Black&Decker 18" electric mulching lawn mower

I bought this mower used a couple of years ago soon after purchasing my house. First I bought a reel mower (push mower), but it just wasn't cutting it (pun intended) because we were dealing with tall bermuda grass at the time. I was hoping to buy a cordless electric mower, but they were out of my price range. I knew I wanted to avoid a gas mower because they're high on emissions, fumes, noise, and it's also a bit inconvenient needing to get gas for them. So I decided to try a corded electric mower, and found this one used on Craig's List. I don't remember the exact price, but I believe it was under $100. You can also find this mower on Amazon for around $150 new.

I've been very satisfied with the mower performance. Usually I compare it to using a vacuum cleaner, because it's very similar. It's pretty easy to push, significantly quieter than a gas mower, starting and stopping it is as easy as pulling the hand lever, and obviously there are no fumes. Unfortunately since I bought it used, mine didn't come with the mulching feature. From my understanding, when mulching you don't even need to use a bag, which is a really nice feature. I just use the bag and it works fine.

The only downside is that you have to beware of the extension cord. I've read some reviews where people have run over their extension cords and had to buy new ones, but I'm still using the same 50' cord as I was when I first bought the mower 2-3 years ago. It's definitely a little inconvenient to have to move the cord around to keep it out of the path of the mower, but it's not really a big deal. And as long as you keep an eye on the cord and where you're mowing, running it over isn't a problem.

The mower is also nice and powerful. I've used it to cut grass several feet tall in just 2 passes. It performs just as well as a gas mower without the aforementioned pollution and other inconveniences.

So if you're looking for an electric mower but don't want to spend the extra $100-200 for a cordless version, the Black&Decker electric mower is a good choice. As long as you're not put off by needing to use a long extension cord and watch out for running it over, this mower is a really good environmentally friendly option.