Spring is here, so let’s dust off the garden tools and get ready for summer. The first job? Cutting the grass. If you’re like me you use an electric lawn mower. It saves the faff and mess of using gas fuel plus it’s quieter too. You can just plug in and get cutting. The only thing you need to consider is power consumption.
Below we will discuss and test electric lawn mower wattage, explain how to work it out for yourself, and calculate the total electricity required.
How Many Watts is an Electric Lawn Mower?
The average electric lawn mower uses between 1200 and 1700 watts.
The exact number depends on the size and model of your electric lawn mower. For example, a smaller machine uses around 1200W, while large options use more like 1700W.
The reason for this difference is down to the internal electric motor. Larger mowers with increased blades and cutting ability require a bigger motor. The bigger the motor the more power it will consume.
How to Find Out Your Electric Lawn Mower Wattage
There’s 3 ways you can work out the wattage of an electric lawn mower.
- Check Product Specification
The quickest way is to look at the electric lawn mower’s specification. The watts (W) is usually written on a sticker on the base of the appliance. If not, you can check the user manual or the manufacturer’s website for technical details.
- Use a Wattmeter
A wattmeter is brilliant for getting a live wattage reading and tracking total energy usage of any appliance. You can simply plug it into your electric lawn mower to get instant information.
I used one to test my electric lawn mower which gave a live reading of 1331W.
- Wattage Formula or Calculator
If you know the amperage and voltage of your electric lawn mower you can use this to find the maximum watt rating. Simply use the formula Amps x Volts = Watts. Or you can head over to the ‘Watt Calculator’ to work this out.
Electric Lawn Mower Wattage Examples
Let’s take a look at specific examples of how many watts an electric lawn mower draws. Below is a collection of modern electric lawn mowers with their listed power ratings.
| Electric Lawn Mower Model | Power Rating (Watts) |
| Bosch Rotak 370 ER Lawnmower | 1400 |
| Mac Allister MLM1334 Corded Rotary Lawnmower | 1300 |
| Flymo Easiglide Corded Hover Lawnmower | 1700 |
| Flymo Speedi-mo Corded Rotary Lawnmower | 1500 |
| Bosch AdvancedRotak 650 Rotary Lawnmower | 1700 |
| Mountfield Princess 38 Corded Rotary Lawnmower | 1600 |
| Ryobi RLM13E33S Lawn Mower | 1300 |
As you can see, the power ratings vary between different electric lawn mowers. So you should take the time to check your own appliance.
How Much Electricity Does an Electric Lawn Mower Use?
You can use electric lawn mower wattage to work out how much electricity it uses. Plus this can be useful in understanding how much it costs to run your electric lawn mower.
A watt (W) is a measurement of power at a single point in time. A watt-hour (Wh) is the total amount of electricity used in an hour. For example, an electric lawn mower drawing 1500W would use 1500Wh when running for an hour.
Happily, electricity bills are recorded in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt is simply 1000 watts. So a 1500W electric lawn mower running for 1 hour uses 1.5kWh.
In reality, you might use an electric lawn mower for 30 minutes a week. This means a mid sized electric lawn mower uses about 750Wh or 0.75kWh electricity a week. That’s 3.225kWh a month and 39kWh a year.
That’s a rough electricity cost of $0.48 a month or $5.85 a year to cut your grass for 30 minute every week.
As you can imagine, these numbers vary from household to household. Smaller gardens won’t need so much care, plus you may not use your appliance in the winter. Professionals will use their mower a lot more often!
Using an Electric Lawn Mower Off-Grid
If you’re planning to use your electric lawn mower in an off-grid situation like a power outage, or remote location , the information above is important. It allows you to install the correct power supply and know how long you can run.
First, you might consider getting a battery powered lawn mower so you don’t need to remain plugged in. Then you can recharge when not in use. The only downside to this is the limited runtime.
You can either use a power inverter, portable power station, or generator to generate AC electricity for a corded mower.
To make sure everything runs smoothly you should check two things on this equipment – wattage capacity and total energy capacity.
Your power source, like an inverter, should have a wattage capacity of at least 20% more than your electric lawn mower. This ensures it will be able to deliver enough power as they are never 100% efficient. To cut grass, it is best to have 2000W of power capacity. This is enough to run most mowers without overworking your equipment.
Secondly, you need to ensure your energy source, like a battery, has enough energy to run the electric lawn mower for the required amount of time. As we already know, it will use about 750Wh electricity for 30 minutes. This is the equivalent to 62.5Ah on a 12V battery.
How Many Watts Does an Electric Lawn Mower Use Summary
I hope you now have a better understanding of how many watts an electric lawn mower uses.
Above we have cut through all the jargon to give you exact numbers and examples. Electric lawn mowers have powerful internal motors which will draw well over 1000W. This means you’ll notice a spike in your electricity usage when cutting your grass regularly. In addition, to run a corded mower off-grid you’ll need a heavy duty inverter or generator to keep up with the demands.
