Guides
How much should I spend on a lawn mower?
We are not going to print a number that will be wrong next month. Here is how to work out your number instead.
Affiliate disclosure: we earn a commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never changes which product we rank first — here is how we're funded.
We have not tested these units. Every spec on this page comes from the manufacturer's own documentation and is linked to it. Every computed figure is arithmetic you can redo. Prices are checked daily — last verified January 1, 1970. Here is exactly how we pick.
Every other page answering this question gives you a price band. We are not going to, and the reason is not evasiveness — it is that a band typed into a page in September is misleading by October, and a confidently wrong number is worse than an honest method.
Why there is no number here
Prices in this category move constantly: seasonal promotions, model-year transitions, retailer competition. A page that says "expect to pay X for a good battery mower" is publishing a snapshot and presenting it as guidance.
What we do instead is check prices live, every day, and show them on the buy links themselves with the date they were verified. Where we have no verified price we show "check price" rather than a remembered figure. That is the whole reason the site exists, and it would be strange to abandon it on the one page about money.
The method: buy watt-hours, not features
This approach flips the usual shopping order. Instead of picking a price band and seeing what it buys, you establish the requirement and then find the cheapest honest way to meet it. It also stops you buying a 420Wh flagship for a lawn that needs 140Wh — the small-yard case — which is the most common overspend in this category.
Cost per watt-hour
Since the battery is the expensive part, the comparable metric across brands is price divided by energy.
The watt-hour figures above are fixed and published; only the prices move. So this is a calculation you can run in two minutes on any given day, and it will not go stale the way a price band does.
The ten-year number
A mower is rarely the whole purchase. If you are going cordless you are joining a platform, and about a third of a decade of cordless yard tools turns out to be batteries — bought, spared and replaced.
| Line item | Roughly | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mower kit | 3-4 x the price of one large pack | Most of it is the pack and charger inside |
| Trimmer, blower, hedge trimmer (bare) | 3-5 x one pack | Bare, not kits. This is the discipline that saves money. |
| One spare pack | 1 x | Sized to the mower, not the trimmer |
| Replacements over 10 years | 2 x | The line everyone omits. Packs are warranted 3-4 years. |
| Ten-year total | About 9-12 x one pack | About a third of it batteries |
Ratios rather than prices, so they do not go stale. The full model, with the assumptions spelled out, is in the cost calculator.
The three mistakes that cost more than the mower
- Buying kits repeatedly. Four kits means four chargers and four packs you did not need. After the first tool, buy bare. This is the single largest avoidable cost in cordless yard equipment.
- Under-sizing the first pack. Buying a 320Wh kit for a 390Wh lawn means buying a second battery within a season — and a bought-separately pack is the most expensive way to acquire watt-hours.
- Splitting across platforms. Greenworks alone runs four incompatible voltage lines. Ending up with tools on two of them means paying the platform entry cost twice — the compatibility guide is worth five minutes before your second purchase.
What is genuinely worth paying more for
- Watt-hours you will actually use. Energy you can discharge is the only spec that directly determines whether you finish the lawn.
- A longer battery warranty. Greenworks publishes 4 years on the pack against EGO's 3. Across five packs over a decade, that is real money on the component that fails first.
- Platform breadth, if you will use it. A platform that reaches from a trimmer to a riding mower is worth a premium to someone who will eventually buy both, and nothing at all to someone who will not.
- Self-propel, if you have slope. Not otherwise — on flat ground it is weight you push.
And what is not: peak marketing figures you will never sustain, deck features you will not use, and voltage for its own sake — 40V and 80V trimmers here are equally efficient.
The products discussed
Specs are the manufacturer's own and linked to the page they came from. Prices come from a live daily check; where we have no verified price we say so rather than print a stale one.
Greenworks 40V 20" Push LM2054
Greenworks · Greenworks 40V · Our score 8.0/10
#ad No verified live price right now, so we show none rather than a stale one. How we're funded.
40 minutes on a 160Wh pack and 57.5 lb to push -- the honest answer for a third of an acre and nothing more.
Published specs
| Model / SKU | LM2054 / 2549902 |
|---|---|
| Deck | 20 in |
| Max blade speed | 3200 RPM |
| Battery included | 40V 4.0Ah |
| Cut height | 1.2-3.6 in, 7 positions |
| Runtime claim | Up to 40 min |
| Weight | 57.5 lb |
| Rated for | Up to 1/3 acre |
| Warranty | 3-yr tool / 3-yr battery |
Source: 40V 20" 4-in-1 Push Lawn Mower (LM2054), greenworkstools.com
40V x 4.0Ah = 160Wh. Note it claims 40 minutes on 160Wh where the 80V flagship claims 33 minutes on 320Wh -- a 20 in deck and no self-propel drive motor is why.
What the numbers favor
- Lightest published weight on this page at 57.5 lb, and the only sub-60 lb mower here
- Claims 40 minutes from 160Wh -- the best published minutes-per-watt-hour of any mower on this page
- Same 3200 RPM blade speed as the 80V flagship
- 4-in-1 deck at the entry price
What they don't
- Push only -- no drive assist on any slope
- 1.2 in minimum cut height is lower than most cool-season lawns should ever be cut
- 120-minute recharge, three times the 80V model's 40 minutes
your lawn is over a third of an acre or has any real slope. Greenworks rates it to 1/3 acre and you will be pushing all 57.5 lb of it up the hill yourself.
How it scores
Scores are our editorial weighting of the published specs above, not a test result. They are deliberately kept out of this page's structured data.
EGO Power+ 21" Select Cut LM2135SP
EGO · EGO 56V ARC Lithium · Our score 9.1/10
#ad No verified live price right now, so we show none rather than a stale one. How we're funded.
The most watt-hours in the box of any flagship walk-behind here, on the platform with the widest tool range to grow into.
Published specs
| Deck | 21 in |
|---|---|
| Cutting torque | Up to 7.0 ft-lbs |
| Battery included | 56V 7.5Ah |
| Cut height | 1-4 in, 8 positions |
| Self-propel speed | 0.9-3.1 MPH |
| Runtime claim | Up to 60 min |
| Warranty | 5-yr tool / 3-yr battery |
Source: EGO POWER+ 21" Select Cut System (LM2135SP), egopowerplus.com
56V x 7.5Ah = 420Wh, using EGO's advertised pack voltage.
What the numbers favor
- 420Wh in the box -- the largest included pack of any flagship walk-behind on this page
- Eight cut-height positions from 1 to 4 in, the widest published range here
- Three interchangeable lower blades (mulching, high-lift bagging, extended runtime)
- 5-year tool warranty, the longest published on this page
What they don't
- EGO publishes torque (7.0 ft-lbs), not motor wattage, so it cannot be compared directly against Greenworks' 1500W figure
- The 7.5Ah pack that earns the runtime claim is also the expensive one to replace
your yard is under a quarter acre. You would be paying for 420Wh of headroom you will never discharge, and a 20 in push mower cuts the same grass.
How it scores
Scores are our editorial weighting of the published specs above, not a test result. They are deliberately kept out of this page's structured data.
Ryobi 40V HP Brushless 21" Self-Propelled
Ryobi · Ryobi 40V · Our score 8.6/10
#ad No verified live price right now, so we show none rather than a stale one. How we're funded.
Two 6Ah packs and the longest published runtime claim on this page, on the platform with the cheapest route to a fourth and fifth tool.
Published specs
| Model | RY40HPLM01B |
|---|---|
| Deck | 21 in |
| Motor | Brushless, 40V HP |
| Batteries included (kit) | 2 x 40V 6.0Ah |
| Drive | Variable-speed rear-wheel self-propel |
| Runtime claim | Up to 80 min on 2 x 6Ah |
Source: 40V HP Brushless 21" Self-Propelled Mower, ryobitools.com
40V x 6.0Ah = 240Wh per pack; the kit ships two, so 480Wh total -- but only 240Wh is available at any moment, because the mower draws one pack at a time.
What the numbers favor
- 480Wh across two packs, the most total energy in any kit here
- Two packs means you swap and keep mowing instead of waiting on a charger
- Ryobi's 40V range is the broadest consumer battery line of the three platforms
What they don't
- Only one 240Wh pack is live at a time -- the 480Wh is sequential, not simultaneous
- Ryobi does not publish a cut-height range or weight on the product page, so both are unknown to us
you own nothing on Ryobi yet and expect to buy heavy tools later. 40V is the lowest voltage of the three platforms, and the ceiling shows on chainsaws and riding gear.
How it scores
Scores are our editorial weighting of the published specs above, not a test result. They are deliberately kept out of this page's structured data.
Common questions
How much should I spend on a lawn mower?
Why won't this site show prices?
Is an expensive lawn mower worth it?
What is the biggest hidden cost of a battery mower?
Should I buy a mower kit or a bare tool?
Sources
- Greenworks 40V 20" 4-in-1 Push Lawn Mower (LM2054), greenworkstools.com
- EGO POWER+ 21" Select Cut System (LM2135SP), egopowerplus.com
- RYOBI 40V HP Brushless 21" Self-Propelled Mower, ryobitools.com
- Greenworks 80V 21" Self-Propelled Mower (LM2108S), greenworkstools.com
- Toro 60V Max 21 in. Recycler Self-Propel Lawn Mower (21356T), toro.com
Read next
- Guides
The questions that come before the shopping. Answered in the first paragraph, then explained.
- What a battery platform really costs over ten years
The four-line cost model for a decade of cordless yard tools, with the battery replacement nobody counts.
- Are battery lawn mowers worth it?
Yes under about an hour of mowing, no above it without a second pack. The conditional answer.
- Battery vs gas lawn mower: which should you actually buy?
Runtime, running cost, maintenance and noise compared, including where gas still wins.
- What size mower do I need for my yard?
Deck width and watt-hours by lawn size, with the mowing-time arithmetic for each.