Cordless Outdoor Power Equipment
Mowers, blowers, trimmers and chainsaws are the tools that expose every weakness in a battery platform at once. They run continuously, they draw hard, and the runtime figures printed on the box are measured under conditions almost no real garden matches.
The four categories
Lawn mowers
Specified on cutting width (commonly 33–51 cm), cutting-height range and settings, collection-box volume, and whether mulching and side discharge are supported. Runtime claims are usually quoted in square meters per charge on dry, even grass — the most optimistic condition available.
Leaf blowers
Two numbers matter and they trade against each other: air volume in m³/h or CFM, and air speed in km/h or MPH. Volume moves large amounts of light debris; speed dislodges wet leaves stuck to a surface. A brand quoting only one of them has chosen the flattering figure.
String trimmers
Cutting width, line diameter, feed mechanism (bump, automatic or fixed line) and shaft type. Line diameter is the quiet spec: thicker line cuts heavier growth and draws proportionally more current, so runtime claims quoted on the thinnest supported line are not the runtime you will see.
Chainsaws
Guide-bar length (typically 25–40 cm on cordless), chain speed in m/s, chain pitch and gauge, and whether tensioning is tool-free. Bar length sets what you can cut; chain speed sets how fast — and both are constrained by what the pack can sustain.
Runtime claims and why they rarely survive contact with a garden
Every claimed runtime is a measurement under a stated set of conditions. The trouble is that outdoor equipment is used under wildly variable conditions, and a manufacturer will naturally test in favorable ones: dry grass at a moderate height, light dry leaves, thin trimmer line, softwood of modest diameter.
Real conditions push current draw up sharply. Damp grass loads a mower far harder than dry. Wet leaves need higher air speed and longer exposure. Thick line and heavy growth increase trimmer draw. Hardwood and a dull chain both raise chainsaw current. A runtime derived in the easy case does not degrade gracefully into the hard one — it can halve.
So we record every runtime claim with the pack capacity and stated conditions attached, and where those are omitted we say so rather than repeating the number as a specification. The reasoning is on comparison methodology.
A runtime figure without a stated pack capacity and load condition is not comparable to anything. Treat “up to 60 minutes” as the best case the manufacturer could construct, not as a planning number.
Pack capacity is a specification of the job, not of the tool
Outdoor equipment turns amp-hours into working time more directly than any other category, and this is where the arithmetic gets concrete. Suppose a mower is quoted at a certain area per charge on a 4.0 Ah pack. If your lawn is twice that area, you need either two packs or a mid-session charging break — and a charger that takes an hour means the break is the job.
This is why outdoor kit so often forces a second and third battery purchase, and why buyers who chose their platform years earlier on the basis of a drill end up paying premium pack prices for capacities they never anticipated. Higher-capacity packs also reduce per-cell current — the same mechanism described on saws, over a longer duty cycle.
| Tool | Draw profile | Pack capacity that usually makes sense | Spare pack needed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawn mower | Continuous, rises steeply in damp or long grass | High — often two packs used in series or sequence | Almost always beyond a small lawn |
| Leaf blower | Continuous at full trigger, very high on turbo | High | Frequently |
| String trimmer | Continuous, scales with line diameter and growth density | Mid to high | For larger plots |
| Chainsaw | Peaky — very high during the cut, near zero between | High | For felling or heavy cutting sessions |
Voltage classes and the 36 V question
Outdoor equipment sits at the top of the power range, and manufacturers have addressed that in two different ways. Some sell a dedicated higher-voltage platform for garden tools. Others keep a single 18 V rail and run demanding tools on two packs at once, which is electrically equivalent to a 36 V supply while keeping every pack compatible with the drills and saws you already own.
Weight the second approach heavily. A dedicated garden platform means a second set of packs and a second charger, idle all winter and still ageing, since lithium-ion cells lose capacity with time as well as cycles. A twin-pack 18 V system spreads the same batteries across every tool you own. That tradeoff is the core of the analysis on battery platforms.
Cordless or petrol?
For lawns up to roughly 500 m², general tidying and occasional cutting, cordless wins on noise, starting reliability and the absence of fuel mixing and servicing. Beyond that, or for sustained felling, the pack requirement grows until you are buying batteries to solve a problem petrol solves with a jerry can. The break-even is set by the area you cut and how much of it in one go, not by the tool specifications.
- Battery Platforms — voltage classes, pack capacity and long-term cost
- Saws — the other category where discharge rate governs performance
- Drills & Drivers — the low-draw end of the same rail
- Comparison Methodology — how we treat unstated measurement conditions
See the outdoor power equipment spec comparison — cutting width, voltage and capacity across 156 listings, with the fields we removed and why.
Compare them
The finder below is already scoped to this category — 153 of the 433 tools in the corpus. Widen or narrow it from there, or open the full cordless tool finder to search everything at once. Every result is placed against the median weight for its own size class, where that class holds at least eight tools. This category spans a hedge trimmer and a ride-adjacent mower, so the size bands do more work here than anywhere else on the site.
153 tools match
Wild Badger Power 40V 18-In Brushless Cordless Electric Lawn Mower | 18-in brushless push mower for small-to-medium lawns; 5 cut heights, 3-in-1 clipping modes, 40V 4.0Ah battery and charger.
Weight
17.01kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +55% against the class median of 10.98.
Wild Badger Power 40V 16-in Brushless Electric Cordless Lawn Mower | 16-in brushless push mower for small yards; 5 cut heights, 3-in-1 clipping modes, two 20V 4.0Ah batteries and charger.
Weight
13.38kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +22% against the class median of 10.98.
Cordless Lawn Dethatcher Compatible with Makita 18v Battery(Tool Only), 36V Dual Battery Powered Brushless 2-in-1 Scarifier, 15’’ Wide, 12-Gal Collection Bag, Air Boost Technology, 5 Adjustable Depths
Weight
12.47kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +14% against the class median of 10.98.
LawnMaster 48V MAX 19-inch Brushless Cordless Lawn Mower, CLMF4819X | 2X24V MAX 4.0Ah Battery, Dual Charger, 6 Cutting Positions
Weight
12.25kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +12% against the class median of 10.98.
Cordless Dethatcher and Scarifier Compatible with Milwaukee 18V Battery | Tool Only, 15" Electric Brushless Lawn Dethatcher, Dual Battery Powered, Air Boost Technology, 12-Gal Collection Bag,5 Depths
Weight
10.43kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is -5% against the class median of 10.98.
MZK 20V 13-Inch Electric Lawn Mower, Compact Brushless Mower | Compact push mower with dual batteries, 4 cutting heights, and grass bag for small lawns and tight spaces.
Weight
5.90kg
Outdoor power · 3-6 kg · 27 tools
Weight is +40% against the class median of 4.22.
21V Lightweight Cordless Hedge Trimmer with Battery & Clippers | 20-Inch Blade Electric Bush Trimmer, 2 x 2.0Ah Batteries, LCD Display, Rotating Handle, Dual-Action Blade, 1/2-Inch Cutting
Weight
2.00kg
Outdoor power · 1.5-3 kg · 46 tools
Weight is -14% against the class median of 2.34.
EGO Power+ 21" Cordless Electric Lawn Mower, Self-Propelled – LM2134SP-2
Weight
43.55kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +297% against the class median of 10.98.
EGO POWER+ 21" Cordless Electric Lawn Mower with Battery, Charger – LM2114
Weight
37.20kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +239% against the class median of 10.98.
Greenworks 48V (24V x 2) 21in Mower/Blower/Trimmer Kit/ Battery Kit
Weight
35.52kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +224% against the class median of 10.98.
Greenworks 80V 21in Self-Propelled Lawn Mower, 4.0 Ah Battery and Charger
Weight
34.02kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +210% against the class median of 10.98.
Litheli 16 Inch Lawn Mower 2 x 20V Brushless Electric Mowers for Garden Yards, Lightweight Cordless Lawnmower with 6-Position Height Adjustment, 2 x 4.0Ah Battery Include
- Max torque
- not stated
- No-load RPM
- not stated
- Pack
- 4Ah
Weight
15.00kg
Outdoor power · over 6 kg · 19 tools
Weight is +37% against the class median of 10.98.
Common questions
Why do two mowers with the same cutting width perform differently?
Cutting width sets how much grass passes under the blade, not how well the machine handles it. Deck design, blade profile and the electronics managing current under load all change how a mower copes with damp or long grass, and none of that appears in the width figure.
Is a higher CFM blower always better?
No. Air volume and air speed do different jobs. High volume clears large areas of dry, loose debris efficiently; high speed lifts wet leaves that are stuck down. The useful comparison needs both figures, which is exactly why some listings publish only one.
Can I leave batteries in the shed over winter?
Manufacturers generally advise against storage at temperature extremes and against leaving packs fully charged or flat for long periods. Follow your manual — terms vary by brand, and storage practice can affect warranty coverage.
Do you publish how long these tools last in practice?
No, because we do not test. We record the manufacturer’s claimed runtime alongside the pack capacity and conditions quoted, and we flag the claims where those conditions are missing.