Ryobi 18V ONE+ Cordless Lawn Mower Review

After opening the box, I was delighted to see that the collection basket for this lawn mower was already assembled. It’s a task that only takes a minute or two (or a little longer with particularly fiddly bags) but it’s always nice when there’s one less bit of assembly to do!

This meant that all that was left was to attach the handles and then clip the cable to them. When fixing the handles on, you have three different heights to choose from. Being tall, I went for the highest setting but then found that the cable wasn’t quite long enough. I was still able to clip it to the handle but it was very tight, which didn’t feel quite right.

Nevertheless, I loved how quickly I was able to put this lawn mower together, with the whole assembly process taking just five minutes.

With its lime green and black colours, this lawn mower is quintessentially Ryobi. At first glance, it looks like a pretty solid machine, but once you start handling it, it feels a little flimsy. Although it has a metal blade, most of its other parts are made from plastic, which gives it quite a toy-like quality.

However, I liked its double lever handles, which means that the lawn mower can be used one-handed. The handles also fold right down to make storing this lawn mower easy, while the collection basket is completely collapsible.

Speaking of the basket, it features fabric sides paired with a hard plastic top, making it feel a little less robust than a completely solid box. With a 35-litre capacity, the basket is a little on the small side for my liking, although this won’t be an issue if you have a very small garden.

I also noticed that this lawn mower has slightly larger rear wheels. At 18cm, vs the 14cm front wheels, this will help the lawn mower to better adapt to various types of terrain. Not all lawn mowers have considered this in their design, making it worth keeping an eye out for if you plan on using yours on uneven ground.

Finally, let’s talk about the brushless motor. This will help the lawn mower to give you more efficiency, not only when it comes to power but also in terms of battery runtime.

This Ryobi lawn mower runs on a single 18V battery, which takes about three hours to charge. However, if you have one of the ONE+ fast chargers, then it should only take an hour.

According to Ryobi, a 5aH battery should be able to cut a lawn up to 250m² in a single charge, so I was expecting a runtime of around 20-30 minutes. However, I was only able to get about 15 minutes from mine. Bear in mind though I was mowing over more dense terrain, which does of course have an effect.

To start with, I took this lawn mower over to a clover lawn that forms a meandering path through my forest garden. Since the grass here had been cut a couple of weeks ago, I set the lawn mower onto its second-lowest cutting height and was pleased with the results. The grass looked neat and even, making it even more of a shame that the short battery runtime didn’t allow me to cut more of it in one go!

I then tested the lawn mower out on longer grass, setting it to its highest cutting height. However, even at that, the lawn mower struggled. The grass here was long and sparse rather than thick and dense, so I was surprised that the lawn mower wasn’t able to adequately get the job done. Worse still, I found that the machine overheated and cut out a couple of times. I had to stop and wait for a few minutes before I could continue on again. It’s safe to say that long grass isn’t this lawn mower’s forte!

I didn’t have any issues with using the collection basket, other than the fact that a larger size would have been preferred to save me from having to empty it quite so often. It slots in and out of the lawn mower easily and is light to carry around, even when full of grass.

At 7.7kg, this was the lightest of the cordless lawn mowers that I tested. This is partly what gives it its toy-like feel, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many lawn mowers can be so heavy and cumbersome to push around, but this one is the opposite. It would be ideal for anyone that needs to mow steep hills – it would be light enough to do so with just one hand!

This lightweight quality made it a breeze to turn this lawn mower around sharp corners. Again, being able to stand back and twist it around with just one hand, rather than standing behind it, means that you can work it into even the tightest of gaps.

The slightly larger rear wheels made the lawn mower feel stable at all times, even when I was pushing it on bumpy ground. 

Its lightweight nature shines again when it comes to moving the lawn mower around when it’s not in use. Grab the top carry handle and you’ll be able to lift it with one hand, making it a great machine for those who have steps to deal with.

With a 33cm cutting width, this lawn mower is on the small side. However, for very small gardens, this may be all that you need. 

The choice of five cutting heights, ranging between 25-65mm, offers a good variety. However, changing the cutting height isn’t as simple as it should be. Rather than having a lever beside one of the wheels, this lawn mower’s height adjustor is located underneath the machine. In order to access it, you pretty much need to turn the whole lawn mower onto its side. While this isn’t too difficult to do since the lawn mower is so light, it’s definitely inconvenient.

However, the fact that there are five handle heights to choose from slightly helps to make up for this. As I mentioned earlier, there are three heights to pick from when assembling the product. In addition to that, there are two extra height settings by the handles, making it so easy to adjust them in a way that’s most comfortable for you to use.

This lawn mower has been designed with grass combs, which enable it to cut right up to edges. I found that this feature worked quite well, although there were a few edges that would have benefited from some neatening up with a strimmer. 

Finally, my favourite feature; the mulching function. With this, you can remove the collection basket, insert the provided mulching plug, and mow your lawn, with the machine mulching and releasing the grass as it cuts it. This gives nutrients back to the lawn, which is great for the grass, and also gets around the issue of the small collection basket.

In terms of safety features, this lawn mower comes with all of the usuals. In order to turn it on, you need to turn the battery key, press a button, and then pull the levers, meaning that there’s not much chance that someone would accidentally set it off.

The batteries are also safely tucked away in a hard plastic enclosure, keeping them safe.

However, there are a couple of safety-related letdowns worth mentioning. The first is how you have to turn the lawn mower upside down in order to change its cutting height. Not only is this more of a hassle than simply flicking a lever, but it’s also pretty unsafe as it puts you in close proximity to the blade.

The fact that the cable feels so tight when the handles are set to their tallest height is also concerning as it wouldn’t take much for that cable to break. You can obviously get around this by lowering the handles, but it’s still a disappointing oversight.

The price of this lawn mower will definitely appeal to those who are on a budget. It’s one of the lower-priced models out there yet its range of customisable features makes it seem like a high-end machine.

However, based on its low runtime and inability to handle long grass, this does knock a mark off in my book. While it does have a few features worth paying a little more for, such as the mulching function and the adjustable handles, I would have liked a longer run time.

Of course, you could get around this if you use multiple batteries. However, if you don’t already own them, this could get more costly.

When it comes down to it, I would have to disagree with Ryobi’s statement about this lawn mower being suitable for an area of 250m² – I would only recommend it for gardens that are up to around 150m² in size, with grass that’s already relatively short. If this is the case, then the Ryobi 18V ONE+ Cordless Brushless Lawn Mower will undoubtedly impress with its ultra-lightweight nature, customisable features, and fantastic mulching function. Use it regularly and it will keep your lawn looking tidy and vibrantly green, which is always the ultimate aim!