How to choose the right electric garden tools
Make sure you're buying equipment that’ll get the job done.
Looking to make your yard care cleaner, quieter, and more energy efficient?
Electric lawn tools like lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and hedge trimmers are becoming more popular and you have tons of options to choose from.
No matter what tools you’re in the market for, you’ll want to weigh several key factors before making your decision. These include cost, battery life, ease of use, and performance. Your priorities will depend on your yard-care needs — and your budget.
We’re here to simplify the decision-making process to help you pick the right tools for the job.
Mowers
Before you go shopping for an electric lawnmower, consider what you’ll need it to do. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
How big is my yard?
Is it simple to mow or are there challenging areas to navigate?
Do I have access to outdoor power outlets or the budget for a spare battery?
Will the mower have to be powerful enough to hack through tall grass?
The price of an electric mower ranges from under $100 for the most bare-bones models to $300–$900+ for more power and battery life. Riding mowers come with higher price tags, generally in the thousands, but have features that may better suit larger yards or people with mobility impairments.
Leaf blowers
Electric leaf blowers can keep your yard, driveway, and sidewalk clear and produce significantly less noise. They range from $20 to upwards of $400. What kind you should buy depends on many of the same considerations we listed above. If you have a small yard a cheaper leaf blower might work just fine. If you will be covering large areas or using the blower frequently, a bigger investment probably makes more sense.
Hedge trimmers
Electric hedge trimmers fall in a similar price range to leaf blowers. And once again, your needs will dictate how much you should spend. If you’re trying to maintain the shape of a few shrubs and you have an outlet nearby, you may not need a huge trimmer or to spend more on a cordless model. But if you’re regularly dealing with large, thick hedges and you need a long run time, you’ll likely want to purchase a more powerful model.
What’s next?
Once you’ve upgraded your lawn tools and see how much they can save you on energy costs, you may just want to start electrifying everything.
Learn how you can upgrade everything — from your cooktop to your car — in our electrification guides for homeowners and renters!