Husqvarna LC 142is

What’s the story?

Self-propelled mowers work like e-assist bikes, giving you extra welly to make light work of even large lawns. This is the first of three on test – and the only one that can’t be stored up on its end. The handle double-folds, to sit on a shed floor or shelf. That means a bigger footprint than mowers that can be stashed upright.

This kit comes with a single 36V 4.0Ah battery and charger – and it’s a fairly heavy machine. A handle on the body helps with lifting, though.

It has a single speed of about 2.5mph, a modest walking pace, and the controls are pretty straightforward: pull the wire handle underneath up to the main handle to get it moving; flick a safety lever on the left out of the way, then pull down the top handle to mow.

Is it any good?

Assembly only takes five minutes, but mowing is frustrating compared with the others on test for a couple of reasons. First is mowing performance: in our testing it stalled too often, in conditions where others coped fine. The self-propelling worked, and the mower wasn’t blocked with clippings – it just struggled to mow at times.

Under the hood, there’s a safety key and what looks like a power switch. The switch engages an energy-saving mode for a longer runtime. We flicked this off, but the mower still stalled on longer grass that rivals could handle. Edge performance, meanwhile, was a bit tufty but OK.

Changing between the two handle heights is also annoying compared with similar mowers. You have to remove a bolt, washer and knob on each side and replace them in different holes.

Mulching requires an optional kit. This contains a mulch plug to take the place of the mesh grassbox, and special mulching blades. Yep, you have to change the mower’s blades to mulch. Again, it’s unnecessarily fiddly.

The single self-propelling speed is also annoying, compared with the freedom of variable speeds. It means fewer controls to think about, but we’d rather be able to tailor the pace.

£709 / go.stuff.tv/lc142 Key specs ● 42cm mowing width ● 500m2 mowing area ● 19kg