The 8 Best Self-Propelled Lawn Mowers - Walk-Behind Lawn Mowers

All you have to do is steer.

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For homeowners with fairly large lawns, the self-propelled lawn mower feels like the sweet spot between a riding lawn mower, and a standard walk-behind push mower. With a self-propelled mower, the gas engine or electric motor does the "pushing," routing power to a pulley on the transmission and axle. All you have to do is squeeze a handle or push a lever, and the mower starts moving forward. Move the drive control lever back, and the tension is released, the pulley stops turning, and the mower stops moving forward.

Right now, there's a wave of new electric self-propelled models flooding the market, supplementing and supplanting the tried-and-true gas-powered mower. There are advantages to electric self-propelled mowers: They make less noise, generate no fumes, and don't require as much maintenance. Still, we think gas engines are the better choice in many cases, as they deliver more power and topping off a gas tank is quicker than recharging a battery. This is why many of the selections in our list, including the best overall, are gas mowers.

We put most of the mowers in this list through their paces, cutting a few different grass types in various conditions, including overly thick and wet grasses, as well as dry and dusty surfaces. We mowed uphill, downhill, and across the faces of hills, with a maximum slope of about 30 degrees.

During our most recent update, we added models to this list that are currently undergoing review and were previewed in our Yard and Garden Awards. For those, we included our first impressions and initial testing and will update them later with our complete reviews.

We’ve become big fans of battery mowers because they’re so quiet and clean, but our heart will always flutter with gas engine mowers such as this Toro Super Recycler. One lazy pull on its recoil rope and the 163cc Briggs & Stratton engine springs to life. Wheel it over the lawn, especially through tall and wet grass, push forward on the Personal Pace drive handle, and it chugs blissfully along, leaving a neatly mowed surface.

Even more impressive is the fact that it bags nearly every shred of grass that it cuts. We were impressed with its mulching capability, given how soggy the conditions were when we ran the test. If the Super Recycler will mulch grass as wet as what we were cutting, then its mowing under normal conditions is sure to be particularly good, earning its nomenclature wholeheartedly.

We partially attribute that mulching ability to the two wedge-shaped baffles under its deck, and a blade-mounted gadget that Toro calls an accelerator. These features do appear to increase mulching performance under less-than-ideal conditions, though in this case they also accumulate wet grass clippings.

We continued to use this mower throughout the mowing season last year, and it always started easily and cut well. As the leaves began to fall we started using the bagger more to pick up heavy leaves from the lawn to put into a garden. While the mower worked flawlessly through all conditions, we did have difficulty pulling out the mulch plug when we wanted to bag. This became a tedious step during early fall when our mowing consisted of a mix of mulching and bagging. But in the grand scheme of things, that’s a quibble on an otherwise excellent mower.

Be sure to check under the mower after you’re done and scrape or hose it down as needed. This is an expensive mower with a cast aluminum deck. Our hunch is that if you keep it clean and tuned up, you should have a long-lasting machine that delivers great mowing performance through three seasons, for many years to come.

Of all the mowers tested so far this spring, Ryobi’s 40V HP 21-inch self-propelled mower seemed to roll smoothest over the lawn. With even weight distribution, front-to-back, this mower settles down in the grass and jostles around less. This facilitated mowing nice, straight lines, and helped keep them straight as we worked across our test area. Combined with its quiet electric operation, it made for a very pleasant mowing experience.

Adding to the experience, you don’t have to fool with a mulching plug on the Ryobi mower, because it has a mulching gate. You can switch from bagging to mulching by simply turning a switch at the back of the mower body. That also means there is one less mower part to keep track of—that’s a bonus. The mower deck also has a provision to install a side discharge chute to complete the bag-mulch-discharge trifecta.

Mowing performance was good in our testing, and the Ryobi was an adequate bagger. Mulching was good, with clippings dispersing evenly, in part due to a cross-cut blade configuration that uses two crossed blades. It also automatically increases power to adapt to mowing conditions, which worked pretty well, and it has a turbo button you can engage before you hit thick, heavy grass.

On the user controls, there are seven sequential speed settings to choose from. Of course, there is a standard battery gauge, but it also has a blade life indicator that illuminates when the blade needs to be replaced. This Ryobi comes with two 6-amp-hour batteries that provide up to 75 minutes of mowing, depending on conditions.

We liked the Ego Power+ 21-Inch Select Cut XP Electric Lawn Mower so much that it also ranks as our overall recommendation for the best electric mower. In our tests, we found its X-shaped blade offered outstanding cut quality. After mowing a dry lawn, healthy grass looked like velvet, and we didn’t find clumps of accumulated clippings, even in mulching mode. If you prefer to bag your grass, this mower is excellent at it. We were able to gather pounds more grass per square foot of test area than with most other mowers.

Of course, when it comes to battery-powered models, runtime is a concern, and we were very impressed with its performance here. Ego’s motor and drive system are both quite efficient, enabling it to accomplish nearly 15,000 square feet of mowed surface using a 10 Ah battery. That’s a lot of lawn. This mower is sometimes sold without the battery, but we do not recommend buying it without one. A 10 Ah battery alone can run $499, while a smaller 7.5 Ah battery can run $399. When bought together, the total price is usually lower than if you bought the mower and battery separately.

Ego’s dial-adjusted speed control (the company calls it Touch Drive) allows you to increase or decrease the propulsion speed with your left or right thumb, and we found it to be simple and intuitive. The slowest speed is leisurely (.9 mph), and the top speed requires a comfortably fast walk.

If you’re looking to go electric with your mowing, you can’t go wrong here. The Ego is powerful, fun to operate, and cuts well.

We never want to give any manufacturer a free pass in our testing, but Toro’s mowers perform so consistently well that we keep drawing the same conclusion with them: “Of course it does well. It’s a Toro.”

That’s the case with the 21469 60-volt Recycler, a reliable cordless electric mower that hits on the three criteria that we consider to be most important with this form of mower: cut quality, mulch quality, and bagging. The mower did well with all three of these. It’s a polite suburban machine for those reasons but also because it’s reasonably quiet. Like many high-quality mowers today, it’s simple to operate: insert the battery and mow.

We exaggerate there, but only slightly. Like the Super Recycler listed above, this mower uses Toro’s Personal Pace system, a rear-wheel drive arrangement whereby the user presses forward on the handle push bar to make the mower propel itself forward. Release the handle push bar, and the mower stops propelling forward. The more fully you push the bar forward, the faster the mower goes up to its top speed, which is a comfortable walking pace–somewhere between a stroll and the fast trot that you need to keep up with many gas engine mowers.

The mower is a two-function machine: It mulches and it bags. To select between bagging and mulching, move a pivoting lever at the rear of the mower forward and back. The lever engages a mulch plate that blocks discharge to the bag; you’re simply lowering the plate to block airflow to the bag or lifting the plate to allow it.

While this Toro lacks the raw power of the gas-powered Super Recycler, it is definitely not too prissy to handle the rough stuff. Our test was under some very challenging and rather soggy mowing conditions. The Toro plugged its way along like the champ of a mower that it is.

Although it looks unusual, DeWalt’s 60V MAX 21-inch self-propelled mower worked well for us during testing. It has rear-wheel drive and features two, co-centric blades that are mounted 90 degrees apart and an ultra-shallow deck, designed to extend run-time. The DeWalt only discharges through the rear using a removable chute that directs clipping to the left, behind the rear wheels. One advantage of this is that you can mow with the deck tight against any lawn obstacles, on both the right and left sides. The mower also comes with a mulch plug and a rear bagger.

We quickly adapted to the clear and easy-to-use controls on DeWalt’s 60V MAX mower. Simply pull the bail back, and you can engage the blade by pressing the main power button. LED gauges display battery charge level as well as the cutting load, which helps you zero in on the appropriate drive speed needed for heavy grass. Paddles on both sides of the handle enable you to engage drive with either hand, and the drive speed is easily adjustable with a thumbwheel. There's also a light that comes on when the blade needs to be sharpened.

This mower does a nice, neat job mowing the lawn. Mulching was adequate and left very few visible clippings except in heavier, wet conditions. The single-point, six-position height adjustment works well, and we were quickly able to adjust it to our preferred height. Switching between mulching, bagging, or rear discharge is easy, and can be done in seconds. The mower comes with two 12-amp-hour batteries that can last up to 75 minutes, depending on mowing conditions, although there is one battery bay, so you need to stop to swap batteries.

If you have a big yard, but aren’t ready for a riding mower, Dewalt’s 28-inch self-propelled mower can help get the job done quickly. It features dual blades, mounted side-by-side on separate spindles in the deck, so you cover more ground in less time. This is the same type of two-blade configuration that's often used on larger commercial machines.

Following the trend of simplifying gas mowers, DeWalt has eliminated the throttle and choke on this machine—just pull the recoil starter to fire it up and hit the kill switch to turn it off. The engine is electronically governed and automatically increases power to meet heavier cutting loads as mowing conditions change. Additionally, it adjusts the speed of the rear drive wheels based on your pace. As you walk faster, the mower detects the pressure your hands apply to the handle and speeds up—as you slow down, it slows down.

Like some other mowers tested here, the deck has side discharge, mulching, and bagging capabilities. Mowing with the side discharge chute attached, the DeWalt throws the clippings far enough to evenly disperse them, eliminating clumps in all but the wettest conditions. Cut quality is good, and nice straight lines are achievable by engaging the locking pin on the front caster wheels. Mulching capabilities are good, but cutting too much when the grass is taller can leave visible clippings. Using the bagger captures the clippings well, and this large mower comes with a capacious 2-bushel bag.

One of our favorite features, though, is the front caster wheels that provide excellent maneuverability when mowing around edges or obstacles. The casters are also great when moving the mower from one area to another, or even when jockeying it around in the garage. It’s hard to imagine a gas mower being much easier to operate.

There’s no question that German brand Stihl takes building outdoor power equipment seriously—its chainsaws are some of the best in the business. It also has a new lawnmower that is impressive to behold. The brand’s $1,600, 21-inch mower is equipped with an aluminum deck, riding on sealed-ball bearing wheels, and powered by a 173cc Kohler engine coupled to a hydrostatic drive.

A blade-brake clutch allows you to stop mowing, leave the engine running, and move lawn furniture or empty the bag. Separation of the engine, drive, and blade is also helpful in transport mode, and safer, too. You can power the lawnmower into the shed or garage, or drive the mower up a ramp into a pickup truck without the blade spinning.

The Stihl’s price tag is high, we admit, but so is its performance. Its cut quality is immaculate— it is the best bagging mower we’ve used recently, even out-doing our usual bag meisters, the recently-tested Toro mowers, long known for their bagging prowess.

And on that last point, we use the term “bagging” here somewhat loosely. The Stihl lacks the typical American-mower grass bag made out of porous synthetic cloth. Rather, it has a large plastic basket with a hinged lid. You have unfettered access to the basket owing to the machine’s unique handle–Stihl calls it a “mono-comfort handlebar” (or mono-komfortlenker for our German readers). Stihl’s full-access design is an improvement over the handlebar setups of most American mowers, even with recent improvements.

Other features on the Stihl to ease the operator’s work include its spring-assist deck height mechanism. It’s a small and discreet lever that enables you to use no more than fingertip pressure to raise and lower the deck.

In some ways, Echo’s new 21-inch self-propelled mower (model LM-2119SP) is a traditional lawn machine, with a steel deck, a 190 cc Briggs & Stratton gas engine, and large rear wheels. But that’s where tradition ends. The mower has two, co-centric mower blades, slightly offset, with one above the other. The upper blade cuts first, and the lower blade cuts about a half-inch shorter. Echo claims this provides for a better cut quality, and we’re inclined to agree, finding it left crisp swaths of striping on our test area.

If you’ve ever experienced a mower that needed the throttle and choke set precisely to start it, you’ll appreciate the ReadyStart technology. It eliminates the need for fuel priming, setting a choke, or adjusting the throttle to start. And, while this type of feature isn’t unique to Echo, the mower was incredibly easy to start. Other features that make it easy to use are a variable speed self-propulsion system that adjusts to your walking speed, based on the pressure applied to the handle, and a single height adjustment control that allows you to adjust the cutting height between 1.25 and 4 inches with just one lever.

To cut down on storage space, the mower has quick-release levers that allow the handle to be folded forward, over the mower, which can then be stood on end. This reduces the mower’s footprint in your garage by about 75 percent—plus, it’s designed so that gas and oil won’t leak out in this position.

Like many mowers in this price range, this model comes with side discharge, mulching plug, and grass bagger. We were happy with each function’s performance, but using the bagger left the cleanest appearance. It excelled in cut quality and the striping it left neatly behind.

Like any yard machine, self-propelled lawn mowers range from basic grass-cutters, to more feature-rich (and expensive) tools. We’ve found that a longer or more eye-catching list of features isn’t necessarily better. Sometimes less is more. Here are the most important things to keep in mind.

Driven Wheels and Speed Control

Front-wheel drive mowers tend to be less expensive than rear-wheel drive units. They can be easier to turn because you don’t have to disengage the drive wheels to do so. Simply push down on the handlebar to raise the front wheels off the ground, and turn. However, their traction isn’t as strong on hills or when the bag is full, as there isn’t as much weight over the driven wheels.

Rear-wheel drive mowers tend to cost more and aren’t as easy to turn, as you need to disengage the drive—but this isn’t too much of a hassle. Rear-wheel drive mowers shine on hills and inclines, and when the grass bag is full. In either scenario, weight is shifted rearward and over the drive wheels, which enables superior traction, thus making the self-propel more effective.

Activating the self-propel function may be slightly different depending on what brand of mower you buy. These mechanisms can include a squeeze handle, a drive bar that you press forward, or even a dial. There’s no single right answer here. Look at the design and think about how you like to work.

For example, if more than one person will be using the mower (and not all of them are right-handed), a drive control like Toro’s Personal Pace system might be the answer. Just push the drive handle on the bar to make it go faster, or let up on the bar to slow down.

Engine/Motor

Battery-electric mowers are now prolific in the push-mower industry. We have historically performed a measured area test, wherein we would run an electric mower until the battery dies. As the technology has progressed, that has taken longer, and longer, and longer, to the point where conducting such a test is unfeasible. All this is to say that battery-electric mowers are not second-class citizens in regard to regular cutting performance.

Still, they do have some drawbacks, such as the need to recharge once the battery does deplete, and if your grass is particularly wet and heavy that added strain will draw down the battery quicker.

This is where gas mowers shine. While they don’t get as much attention these days, gas mowers are still a great option for many homeowners, especially those who have thick grass or plan to use their mower for extensive fall cleanup. That being said, gas mowers require more maintenance than electric ones, and are louder and not as clean.

You can get a gas-powered mower with an electric start feature, which lets you start the mower with the push of a button (like an electric mower), rather than using the pull cord. However, this feature can cost a couple hundred dollars on some gas mowers, and in our opinion may not be worth it for most users, as a well maintained gas engine does not require a lot of effort to start the old fashioned way.

Deck Function and Material

A mower that can bag, mulch, and discharge is known as a three-function mower, the most versatile kind. Two-function mowers bag and mulch or mulch and side discharge.

Most mowers are made with either steel or high-impact plastic decks. Steel decks are prone to rusting if not maintained, which is something to keep in mind.

Some higher-end mowers, such as the Toro Super Recycler featured in this roundup, feature a corrosion-resistant aluminum deck, which is less likely to corrode but still needs to be kept clean for optimal performance. Many electric mowers feature decks made of a plastic composite that is strong enough to withstand the rigors of mowing, but also won’t rust.

Cutting Width and Height Adjustment

Typical walk-behind mowers are 21- or 22-inches wide and have a single blade. Wide-cut mowers built for residential use have either a single blade or, more typically, a pair of blades, and cutting widths of 25- to 30 inches. The wider cut lets you reduce the number of passes needed to complete your mowing job compared to a standard-sized mower. Of course, these wide mowers tend to cost more.

Mowers will typically have one, two, or four levers to control the deck height. Single-lever adjustment is the easiest to use, but it requires more linkages, which adds weight and complexity to the mower. If, for some reason, you find yourself varying deck height frequently, it’s a good option. Otherwise, two (one for each axle) or four (one for each wheel) levers work just fine.

Maintenance and Warranty

Self-propelled mowers powered by gas will require you to keep an eye on the fuel and oil levels, the cleanliness of the air filter, and the wear and tear of any belts. Electric mowers don't require engine maintenance like gas mowers, which is why they’re easier to maintain.

Both types of mowers will require you to occasionally replace your lawn mower blade, or you can learn to sharpen it yourself. After each use, it’s also a good idea to remove any caked-on grass or debris from under the deck or inside the discharge chute, otherwise, you could clog up parts of the mower’s engine or damage the blade.

All mowers carry some kind of manufacturer’s warranty, which runs anywhere from two to five years. For electric mowers, there may be a separate warranty for the batteries. Warranties generally cover the repair and replacement of defective parts, not damage caused by misuse, neglect, or bad repairs by a non-authorized service center.

Are there special maintenance considerations with self-propelled mowers?

Yes. Both front- and rear-wheel drive mowers typically feature a drive belt, which can crack or wear out over time. Fortunately these belts are not difficult or particularly expensive to replace.

Secondly, you may have to replace the drive wheels occasionally. These wheels are driven with gears - there are typically teeth on the inside diameter of the drive wheel that line up with a gear on the axle. These teeth can wear out, especially if they are made of plastic. Higher-end mowers may feature drive wheels with a metal gear that meets the metal axle gear, improving the longevity of these components.

My lawnmower says I don’t ever have to change the oil, but just add oil when needed. Is this OK?

It’s not a good idea to never change the oil in your lawn mower. In a lawn mower, same as a car, oil degrades over time and is less effective at reducing heat and friction in metal components. Changing the oil in your lawn mower is easy to do and will significantly increase its service life.

For most homeowners, changing the oil at the beginning or end of each mowing season should be sufficient, though there is certainly no harm in doing it more often.

Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.

David is a Reviews Editor for Hearst’s Ehtusiast Group, contributing to Popular Mechanics, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Best Products, and Biography. He has over 25 years of experience writing about and reviewing consumer electronics, kitchen appliances, DIY products, outdoor gear, and more. He also spent years covering the ever-changing world of online retail. To relax, he loves experimenting with new recipes, tweaking his smart home setup, and spending time outdoors on his bike or camping.

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