How we test lawn mowers

Lifetime score

Our overall score combines test performance (how well the product works) with predicted reliability (how likely models from the brand are to remain free of faults) and brand satisfaction (how likely owners of the brand are to be satisfied).

We’ll only recommend products you’ll love to own, that work well and will keep working well for a good amount of time.

Test performance

It’s no good if a product lasts for many years if it doesn’t work well in the first place. A disappointing product will soon become unloved and unwanted. For this reason, our independent lab testing forms an important part of our overall lifetime score.

Our lawn mowers test is based on:

Performance: We assess:

• Catcher cutting
• Long grass cutting
• Mulcher cutting
• Ease of use.

We cut short and medium length grass with the catcher attached, and mow long grasses without a catcher. We look for an even, tidy finish without missed patches or leftover clumps of clippings.

We run the short and medium-length grass tests with the lawn mower in both catcher and mulching modes where applicable. Neither the catcher nor the mulcher is used for the long grass test.

Ease of use: We assess ease of starting and manoeuvring each lawn mower, handle vibration and comfort, controls, how easy it is to adjust the cutting height, and catcher convenience.

Predicted reliability

It’s reasonable to expect a new lawn mower to remain fault-free for a good amount of time. Our predicted reliability won't tell you whether your mower will stop working tomorrow, but it does show which brands make models that are less likely to fail early.

Brand satisfaction

Satisfaction is important – no product should be a source of buyer regret. Lawn mowers with satisfied owners are more likely to be taken care of and therefore last longer.

Survey data

In our reliability and satisfaction survey, consumers tell us about faults that have left a product they own unusable or mean they’ve had to change how they use it. We also ask them how satisfied they are with the product. We use their data to produce our predicted reliability and owner satisfaction scores.

We use a statistical test to rate the relative performance of each brand. Compared to data we have for all products (of the same type) in the survey, we rate each brand with highest, high, average, low or lowest for predicted reliability and brand satisfaction respectively.

You can compare the rating of different brands for the same product type (for example, the reliability rating for Stihl and Masport lawn mowers), but you can’t compare the results for different product types (for example, satisfaction of EGO lawn mowers and Makita line trimmers).

We analyse brands that get at least 30 responses in our survey. That means there are some brands we can’t analyse because we don’t have enough data. For those brands, we assume they have average reliability and satisfaction.

Our data is based on 1,721 responses from owners of lawn mowers in our 2025 survey.