Top 6 Best Mowers for Small Lawns: Expert Picks

“Working fine for me. Easy to use. No battery. Lightweight. No gas. Has enough power to cut tall weeds and grass. I’m almost 72 in good health, fit, I can lift a 50 pound cement bag, that kinda stuff. I didn’t want to smell gas fumes. Yes it will take me longer using an electric mower but I also wanted the grass clippings picked up. More of a manicure lawn look. Sometimes I clip the weeds with my long handle shears then use the mower. I know it’s a long arduous process! But at retired 72 all I got is time and burning calories too. I take the clippings over to my next door neighbors goats sheep and chickens and ducks. They love the fresh cut grass and weeds. I’m cutting the Cal Fire required 100 feet clearance around my house, goats pen and dog house. We have 29 acres and lost everything but one house in the June 2024 Apache Wildfire. Barring some other catastrophic event we will be in good shape if another wildfire happens.”

– A happy user

“The media could not be loaded. I was trying to find something that would pick up grass clippings before the winter. I did not want to deal gas or batteries. I looked at multiple electric corded push lawn mowers on Amazon. The LawnMaster had the best features, prices and reviews. This little lawn mower exceeded my expectations. It cuts the grass with no issues. The lever to change the height is very convenient. It is very easy to push. The cord was not a nuisance and very easy to deal with while pushing the mower back-and-forth. The collection bag is very easy to remove and dump. I filled up two trash cans of grass clippings in under an hour. I highly recommend this lawn mower.”

– Satisfied Customer

“Coming up year 3 with this, a great purchase!! Fairly easy to put together, and to operate. I use it on a 1/2 acre lawn area out of about 2 acres….. works very well!”

– Long-time User

“Once I mastered how to operate the electric lawnmower mowing the lawn was easy breezy. A powerful mower cut through thick grass worked well got the job done in no time. Overall a good purchase worked well for large yard space. Assembly was easy folding the handles down for storage space a plus.”

– Happy Gardener

“Update: Decided to keep this mower and have used it 4 times now. I am impressed at what a good job it does at cutting evenly, the bag is plenty big for my small size yard (approx 24’x 60′), and the batteries have plenty of power left at the end of the job. Still not thrilled about the need to use both batteries then charging them separately, but I suppose it would bother me more if I had a bigger yard and ran out of power in the middle of cutting. If one of them does die, I will need to replace, but crossing my fingers they have longevity — at least 2 or 3 seasons. Other than that, still kind of cheap feeling, but the plastic is pretty sturdy and it is very light weight to move all around the tight spaces in the yard.”

– Skeptical but Pleased Buyer

“I just love this little lightweight mower. I did half my yard on Sat and the other half on Sunday. It did a really good job and took care of a lot of the weed eating also. With nothing sticking out on the sides, it cuts close against all the trees and shrubs. I hope it holds up for a long time. I love it. Would highly recommend.”

– Delighted Owner

“UPDATE: May 17, 2024, after owning for one year This little lawn mower has been GREAT! Haven’t had ANY problems with it so far. I only cut my grass every 2 weeks or so. The original trimmer string lasted all that time. I just bought replacement string off a web site (rhymes with hay) super cheap. While my string was out and I waited on a replacement, the front and back grass was getting TALL. Easily 8-10 inches, thick, like a small jungle. I should have taken pictures but it never crossed my mind. It was much taller than the pictures submitted in my original review. I did have to go over most parts 2-3 times, but this little mower did the job just fine, never bogged down in HEAVY grass, just chopped it right up, and kept going. Honestly people, for a small to medium yard, this thing does a great job! ORIGINAL REVIEW MAY 2023: Pros:- Easy assembly. Just had to connect shield to weed wacker, lock it in the base, and attach the trimmer/edger handle.- Light weight, can pick it up with one hand.- Compact, can be tucked into a small corner.- Did exceptionally well on my tall grass! Many sections were well over 6 inches. It took a couple times going over, but this little unit worked great and never bogged down! I kept the wheels at the lowest setting the entire time.- I didn’t find it loud at all. Just a typical weed wacker. Definitely not as loud as a gas lawn mower.- Wheels adjust from about 1-2 inches high if you like your grass a little taller.- Handle telescopes out approximately 12 inches. If you are really tall this might not be adequate.- Briefly used the edger, the wheel was a big help, it did the job fine. Haven’t tried the trimmer yet.- Great for a small to medium size yard, limited space for storage, people with arthritis, seniors, disabled, those who can’t lift much weight, and want virtually maintenance free! Besides cleaning, you only need to replace the trimmer cord when it runs out. Cons:- Weed wacker locking mechanism into base is poorly designed. Mine popped out several times. It’s not a constant problem, but annoying (like the IRS or DMV).- Power cord came out of the loop in the handle numerous times. A spring loaded clamp would be much better.- Would be nice to have a grass discharge port in the side.- Sucks having to rake grass afterwards.”

– Dedicated User

“Like others, I needed to know the lowest measurement setting from the ground to the operating button with the mower attachment and trimmer in place. For some unknown reason, the community answers seemed to avoid such an easy question for those who owned one?! With that said, I just purchased my own to get that exact answer with a measuring tape. The LOWEST MOWER HEIGHT (from ground to button pressed): 22-1/2 inches. The HIGHEST MOWER HEIGHT (from ground to button pressed): 31-1/2 inches. **Due to my very own physical needs, the lowest height works perfectly for me! Fortunately, I did not have any of the ‘troubles’ that some have reported with theirs. If it works as it all did with my first use on a small yard today for even a season or two, I would definitely purchase again! Although it does kind of sound like a small shop vac in use, it is absolutely adorable and FUN for me to use. I love it!! It does look like a toy and is nearly identical to vacuuming (with both physical motions & width). So those that are impatient, hate vacuuming or want to look ‘manly’, may not appreciate this trimmer/mower like I already do. Did I mention that I I love this thing! 🙂

Further, the trimmer seems to hold in place just fine when pressing the trimmer handle down to make turns (just like placing the weight on the back wheels to turn a vacuum). To ‘lift up’ on the trimmer handle when mowing, is when it wants to detach from the mower –so don’t do that people lol.

Lastly, my reason for purchase: Living in an apartment with a small yard has became just too ridiculous annoying every year to ‘wait’ for yard maintenance not even mowing until the weeds are almost 18″ high and allowing the clippings to just fall where they may for their tenants to just track long grass/weed clippings into our cars and apartments — I finally had ENOUGH when a thorn weed recently caught my pant leg causing me to trip and fall! With this fun to use, light and nifty little edger/mower that I can enjoy taking care of my yard weekly and all by myself… I won’t and NEVER will want such careless “yard maintenance” in or around my yard (or vehicle) again now anyway! I’m not done yet but just after mowing the whole yard once & quickly edging to ‘test’ it today, my yard already looks way better than it ever has before! I’m HAPPY and very pleased with this fun little B&D trimmer/mower being my new ‘toy’!”

– Ambitious Apartment Dweller

“It’s small, which is not bad, but you have to adapt with it. The first mowing of the season is in and this performed decently despite it’s small size. It does have some flaws, in that the cutting path is so narrow, that trying to use it like a traditional lawn mower is not good. I tried out a few methods, and found that single arm motions more akin to a push broom are the best way to do it, and it’s fairly decent with that. If you don’t have a large part to work, or it’s irregular, it’s not that much slower, but if it’s long open parts, it’s slower. While I was doing the front yard with features, another person was doing the side with minimal features, They did get done faster. Each battery is about 15 minutes of runtime, which was not enough to complete the part of the yard. Fortunately it’s Makita compatible 18V (which max at 21V) and I have a number of those around, so I got it done with about 3 (2 included + 1 lower capacity) batteries. (I did put #4 in when I wondered it if was slowing down, and it didn’t seem to be.) For completeness it was up against an Atlas 80V mower, which has 2 batteries (And is about 3x the price with the batteries and charger) It handled everything including taller grass much better than expected. Though again, with kind of a broom motion. An annoyance was one handed the trigger would sometimes come off if you were in the left or right part of the handle. (Where it angles down) I really wish it didn’t because it seemed like it stalled a few times, when in fact it was the safety cutoff. They could have used a slightly less powerful spring opposing you, at least IMO. This was the case if there were low spots as well. Price wise, I think it’s a bit overpriced for what it is. It is light as hell, and lets you do it with one hand, but the fact that you need to do such a different motion and it’s so tiny is kind of a knock against it. As well as the batteries not doing even a full section of the yard (counter balanced by it being a common battery format.) On the other hand it is less than 200 for a new full working system when by comparison the other mower is over 250 alone. (And now it’s on sale for $160, vs the $190) Overall, I’m going to give this 4 stars (I’ve debated anything 3 (when trying it out like a regular mower, before using it like a broom almost)-5 (at various times when thinking about it’s positive attributes.)) I think 4 is a decent place for it. I do think they could have moved the actual spinner section back a *tiny* bit and made the cutting section bigger without needing many power changes, which would greatly improve it. Though I do think this is about the right size to make a small lawnmower bot, I don’t need another project.”

– Tech-Savvy Reviewer

“Easy to put together, quick battery charge light weight and easy to use.”

– Satisfied User

“Do not hesitate, get this one!! This is a great lawn manual lawn mower! I am amazed at how it is just the right weight to not jump when pushing it and not feel like you a pushing a shopping cart with a broken wheel. It is very smooth and can easily be pushed with one had with little effort. My grass was high and think due to our battery powered mowers batteries keep dying. This unit did the job well getting though. This time my yard was just as high as the neighbor’s is now in the pictures. You can see how well this manual mower did. The grass still is damp from dew and at no point in time did the mower choke. I finished faster then if I used a gas or battery powered. My neighbor in is 80’s tried it out and was impressed with how easy it was to push and lighter than his mower. Also my girls checked it out as well 11 and 14 and both said it was easy. I read the complaints and here are my suggestions.. Do not push hard and up on the handle hunker down as you would a powered mower. This does not take that much force to push. Keep th handle low with a gentle but firm grip. If it bogs down check your grip and form. Clear your yard of small and big sticks, you should do this anyway with any lawn mower to protect the blade and help it to last longer between sharpening. Go at a steady pace if you stop take two steps back to restart. When cutting grass always keep the line of your last mow in the middle of the mower so you do now miss sections. No matter what kind of lawn mower you use I advice this. Never wheel on wheel but center that last wheel line. I use the mower on its lowest setting. You can buy a bag for it, it has the area to attach one. The mower took me not even 5 minutes to put together it was that easy!! I would clean the blade with a paint brush and wd40 the blades to keep them from rusting. Do not be afraid to wash it just make sure to dry it completely in the sun. A clean mower is a long lasting one.”

– Enthusiastic User

“We have a lot of lawn to mow, but are not fussy about it being mowed every week or “perfectly”. Use the gas mower for some of the big areas, but wanted to try and become more environmentally friendly and LESS NOISY! First, the assembly. Let me say that even tho’ I am a 61 year old female, I am VERY handy. I gave 3 stars to ease of assembly. This is the biggest negative about the mower. I am not saying it is difficult exactly, just annoying at times. One good tip I got from reading the reviews was this: ASSEMBLY is a bit of a…..pain. There are 3 bits: the handle, the middle, and the reel. The handle assembles easily. You will have issues if you follow the instructions by attaching that to the middle part and then putting the entire assembly on the reel. The trick is to attach the middle part to the reel as you will have to push on it (compress it) to get it on the posts. That will be impossible if you’ve fully assembled the handle as it doesn’t flex to fit. Once it’s on the reel, bolt the handle to the middle bit. THAT reviewer knew what they were talking about! ALSO, regarding assembly I agree with this reviewer: BUILD quality seem acceptable for a 100 dollar piece of equipment. However, it’s engineered terribly. They basically send you two left sides to a handle. And this is actually an issue if you want to fasten the wing nuts/bolt in the same direction on both sides of the handle. Because the left handle is basically the right handle upside down, the bolt no longer fits inside of a dimple in the handle frame. So you’re left with two choices: bolting one bolt and wing nut upside down and one right side up, or muscling one of the wing nuts so hard that you make your own dimple in the frame. THIS IS TRUE! I did the former. I also found that altho’ it is true that ideally one doesn’t want to set the reel too low and cut too much height off the grass at any one time, the mower works WAY better if you adjust the blades close to ground. I have not found that doing so causes the usual problem of grass too short and “burning”. Oh, the method for adjust reel / blades is just awkward. But, not too hard. Regarding trying to cut longer grass. I have found that the blades are so sharp that even letting the grass get rather long (say 6-7 inches!) is perfectly fine. It is true that it does a much better job on soft grass. If you have a lot of “straw”, you will get frustrated; it will not cut this sort of grass. People commented that it is better to walk fast and get the reel turning faster…yes, definitely makes cutting easier. Sometimes you benefit by giving a spot a second swipe. I think no matter the type of mower that overlapping your “lanes” of mowing and essentially double mowing is beneficial. I don’t know why, but I like the “cut’ produced by this mower much better than the gas mower. It is much greener and thicker looking. If you want a reel type mower, this one is highly recommended. Oh, yes it only goes forward. Not really an issue. Sticks? Well, if they are small and flat on ground, not an issue. If one gets in the blades…it stops SUDDENLY. Just pick the stick out. Hardly an issue for me; most small twigs get mowed right over. Lastly, the best thing is you can quickly grab it, no gassing up, do a small area only if need be…sometimes there are patches that grew faster than the rest. I am glad I bought it. Get the wider one for a few more dollars.”

– Practical Gardener