March/April 2022 81One thing we’ve learned from
decades of mower testing: You’ve
got to cut a lot of grass and mow
under a wide range of conditions
to get a sense of what a mower is
worth. We test uphill and down, on
f lats and along hillsides. We’ve cut
pristine areas planted with blue-
grass and fine fescue, and tackled
the weed-covered wall of a reten-
tion basin. We bag, side discharge,
and mulch, evaluating handle com-
fort, the ease of raising and lowering
the deck, and how intuitive mount-
ing and dismounting the grass bag
is. Every aspect gets a thorough
analysis, from power and cut qual-
ity to battery life and total area cut.
We even look at whether the tires
have a tendency to pick up wet grass
clippings. It’s a lot of dogged, tir-
ing testing. And it’s the best way we
know how to test a mower.
HOW WE TESTED
Noise abatement is a compelling argument for switching to a cordless mower. While gas-
powered mowers usually average around 90 decibels (dB), the cordless models we recorded
in our test fell between 73 and 76, measured at the operator. (For reference, a typical vacuum
cleaner comes in at 75 dB.) While you may debate whether that’s impressive or not, what we
found most interesting was how quickly noise levels dropped off as we moved away from the
mowers. At 25 feet, noise dipped to 55.1 dB for the Skil, 59.3 dB for the Makita, and 60.5 dB for the Wen. That’s at or below the
level of an average conversation (about 60 dB). From 75 feet, noise levels fell even further to 42.9 dB for the Skil, 46.8 dB for the
Wen, and 49.1 dB for the Makita. We also kept track of ambient noise in our semi-rural test area, which averaged around 38 dB—
accounting for wind, birds, and distant traffic.KEEPING THE PEACE:
MOWER NOISE LEVELS
Makita Skil WenDISTANCE (ft)NOISE LEVEL DROP-OFF (dB)(^255075)
20
40
60
80