The 3 lawnmowers that are no better than a push mower

By Kate Harvey

Content Manager | Pou Whakahaere Ihirangi

When we included a cheap $89 Ozito push mower from Bunnings in our lawnmower tests, we didn’t have high expectations.

There were things we liked about it – like how it’s quiet and light to use - but, as expected, it ended up with a pretty low overall score of 64 out of 100. It was no good on long grass and has a very narrow cutting path of just 30cm.

Despite that, it’s not right at the bottom of our test results for 55 lawnmowers. That spot instead goes to the Husqvarna LC19AP – a petrol mower that did a good job of cutting but didn’t do well in the ease-of-use part of the test. The test team noted the LC19AP’s cutting height was difficult to adjust. Husqvarna mowers also have terrible predicted reliability, which we consider when calculating a mower’s overall score.

The LC1GAP ended up with an overall score of 59 out of 100 – five points lower than the push mower. At $1,219, there are much better lawnmowers that cost a lot less – several of our Consumer Recommended lawnmowers costs less than $1,000.

Two lawnmowers also got the same overall score as the push mower. One was another Husqvarna – the Aspire L34 18V 4.0Ah Lawnmower Kit – costing $619. Again, the Aspire L34 lost a lot of points due to Husqvarna’s reliability rating, but our test team also found its cutting width of just 33cm was annoyingly narrow.

The Ryobi One+ 18V 4.0Ah HP Brushless Cordless Lawn Mower Kit R18XLMW24 also scored equal to the push mower. Ryobi’s predicted reliability and brand satisfaction are average, so its low score was down to how inadequately it performed in the test. The test team found it stalled while cutting short grass after just a short time and did a poor job cutting long grass. Its battery life was only 22 minutes after taking 2 hours to charge.