Lawn work may be a fact of life in the summer, but that doesn’t mean it has to be drudgery. Here’s equipment to help get the job done more quickly and quietly. Who knows? You may find yourself enjoying the work.
Chainsaws
We’ve tested battery chainsaws since the product category was invented, so it takes a lot to surprise us, but Stihl’s saw equipped with a 20-inch bar did that. This is a professional-duty saw capable of bucking firewood, limbing, storm cleanup, the works. We took two ash trees, both of them had been killed by the dreaded emerald ash borer, and went at them, cutting everything from material that required the full bar length to sticks only a couple of inches across. The Stihl exhibited pro-duty torque as it pivoted quietly and neatly through this rock-hard material. We liked the saw’s vibration dampening and appreciated its thrifty oil use, owing to a feed mechanism, bar and chain design that cuts oil consumption significantly. We can’t peg that figure exactly; Stihl says the design cuts oil use by fifty percent compared to a comparable gas engine saw. A battery conservation button also helps you limit output at three levels. The lowest cuts battery drain to the minimum while the mid setting is about right for most cutting. The highest setting permits eagerness in full bar-length cuts.
There’s a lot of junk floating around in the mini chainsaw category these days, so we were relieved to find honest capability in this tiny chainsaw from Ryobi. It’s equipped with a 6-inch bar and, interestingly, no oil reservoir. The saw cuts slowly and predictably up to the full bar length. With logs that size, you will find that you have to retighten the chain every so often. It’s okay. The process takes seconds, and it’s tool free. A pivoting spring-loaded guard increases protection at the top of the bar, in case you’re squeamish about using a chainsaw. The guard pivots to 90 degrees so as not to encumber the cut.
One of the better buys in outdoor power this spring is this potent 36-volt chainsaw from Husqvarna (note, the retailer classifies this as nominally 40-volt, but the tool’s battery plainly lists it at 36 volt). It’s a reliable wood producer, we found. It doesn’t churn through wood with quite the speed that Stihl’s saw does, but that’s no indication of a lack of performance. This is a great, easy-handling saw with plenty of wood-cutting torque, tool-free chain adjustment, and two power output settings accessible by a button on top of the saw. Use low speed for limbing and cutting small-diameter material. Use high speed for felling or to buck the trunk into firewood lengths. In all, this is a great saw and our tests entirely in hardwood verify that fact.
Black & Decker’s chainsaw is a surprisingly hearty little power tool. The saw’s bar is marked as 6 inches, but that’s baloney. Its tip protector limits its cut to limbs 4 inches in diameter, but the good news is that it will cut a limb that size pretty readily. And about that tip protector. With some consumer saws, these are bolted on. That’s not the case here. The tip protector is riveted to the bar tip, and if you want it off, you’ll have to be conversant with a die grinder or similar tool. That observation aside, this is a pretty good little saw, with a comfortable handle, decent balance, and a bar wrench cleverly and tightly concealed in the folding plastic scabbard.
Denali power tools have been racking up points in our tests for both value and performance, and that’s the case with this 20-volt chainsaw. Owing to its 12-inch bar, we sank it into our largest test logs, both ash and sassafras and came away impressed. This isn’t a contractor-duty saw, it’s built and priced for homeowners, but it’s no slouch. It pivoted slowly and surely through our 8 and 10-inch test logs without complaint. We can’t ask more than that, given how hard that wood was. Other features we like: tool-free chain tensioning, a bar oil reservoir with great visibility, and comfortable balance and handles.
With this saw’s 10 feet of reach at our disposal we went to work on a shaggy hemlock that was impeding driveway access and lawnmowing. A few minutes of work later, with a pile of recently-felled branches on the ground, we came away impressed. This is a handy saw for homeowners with trees to trim. It’s got enough power to get the job done and a pivoting head to improve your access and line of sight. It weighs a reasonable 10 pounds with the 2-Ah battery that it comes with–if you own other Denali tools, pop in a 4-Ah battery with more run time (and more weight), but we easily had enough run time to deal with the aforementioned hemlock. Our hunch is that we could have just as easily trimmed another two trees with the same battery. A plastic hook below the saw’s 8-inch bar, assists in pulling down recently-cut branches that have fallen free but gotten hung up on their way to the ground.
DeWalt’s feather weight chainsaw (6.2 pounds with a 3-Ah battery) is no slouch. We took it for a run through our batch of flawlessly straight test logs (hard as a rock sassafras) and a downed ash tree. The saw has an integral tip guard which we weren’t that fond of, frankly, but the thing is riveted on there so it’s not easily removed. Still, the saw has a 6 inches of working bar length behind the tip guard. We went to town with it; even with a little 3-Ah battery you can do some work with this thing–and maybe even have some fun.
Echo’s chainsaws have a long track record of strong performance in our tests, and the company’s newest 56-volt cordless model steps into line with its forebears. We went to work with it on a gigantic downed cherry tree, a mess of tangled limbs, vines, and partially-flattened undergrowth. We sawed away at everything from limbs at shin level to those that were above our head, holding the saw as high as we were able, wood chips raining down on us. The Echo held its own. Especially on the high cuts, we were grateful for its lightweight, exactly 13 pounds with a 2.5-Ah battery. Its battery bay is large enough to accommodate Echo’s massive 5-Ah battery, in case you have an extended cutting session planned and the saw is held at, say, waist height or lower. But more than weight, we appreciated the saw’s torque and vibration-free cutting particularly in large wood, when the 18-inch bar was nearly completely buried.
Ridgid’s little chainsaw will cut the typical downed tree limb or even fell small trees, but it excels as a small conventionally-shaped rear handle chainsaw for pruning. It’s not a powerhouse (at least, compared to cordless chainsaws produced by Stihl, Husqvarna and Echo) but that’s okay. We still churned through multiple 6-inch-thick logs and limbs with it and then went about in an equally carefree manner pruning off the lower dead limbs on a long line of pine and hemlock. In this pruning application, we particularly appreciated the Ridgid’s light weight (9.6 pounds with a 6-Ah battery). It easily has enough power for these odd pruning jobs.
String Trimmers
With a 60-volt battery and motor at its disposal, the CAT trimmer is a weed-slashing monster, capable of taking down anything we pointed it at. The only thing it failed to cut was a pair of finger-thick briar stalks. Tradeoff: It’s on the heavy side, weighing 11 pounds. That puts it in the vicinity of a gas-engine trimmer. We appreciated many things about it, other than its power. It’s well balanced, a high-low speed switch conserves its run time, and it runs so smoothly that tipped vertically, it was a very effective edger–as good as a small gas engine machine. The braided line it comes with is effective, more so than that on many new trimmers.
Ridgid’s foray into outdoor power tools is not without good effect with this 18-volt trimmer. If you’re on the brand’s power tool platform, it makes sense for you to consider it, especially when combined with the brand’s power pruner and leaf blower. It weighs a bit over 9 lb. and is equipped with a 2-speed switch (high speed and battery-conserving low speed). It’s a hearty slasher that runs quiety and smoothly through green grass and dried weeds. It was effective tipped vertically as an edger, if not in the same class as the CAT, DeWalt and Toro (shown nearby). Equipping it with better quality line than that it is supplied with will improve its edging performance.
We attached a string trimmer accessory to DeWalt’s massive 60-volt power head and waded into a drainage basin to face off with some tall stuff, slicing down weeds, grass and light to medium briars as we went. If it wasn’t such hard work, it was almost fun. The DeWalt more than proved its capability in the jungle, then we slipped into its Low (rpm) setting, tipped it vertically and cut a nice, neat channel at the edge of a sidewalk and also along some curb. This is a substantial machine, weighing 13.4 pounds. But its balance is good and we didn’t find it tiring to use. Nor did we find problems with the string trimmer head that were referenced online. What we did find is a rock solid trimmer capable of taking a pounding while delivering a clean cut.
In the realm of outdoor power tools, the 20-volt Craftsman occupies a light weight, light-duty niche. It’s an absolute pleasure to use. No, this isn’t a weed slashing brute. It weighs a mere 6.8 pounds with a single piece of trimmer string projecting from its head, and on its Low setting, it’s nearly whisper quiet. It trims effectively and neatly. A caveat here: it will work vertically edging, but only if you have a light hand. Its single .080 line will not take a whole lot of dirt impact. If you go easy, you’ll be fine.
Various Amazon brands we’ve tested haven’t been worth wasting time or money on. And to make matters worse, they’re multiplying like fungi in a dark closet. This string trimmer is an exception to the fungi rule, however. It’s part of the Denali line, an Amazon brand manufactured in China by Skil (or more properly, under the Skil aegis, itself a brand of Chervon). Denali tools are sold as a kit (tool, battery, and charger), and this little trimmer kit turned in a surprisingly spunky performance. The dual .080 line-head charged through weeds and tall grass like a champ, but we were particularly surprised at how well it did edging vertically. If you take a light-duty trimmer like this (emphasis on light duty) and work it that hard, be prepared to bump feed fresh line at a rapid clip. Other check marks for it: light weight (7.4 lb) and a high speed/low speed switch.
Toro equipment is well behaved and we often breathe a sigh of relief when we find ourselves operating it. This 60-volt power head-string trimmer combination is no exception. Faultlessly smooth running and powerful, it hummed merrily through the grass test, the weed test and edging. We describe it as we tested it, a power head with the string trimmer attachment. Among its other accessories are a rotary cultivator, edger, and a pole saw. The machine weighs 12.4 pounds with the 2.5-Ah battery and string trimmer head. That puts it squarely in gas engine territory, as far as weight is concerned. Its build quality-price ratio are also about what you would expect from a better quality piece of gas engine equipment. Unlike those two-stroke trimmers, this is a fraction of the noise and–of course–there’s no stink from exhaust fumes.
This is an expensive, high-performance 36-volt trimmer that lives up to its price tag. It has a robust line head with trouble-free bump line advance, even in tall weeds and difficult conditions. With the press of a button, you can make the head spin clockwise or counter-clockwise. This helpful to untangle tall weeds from the head, we learned, and gives you greater control over where and how the trimmer ejects what it is cutting. This is a powerful trimmer that fells tall and thick weeds, dried stalks and does routine cleanup before or after you mow your lawn. With the 7.5-Ah battery, it weighs 11.8 pounds. We didn’t find it tiring to use and appreciated the massive battery’s run time, which you can conserve by pressing the high-speed/low-speed switch. The trimmer easily has enough power and run time to do a typical suburban yard, even a large one.
Summer is still many weeks away, but there was plenty of grass, weeds and light brush to slash, and we reserved some of the toughest material for this string trimmer. You might think that unfair. We don’t. Having years of experience behind this company’s string trimmers, we were confident this cordless 56-volt trimmer could handle the work. It did. We fogged our coveralls with bug spray to keep the ticks off, snapped the 2.5-Ah battery into the Echo and waded in, felling grass, weeds, and briers both to clear the area and to make access for chainsaw testing. The Echo performed beautifully, its robust head a reliable line feeder. When trimming around the base of trees and doing work that was less severe, we set the trimmer’s two-speed selector switch from high to low. This lower speed not only conserves battery life but makes the machine far easier to handle when edging or to reduce the likelihood of accidentally damaging a nearby plant.
Leaf Blowers
You might wonder how you test a leaf blower when it’s not autumn. Well there are several ways, but we tested it on the rim of a weed and litter-clogged drainage basin. After cutting down debris along its perimeter and along its wall, we took this leaf blower and blasted the area clean, including leaves, shredded litter, and a humongous tangled mass of grass and weed stalks. At the bottom of the basin the Husqvarna had enough power to roll that nasty mess into a large tumbleweed for easy disposal. Not a bad test. This 36-volt blower weighs an even 10 pounds with its 7.5-Ah battery. All controls are above its trigger. Set the cruise control to any speed you need. Press the turbo button (Husqvarna rates its top speed as 200 mph) for more debris-blasting power. Of course, at that speed you have reduced run time. On the other hand, when you need power, you need power.
We got a pretty good idea of what this 56-volt leaf blower will handle by using it to sweep aside the debris that we slashed down during our string trimmer testing. We also used it in more typical fashion to blow freshly-cut grass clippings that the spring winds had blown from the mower testing area onto nearby surfaces. Even by the standards of small gas engine handheld leaf blowers, this blower has got plenty of material-moving oomph. Nearly important as power is that a machine of this type has to be comfortable and well balanced. With a 2.5-Ah battery, the Echo weighs 7.8 pounds, with a natural and easy hang in your hand, its 8-inch long top handle with a rubber-coated surface provides for multiple hand positions–or even two-hand use as the situation may dictate.
Mowers
Cordless mowers are fun to test, and we had a blast with the big CAT, a 60-volt, 73-lb mower with a good old fashioned steel deck and a traditional side-discharge port. But those were about the only old-fashioned features on it. The CAT is self propelled and a nicely behaved modern machine that purrs along powerfully, leaving a beautifully cut surface. Its ground speed is continuously adjustable between a crawl and a brisk pace. A rear lever controls a sliding hatch that limits the degree to which you mulch or bag–you can fully do one or the other or some combination of the two. Another pair of levers on the handle operate the spring-assisted mechanism that permits the handle to fold forward so that the mower can be stored on end. The CAT comes with a single 5-Ah battery, but its motor housing has a spare bay for a second battery to increased its run time.
Craftsman’s walk mower is light (36.6 pounds with the batteries and bag) and it’s light duty in a pleasing way. Remove its batteries and bag, and it weighs slightly more than 30 pounds. It’s small enough and light enough such that you can put it on a shelf when you’re done mowing or to store during the off season. Its cut quality is good and we were surprised at its spunkiness with the deck set up high and its side discharge chute in place. No, this isn’t a gas engine mower. You won’t use it to knock down weeds in an overgrown yard. On the other hand, compared to a gas engine mower it’s almost vacuum cleaner quiet, and it’s extremely pleasant to use with an all-plastic deck that’s easy to clean. Finally, it comes as a kit. You get mower, bag, discharge chute, charger, and a pair of batteries that fit any Craftsman 20-volt tool. It’s a winner for folks that need a small mower.
EGO stood the outdoor power world on its ear a few years ago when it crashed the market with its radical looking and radical performing mowers. It looks like it’s done it again with this 56-volt model, a solid and smooth cutter equipped with a massive 12-Ah battery. The mower adapts electronically to your walking pace, and it’s the first walk-behind mower we know of with an LED dashboard. Overkill? Normally we’re skeptical of this stuff, but the EGO is a blast to operate, and it cuts well. Using the push buttons below the dash, you can turn the headlight on or off, set the blade speed to Turbo, Normal or Eco (we operated on the Turbo setting at all times) and you can turn the rear-drive on or off. Once on, the mower adapts to your pace. The dashboard also reads the battery charge level. We tried the mower uphill and down, and on level surfaces. While we can’t say our test was definitive, the system appears consistent and reliable. This is a bit like lawn mowing meets outer space–at least if there were grass to cut out there.
Makita is known for its outstanding power tools, not necessarily its lawnmowers, but that may change with this 40-volt commercial-duty steel deck mower. It’s powered by a Makita-built high-torque motor and a pair of 8-Ah batteries; when the first battery is drained, the mower switches automatically to the second. Yes, it’s expensive, but it delivers a superb cut surface and excellent bagging. And on that last point, unlike many battery mowers this one is equipped with a full-size (two bushel) bag like you would find on a good quality gas engine machine. Its accessories include a mulch plug and a side discharge port, giving you three-mode performance (mulch, bag, side discharge). It’s got all the other niceties associated with top notch mowers today: fold-forward handle, adjustable ground speed, and even a quiet setting that reduces motor output and blade speed to keep noise down if you’re cutting late in the day or early in the morning (or if the cutting conditions are not particularly demanding). In all, it’s a superb piece of outdoor power equipment.
If you want a mower that that delivers you an ice latte while you cut, stop reading this review. The Echo mower reviewed here is a rugged self-propelled workhorse built to cut grass, take it or leave it. If that’s what you want, keep reading. Echo, headquartered in the Midwest, is well known for building such equipment. It’s been doing this for decades and we’ve got decades of experience testing this brand so we’re speaking from experience. This 56-volt mower delivers an exceptional cut, excellent bagging, and simple operation. We mulched, side discharged and bagged with the Echo, and it passed each test handily, also climbing hills and slogging through tall grass and weeds. It comes with a 5-Ah battery and a second bay for another battery, if you want to extend its run time (also a great incentive to buy one of its other superb battery-powered machines; see those reviews nearby). Simply put, the Echo is very nearly a gas engine mower, and the company tells us that it has no intention of building a latte-mixing machine anytime soon. That suits us, as does this mower.
You may be tired of hearing claims that battery mowers deliver gas engine performance, but Husqvarna’s mower is bringing that all-encompassing claim closer to the truth. The Husqvarna is a ruggedly built steel deck mower that weighs 80 pounds with one battery and its bag in place. It cuts and bags beautifully. It was this spring’s fastest mower in terms of its top ground speed (4 mph); push its ground speed control to full forward and you almost have to trot to keep up with it. The slowest setting is a leisurely walk. Three electronic modes on the touch-control panel help you manage cutting conditions: Sensing automatically adjusts motor speed up and down to suit grass height. The Mulching setting is suitable for average cutting conditions, and Max Power is reserved for tall grass. We couldn’t verify the company’s claimed run time of 75 minutes, but based on our experience that seems plausible when the mower is equipped with two batteries. It has two battery bays and is sold with a single 7.5-Ah power pack.
Every mower, to one extent or another, delivers lawn striping as it cuts, but if you want to emphasize the stripe, Toro built this mower for you. The spring cutting conditions where we tested were less than ideal for lawn striping, but even with that disclaimer, the Toro’s stripes were conspicuous compared to the test zones for other mowers to its left and right. It accomplishes this with a ¾-inch-diameter steel roller at the rear of the mower and an X-shaped mulching blade. The two work in tandem to deliver a razor-smooth cut and a velvet-like stripe. Other features: two-lever height adjustment, a massive 7.5-Ah battery complete with a handle (we wish other big batteries had that), and the same fold-forward handle with stand-on-end design that Toro pioneered. Every single Toro mower that we’ve ever tested has been a superb grass cutter, and this one continues that long tradition, we’re both pleased and relieved to say. It’s an unbroken winning streak, or in this case, a stripe.
Handtools and Accessories
Whether you irrigate with water supplied by the city or your own well, it’s going to cost you money, and the more severe the summer gets, the more expensive it gets. You need to irrigate right where you need it; this prevents water falling on pavement and reduces overwatering that leads to runoff. This sprinkler excels at improved irrigation precision. Its water width and range are both continuously controllable. Move the sprinkler’s yellow tabs to adjust width and range. We really liked the speed and ease of that, and the gentle cross watering pattern this sprinkler produces. It’s the most easily and precisely adjustable lawn sprinkler we’ve used in the last 30 years.
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Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.
Brad Ford has spent most of his life using tools to fix, build, or make things. Growing up he worked on a farm, where he learned to weld, repair, and paint equipment. From the farm he went to work at a classic car dealer, repairing and servicing Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and Jaguars. Today, when he's not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he's busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania.
