The 10 Best Lawn Mowers in 2024, According to Our Testing and Decades of Experience

The Honda HRN is the brand's entry-level mower, but there is little that's entry-level about it. This mower features rear-wheel drive self-propel and a powerful 170 cc engine. Height adjustment is performed with two levers, one for the front wheels and one for the rear. It can bag, mulch, or discharge through the rear door, which has an air gap in its lowered position to allow clippings to exit.

To switch between the three cut modes there is a clip director handle that operates flap at the rear of the mower. Close the door when you want to mulch, or open it for rear discharging or, with the bag attached, collecting the clippings.

The HRN's self propel is operated with a thumb paddle on the top of the handle. It's a different design than the typical lever you'll find on other mowers or Toro's Personal Pace system, but it is effective and may be more intuitive for some users.

It's worth noting that Honda will cease building lawn mowers at the end of the 2023 season. If you've thought about getting one, now is the time before it's too late.

We like what we see in this relatively low-cost Murray mower powered by a Briggs & Stratton engine. It exhibits good workmanship, with neatly stamped and formed parts. The mower has just two points of deck adjustment, one for the front wheels and one for the rear.

We also like its 11-inch rear wheels, which help it to roll smoothly over bumpy terrain. The mower weighs a relatively light 52 pounds, which is certainly a help, given that it’s not self-propelled.

This is a solid overall mower that is sold in a few variations and under a few different brands depending where you are shopping.

Toro mowers have received more awards from us than any other brand for two reasons: build and cut quality. And those were amply demonstrated in this test as the Recycler turned in the best ratio of cut area per amp-hour of battery in the self-propelled category, while at the same time not skimping on cut quality, mulch quality, or bagging.

We attribute this outstanding mower performance to three features: First, the air vent at the front of the mower deck optimizes mulching and bagging performance. Toro calls it Vortex technology, a design to increase air flow in the same way as a hood scoop on a car. The company says it helps the grass stand straighter under the mower and the clippings to be suspended longer for more thorough mulching, but it also helps airflow into the bag.

Next, the company’s redesigned “Atomic” blade configuration appears to assist the air flow and clipping movement. Finally, the three-phase, 60-volt motor is exceptionally efficient, resulting in a large cut area for a single battery.

Other great features of this mower are its rear-wheel drive self-propel, solid one-piece metal deck, large 11-inch wheels, and fold-forward handle that lets it stand upright when stowed.

The M220 is essentially the self-propelled version of the Craftsman M110 push mower also featured in this article. This mower's front-wheel drive propulsion makes it ideally suited to maneuvering around shrubs and other landscaping. Since this is a front-wheel drive model, it is not ideally suited to work on hills and slopes, but should be fine for fairly level yards.

This mower features a 150-cc Briggs and Stratton gas engine, a more-powerful version of the motor found in the Craftsman push mower. It can bag, mulch, or side discharge, and features a two-point height adjustment—one lever for the front wheels and one for the back.

This is one of Ryobi’s top-of-the-line mowers, and it’s something we wish we saw more of: U.S.-built tools. The RY401150 delivers a tremendous cut area with its two (6-Ah) batteries, and its X-shaped blade leaves a pristine surface in its wake.

Ryobi estimates this mower should provide 70 minutes of run time. We didn’t time our cut, but it strikes as plausible. Its rear-wheel drive and reasonably aggressive tread pattern provide good hill climbing and sidehill cutting performance. And its bagging on all surfaces (level, sidehill, and uphill) is also commendable.

Its other ease-of-use features include an easily installed or removed bag that mounts and dismounts easily. Adjusting deck height is simple with the single lever. The straight-edge deck is made of polypropylene and will never rust, needing very little care other than basic cleaning.

Toro pioneered the wide-cut residential mower, and that experience is evident with the Timemaster. This is a thoroughly engineered and well-behaved mower that’s easy to use, especially for something that weighs as much as this does. The TimeMaster employs Toro’s well-regarded Personal Pace speed control. Push forward on the handle to make the mower go faster.

Other well-designed features: two-lever height control, a forward-fold handle for more compact storage, and a large grass bag. Its speed and ease of use make it well suited to broad suburban lawns, less so for push-pull and pivoting cuts in tight spots. This Toro is a capable and powerful hill climber, we found, but did not do particularly well in sidehill mowing.

Those are small asides, though. This is an outstanding product suited to those with a sizable yard that prefer the experience of a walk-behind mower to that of a riding mower.

This Craftsman M110 push mower is very similar to the Murray mower listed in this article. They share the same basic deck design (they're both built by MTD), and this one can also bag, mulch, or side discharge.

Part of the reason it costs less is because it lacks the Murray's large-diameter rear wheels, which means it won't roll as smoothly over bumps.

The two are fairly close in price when not on sale, but if you can do without the large rear wheels, this is a solid, quality mower if you're looking to not break the bank.

We found that this mower is nicely designed and equipped with features you hardly see in this class and price of product. You get 10-inch rear tires to help it better roll over washboard surfaces, dual batteries, and three-function capability (mulch, side discharge, and bag).

Icing on the cake includes its steel deck with seven positions from 1- 1⁄8 to 3 inches, all controlled by a single spring-loaded lift mechanism. The deck is continuous from the rear wheels to the front, and a hatch at the back provides access to the bag.

It's worth noting that it's cutting width, at just 19-inches, is among the smallest you'll find on the market, so this mower truly is best suited for small yards or as a trimming mower.

The Ego LM2150SP is designed to work with Ego's multi-blade cutting system. In addition to a mulching blade, the mower comes with a high-lift bagging blade and another that helps extend run time by reducing drag through the air and the grass. This mower, when equipped with the extended-run blade, is designed to go for 75 minutes on one charge of its 10-Ah battery.

In other respects, Ego went all-out to equip this mower: variable-speed rear-wheel drive, bright LED lighting, a front handle and fold-forward rear handle, and three-mode capability (bag, mulch, side discharge).

On that last point, the mower is not really side discharge in that the chute doesn’t mount on the side of the deck and discharge to the side. Rather, it mounts on the rear and discharges to the side. We did notice considerable clumping in this mode; it’s not the mower’s strong suit. But it still bags well, even with the mulching blade. Rounding out its features are its easily-adjusted single-lever control of deck height.

We were pleasantly surprised by this mower’s cut area and overall performance. The cut quality and mulching are quite good for an inexpensive machine, and its bagging ability is what we describe as middle of the road—better than some, but not the best you'll find.

While the lack of self-propel make this unit less ideal for some users, the benefit is that none of the battery charge is being used on the drive system. This gives the mower a decent battery life in terms of the square footage it can cut per charge.

You can check out the self-propelled version of this mower here, which is otherwise largely the same.

This mower comes with one 5-Ah battery, but its battery compartment has two bays; install a second one to double the run time. For your money, you also get the convenience of single-lever deck adjustment with a conveniently located cutting height scale next to it for adjustment from 1.5 to 4 inches.