I am a perpetual apartment / duplex dweller who occasionally runs up against wacky landlords who actually expect me to deal with lawn care on top of my rent check. Basically, I need something to get the job done as quickly, cheaply, and expense- / maintenance-hassle-free as possible. For me, a corded electric mower fits that bill much better than a conventional combustion-based mower *or* a cordless electric (the latter of which adds significant cost, weight, proper-charging worry, and semi-frequent battery replacement expense). Corded mowers aren't for everyone or for every yard, but if you can make one work for you, they are about as hassle-free a mowing solution as you could hope for. Buy the right mower, buy a cord, and you're basically done spending money on this particular first-world annoyance for years. The Greenworks 25142 is the second small budget corded-electric push mower I have owned. I have also owned the Black and Decker LM175, which is comparable in price and functionality to the 25142 (sometimes cheaper, sometimes more expensive depending on Amazon's mood / automated price-changing algorithm that day). In my research, it seems they are perhaps the two cheapest *reliable and viable* electric mowers (or mowers PERIOD) on the current market. The B&D LM175 was just fine and never had any problems whatsoever over 2 mowing seasons of use, but I sold it and the extension cord I used with it when I moved back to an apartment that did not require me to mow. Recently my landlord suddenly decided I ought to start mowing again, and while I was tempted to just buy another LM175, for a few reasons I ended up with the Greenworks. One big reason is going to sound odd at first: the price of a suitably rated extension cord for the 25142 vs. the LM175. I knew I'd need a 100-ft extension cord to handle my lawn, and I did not have one. The LM175 pulls down 12 amps, the 25142 only 9-10. Around here, with the current absurd price of copper, a hundred-foot extension cord rated for anything over 10A would have set me back *fifty to sixty bucks* more than a cord that could handle the 25142's smaller current demands. And I'm a pretty hardcore cheapskate - I'll take a little less power if it means I can save that much money. Another big reason-- aside from the wiles of Amazon's pricing that day, which made the 25142 a Jackson cheaper-- was (very seriously!) limited garage space. The 25142 is not only noticeably smaller than the B&D, but has some cool, quick fold-up features on the handle that the B&D totally lacks. I can unlock the lever-cams on the handle and have this thing tucked away in a corner that the B&D never would have fit into without time-consuming partial disassembly. The 25142 also comes with a grass-catching bag - although I quickly determined that it was too small in capacity to be practical for actual use, I'd have to empty the thing every 5-7 minutes of mowing - and a few other nice touches the bare-bones B&D lacks, like quick-adjust deck height and a neat little on-the-handle cord holder that does help at least *a little* in keeping the cord from ending up under the blade. Heck, unlike the B&D, you won't even need to get a screwdriver to put this together out of the box - it comes all pre-assembled and ready to go (once you remove the requisite packaging materials, of course). Greenworks put some real thought into this product and it just *feels* more expensive than the B&D. But, dude, how does it *mow*? Pretty well. I think the B&D did a slightly better / cleaner job... the Greenworks seems to miss little blades right in the middle of its path here and there on occasion - not very often, mind, but this isn't great for my me-vs.-lawn OCD! This might just be an issue I could resolve by sharpening up the factory blade (haven't tried yet). But the B&D also had a little more oomph to it (maybe no surprise, as it's a 12-amp 18" mower vs. the 25142's 10 amp motor and 16" deck). This is not to say that the Greenworks isn't sufficient to get the job done, but it does slow down more noticeably over particularly thick / tall patches... not enough to bug me personally or hinder my yardwork in any way, but the B&D was undeniably more unfazed by such things. My two major complaints about the Greenworks, after four uses, are this: 1) Those cool cam-levers that let me unfold the handle in several spots hang out on the edges just a bit past / outside the back wheels. That's a bit of a problem when I'm trying to get right up against the side of the house as close as I can with the mower. The levers themselves are made of plastic and the abrasion from *accidental* scrapes against the brick is already starting to show. 2) The height adjustment is not quite fine enough and/or correctly calibrated in my book. The lowest setting is practically plowing up topsoil, and the second-lowest setting (which allegedly adds an extra inch to the height) is too high to look "properly mowed", at least with our particular nasty, uneven, weedy grass. On 2), I might be able to tweak the blade height further / more finely than the top-deck lever allows, but I have not turned it over and really "dug in" and/or read the manual cover-to-cover to see what I can adjust easily... so keep all this in mind. (I plan to look into this and will edit if/when I make any discoveries.) I think you'd have to have some really thick grass and/or truly avant-garde taste in yardwork to make use of any setting above the second lowest, as it stands. The B&D had no cool, single-lever height adjustment, but it was set up "just right" height-wise out of the box. So far I'm pretty happy overall with the Greenworks and I'd almost certainly buy it again under the CURRENT circumstances. I am also happy to recommend it. But if I had the space, and could stomach the added cord cost, I'd personally prefer my old B&D... just by a hair... or I might just give the next-step-up, spec-comparable Greenworks model a go instead. Finally, it is important to remember that ANY corded lawn mower has a learning curve - and that goes for each lawn you use it with. It took me about 75, 90 minutes to mow my lawn the first time with the Greenworks; I've got it cut down to about 45 minutes (just a few minutes longer than a cordless mower would take me) after a few "route changes" to keep the cord out of my way as much as possible. Everyone (including Greenworks) will tell you to "mow AWAY from the outlet / power source, starting close and moving further away" - this is absolutely excellent advice to start with. I am also happy to report the 25142 is more than ergonomic / light enough to handle around the yard with one hand - leaving the other hand free to cord-wrangle as needed. :)
