When you’re elderly, you want to enjoy your backyard with minimal fuss.
You know what’s worse than having to push around a heavy lawn mower when you’re weak, frail and elderly? Not having a lawn mower at all, and letting the garden get so horribly overgrown that you just don’t enjoy it anymore. What a waste of land.
The solution, of course, is to invest in a good but lightweight lawn mower, that’s easy enough for even the elderly amongst us to push around.
Thankfully, there are some really great lightweight lawn mowers out on the market at the moment. We’ve been checking them out, and after much deliberation, we were able to handpick our favorite few to review for you.
But before we get into all that, why not have a quick read of our buying guide?
This is the perfect lawn mower for the elderly if you have the budget for it. Not only does it not require any pushing, but you don’t even have to walk behind it to guide it, either.
This is a smart lawn mower that you can program using a Bluetooth remote control. And the elderly lady or gent can simply keep an eye on it, and not have to lift a finger. It really couldn’t be any easier to use, and you don’t really have to worry about whether it’s lightweight because it moves around entirely on its own.
It comes from a brand that has been in the business for over 25 years, and uses top-notch technology and innovation.
It can reach a full charge in just 60 minutes, then can continue to mow for up to an hour, able to mow up to 700 square feet in a single charge.
It has a 100% waterproof shell, so it can handle a little rain. And it’s surprisingly quiet to run.
Amazon occasionally has deals on this particular lawn mower – simply click on “Check price” to see if there’s a deal on now.
Pros:
No need to walk behind it!
Superb quality & very reliable
Mows 700 sq ft in a single charge
Cons:
Requires some assembly
Several times more expensive than a regular lawn mower
This is a great little lawn mower for the elderly, because it’s a self-propelled one, that doesn’t actually need to be pushed, although someone will need to walk behind it, but that’s just to guide it around. It’s perfect if your lawn is on an incline.
It’s also a cordless electric mower, so you don’t have to worry about buying gas or oil, and there are no nasty emissions, and there’s an easy push button start. But it performs just as well as a gas powered model. It has a runtime of up to 45 minutes on a full charge.
We also love how there’s a bag at the rear to collect all the cut grass, which saves having to sweep or rake it all up afterwards.
It has been met with excellent customer ratings and reviews, for example, it has earned an average customer rating of 4 and a half stars on Amazon, even after well over 3000 individual customer ratings.
And when the battery is no longer working so well, you can buy a new battery to replace it.
Amazon occasionally has deals on this particular lawn mower – simply click on “Check price” to see if there’s a deal on now.
If you’re looking for a lawn mower with plenty of power behind it, this is a great option.
As a gas powered lawn mower, it already packs more power than a regular electric mower. And it’s perfect for cutting down grass that has grown way too high, or is hard to cut because it’s usually wet from the rain.
The other great thing about this lawn mower is how it’s self-propelled, which means that rather than having to push it across the lawn, you merely walk behind it to guide it. Perfect if you have a large lawn to mow and don’t have the strength or energy to push a lawn mower around.
There are 8 adjustable levels to choose from the grass height, between 1.21 to 3.15 inches, so you don’t have to have it super short, if you like it to look a little more bountiful and plush.
You can either set it up for side discharge, or mulching, or simply collect all the cut grass into a large bag at the rear.
Amazon occasionally has deals on this particular lawn mower – simply click on “Check price” to see if there’s a deal on now.
This is a great push lawn mower for the elderly, since it weighs a mere 23.9 pounds.
And sure, it’s not quite as easy to use as a self-propelled lawn mower, but it’s significantly cheaper and more affordable. In fact, we would argue that if you can’t afford a self-propelled lawn mower, this is your next best option.
There are no cords to worry about tripping over, and it comes complete with both a 4.0 AH USB battery and charger. And it will run for up to 35 minutes on a full charge.
There’s a bag at the rear to collect all the cut grass, so it’s not sprayed all over your lawn for yet more work.
It features collapsible handles for convenient storage. And the handles are also height adjustable, should the grandkids ever want to lend a helping hand out in the garden.
It has been met with excellent customer ratings and reviews, for example, it has earned an average customer rating of 4 and a half stars on Amazon, even after well over 5,500 individual customer ratings.
Amazon occasionally has deals on this particular lawn mower – simply click on “Check price” to see if there’s a deal on now. But it’s still great value for money if you end up paying the full listing price.
Pros:
Affordable & excellent value for money
Very lightweight, coming in at 23.9 pounds
Bag at the rear to collect all the cut grass
Has height adjustable collapsible handles
Excellent customer ratings and reviews
Cons:
It’s a push lawn mower rather than a self-propelled one
This is a great labor saving electric lawn mower for the elderly. It is only slightly heavier than the Greenworks 24V Push Lawn Mower we showed you earlier, at just 35 pounds.
The other thing we love about this lawn mower is its easy maneuvering, since it’s quite easy to rotate around into a new position.
One of the things we love about this lawn mower is how there are 6 different cutting positions, ranging from 1.5 inches to 4 inches, so you can either cut the grass as short as possible and forget about mowing the lawn for weeks, or you can set it to cut higher, so the senior citizen can mow the lawn more often and get that bit more exercise.
And you can either mulch the grass or discharge it at the sides of the machine. And because it’s corded, you never have to worry about running out of battery power as you mow.
It’s a bestseller with the leading online retailers, and has been met with excellent customer ratings and reviews, for example, it has earned an average customer rating of 4 and a half stars on Amazon, even after well over 5,500 individual customer ratings.
And to top it off, it’s also excellent value for money, available at under $150.
Pros:
Affordable & excellent value for money
Very lightweight, coming in at 35 pounds
Either mulch or discharge all the cut grass
Has height adjustable collapsible handles
Excellent customer ratings and reviews
Cons:
It’s corded rather than cordless
It’s a push lawn mower rather than a self-propelled one
Best Lightweight Lawn Mowers Buying Guide
Here are a few things to think about to help you decide what lawn mower to buy.
Gas VS Electric
First off, don’t worry, by electric lawn mowers we don’t mean ones that have to be plugged into a socket in your home. There often aren’t cords long enough, and it would be quite the tripping hazard. No, by electric we mean cordless battery powered lawn mowers.
However, if you were to go for a corded lawn mower, this will save you from having to recharge the mower or replace the batteries.
Gas powered lawn mowers typically have more power than electric mowers, and this makes them the best option when the grass is quite long, or when it’s wet.
However, gas powered lawn mowers have several disadvantages, and on the whole we would argue that electric lawn mowers are better. Especially for the elderly.
Gas powered lawn mowers have more moving parts, and this makes them heavier to push than their electric counterparts. And not only that, they require much more maintenance too.
Gas powered lawn mowers require annual maintenance, including oil changes, blade replacement or sharpening, and of course fuel costs. Sure, electric lawn mowers may occasionally need blade replacement or sharpening, but you don’t need to keep buying fuel, and you simply need to recharge or replace the battery as needed.
Robotic VS Self-Propelled VS Push Mower
Traditionally, lawn mowers are pushed along from behind. But now you can get self-propelled lawn mowers that feature a drive system, and you merely have to walk behind it to guide it where you want it to go.
But now technology has gone a step further still and rather than having to walk behind it at all, you can just program where you want it to go. It’s the ultimate inconvenience, but it costs several times more than a regular lawn mower.
You can also get lawn mowers that ride on, but these can cost thousands of dollars.
For this reason, we didn’t include any ride-on lawn mowers in our shortlist of the best lawn mowers for the elderly, but we did include one robotic one, and several self-propelled ones.
Maneuverability
Self-propelled mowers are great for mowing in a straight line because the gearing system propels the mower forward with minimal effort.
However, they can become quite cumbersome when you have to maneuver it in tight spaces, which makes push mowers a better option for those tighter areas.
Storage
Lawn mowers are often quite bulky machines to stow away, but you can get some with folding handles for more convenient storage.
Value For Money
To be honest, value for money can be hard to judge when it comes to lawn mowers, and it really depends on how much you have to spend, and how big your lawn is. If you have to be careful about how much you can spend, be sure to check prices as you go along, so you learn what’s in your price range.
