Cordless vs Corded for Outdoor Power
In most tool categories the cordless answer is now automatic. Outdoor power equipment is the one where it is not, because the work is measured in area rather than in fasteners, and area is exactly what a battery runs out of.
Why this category is the exception
A drill works in bursts of seconds. A mower works continuously until the job is done, and the job has a fixed size that does not care how much charge is left. That difference changes which constraint binds.
Our measured data shows the category responding to it. Across the outdoor hub, mowers sit at a median pack voltage of 40 V and a median capacity of 4.0 Ah, against 20.5 V and 2.0 Ah for trimmers and blowers. The mower category has moved up a voltage class and doubled its capacity, and it has done so because the work demands sustained current for an uninterrupted period.
The category is also still meaningfully corded. Among the circular saws in our corpus, 38% are corded rather than cordless — enough that we had to remove the voltage field from that category’s baseline, because mains supply voltage and battery pack voltage were being averaged together. Corded has not left this part of the market.
The decision, by machine
| Machine | Default answer | What flips it |
|---|---|---|
| String trimmer | Cordless | Very little. The work is intermittent, the areas are small, and a cord is a genuine hazard around a spinning line |
| Leaf blower | Cordless | Large properties cleared in one session, where you would be swapping packs continuously |
| Lawn mower | Cordless for small and mid lawns | Lawn area. Past the point where one charge cannot finish the lawn, the calculus changes completely |
| Hedge trimmer | Cordless | Sustained heavy hedging work, where corded gives constant power without fade |
The specification that decides it: area per charge
The figure you need is not runtime in minutes. It is how much area the machine covers on one charge, and it depends on three things the packaging rarely brings together: pack energy, cutting width, and how hard the grass or growth is loading the motor.
Runtime claims are close to worthless here for exactly the reason set out on voltage and amp-hours explained — “up to 45 minutes” describes an unstated task with an unstated pack. Two machines quoting the same runtime can differ by a factor of two in area covered, because one has a wider deck and a larger pack.
The practical test. Take the machine’s cutting width, take its pack capacity in watt-hours (nominal voltage × amp-hours), and ask the manufacturer for a stated area per charge under a named condition. If they will not state one, treat the runtime claim as marketing. Then compare that area against your lawn — and be honest about slope and grass length, both of which raise the load substantially.
Our measured mower cutting widths run from 368 mm at the 25th percentile to 470 mm at the 75th, with a median of 406 mm. Within that band, a wider deck covers a given lawn in fewer passes and therefore in less total motor time — width is working in your favor on runtime as well as on speed.
What cordless costs you here, honestly
- The pack budget is real. Outdoor equipment wants 4.0 Ah and up, and finishing a lawn usually means owning two of them. This is the largest hidden cost in the category and it is why a bare mower and a kitted mower are so far apart.
- Mass goes up. Our mower weight data spans 6.44 kg at P25 to 23.13 kg at P75 — a factor of 3.6 — and pack count is part of what puts a machine at the top of that range. A corded mower carries no pack at all.
- Charge time is dead time. If the lawn needs two charges and you own one pack, the job takes as long as the charger says it does.
- Packs age. A cordless machine’s usable runtime declines over years in a way a corded machine’s does not, and replacement packs for a discontinued platform are the failure mode that ends the machine’s life.
What corded costs you
- Range is fixed and the cord is in the work. On a mower this means managing the cord on every pass; on a trimmer it means a cord near a spinning line, which is the reason cordless won that machine outright.
- Outdoor electrical safety is a real constraint. A corded machine outdoors should be on an RCD or GFCI-protected circuit with a cord rated for outdoor use, and should not be used on wet grass. This is not a formality.
- Constant power, which is the compensation. A corded machine does not fade as the pack drains and does not stop when the lawn is not finished.
The rule
Choose cordless unless the work is larger than one charge can finish. For trimmers and blowers that threshold is rarely reached and cordless is simply the better tool. For mowers, measure the lawn, get a stated area per charge, and add a second pack to the budget before comparing anything on price — because the machine that cannot finish the lawn is not cheaper, it is unfinished.
The full measured baseline for all three machine types is on the outdoor power equipment spec comparison.
The corded minority in this corpus
Cordless outnumbers corded by a wide margin across these listings, and the survivors on the corded side are concentrated where the work is sustained and stationary — the tasks where a battery would be swapped repeatedly. That is the honest dividing line: cordless has won where the tool is carried and the job is intermittent, and corded persists where the run time is long enough that the cable stops being the inconvenience and starts being the solution.
Common questions
How big a lawn can a cordless mower handle?
There is no honest single answer, because it depends on pack energy, cutting width, grass condition and slope. Ask the manufacturer for area per charge under a stated condition rather than accepting a runtime figure, and add a margin for long or wet grass.
Are two smaller packs better than one large one?
For outdoor equipment, usually yes. You keep working while the other charges, which is the constraint that actually decides whether the job gets finished in one session.
Do cordless mowers have less power than corded ones?
Modern brushless machines at 40 V and above are competitive on power. The gap is not power, it is endurance — a corded machine sustains its output indefinitely and a cordless one does not.
Why does your saw data mention corded tools at all?
Because 38% of the circular saws in our corpus are corded, which is enough to contaminate any category average over the voltage field. It is also a useful signal that corded has not left this end of the market the way it has left drills.