Earthwise 60120 Review

If you have decided that you would like an electric powered mower but don’t want the hassle of having to deal with an electric cable, then you need to look at a cordless model. These are powered by batteries, meaning you can move freely whilst still using electricity as a fuel source. The Earthwise 60120 is one such model available to you. This model has done well in terms of sales, which is always a good sign. But I wanted to know how it performs, how easy it is to use and if it is worth the money. I finally got round to trying it out and during this review you’ll be able to read about my experience.

Earthwise 60120 Review - Specifications
Manufacturer	Earthwise
Model	60120
Power	24-Volt Battery
Deck Size	20 inches
Cutting Modes	3-in-1: Mulch, Side Discharge & Rear Bag
Cutting Heights	1.5 - 4 Inches
Weight	92 lbs

Earthwise 60120 – Key Features

• Assembly – If you aren’t a huge fan of assembling products after you buy them, this one will suit you down to the ground. After you’ve taken it out of the box all you need to do is extend the handle bar and tighten up the fastener. Of course you also should charge the battery for a few hours prior to using it for the first time – but never more than 24 hours as this can damage the battery.
• Size and Build – I like the size of the Earthwise 60120. At 20 inches it is a good size for most types of garden. You don’t feel like its overly big, but it’s not tiny either. In terms of the actual build, it feels very solid. One thing I don’t really like is the weight of the mower. It’s heavier than many gas powered lawn mowers. This is mainly due to the weight of the battery, which weighs 32 lbs on its own. I do think that the wheels could have done with being more heavy duty (because of the mower’s weight), but they did seem to work all right.
• Removable Battery – This is an aspect of the mower that lets it down a bit in comparison to other cordless mowers that are currently on the market. Firstly, it is heavily. 32 lbs is a serious weight and I can imagine that it would be difficult to carry around for women or the elderly. Secondly, the charger that comes with the mower is useless. You really shouldn’t leave the battery on charge longer than 24 hours as this can do serious damage to the battery and believe me you wouldn’t want to do this as the replacement batteries are expensive to say the least. The charger is just not good quality and causes the battery to get extremely hot. There is a way around this of course. You can buy a different charger for a fairly low cost (there are many other chargers that will fit the battery). I think if you are considering this mower you would have to do that because the charger that comes with the mower won’t allow you to get a full charge on the battery – this is pretty annoying.
• Battery Gauge – I really liked this feature. It allows you to see how much charge the battery has left whilst you’re mowing. This obviously isn’t a deal breaker but is a nice little extra.
• 3-in-1 System – These are common these days but are still nevertheless a good selling point. A 3-in-1 cutting system allows you to deal with the clippings in three different ways. Firstly you can mulch them, which turns your clippings into a fine mulch that can be left on your garden and will provide your grass with rich nutrients that are vital to a healthy lawn. Secondly you can side discharge, whereby the clippings will simply be discharged back onto your garden. This option will usually require you to do some raking afterwards. Or finally you can choose to bag the clippings and the clippings will be deposited into the grass bag at the rear of the mower.
• Height Adjustment – Gone are the days when you had to set aside 5 minutes before mowing to manually change the cutting height on each individual wheel. On the Earthwise 60120 this job is done in seconds. There’s a green lever located on the right hand side of the deck that controls the height of all four wheels. There are seven different settings that range from 1.5 inches to 4 inches. So just choose the appropriate setting, alter the lever and away you go.
• Safety Features –In the wrong hands a lawn mower can be potentially very dangerous. I have kids and consider the safety features a lawn mower has as very important when I’m looking at the various different models that are on offer. With this model I like the fact that Earthwise have incorporated a safety key into the design. The mower cannot be started up without this key. So at the end of each mow all you have to do is take the safety key with you and nobody else will be able to start the mower up. Trust me, when you’ve got kids this definitely gives you peace of mind.

Earthwise 60120 – How Did It Perform?

• Cutting Performance – For a normal residential garden this mower will do just fine. The blade was sharp and when the battery had a decent charge it powered through what I asked it to cut. Just be aware though that anyone who tells you it has the same amount of power as a gas mower is lying in my opinion. Whilst I felt it had a decent amount of power, it was definitely less than most gas powered mowers I have previously used. For these reasons I think it is imperative that you cut little and often to get the best results possible.
• Battery Performance – When fully charged the battery provides a decent runtime. To me the problem was actually getting it fully charged. I have heard quite a few people have had the same problem with this mower. It’s not the battery; it is the charger that’s the problem. Even after leaving it on charge for over half a day I still didn’t get a green light on the indicator and if you forget to take it off charge and leave it charging for more than a day you can potentially ruin the battery.Luckily one of my friends had a charger that was compatible with the battery and when I used that I got the battery fully charged with no problems. Once I had got it fully charged I was getting an average runtime of 50 to 60 minutes which is fairly standard for this type of mower. One thing that you do have to realize though is that if you use the mower in difficult conditions (like really tall grass) this will drastically cut down the runtime that you get.
• Maneuverability – I can see this being one aspect of this particular mower that would alienate a lot of people. As we have already mentioned it weighs over 90 lbs and that is actually pretty heavy. I managed to push it around my garden okay, but I wouldn’t say it was effortless. You haven’t got a self propel system either so you are literally having to push all 90 lbs yourself. If you aren’t that physically strong I would seriously consider looking at a lighter model. I didn’t get the chance to test it out on an incline but I think it would also be difficult to push up hill.
• Usability – No complaints here. It has a simple starter mechanism that is easy to use and easy to manage once you’ve started mowing. The grass bag was easy to remove and reattach. I also liked the fact that the handlebar height could be adjusted. I am about 6 ft tall and on some mowers I’ve used in the past I’ve found myself bend over, making it quite uncomfortable to do the mowing. Oh and of course you’ve got that one touch height adjustment too.

Earthwise 60120 – Who Should Buy This Mower?

I think I would recommend this mower to anyone that has a small to medium-sized garden that is confident they can handle 90 lbs. The battery run time and the weight of the mower are my two reasons behind this. Anything bigger and I think you wouldn’t have sufficient runtime and it could get pretty tiring.

Earthwise 60120 – Who Shouldn’t Buy This Mower?

Before you order this mower you seriously have to think whether you will be able to push 90 lbs of mower around your garden. If you aren’t that strong I really wouldn’t recommend it. I also wouldn’t recommend it for any gardens that have significant inclines. Large residential gardens are also out of the question in my opinion because of the limited runtime of the battery and the expense of buying a second battery. One last thing, if you don’t mow your garden that regularly and the grass frequently gets very long then you really don’t want to look at cordless electric mowers (as their performance seriously declines in these conditions). In conclusion, this mower has some good points and some bad points. Providing you are able to maneuver it and you purchase a different charger (seriously recommended) it can do what you need it to. In terms of actual cutting ability and the features you get, it’s a pretty good value cordless electric mower.