 minutes runtime at full power
• Proprietary accessories are not compatible with other brands

If you’re looking for a pressure cleaner that provides plenty of power while staying completely off grid, the Ryobi RY18PWX41A is an excellent choice. As I’ve come to expect from Ryobi tools, the grip shape is well designed with an ergonomic handle and plenty of rubberised sections to hang on to. The rubberised section in front of the grip makes two-handed operation comfortable. And that’s a good thing, because weighing in at 2.65 kg with the long lance and battery in place, this is the heaviest cordless pressure cleaner I’ve tested so far. It’s a rather chunky piece of kit, mainly thanks to the rather large waterproof battery enclosure on the bottom of the tool.

It’s pleasant to see a nice little range of accessories included in the box. There’s a handy adapter designed for two-litre bottles- allowing for proper off-grid washing, a siphon hose with filter for taking water from a bucket, and even a little net bag to keep everything together. The only thing I don’t like is that most pressure cleaners share “push and twist” accessories, whereas Ryobi have their own system. It’s worth bearing in mind if you want to buy aftermarket lances or brushes.

The spray nozzle only includes three modes, but one of them is a rotating “turbo” nozzle that is ideal for stubborn dirt and grime. The other two are a happy-medium 15° nozzle and a rinse nozzle tip for cleaning up at the end. Bundled with a 4.0 Ah battery and charger, it takes roughly two hours to recharge it fully. That’s important to know, because you only get just over 20 minutes of power washing at full power.

Another thing that I like about this pressure cleaner is that you can select from three different power levels. Controlled by a little button on the back of the tool, it means you can dial in the right pressure for the job and get the most out of each battery. A capable and versatile pressure cleaner, this chunky beast of a tool is a pleasure to use, even if it’s a little bit on the heavy side. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Ryobi RY18PWX41A-140 from Ryobi (£179.99)

Also recommended: pressure washers

AVA Go P40 Large Bundle

Our best budget pressure washer

RRP: £149.90

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£164.90), Robert Dyas (£149.99) and Wickes (£149)

Reasons to buy:

• Light and easy to pick up and carry
• Simple to use with good features
• Excellent for storage
• Powerful

Reasons to avoid:

• No instructions
• It can be tricky to slot on the nozzle
• The telescopic lance gets stuck

This pressure washer has no wheels, but it's nice and compact, and I found it light enough to pick up and carry around the garden with me. It has a strong, steel-reinforced hose and comes with a detergent bottle and two nozzles – 'turbo' and 'vario'. It also has a telescopic ‘zoom’ lance for reaching into corners and higher spots, although this did get stuck a few times in use in my test. It was also sometimes tricky to get the nozzles on and off, which I found frustrating, but when both these things were working well, this was a great little pressure washer.

With an operating pressure of 120 bar, it cleans powerfully and well, tackling grubby patios and cars with ease, and I couldn't feel any vibrations in my hand as I worked. Once you’ve finished cleaning, there’s a dedicated space to store both the hose and cable and the nozzles and lance, even on a machine as small as this. It's also very good value and comes with a 10-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy AVA Go P40 Large Bundle from Amazon (£164.90), Robert Dyas (£149.99) and Wickes (£149)

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Black & Decker BEPW2000

Our best lightweight pressure washer

RRP: £169.99

Our rating: 4.5/5

Available from: Amazon (£157.99) and Tooled Up (£155.95)

Reasons to buy:

• Light and compact in use and storage
• Ready to use
• Powerful cleaning
• Self-priming with additional hose

Reasons to avoid:

• Vibration in the hand after only a short time
• Handle slips down

This neat little model cleans surprisingly powerfully and efficiently. Pleasingly, it was almost ready to use straight out of the box – it just needs the hose, cable and lance attaching, and it requires no extra tools. I found the telescopic handle made it easy to tuck away in storage, and at just over 8kg, it’s light and easy to move around, though the handle did slip down occasionally when I was using it. It has a 6m hose and comes with two nozzles – a rotating turbo nozzle and an adjustable fan nozzle – and a detergent bottle.

There’s only one power level, but you can adjust the spray with the nozzles, and with 150 bar pressure, it cleaned my patio, garden furniture and caravan well. Tackling a stained patio took a little longer than some of the others in the test, but it's definitely powerful enough to get the job done. There’s also space on board for storage of the cable and nozzles once you’re finished. The only issue I had with this pressure washer is that after a while, I felt the vibrations quite strongly in my hand. Otherwise, this washer is easy to use and store, small, light and quiet and comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

• Buy the Black and Decker BEPW2000 from Amazon (£157.99) and Tooled Up (£155.95)

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The best of the rest pressure washers and pressure cleaners

Although some models didn't quite achieve a BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Best Buy award, they still have great features that make them worth recommending. Browse our pick of the best of the rest on test.

WORX Nitro Hydroshot WG633E Portable Power Cleaner

RRP: £199.99 (including 4.0 Ah battery and charger)

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£179.95) and Homebase (£199.00)

Reasons to buy:

• 56 bars of pressure is impressive
• Several useful accessories are included
• Five nozzle patterns

Reasons to avoid:

• Eco mode is not very powerful
• Drains batteries quickly on full power

Building on previous Hydroshot innovations, WORX have increased power and made the new Hydroshot even more powerful and versatile. The onboard brushless motor can produce 56 bar of pressure, which I think is extremely impressive for a handheld device like this.

One of the downsides that leapt out while I was testing this pressure cleaner was its weight. While it's not all that bad at 2.3kg, it was not made any easier to deal with by a complete lack of other handles on the chassis. This made it a bit tiring to use. However, this pressure cleaner makes up for this minor comfort setback with impressive amounts of power at the nozzle end.

It feels like a solid and well-made tool, with a large orange rubberised grip and a large plastic trigger. The trigger guard is a bit on the small side if you have large hands like mine, though. The battery is housed in a clever waterproof compartment that should stop any dust or water ingress

Attaching the long lance to the motor end is a simple push and twist fit, like the other cleaners on this page, but WORX have included a quality brass fitting on the end, which is nice to see. At the nozzle end, there are five different spray patterns available: 0°, 15°, 25°, and 40°, as well as a sprinkler mode for rinsing.

The Hydroshot features an “eco” mode that drops the pressure to save batteries, but I didn’t find it very useful except for rinsing or watering plants. Compared with the impressive pressure on full power, it seems a bit weak.

I really liked that there were a fair few accessories included with the pressure cleaner. There’s a handy adapter that screws onto a standard two-litre drinks bottle, for example, meaning that you can keep this in the back of your car for cleaning muddy equipment. Or you can use the hose attachment with its filtered pickup sock and take water from just about anywhere. There’s no bag for keeping the accessories together, though.

The only drawback of this high-powered pressure cleaner is that it drains batteries quite quickly on full power. I managed a little under 25 minutes of cleaning with the included 4.0 Ah battery. It’s fine for smaller jobs, but the two-hour recharge time means you want to get the most out of each charge. Harry Duncton

• Buy the WORX Nitro Hydroshot WG633E Portable Power Cleaner from Amazon (£179.95) and Homebase (£199.00)

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Stihl RCA 20 Cordless Pressure Cleaner

RRP: £204 (with 2 x AS batteries and charger) , £154 (tool only)

Our rating: 3.8/5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£194.00)

Reasons to buy:

• Lightweight and ergonomically designed
• Handy canvas bag to hold all the accessories
• Supplied with a 20-litre water container
• Useful detergent bottle attachment

Reasons to avoid:

• Operating pressure of just 22 bar
• Maximum 15-minute working time per battery

I was impressed by the brilliant design and incredible flexibility of the Stihl RCA 20, which allows you to pressure clean “off grid” without access to mains power or even a water source. Although it’s not powerful enough for patio cleaning, its real value lies in its lightweight, portable design. Powered by the small, lightweight AS battery system, this pressure cleaner is easy to hold thanks to its large, rubberised handle. Above the handle is a battery charge level indicator, and in front is a hose connector with an inline filter

With the battery attached and the long spray lance in place, it still only weighs 1.7kg. This lightweight quality makes it ideal for almost anyone to use comfortably. One drawback of the lightweight AS battery is that it’s small. In fact, it is tiny. With just over 2.0Ah to play with, you’ll need to have spare batteries to make up for the 15-minute runtime. It’s a good thing that the RCA 20 set comes with two batteries to get you started.

I was able to extend the runtime from the basic 15 minutes with “eco” mode – this was pretty handy, but probably won't be much good when you're trying to tackle stubborn dirt. Full power runs at 22 bars, which isn’t huge, but it’s enough to clean off garden furniture or a muddy bicycle without making too much noise.

The spray nozzle has four modes: a fan-jet shape for cleaning, a rotary “turbo” for stubborn dirt, a narrow jet for maximum pressure, and a 'pouring' mode that’s perfect for watering plants or rinsing soap off a car. I really liked that this kit comes with a quality canvas-style bag to keep all the accessories together. The accessories include a length of hose with a two-step filter on the end, as well as a clip to keep it in a bucket or other container. There’s also a soap bottle for applying detergent and a soft 20-litre water bowser for proper off-grid cleaning capabilities.

OK, this isn’t the most powerful cordless pressure cleaner available, but on my test, it really conveyed a strong feeling of quality, which is nice when you're parting with £200. It also comes with well-thought-out accessories that make it useful for a wide range of garden tasks. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Stihl RCA 20 Pressure Cleaner from Just Lawnmowers (£194.00)

Makita DHW180 Cordless Pressure Cleaner LXT

RRP: £141.60 (bare tool)

Our rating: 3.8/5

Available from: Tooled Up (£109.95) and Amazon (£109.99).

Makita DHW180 Cordless Pressure Cleaner LXT

Reasons to buy:

• Runs for up to an hour on one charge
• Comfortable grip shape and front handle
• Five different nozzle settings to choose from

Reasons to avoid:

• Few accessories provided
• Heavier than some of the competition

Makita know a thing or two about making the best cordless power tools. The DHW180 might not come with all the accessories, but it did a great job for me, blasting grubby garden furniture and cleaning up mucky brickwork. Ergonomically, it was brilliant to use: the huge trigger is very easy to grip, and the rubberised grip is comfortable to hold. I also like the rubberised front grip for two-handed use, which makes this cleaner comfortable to use over longer periods.

In front of the trigger section is a standard UK push-fit hose connector that contains a handy inline filter. A useful safety addition is the waterproof enclosure that keeps the battery away from both dust and water ingress.

I found it a really easy-to-use, well-designed tool, which is a good thing because it’s pretty heavy in the hand, weighing just over 2.4kg with the long lance and a 5.0Ah battery in place. However, with the large-capacity battery in place, it will run for half an hour on high and over an hour on low-flow mode.

You can choose from a whopping five different spray patterns built into the nozzle on this pressure cleaner. Although it doesn’t include a rotating nozzle, you get 0°, 15°, 25°, and 40° nozzles as well as a “shower” nozzle for rinsing garden furniture. It even comes with a clever cleaning pin to keep the jets free of debris.

It’s a shame this pressure cleaner doesn’t come with a case; it only includes a pickup hose with a filter sock and a bucket clip. Other accessories are available, such as a bottle attachment and a soap dispenser, but they’re not included here. However, it’s a powerful, versatile, and good-value pressure cleaner that works off-grid when you need it. Harry Duncton

• Buy the Makita DHW180 Cordless Pressure Cleaner LXT from Tooled Up (£109.95) and Amazon (£109.99)

Makita HW111 Pressure Washer

RRP: £200

Our rating: 4/5

Available from: Amazon (£199) and Tool Den (£209.36)

Reasons to buy:

• Cleans well
• Compact and stable
• Handy hose reel

Reasons to avoid:

• Lacks accessories
• Lance feels short

The Makita HW111 is compact, stable and has wheels to help make manoeuvring easy despite its weight. I think it's a good option for cars, fences and driveways. The pressure washer is relatively simple but cleans well, and it's supplied with a choice of sprays, an integrated hose reel and a foam sprayer. Kay Maguire

• Buy from the Makita HW111 Pressure Washer from Amazon (£199) and Tool Den (£209.36)

VonHaus Pressure Washer 2200W

RRP: £139.99

Our rating: 3.8/5

Available from: The Range (£139.99), Robert Dyas (£139.99) and Debenhams (£149.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Clever adjustable nozzle
• Plenty of pressure at 165 bar
• Long 8m hose

Reasons to avoid:

• Lots of plastic parts
• Falls over when pulling the hose out
• Only a few accessories included

Setup and ease of use: Preparing the VonHaus pressure washer for its first cleaning job is simple. There’s barely any setup required; it’s a simple task of connecting the hose to the cleaning wand, and on off I went. First impressions were good because it’s a lightweight pressure washer. Compared to my old one weighing 30kg, the 10.5kg Vonhaus pressure washer was welcome. Easy to carry around by the big top handle or using the wheels, it’s fine pulling up steps or over low walls.

My initial concerns about this tool were in the vast amount of plastics throughout. Some parts of this pressure washer, especially in the hose reel, feel like they should be sturdier for this garden tool to last. Although it saves on weight, some bits of the pressure washer feel flimsy. For the price, you get a modest selection of accessories to clean everything from delicate car paintwork to stubborn mould and stains on brickwork. It comes with a pair of nozzles and a brush attachment for scrubbing as well as pressure cleaning.

Another bonus is the 8m hose. Reinforced to avoid kinks, it feels sturdy and helps to reach wherever you need it to go. The downside of this is that it makes it a bit harder to reel in. The other accessory is a small detergent bottle that attaches to the rear of the body. You can fill it up with the soap of your choice and it feeds into the water stream, perfect for cleaning a dirty car or mossy garden furniture. Running at 2,200 Watts, it’s powerful enough to create 165 bar, or 2,000 PSI, which is impressive for an entry-level pressure washer. Something that isn’t quite as impressive is the relatively short power cable. Supplied with just 5m, I needed to get the extension cord out.

Performance: To help reach the far corners of the driveway or garden, the pressure washer comes with a generous 8m hose. Reeling it in and out in is a bit of a chore, however. The hose reel on top of the unit has a plastic handle that feels a bit flimsy, so winding the entire length of the hose is a challenge. I needed to help it along by winding the hose reel with my other hand. This is also where the pressure washer’s light weight works against it. Where my old heavy washer could stand up while I pulled the hose out, this one has a habit of falling over.

Now for the best bit, in my opinion. I’ve tested plenty of pressure washers in the past, and most of them come with an array of tips to create different spray patterns and pressures. VonHaus have done away with the need for several tips with their clever adjustable nozzle. The nozzle has an adjustable tip that starts with a wide spray pattern and relatively low pressure down to a 0° fine jet that makes the most of the 2,000 PSI available. All I needed to do was twist the tip until it fitted the job. It was remarkably simple and much better than switching tips between jobs.

The brush nozzle performed similarly to other brushes I’ve used before. The bristles are tough enough to remove dried on dirt and detritus, but not too stiff to scratch the paint on a car, for instance. And when used together with the detergent bottle it made short work of my conservatory’s sadly neglected roof. In conclusion, this is a budget-friendly pressure washer that has plenty of power for deep cleaning patios or scrubbing the dirt off a car. There’s plenty of hose to play with and the adjustable nozzle tip is a clever design, but the build quality leaves a little to be desired. For the money though, it’s a handy bit of garden kit. Harry Duncton

• Buy the VonHaus Pressure Washer 2200W from The Range (£139.99), Robert Dyas (£139.99) and Debenhams (£149.99)

Our experts have also tested the best leaf blowers and leaf vacuums, which come into their own when you're tidying up the garden, as will the best strimmers and the best hedge trimmers. And if you need to update your watering kit, check out our tests of the best garden hoses and best garden hose spray guns.

For more cordless garden tools, read our best cordless mowers and best robotic mowers guides, or take a look at the best cordless drills and best multi-tools.

Buying a pressure cleaner - video

View Green Video on the source website

Many thanks to Rosie Yeomans and Sparsholt College for their help in making this video.

How to choose the best pressure washer or cleaner

Good cleaning performance is essential, but there are several factors to consider before buying your pressure washer or cleaner.

• Think about what you need to clean, how often and how dirty it will get. The higher the pressure that a washer produces, the more power it has to shift stubborn dirt. Pressure is measured in bars, so the higher the bar number, the heavier-duty the washer. The size of the motor, measured in watts, and the water flow rate also indicate high performance.
  However, although a more powerful machine can lift heavy dirt quickly, a cheaper, lighter-duty washer will still do the job – it will just take longer. A low power and flow rate are ideal for cleaning delicate surfaces like decking, fencing and block paving, so a smaller machine would suffice. Otherwise, choose a gentle nozzle on a more powerful washer to avoid damage. For larger surfaces, look for a higher bar rating and flow rate to tackle the job quickly
• All washers come with a standard nozzle, sometimes two, but specialist attachments will help you get specific jobs done properly. Work out the main jobs you’ll be doing and choose a washer with the relevant accessories – or check they’re available to buy later, at not too high a price. A brush is handy for cleaning furniture, cars and greenhouse glazing, while a patio cleaner will make very light work of surfaces without spraying dirt and grime everywhere. Some washers have an integrated detergent tank, others have a bottle that you fill with diluted detergent and attach between the lance and the nozzle
• The amount of assembly required varies – some simply need the lance and hose attaching, but others have to be practically built from scratch, with screwdrivers and Allen keys required. Check what's needed before you buy
• Pressure washers differ considerably in weight. Make sure a larger model has wheels to help you move it around the garden. Carry handles in the right places are essential if you have a lot of steps or need to lift the washer up onto a shelf for storage. If you have a large garden, check the hose length to ensure you can reach everything you need to clean. An extension lead suitable for outdoor use will also extend your working area –just make sure you protect it from the sprays

What's the difference between a pressure washer and a pressure cleaner?

The main difference between the two is that pressure cleaners are portable, so they don’t need to be attached to the mains water supply. Instead, they're self-priming and draw water via a suction hose from any source, including a bucket, pool or even a river. However, most pressure cleaners also feature a hose adapter, which can be connected to the mains tap, offering the best of both worlds. They’re also cordless and powered by lithium-ion batteries, so you will be limited by their run time, but the batteries are usually part of a wider range of power tools within the brand’s range, which can save you money.

As with pressure washers, pressure cleaners also come with multi-spray nozzles. Depending on the model, they can be bought with a range of accessories, like a foldable bucket, brush and soap bottle, or these can be purchased separately. Pressure cleaners offer a moderate flow rate, around 120L per hour, with 22 bars of pressure from 20V power.

Types of pressure washer

Budget pressure washers

A basic, lower-powered machine is best for smaller garden tasks such as cleaning gardening equipment and washing down bikes. If you’re planning to tackle a lot of built-up grime on rough surfaces, this isn’t the machine for you.

For a lower-powered, budget model, you’ll be looking at a lower flow rate plus:

• Motor wattage – 1200 to 1600 watts
• Water pressure – 90 bar or under

Mid-range pressure washers

These pressure washers are ideal for most households. Machines in this range should be able to cope with cleaning paving, garden furniture, and cars.

For a medium-powered model, you’ll be looking at a reasonable flow rate plus:

• Motor wattage – 1600 to 2000 watts
• Water pressure – 90 to 130 bar

Top-of-the-range and semi-professional pressure washers

If you’ve got a large commercial area to clean or some seriously built-up grime, you’ll need a high-powered pressure washer. These pressure washers should be able to clean large areas of paving and vehicles, such as 4x4s and caravans.

For a top-of-the-range machine, you’ll want a high flow rate plus:

• Motor wattage – 2000 to 2500 watts
• Water pressure – 130 to 150 bar

What's the best pressure washer for a patio?

To clean a paved patio, you’ll need at least a mid-range, medium-power pressure washer, though a lower-pressure machine is better suited to block paving or wooden decking. The three pressure cleaners we tested will also cope well with this type of task; just bear in mind their battery run time. To make cleaning larger areas easier, look for a long hose that's kinder on your back and opt for a washer with specific patio-cleaning attachment tools. Similar to an indoor floor cleaner, the brush head and rotating jets diffuse the pressure across the surface to clean flat surfaces evenly, rather than concentrating the water in a single stream at a time, as a hose would.

What's the best pressure washer for cars?

For a standard car, a mid-range pressure washer should do the job. 4x4s that see a lot of heavy-duty use, caravans or commercial vehicles may need a higher-end model. All the pressure cleaners we tested are designed to clean cars, camper vans, and bikes when you’re out and about. You will need to keep the runtime in mind and possibly charge more for larger vehicles.
Specific car-cleaning attachments are also available, including angled tools for reaching beneath the car and brushes for softly cleaning the bodywork.

What to wear when pressure washing

Before you begin pressure washing in the garden, consider what you’re wearing. You might be surprised at how much water and muck can get thrown up whilst using these tools. Wear wellies and waterproof trousers to stop your clothes and feet getting soaked. Goggles are essential to protect your eyes from the dirt and grit that may be blown up in the spray, and you might also like to wear ear defenders when using noisier models, or if you’re working for a long period of time. For more clothing inspiration whilst you’re gardening, take a look at our selection of the best clothes for gardeners.

How we tested pressure washers and pressure cleaners

We tested a range of pressure washers and pressure cleaners, putting them through their paces on a range of surfaces. They were assessed according to the following criteria, with equal marks attributed to each:

• Set up and storage. Assessed how easy the pressure washers and cleaners were to assemble, how long this took and if any extra tools were needed, and how easy the instructions are to use. We also looked at size, any storage features, how quick it was to charge the batteries for the pressure cleaners and how easy it was to store
• Handling. Looked at weight, balance and how easy it was to move around the garden and use, its grip, including features like a safety button, the battery  runtime, and noise levels
• Performance. Focused on cleaning power and how well and quickly the pressure washer cleaned. We assessed how they dealt with different surfaces, such as paving, furniture, brick, and cars and tested different nozzles, water pressure levels, and different areas of the garden
• Value for Money. Considered all of the above, plus any special features, RRP and warranty

For more information on our testing process, see How we review

Meet our testing panel

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects Editor
Oliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which?, as a freelance gardener and with the gardening team at Down House in Kent. He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Kay Maguire, Magazines Editor
Kay trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has been writing and making films about gardening ever since. She has written for websites and magazines, including The Garden and Amateur Gardening, was Horticultural Editor on BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for five years, and has also written several books on a range of gardening topics from growing house plants to making the most of a small space. After several years as Reviews Editor, building up our reviews section into a leading resource for UK gardeners, she has now become Magazines Editor for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, responsible for all print output.

Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools Tester
Harry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening. A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them.

Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden Writer
Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker. Sue writes regularly for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, GardenersWorld.com and Garden Answers magazine. She has written 10 books on subjects including container gardening, plants for small gardens and designing with colour, and she has co-authored other books with some of the biggest names in gardening.

Emma Crawforth, Horticulture Editor
Emma holds the Kew Diploma in Horticulture and has been working in horticulture for 18 years, including roles in public gardens, a plant nursery supplying plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a training college for young horticulturists. She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. She is the author of the Kew Publications book, Things to Do with Plants.

Jane Moore, Freelance Garden Writer
In a horticultural career spanning 30 years, Jane has been a head gardener at a Benedictine Abbey, a writer for national gardening magazines and newspapers, a researcher on BBC gardening programmes and a TV presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World. Among her many accolades are a Chelsea Flower Show medal, several awards from the Garden Media Guild and her books are published worldwide. She has spent 30 years working as a hands-on head gardener, using tools on a daily basis.

This review was last updated in March 2026. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.

]]> Harry Duncton <![CDATA[11 of the best lawn mowers in 2026, as tested and rated by our reviews experts]]> https://www.gardenersworld.com/reviews/lawn-care/best-lawn-mowers/ 2026-05-19T14:29:22.000Z 2026-02-09T10:56:39.000Z

Jump to our top 2 cordless lawn mowers

Jump to our top 2 electric corded lawn mowers

Jump to our top 2 hand push lawn mowers

Jump to our top 2 robot lawn mowers

Your lawn mower – it's the ONE purchase that pretty much everyone with a garden needs to make. But buying the wrong one for your needs can be a big, expensive mistake. Not only is there a bewildering set of categories, from ultra-modern self-propelled cordless lawn mowers to basic hand-push mowers, there are also loads of different features on offer within each category – some of which you'll find essential, and some of which you'll find get in the way of getting the mowing done on a Saturday morning. Other big things to consider are the cutting width, the range of cutting heights, how it folds down, and the overall weight, which is massively important if yours will be lifted in and out of a shed.

So that's why my colleagues and I – and especially my predecessor on the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews desk, Kay Maguire – have created this one, huge central page of the best lawn mowers available to buy right now. It contains the top picks of our award-winning Best Buy mowers from our lawn mower test categories, including the best cordless mowers, the best electric, the best robotic mowers and the best hand-push mowers, all tested by our experts. 

From 2026, you’ll only see newly awarded Best Buy badges on lawn mowers that score 4.5 out of 5 or higher. Anything rated 3.5 or above will still feature in our ‘Best of the rest’ lists.

Oliver Parsons, GardenersWorld.com

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Our best mowers to buy at a glance:

Our 2 top-rated cordless mowers

• 4.9/5 stars: Our best lightweight cordless mower – Husqvarna Aspire LC34 P4A RRP £349
• 4.8/5 stars: Our best self-propelled cordless mower under £500 – Worx Nitro WG749E 40V 46cm RRP £449.99

Also recommended: cordless mowers

• 4.5/5 stars: Our best budget cordless mower for small gardens – Greenworks GDG24LM33 RRP £149.99 (bare tool)
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best user-friendly self-propelled cordless mower – Ego LM1702E-SP 42cm self-propelled mower (kit) RRP £619
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best self-propelled cordless mower for stripes – Stihl RMA 448 RV rear roller RRP £829 (bare tool)

Our 2 top-rated corded electric mowers

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best budget electric mower for small gardens, under £100 – Webb WEER33 RRP £99.99
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best electric mower for large gardens – Mountfield Electress 38 RRP £269 (kit)

Our 2 top-rated hand-push mowers

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best budget hand-push mower – Webb 30cm Autoset sidewheel RRP £88.99
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best hand-push mower all round – Gardena Comfort Hand Cylinder 400C RRP £140.95

Our 2 top-rated robot mowers

• 4.8/5 stars: Our best robot mower for performance – Stihl iMOW 5 RRP £1,729
• 4.5/5 stars: Our best robot mower for easy set up on big lawns – Segway Navimow i208 LiDAR
  RRP £1,099

Comparison table: best lawn mowers

Jump to:

• Best cordless lawn mowers
• Best electric corded lawn mowers
• Best hand push lawn mowers
• Best robotic lawn mowers

Best cordless mowers

TOP-RATED: Husqvarna Aspire LC34-P4A

Our best lightweight cordless mower

RRP: £349

Our rating: 4.9 out of 5

Available from: Husqvarna (£349)

Reasons to buy:

• Quiet
• Cuts long grass with ease
• Battery level visible while mowing
• Small and compact for easy storage

Reasons to avoid:

• Only four cutting heights
• 95 minutes charge time

This lightweight 34cm mower is part of the new Husqvarna Aspire cordless range, which includes a hedge trimmer, pruner and leaf blower, and it's powered by an 18V POWER FOR ALL ALLIANCE battery and charger. It's useful that these are interchangeable with tools in other leading brands such as Flymo, Gardena and Bosch, so if you also invest in tools in these ranges, you’ll only need to buy the bare tool and won’t have different batteries and chargers taking up space in the shed. Also, the two-year warranty on this mower is a good sign that the investment will last.

I found this mower great for small gardens for several reasons: the mower comes ready to go; there’s no assembly needed or handles to attach, and it folds down to a compact size when you’re finished, with a telescopic handle that folds completely flat over the body of the mower. It can then be stood up against a wall or hung up, and it even comes with a handy hook.

The 30-litre grass bag also flattens down to take up very little room and can be hung on the mower. I liked the fact that the Aspire is so light, with a carry handle so that lifting it up steps or into other areas is easy, and it has an adjustable handle to suit different heights.

It’s comfortable and easy to manoeuvre around the garden and has just four cutting heights to choose from, ranging from 25-65mm, and they were easy to change with a single lever on the body of the mower. It cuts grass quietly and smoothly and has an automatic boost that increases blade speed when you’re mowing in tougher, longer areas, which works well. You can hear it kick in when you push the mower into longer grass, and unlike other cordless mowers that can cut out, it just carries on cutting the grass.

I also really liked being able to see the battery charge level while mowing, so I could gauge how much power there was left, and when the battery needed charging. Kay Maguire

RRP: £349
Cutting width: 34cm
Weight: 11.8kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 95 mins
Run time/Mow area: 500 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 30 litres

• Buy the Husqvarna Aspire LC34P4A from Husqvarna (£349)

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Worx Nitro WG749E 40V 46cm

Our best self-propelled cordless mower under £500

RRP: £449.99

Our rating: 4.8 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£604.24)

Reasons to buy:

• Battery power is visible when you mow
• Cutting power adjusts to grass length

Reasons to avoid:

• The collection bag is fiddly to assemble
• Heavy

This easy-to-use mower needs no assembly and has a quick-release, collapsible handle, so it’s very simple to store, even in a packed shed. One thing that really helped when I was testing this machine is that it stands up vertically, with the handle folded over and the front wheels in the air – that meant it only took up about a third of the usual floor space in storage.

The Nitro requires two 20V 4Ah PowerShare batteries, which give a 40-minute run time, and it was a relief that the battery power level is clearly visible while you mow – it's such an important thing when you're tackling a large area of grass. The batteries and the charger are also interchangeable with all other Worx PowerShare tools.

It offers seven cutting heights, 20-80mm, which are easy to adjust with a simple lever. It also has a cutting width of 46cm, making it ideal for medium-sized lawns.

I liked the mower's simple speed control, plus it adjusts its cutting power according to grass length and conditions, which helps save on battery. It has a safety key and a 55-litre collection bag, so there's plenty of room for the cuttings, but there's also a mulching option, so you can choose to let the cuttings fall back on the lawn to feed the grass rather than worry about emptying the bag.

Considering the wealth of features this mower offers, this is a great-value option. It also has a three-year warranty, plus two more years if registered. Kay Maguire

RRP: £449.99
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 28.7kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 40 mins
Cutting height range: 20-80mm
Grass box: 55 litres

• Buy the Worx Nitro WG749 from Amazon (£604.24)

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Also recommended: cordless mowers

Greenworks GDG24LM33

Our best budget cordless mower for small gardens

RRP: £149.99 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£117.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Easy to assemble and use
• Comfortable padded handle
• Choice of mulching or collecting clippings
• Battery interchangeable with Greenworks 24V family

Reasons to avoid:

• Short handle for taller users
• Struggles with longer grass

I found this sturdy, great-value cordless mower easy to put together, well thought out, and simple to use – superbly suited to small gardens. Thanks to a padded handle, it's comfortable to push, although this could feel a little short for taller people, and it's light and easy to manoeuvre around trees and lawn edges.

There are five cutting heights to choose from, adjusted with the simple lift of a lever, and you can collect clippings in the 30-litre fabric grass bag or insert the mulching plug and leave them on the lawn to break down and feed the grass.

It mowed well, helped in part by the specification of a long-lasting brushless motor, but it didn't like mowing very long grass. The battery cut out on me occasionally, but the decent runtime of 46 minutes made up for that a bit, and it charged in just two hours.

Plus, as part of the Greenworks 24V family, both the battery and charger are interchangeable with all the other tools in the range, saving you money if you invest in more Greenworks tools in the future. Kay Maguire

RRP: £199.99
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 9.5kg
Type: push cordless
Charge time: 120 mins
Run time/Mow area: 280 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 25-70mm
Grass box: 30 litres

• Buy the Greenworks-GDG24LM33 from Amazon (£117.99)

Latest Prices

Ego LM1702E-SP 42cm self-propelled mower (kit)

Our best user-friendly self-propelled cordless mower

RRP: £619 (kit)

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£559) and Mowers Online (£559)

Reasons to buy:

• A big range of cutting heights, all adjustable with a single lever
• The folding handle makes it easy to get out and put away

Reasons to avoid:

• No mulching option
• Only available as a kit

This well-thought-through mower requires no assembly out of the box, so I was able to get mowing almost as soon as it arrived. It has a quick-release, telescopic handle, which offers a bespoke handle height and also makes it very easy to fold down and store.

Once folded, it can also be stood up vertically, so it took up even less space in my storage area. It offers a wide choice of cutting heights, 20-80mm, and the wider-than-average 42cm cutting width makes it ideal for mid-sized gardens. It runs on a 56V battery, which can mow 300 sq. metres on a single charge, and is compatible with other Ego Power+ tools. The battery level is also clearly visible whilst you mow.

There's a handy safety key that can be stored away from the mower to ensure only the user can operate it. It's easy to operate and handle, with easy speed control, a 55-litre grass bag, and even headlights. It comes with a five-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £619
Cutting width: 42cm
Weight: 24kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Run time/Mow area: 30 mins
Cutting height range: 25-80mm
Grass box: 55 litres

• Buy the Ego LM1702E-SP from Just Lawnmowers (£559) and Mowers Online (£559)

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Stihl RMA 448 RV rear roller cordless mower

Our best self-propelled cordless lawn mower for stripes

RRP: £829 (bare tool)

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Just Lawnmowers (£759) and Lakeland Power Tools (£797.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Energy-saving mode increases run time
• Rear roller for stripes
• Easy to switch to mulching
• Low cutting height for a neat finish

Reasons to avoid:

• Large, fiddly plastic grass box
• No safety key

This distinctive mower is ready to use straight out of the box; only the grass box needs assembly, and this was pretty tricky. The unusual one-sided mono handle makes it easy to access the grass box, which makes a big difference when you are tackling a large lawn and emptying the clippings often.

The handle also adjusts in height very easily, and it can be folded flat over the mower, making it easier to store. When I folded the mower up, I was able to stand it vertically with its front wheels in the air, so it saved a lot of space – always a good feature.

It lacks a safety key but has other good features, including speed control and a mulching option that's as simple as a flick of a switch. It has a cutting width of 46cm and offers a wide range of five cutting heights, from 15-60mm, so you can get a neat, tight clip. This is particularly useful as this mower also has a rear roller to create beautiful stripes on the lawn.

It requires a 36V 5Ah battery, which gives you enough power to mow a lawn up to 340 sq. metres on a single charge, plus there's space for a spare battery, if you have one. It's also compatible with all Stihl AK cordless tools, saving you money if you invest in the future. It comes with a two-year warranty. Kay Maguire

RRP: £829
Cutting width: 46cm
Weight: 30kg
Type: self-propelled cordless
Run time/Mow area: 340 sq. metres
Cutting height range: 15-60mm
Grass box: 52 litres

• Buy the Stihl RMA 448 RV rear roller cordless mower from Just Lawnmowers

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Best electric corded mowers

TOP-RATED: Webb Weer33 electric lawn mower

Our best budget electric mower for small gardens, under £100

RRP: £99.99

Our rating: 4.8/5

Available from: Amazon (£94.48), Robert Dyas (£99.99) and Tool Station (£94.48)

Reasons to buy:

• Comfortable, light & easy to use
• Five cutting heights & easy to adjust
• Cuts efficiently & to the edge

Reasons to avoid:

• Black cable hard to see

I was impressed by the superb design of this mower. It’s extremely easy to assemble and folds for storage with a comfortable foam handle that can be adjusted to various heights. There are five cutting heights to choose from, and a single lever enables easy adjustment. The grass collection bag has a generous capacity of 35 litres, and the full indicator lets you know when it needs emptying. The mower is relatively quiet, and it cut well, right up to the edges of my lawn. It’s also lightweight and comfortable to manoeuvre.

My only quibble is the black mower cable, which could be a brighter colour so it'd be easier to see. For just £99.99, this is a great value mower. Kay Maguire

RRP: £99.99
Cutting width: 33cm
Weight: 8.8kg
Noise: 89dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 10m
Cutting height range: 25-65mm
Grass box: 35 litres

Read the full Webb Weer 33 review

• Buy the Webb Weer 33 from Amazon (£94.48), Robert Dyas (£99.99) and Tool Station (£94.48)

Latest Deals

Mountfield Electress 38

Our best electric mower for large gardens

RRP: £269

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£159)

Reasons to buy: 

• Long cable
• Good choice of cutting heights
• Choice of handle heights
• Wide cutting width

Reasons to avoid:

• No cable safety clip

This sturdy electric mower felt really robust out in use on the lawn, and I liked its relatively wide cutting width of 38cm, which made for fewer passes up and down the lawn. I found it simple to put together, with three handle heights to suit different users, and it has a useful six heights of cut, from 25-75mm, which are easy to change with a single lever. It manoeuvred well around the lawn despite its weight, and was pleasingly simple to use, producing a neat cut. It comes with a large grass collection box of 40 litres too, so you're not constantly emptying clippings on the compost heap.

When you've finished mowing, it's easy to store, with a handle that folds flat over the body of the mower, so it takes up very little room, and a detachable cable that can be hung up or stored in a drawer. It has such a long 15m cable that I was able to pack my extension lead away completely. Only its black colour and lack of cable safety clip let it down. Kay Maguire

RRP: £159
Cutting width: 38cm
Weight: 11kg
Noise: 95dB
Type: corded electric
Cable length: 15m
Cutting height range: 25-75mm
Grass box: 40 litres

• Buy the Mountfield Electress 38 from Amazon (£159)

Latest Prices

Best hand-push mowers

TOP-RATED: Webb 30cm Autoset sidewheel

Our budget push mower

RRP: £89.99

Our rating: 4.8 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£88.99) and Robert Dyas (£89.99)

Latest Deals

Reasons to buy:

• Comfortable to push and hold
• Cuts all grass smoothly and tightly
• Front-loading grass bag catches clippings well
• Quiet

Reasons to avoid:

• Narrow cutting width

I found this simple hand push mower easy to put together and use, thanks to rubber grip handles, even when pushing over longer grass. It has six-cylinder blades with four cutting heights that are easy to change. The mower cuts from 40mm right down to 10mm, so it gave me a precise, neat clip, but it also cut longer grass well. It's quiet, copes with even bumpy ground easily, and the 17-litre front collector was the best at collecting clippings in our test. Kay Maguire

RRP: £89.99
Cutting width: 3ocm
Weight: 9.1kg
Type: push mower
Cutting height range: 10-40mm
Grass box: 17 litres

• Buy Webb 30cm Autoset sidewheel push mower from Amazon (£88.99) and Robert Dyas (£89.99)

Latest Deals

Gardena Comfort Hand Cylinder 400C

Our best push mower all round

RRP: £140.95

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Amazon (£164.99) and Tooled Up (£140.99)

Reasons to buy:

• Very easy height-of-cut adjuster
• Large grass collector that catches clippings well
• Feels sturdy and well designed
• Cuts well

Reasons to avoid:

• Heavy
• The grass collector is sold separately

While there is more to assemble with the Gardena push mower, I found the instructions for putting it together clear to understand. The shaped handle was comfortable to use and folds down simply for easy storage. I was impressed with the four easy-to-adjust cutting heights displayed on a clearly visible scale. The grass collector has a 49-litre capacity but is sold separately. This mower is guaranteed for two years. Kay Maguire

Read the full Gardena push mower review

• Buy the Gardena Comfort Hand Cylinder 400C from Amazon (£169.99) and Tooled Up (£140.99)

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Best robotic mowers

Stihl iMOW 5

Our best robot mower with perimeter wire

RRP: £1,729

Our rating: 4.8 out of 5

Available from: Tools Today (£859)

Reasons to buy:

• Easy to set up on the app
• Wide range of cutting heights and cuts longer grass well
• Quiet
• Rain sensor, anti-stuck and 22° slope capacity
• Long warranty

Reasons to avoid:

• Need to be tech/app savvy
• No mobile connectivity for the price
• Installation kit sold separately

The iMow is the smallest in a new range of six robot mowers from Stihl that cover three sizes of larger garden. Together with the iMow 5, 6, and 7, there's also the iMow EVO range, which covers the same size lawns with the same features but also has mobile connectivity. When you purchase an iMow, you can choose to have it installed by a Stihl-approved dealer or install it yourself and purchase an additional installation kit.

Set up and ease of use: To cut down on waste, different-sized installation kits are available, and you can also buy bio pins, made from 100 per cent biodegradable material that gradually break down in the soil. Like many robot mowers, the iMow requires a boundary wire around the perimeter of the lawn and a guide wire through the middle of the lawn to help it find its way back to the docking station. The mower comes with a clear instruction booklet, plus I found helpful guides on the Stihl website, and laying the wires in our 1,250 sq. metre test garden took 3-4 hours. Once the wires are laid, I'd say it's easy to programme the mower via the My iMow app, as long as you’re comfortable with this kind of tech.

Mower statistics: Like many other robot mowers I've tested, the iMow has three free-swinging blades, and it cuts very well. The lawn was quite long before it was installed but with an impressively wide cutting height range of 20-60mm it didn’t struggle, and after a few days the whole lawn looked good with no tufts of uncut grass. Unlike the Husqvarna Automower, once you’ve laid the boundary wire, you can’t completely alter mowing zones. It cuts close to the edge, and if it comes across an obstacle, it gently bumps into it and then turns away.

Top features: The iMow also has a useful feature that helps it manoeuvre if it gets stuck, and it can cope with slopes of 22°. It also has an anti-theft alarm and a rain sensor feature, which you can adjust to interrupt or not start mowing if it’s raining. You can choose what degree of rain you want it to mow in, and when the sensor on the top of the mower dries, it automatically begins mowing. Not only that, it comes with a five-year warranty, and a host of accessories are available, including spare wire, pins and clips, and upgrade wheels for the EVO range to enable them to cut slopes of up to 31°. For the size of lawn it cuts, it's a reasonably priced mower that’s packed with excellent features and cuts very well. Harry Duncton

RRP: £1,729
Type: robot mower
Guidance system: boundary & guide wires
Lawn area up to: 500 sq. metres
Slopes up to: 22°/31°
Cutting height range: 20-60mm

• Buy the Stihl iMOW 5 robot mower from Tools Today (£859)

Segway Navimow i208 LiDAR Robot Lawnmower

Our best robot mower for easy set up on big lawns

RRP: £1,099

Our rating: 4.5 out of 5

Available from: Navimow (£1,099) and Amazon (£1,099)

Reasons to buy

• Effortless automapping thanks to LiDAR technology
• Works seamlessly under trees and with poor satellite signal
• Powerful app with full colour mapping

Reasons to avoid

• Not as capable on slopes as AWD robots
• Centrally mounted cutting deck can’t reach borders
• Aggressive rear wheels can tear soft grass on uneven terrain

Making up just part of Navimow’s extensive and slightly confusing new line-up for 2026, the i208 LiDAR represents the ideal setup for medium-sized gardens up to 800 sq. metres of any shape and size. Boasting incredibly fast automapping and a powerful app, the only place the i208 lets itself down is on rough terrain. For that, you’d be better off with an all-wheel-drive robot.

Set up and ease of use: First impressions of this robot are great. It’s a sleek robot with easy controls and even a little LED screen to look at. The light ring around the circular section on the top changes colour and pulses gently to show the current mode. It’s all very impressive. Long gone are the days of fiddly boundary wires, unsightly antennae, or even mapping the garden yourself. I took the robot out of the box, charged it, connected to Wi-Fi, downloaded updates and then agreed to 'auto map'. The i208 drove a few metres into the middle of the lawn, and that was it.

The incredibly powerful solid-state LiDAR mapped the entire 100 square metre lawn almost instantly, then got straight to work. It’s an impressive leap forward for robot lawnmowers and makes it ideal for just about anyone to use. Editing the map was simple too as the LiDAR and AI-enhanced cameras build a real full colour map on the app that is easily edited by driving the mower like a remote-control car. It makes the process easy, and the robot followed the paths I made perfectly. The only downside of this mower that I can see is that the cutting deck underneath is mounted in the centre. This means that it can’t get right up to the edges of the lawn, and you still need to go around with a lawn trimmer.

Mower statistics: The standout feature of this robot lawnmower is how it sees the world around it. The powerful vision software can recognise hundreds of objects on the lawn, and laser range-finding hardware keeps it on track. Mowing from 20-70 mm and with six blades making up the 22cm cut width, it’s an efficient and very quiet robot too. Rated to just 59dB, the i208 could run at any time of the day or night without waking the neighbours. Setting the cutting heights from between 20 and 70mm can be done via the app, which means you can set different zones to different heights. Nice if you have a complicated garden with multiple lawns.

The downside of this mower is that it still relies on two-wheel drive to move itself around. The front shopping trolley-style wheels are not powered, so the aggressive rears do all the work. And this is where the Navimow lineup can get confusing. There are so many new types of robots that deciphering the fleet is a challenge. They do make an AWD robot as well as another one with a powered front wheel that are all better on slopes and uneven garden terrain.

Top features: The standout feature on this particular Navimow robot is the LiDAR. Taking 200,000 precise laser measurements per second to build a map of the garden, it doesn’t need to wait for satellite reception, internet connectivity or even daylight at the bottom of the garden. It’s perfect for gardens with patchy reception without the need for a clumsy boundary wire. Obstacle avoidance is effective as well. The AI-assisted cameras on the front can recognise more than 200 objects across the lawn, and in practice, it routes neatly around obstructions before resuming its mowing pattern. And you don’t need to worry about security either. With inbuilt GPS tracking, lift sensors, a PIN code and geofence software, it’s rather hard to steal. Overall, the i208 LiDAR is ideal if your garden is flat but has plenty of obstructions that would confuse a lesser robot. Bear in mind that the 4G connectivity, which enables remote control and GPS tracking, is free, but only for the first year.

RRP: £1,099
Type: robot mower
Guidance system: GPS, LiDAR and camera
Max lawn: 800 sq. metres
Slopes up to: 24°
Cutting height range: 20-70 mm
Warranty: 3 years

• Buy the Segway Navimow i208 LiDAR Robot Lawnmower Navimow (£1,099) and Amazon (£1,099)

Mower types explained

Struggling to work out what type of mower you need? Here's our guide to the four main types on offer.

• Battery-powered cordless lawn mowers are the newest type and are the most lightweight and manoeuvrable. However, you need to remember to keep the battery charged, and although prices are coming down, they can be more expensive than corded mowers. Self-propelled models are ideal if you have a larger or sloping garden and want to remove the strain from mowing, while push-type cordless mowers are more lightweight, but will need you to do all the work in terms of moving it about. Check out our pick of the best cordless mowers
• Corded electric mowers are generally in the mid-price range and are relatively light and quiet. You'll need a charging point and possibly an extension cord, and the electric cable can get in the way. Take a look at our pick of the best electric lawn mowers
• Hand-push mowers are cheap and manually powered, so they're the most eco-friendly mowers you can buy. However, they can be hard work for the user, particularly if strength and mobility are an issue. Read our round-up of the best hand-push mowers
• Robotic mowers automatically mow your lawn. Set to a regular mowing schedule, a robot mower constantly clips the lawn, saving you the job and keeping it neat and tidy. However, they are the most expensive type of mower on the market – even budget options will set you back about £500. Learn more with our tests of the best robotic mowers

Powerful petrol lawn mowers are also available, but they tend to be loud and heavy and are less environmentally friendly. They also need an annual maintenance check-up and a supply of petrol and oil.

Why you can trust BBC Gardeners' World Magazine reviews

As trained gardeners and seasoned users of all sorts of garden tools, Kay Maguire, myself, and the rest of the team at BBC Gardeners' World Magazine have reviewed literally shedloads of lawn mowers over the years, using our trusted testing matrix to make sure we're giving balanced, fair judgements.

We test lawn mowers in varied, real-world conditions, cutting the sort of grass most of us actually have in our gardens. Because we're real-world gardeners with lots of experience, we know what to look out for and the sorts of things that will make all the difference once you're using a mower week in and week out.

We give each mower an at-a-glance list of pros and cons for clarity, and a rating out of five. We also don't share product reviews with manufacturers or retailers before they're published, and we don't accept payment in exchange for positive reviews, either.

Oliver Parsons, gardenersworld.com

How we test the best lawn mowers

When we test lawn mowers, we follow the whole process from start to finish without any shortcuts. We unpack the mower from the box, put it together following the instructions (sometimes these are clear as mud, sometimes not!), and then get started, cutting grass over a wide area.

We mow over rough grass, smoother grass, slopes and bumps – whatever is in our way – just as you would with your own mower. And after that, we also take notes on how easy the mower is to fold down and put away, because if a mower is annoying in that regard, you'll always hate using it.

Then, we score each model against these four criteria, with equal marks attributed to each one:

• Set-up and storage. We assess how easy the mower was to put together and fold up or store afterwards
• Handling. We also judge the mower for how comfortable it is to use and how easy it is to control. Handle-height adjustment, cut-height adjustment, overall weight, noise levels and (with cordless models) run time on one charge all make a big difference here
• Mowing. Also important, we look at the cutting width and the range of cutting heights that can be selected. The capacity of the grass box, AKA collection bag, also makes a big difference here, and can save you from making constant trips over to the compost heap. We also look out for neat extra features such as cutting to the edge, or mulching modes
• Value for money. Tricky but super-important: how well does the mower weigh up when you balance the quality, features, warranty and overall package of benefits against the price? For example, the Worx WG779E was awarded Best Buy for the range of features it offered at its low price point

For more on our testing process across all the different gardening product categories, see How we review

Meet our testing panel

Oliver Parsons, Strategic Projects Editor
Oliver is a gardener and magazine journalist of 20 years’ experience. He trained as a professional horticulturalist at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Chelmsford and has also worked for Gardening Which?, as a freelance gardener and with the gardening team at Down House in Kent. He is now Strategic Projects Editor at BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and GardenersWorld.com, heading up our reviews desk, Apple News output and weekly newsletter.

Kay Maguire, Magazines Editor
Kay trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and has been writing and making films about gardening ever since. She has written for websites and magazines, including The Garden and Amateur Gardening, was Horticultural Editor on BBC Gardeners' World Magazine for five years, and has also written several books on a range of gardening topics from growing house plants to making the most of a small space. After several years as Reviews Editor, building up our reviews section into a leading resource for UK gardeners, she has now become Magazines Editor for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, responsible for all print output.

Harry Duncton, Freelance Powered Tools Tester
Harry has a wealth of experience, from being a language teacher to a tree surgeon, and has built this into a career writing about all things DIY and gardening. A passionate believer in self-reliance, his aim is to inspire others to give it a go themselves and not worry about making a few mistakes along the way. A regular contributor to popular DIY blogs and a recent addition to the BBC Gardeners' World Magazine team, he loves tracking down the best new tools and writing about them.

Sue Fisher, Freelance Garden Writer
Sue’s extensive horticultural career spans over 40 years, starting with a decade in the garden centre and nursery industry before developing into an accomplished gardening writer, designer and speaker. Sue writes regularly for BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, GardenersWorld.com and Garden Answers magazine. She has written 10 books on subjects including container gardening, plants for small gardens and designing with colour, and she has co-authored other books with some of the biggest names in gardening.

Emma Crawforth, Horticulture Editor
Emma holds the Kew Diploma in Horticulture and has been working in horticulture for 18 years, including roles in public gardens, a plant nursery supplying plants for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and a training college for young horticulturists. She looks after an ornamental, fruit and veg garden at home and regularly undertakes trips to see plants growing in their natural habitats. She is the author of the Kew Publications book, Things to Do with Plants.

Jane Moore, Freelance Garden Writer
In a horticultural career spanning 30 years, Jane has been a head gardener at a Benedictine Abbey, a writer for national gardening magazines and newspapers, a researcher on BBC gardening programmes and a TV presenter on BBC Gardeners’ World. Among her many accolades are a Chelsea Flower Show medal, several awards from the Garden Media Guild and her books are published worldwide. She has spent 30 years working as a hands-on head gardener, using tools on a daily basis.

This review was last updated in March 2026. We apologise if anything has changed in price or availability.

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