If you occasionally let your lawn grow longer than you should, you might be wondering whether an electric mower is effective in cutting long grass.
In this guide, we’ve shared everything you need to know about electric lawn mowers for long grass, including the factors affecting their cutting abilities, tips for mowing long grass with electric models, and more.
✅Key Takeaways:
Electric mowers can cut long grass, but their capabilities depend on their motor power and the sharpness of their blades.
The maximum grass height that most electric lawn mowers can handle is 10cm.
When mowing an overgrown lawn with an electric mower, make sure your mower blade is sharp, cut the grass in two rounds, and wait until the grass is dry before you mow.
Table of Contents
🤷♂️ Can An Electric Mower Cut Tall Grass?
Yes, an electric mower can cut long grass. An electric mower’s ability to cut long grass depends on its motor power and blade sharpness.
Corded electric mowers are powered by electricity, which travels directly from the source into the mower’s motor.
Unlike battery-powered mowers, corded electric lawn mowers have access to a constant supply of electricity, so they don’t need to conserve energy to extend their battery life. That makes them more powerful, so they’re less likely to end up with clogged blades or a stalled motor as a result of cutting tough, thick grass.
With that said, electric lawn mowers aren’t the very best mower type for cutting long grass – that award goes to petrol mowers. Petrol lawn mowers have more powerful engines than the average electric lawnmower motor, so they can handle even the toughest, longest grass with ease.
📐 What’s The Maximum Grass Height That An Electric Mower Can Handle?
Most electric lawn mowers have a maximum cut height of 70-80mm (or 7-8cm). For that reason, these mowers can technically handle cutting grass that’s as tall as 10cm. Do we recommend it using an electric lawn mower to cut grass that’s this tall? No.
The longer the grass, the more difficult it’ll be for you to cut. So, it’s best to only let your grass grow as tall as 6-8cm at most before you cut it.
📑 4 Factors That Affect An Electric Mower’s Ability To Cut Grass
Here are the 4 main factors that affect an electric lawn mower’s ability to cut long grass:
📏 Grass Height
The exact height of the grass will determine the difficulty of the task.
Long grass is more difficult to cut than shorter grass because there’s more of it, creating more resistance and increasing the potential to clog the blades.
So, if you’re tasked with cutting a lawn that better resembles a crop field, you’ll struggle more than you would cutting a lawn that has a relatively acceptable grass height.
💪 Mower Motor Power
An electric mower’s motor power is another major influencing factor when it comes to ease of mowing long grass.
Most electric lawn mowers have a motor power ranging from 1,200-1,800 watts. The higher the wattage, the more powerful the motor, and the more capably it can cut longer, thicker grass.
A less powerful motor is more likely to stall or wear out when cutting long grass because it simply doesn’t have the drive to spin the blades when met with high resistance.
✂️ Blade Sharpness
Blade sharpness affects a mower’s ease of cutting grass, regardless of your lawn height.
A sharp blade will slice cleanly through long grass, while a dull blade will tear and rip the grass blades.
Mowing long grass with dull blades puts extra stress on the mower’s motor, as it needs to compensate for the lack of cutting efficiency. As a result, the motor may stall and the blades are more likely to get clogged with clumps of grass clippings.
📡 Additional External Factors
There are a few other external factors that might also affect your ability to mow long grass with an electric lawn mower.
For instance, if your lawn features a thicker, denser grass species, this will also increase resistance and make it more difficult to mow.
Damp conditions and hills will further add to the difficulty of the task, requiring more pushing effort from you and putting more strain on the mower’s motor.
💬 Which Electric LawnMower We Recommend For Cutting Tall Grass
The electric lawnmower we recommend for cutting tall grass is the Murray EC370 Electric Corded Lawn Mower (<Amazon link). It has a powerful 1,600-watt motor and cutting heights up to 75mm, so it can easily handle cutting longer or thicker grass without strain on the motor or blade.
🕵️♂️ Our Top Tips For Using An Electric Lawn Mower To Mow Long Grass
Committed to using your electric lawn mower to mow an overgrown lawn? Keep these top tips in mind:
Sharpen your mower blade at least twice a year. A sharp blade will cut easily through thicker, longer grass, reducing resistance and limiting stress on the motor.
Mow in two rounds. You’ll need to adjust your mower’s cutting height to a higher setting, mow once, then adjust it to a lower setting, and mow again. That’ll prevent you from cutting more than one-third off your grass’ total height at once, which may stress the leaves and cause them to turn brown.
Avoid mowing wet grass. If your grass is already long, your mowing conditions will be difficult enough without the addition of water. For your own safety and the health of your lawn, make sure the grass is dry before you start mowing.
Don’t make a habit of it. It’s fine to cut long grass every now and again, but don’t make a habit of letting your lawn become overgrown before getting your mower out. Grass is much happier when it’s trimmed regularly, compared to having the majority of the leaf cut off once every few weeks.
🤨 Electric Lawn Mower Alternatives For Cutting Long Grass
So, electric mowers can be used pretty successfully to mow overgrown grass. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best solution for your situation.
A great alternative for cutting long, thick grass on a large lawn is a petrol mower.
Petrol lawn mowers (or gas mowers if you live in the US) have the most powerful engines, so they make easy work of cutting an overgrown lawn. They’re cordless, and their more efficient performance allows you to mow faster, making them ideal for large spaces.
If you’re looking for recommendations, we’ve shared reviews of the most popular petrol push mowers in this guide to the best petrol mowers in the UK.
🏁 Final Word
Electric lawnmowers can cut long grass, but don’t use your mower regularly to cut an overgrown lawn.
Regularly mowing long grass will put strain on the motor and increase the risk of clogging the blades. The motor is more likely to overheat, which might cause long-term damage to the mower.
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