Lawnmowers

Buying a lawn mower online

Electric, Petrol, Cordless, Manual and Ride-on are the main types of mowers. In 2006 Electrically powered mowers accounted for 75% of all sales by volume in the UK.

This guide helps you make up your mind on which type of lawnmower to get

In this guide we take you through the options when buying a lawnmower, links to more detailed guides about each choice, and reviews of websites where you can buy lawn mowers.

Where to buy?
Manual/ Mechanical mowers
Electric mowers
Petrol mowers
Ride-on mowers
Automatic/ Robot Mowers
Types of blades
Lawnmower brands

Where to buy lawn mowers

Websites selling lawn mowers online
Merchant	What we think
	Mow direct offer some of the lowest prices we've seen on the internet and have a very easy to use website. As a specialist retailer they stock all the types of lawnmowers mentioned here and for all budgets. Best of all they offer free delivery.

Manual/ Mechanical mowers

Cheap, environmentally friendly, easy to maintain, no cables and no fuel are some of the reasons to consider a manual lawnmower. Manual mowers, sometimes called hand mowers or push mowers, can be hard work so beware if you have a large lawn or don't have much time on your hands.

No frill Manual lawnmowers are great for small lawns

Electric mowers

Electric lawn mowers are the most popular type of mowers in the UK and come in 3 main varieties - hover, cylinder and rotary. If you have decided to buy an electric lawnmower read out more detailed electric lawnmower buying guide.

Electric mowers have cables which can get in the way or are not long enough for your garden

Petrol mowers

Petrol lawn mowers can give you the best finish and are great for creating that striped lawn effect, but are also the most expensive! Great for large lawns as they are more powerful and don't have any cables to plug in or drag around. If you have decided to buy a petrol lawnmower read out more detailed petrol lawnmower buying guide.

Petrol mowers will need filling with petrol!

If you don't want to pull a cord to start your petrol mower look out for electrical ignition

Ride-on mowers & Lawn tractors

If your lawn is just that bit too big for a petrol mower you may want to consider a ride on mower.

A lawn tractor is used to describe a larger ride on mower suitable for gardens over an acre and they usually have bigger engines and a larger cutting width. If you think you are looking for a bigger machine read our guide on lawn tractors.

Small ride on mowers are available for lawns as small as half an acre

Automatic/ Robot Mowers

Automatic or robot lawnmowers are fairly new to the market and their premise is simple - take away all effort from mowing your lawn. The ones we have seen are battery operated (rechargeable) and require a thin wire to be installed around the perimeter of your lawn. The robot can be programmed to cut your lawn (within the wire perimeter) at set intervals. Mowbot and Robomow both seem to work in a similar fashion and prices start at £750 (see the Mowbot prices in the automatic robot mowers section).

Types of blades

Electric and Petrol mower blades come in 2 main types - Cylinder and Rotary. Hover mowers use a rotary mower but lift the mower and blades off the ground with a blast of air much like a hovercraft.

Rotary blades rotate like a fan and spin parallel to the ground. A spanner can normally remove the blade to sharpen or adjust the cut height

Cylinder blades can be found on manual, petrol and electric mowers

Lawnmower brands

In the UK the market leading brands are Atco, Flymo, and Mountfield.

Atco sell both cylinder and rotary mowers with the cylinder mowers having brand names such as Balmoral, Club, Royal, Windsor and XQ and the rotary mowers branded with names such as Admiral and Viscount.

Flymo are best know for their hover mowers and are part of Swedish Husqvarna Group which is one of the world's largest producers of garden equipment.

Mountfield have the largest range of lawnmowers in Europe.