Uneven ground can certainly result in more of a workout whilst mowing the lawn.
If you’ve got slopes, bumps or hillocks in your garden, you’ll find that a self-propelled lawn mower makes them a lot easier to manage.
By pulling themselves forwards, a lot of the effort is taken out of negotiating the mower over lumpy terrain.
There are quite a few different things to consider when choosing the best lawn mower for uneven ground, so the following information should help you make an informed decision.
Power Type
When looking for a self-propelled lawn mower, you have the choice between petrol-powered models, mains-powered options and battery-powered machines. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type, which we’ll look at in more detail below.
Petrol-Powered
Owning a self-propelled lawn mower that is powered by petrol means that you have the freedom of cordless mowing, combined with the vast power of a petrol machine.
Petrol lawn mowers are very powerful. They’re generally capable of cutting through long, thick grass, and won’t bat an eyelid if it’s slightly damp either. Due to their large engines, petrol machines are heavy, and therefore can be difficult to manoeuvre around the garden.
Being self-propelled can certainly help with this, pulling the mower around and over difficult terrain. This can allow petrol mowers to be used in gardens where it might otherwise be too challenging for such heavy machinery.
Nevertheless, petrol mowers might not be suitable for those who struggle with lifting heavy objects, or for gardens with lots of steps and different levels. Moving a large, heavy petrol lawn mower between sites can be hard work when the ‘self-propel’ can’t be used.
Mains-Powered
Mains-powered mowers tend to offer a good middle ground between petrol- and battery-powered mowers.
They don’t produce fumes like petrol machines, and are better for the environment, but they’re generally more powerful than battery-powered models (although, in recent years, there is more crossover between mid/low range mains-powered machines and mid/high range battery-powered machines).
The biggest downside of a mains-powered mower is the small fact of being tethered to a power socket by a cable. Not only can this be limiting in terms of how freely you can move around the garden, but you also need to be constantly mindful not to run over the wire.
Having a self-propelled, mains-powered lawn mower is useful because you can keep mowing until the job is done, and the propulsion will help reduce fatigue; however, you have to work around being restricted.
Battery Powered
As mentioned above, battery-powered technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. Better availability of larger, more powerful batteries now means that battery-powered machines can better keep up with mains-powered models.
Of course, there’s always going to be a time limit on using a battery-powered lawn mower, and this is one of the biggest disadvantages.
Large batteries, of around 6.0 Ah, can often achieve up to an hour’s run time (and sometimes more than that). However, these will generally need to be bought separately and can be expensive.
For this reason, battery-powered lawn mowers might be considered more suitable for smaller gardens, unless you’ve budgeted to buy larger batteries.
Another good point about battery-powered self-propelled lawn mowers is that they are some of the most lightweight mowers available. As a result, they are much easier to move around the garden, lift up steps, and haul over obstacles than heavy petrol/mains-powered models.
Propulsion Speed
Although this is something you don’t have to think about with non-propelling mowers, propulsion speed is worth bearing in mind when shopping for self-propelling models.
Some mowers may only offer one speed, which they should cite in their description or product specifications. A useful statistic to bear in mind is that ‘comfortable walking pace’ is generally considered to be 4.5 – 5 km/h.
There are self-propelled mowers available with more than one speed which can be useful for several reasons. Firstly, so that you can move at a speed that you feel comfortable with, and secondly so that you can apply a bit more ‘oomph’ when tackling bumpy, hilly terrain.
Garden Size
If you only have a small garden, you will likely find that a large, petrol-powered lawn mower is too much for you. Not only because of its size, but because the cost of the machine won’t be justified.
Lawn mowers also have different cutting widths and getting the right size can depend on the size of your garden.
Large lawn mowers have a cutting width of between 46 – 53 cm. These are great for medium/large gardens as it means less passes need to be done across the lawn in order to cut the whole space. However, this large size can be a hinderance in smaller gardens, limiting manoeuvrability and also making it hard to mow in tight corners.
Smaller lawn mowers can have as narrow a cutting width as 30 cm. This may be too small for even a lot of medium-size gardens, because you’d have to do a lot of passes with the mower. However, it can be useful in small gardens and gardens with narrow pathways. Cutting widths ranging from 30 – 45 cm should be suitable for smaller gardens.
Methods of Grass Collection
Most mowers will have a range of options when it comes to grass collection.
As standard, you can expect a grass bag that can be emptied into the compost, but you might also want to check if the mower comes with a mulching plug.
Mulching the grass will result in the finely-cut clippings being spread back over the lawn as the mower goes. This helps fertilise the grass and can help with lawn health. It also means that you don’t have to keep stopping to take grass clippings to the compost heap.
When grass is collected in a collection box, it adds to the weight of the mower. This also makes it harder to push, and can slow down the self-propulsion speed, so having an option to mulch can be useful.
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