To get you ratings and reviews of the latest models by early spring, we travel to our mower testing facility in Fort Myers, Fla., to conduct tests in late winter at grounds we prepare each year.
We plant 1,800 pounds of grass seed (predominantly annual rye, prized for its dense growth) and cut 500,000 square feet of grass in three modes—mulching, side discharging, and bagging, producing a total of 3,000 pounds of clippings. We mow both level turf and slopes to get a feel for each model, and we review their convenience features.
Each model’s Overall Score incorporates all of that performance data along with predicted reliability and owner satisfaction ratings from our latest member surveys. We leverage data on 46,807 lawn mowers owned by 39,051 CR members that were purchased new between 2014 and 2024.
Note: For models with noise-at-ear ratings that are unsatisfactory—or less than satisfactory—we recommend that you wear hearing protection. Also, CR doesn’t judge zero-turn mowers for bagging because our research shows that just 11 percent of their users bag their clippings.
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