Believe it or not, summer is here.
Now that No Mow May is out of the way, it’s the perfect time to trim your turf and get your garden ready for the heady days ahead of BBQs, alfresco fiestas and simple sunning.
But what if your mower has given up the ghost during the long, cold winter/spring and you find yourself facing a forest out there with nothing but a meagre monetary fund to replace it? Well, relax, the solution to not missing out on Sol could soon be in your hands for fewer shekels than you imagine, with our non-raking round-up of the best budget mowers to get your green bits grazed down to outdoor acceptability.
So, keeping costs below the £200 mark, I’ve selected five lawn levellers that, despite their diminutive overheads more than do the business under-blades, guarantee that your garden will be ready to receive guests once the sun shines for more than a few minutes. It’s not rocket science, just cutting-edge stuff…
Best budget lawn mowers at a glance:
- Best for cut-price cutting: Bosch Rotak 34 R (06008A6273) - £114, Currys
- Best for gaining a gardening edge: Ryobi 1300W (RlM13E33S) - £119, B&Q
- Best for big performance, small price: Webb WEER33RR Supreme - £105.95, Amazon
- Best for small gardens, smallest budgets: Flymo Turbo Lite 250 - £63, Homebase
- Best for cable-free comfort and control: Gtech SLM50 - £180, Gtech
See the full reviews below
Bosch Rotak 34 R (06008A6273)
Best for: Cut-price cutting
Bosch on a budget, the Rotak 34 R is the biggest and heaviest of the mowers here assembled, but at 11.1kg, it’s still remarkably light and supremely manoeuvrable around even the most awkward of gardens.
Mains powered, a nicely meaty 1300 W Powerdrive motor drives the 34cm sharpened steel blade, giving a nicely neat cut regardless of the current state of your uncut lawn, even over uneven areas, with cutting height options ranging from as short as 20mm and up to 70cm, depending on the mower-manicured look you favour.
Also coming blessed with the largest grass box, at 40 litres you’ll not need to stop and empty quite as you would with less commodious catchers, so the task of cutting back your turf will take slightly less time, opening up more opportunity for soaking up the sun at ease afterwards.
Featuring a lawn drum, the Bosch even lets you lay down those slick-looking lines that you normally only see at professional sports grounds or adorning the lawn of that weird, obsessive neighbour down the road.
Normally priced at £150, the Bosch Rotak 34 R was reduced in March to just £114 at Currys, so if you want to grab a mean, green (and red) grass-cutting bargain, follow the link to the spicy electrical retailer below and give your garden some bish bash Bosch.
- Power: Mains
- Grass box capacity: 40-litres
- Blade size: 34cm
- Height cut: 20-70mm
- Weight: 11.1kg
Buy now £114.00, Currys
Ryobi 1300W (RlM13E33S)
Best for: Gaining a gardening edge
An engaging ergonomic example of the lawnmower maker’s art, the Ryobi is a nimble little mower minx that, at 9kg, is ultra-light for its size and ease to guide around, thanks to its handy handle design that offers a choice of three height options to open it up to all but the most vertically challenged.
But it's not just about size, performance is important too. So, good then that the Ryobi comes complete with an ‘EasyEdge’ grass comb that allows users to cut right up to the perimeter of the lawn, leaving no patch un-pimped, while the 1300W motor gives all the power required to whizz round lawns ending up to eight-metres from the nearest plug socket when, as you’ve already guessed, the power cable will run out of reach.
With cutting height adjustments trimming from 20- to 60mm in height across five options, the Ryobi is equipped with a good-sized 33cm blade and a capacious 35-litre catcher box, so you can mow more in less time and worry even less about emptying.
A literal snip at one pound under 120, the agile Ryobi 1300W is a lot of mower for very little moolah.
- Power: Mains
- Grass box capacity: 35-litres
- Blade size: 33cm
- Height cut: 20-60mm
- Weight: 9kg
Buy now £119.00, B&Q
Webb WEER33RR Supreme
Best for: Big performance, small price
New for 2024 from the Wiltshire-based Webb, the WEER33RR Webb Supreme Electric Rotary Lawnmower, to give it its full name, is the second cheapest grass chopper option to make my list, but that doesn’t mean it's lacking in the areas that matter. Firstly, it gets ample grunt from its 1200W motor. Secondly, it has a nicely sizeable 33cm blade for more snipping and less walking, a rear roller for laying down those stripes, no fewer than five cut heights running from 20- to 60mm, and an expansive 30-litre grass box to catch all the inedible fruits of your labour.
It’s also incredibly light at just 8.7kg, something which helps to make it highly manoeuvrable too, whilst the power lead comes at a good length of 12m, leaving you free to roam without worry of running out of rope.
The perfect mower for small to medium-sized gardens, at a price that’s pleasing on the purse strings, the Webb WEER33RR Webb Supreme Electric Rotary Lawnmower is the perfect tool for taming your turf.
- Power: Mains
- Grass box capacity: 30-litres
- Blade size: 33cm
- Height cut: 20-60mm
- Weight: 8.7kg
Buy now £105.96, Amazon
Flymo Turbo Lite 250
Best for: Small gardens, smallest budgets
Looking for a lawn mower for well under £100? Well, you’re in luck, because as long as you're not a moon-on-a-stick kind of garden gear shopper, the Flymo Turbo Lite 250 is yours for just over £63 (was £79). Okay, so such a low price does mean you’re going to have to make some sacrifices, but as long as your garden is smallish, then the 25cm blade, 10-metre cable and grass box absence shouldn’t prove too much of a problem, particularly with the box issue, as the 250 self-mulches clippings back into your lawn.
Being small and weighing next to nothing at 5.95kg, the Flymo is extremely easy to manoeuvre, floating around your garden on a cushion of air, its impressive-for-the-size 1400W motor makes short work of the sod underneath.
Offer four cut heights from 11- to 31cm, needless to say, when the work's all done, the Turbo Lite 250 folds down to next to nothing for easy storage in the shed.
A great little solution for undemanding domestic grassy developments, the Flymo is small but mowingly mighty.
- Power: Mains
- Grass box capacity: Mulching
- Blade size: 25cm
- Height cut: 11-31mm
- Weight: 5.95kg
Buy now £63.00, Homebase
Gtech SLM50
Best for: Cable-free comfort and control
Something a bit different now from a British brand I’ve previously been hugely impressed with, the SLM50 from Worcestershire’s very own Gtech is as innovative a product as I’ve come to expect.
Weighting a piffling 3.5kg, the SLM50 can be operated single-handedly thanks to its unique, incredibly ergonomically designed handle, while the 25cm blade positioning helps the Gtech get up close and personal with fences and lawn edges, for a far cleaner cut all around.
Battery-powered, a four hour charge will deliver a 30-minute runtime which, depending on how enthusiastic or lazy your mowing technique should equate to 100m2 of cutting coverage. Also, keeping you in the lawn-going loop, that 18V battery features a 4-stage LED display so that you always know how much juice is left in the lithium-ion tank.
A mulching model that eschews a grass collection box in favour of feeding grass cutting back into the ground to self-fertilise the soil, there’s no emptying, very little raking (some may be required) and the grass becomes nutrient self-sufficient, instantly transforming you into a modern-day green warrior of some vague description.
With a choice of 40- or 50-mm cutting heights, the Gtech may be the priciest mower model to make it into this garden roving round-up, but for those with mobility issues or maybe just seeking an easy life, it’s worth every last penny.
- Power: Battery (18V)
- Grass box capacity: Mulching
- Blade size: 25cm
- Height cut: 40- or 50cm
- Weight: 3.5kg
Buy now £180.00, Gtech
