Electric Mower Brand Reliability, Ranked

Published September 11, 2026

Leaderboard graphic: 1st Milwaukee 90, 2nd EGO 89, 3rd Ryobi 86, 4th Greenworks 83, 5th Skil 70 with a battery recall flag

Every mower brand's own marketing says the same thing: quiet, powerful, reliable. So instead of taking their word for it, we pulled real Amazon customer-rating data for EGO, Ryobi, Greenworks, Milwaukee, and Skil, then went through owner discussions on Reddit's r/lawncare and r/landscaping communities to see what people actually say once they've mowed with these things for a season or three. One brand also has an undisclosed-until-you-dig-for-it safety recall worth knowing about before you buy.

  • Milwaukee: highest composite score, but priced and sold like the pro tool it is.
  • EGO: the best overall pick for most homeowners: strong rating, huge review base, reasonable price.
  • Ryobi: quietly solid, best if you already own its 40V or ONE+ battery ecosystem.
  • Greenworks: the default budget pick, and the sales-volume leader by far.
  • Skil: tied for the top star rating, but flagged for a real CPSC fire-hazard recall.

Methodology

Ratings and review counts below were pulled directly from Amazon product listings for each brand's mainstream walk-behind electric mower (September 2026). Where a brand sells many similar models, we used its highest-review-count or best-selling listing as the representative figure. Community sentiment is our editorial read of owner discussions on r/lawncare and r/landscaping, linked throughout so you can read the source threads yourself rather than take our summary on faith. Safety record reflects any documented recalls from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Price tier ($ budget, $$ mid-range, $$$ premium) reflects each brand's representative listing rather than an exact price, since retail prices shift constantly and, for Milwaukee in particular, its Amazon listings are mostly third-party resellers rather than the brand's normal retail channel.

Amazon Customer Ratings

Here's where the five brands land on Amazon's own star ratings, using each brand's most-reviewed mainstream mower listing:

Amazon Star Rating by Brand

Most-reviewed mainstream walk-behind mower listing per brand, September 2026

Bar chart of Amazon star ratings by brand EGO and Skil lead at 4.5 stars, followed by Milwaukee at 4.4, Ryobi at 4.3, and Greenworks at 4.2. Bar opacity reflects review-count confidence: Greenworks and EGO are fully opaque with thousands of reviews, while Skil and Milwaukee are faint with only a couple hundred. 0 1 2 3 4 5 stars EGO: 4.5 stars from about 2,100 ratings EGO 4.5 Skil: 4.5 stars from 207 ratings, a much smaller sample Skil 4.5 Milwaukee: 4.4 stars from 48 ratings, the smallest sample here Milwaukee 4.4 Ryobi: 4.3 stars from 175 ratings Ryobi 4.3 Greenworks: 4.2 stars from about 12,200 ratings, the largest sample by far Greenworks 4.2

Bar opacity shows review-count confidence: solid = thousands of reviews, faint = a couple hundred or fewer. Hover or focus a bar for exact figures.

Read that chart with the review counts in mind, not just the stars. A 4.5 built on 2,100 ratings (EGO) says something different than a 4.5 built on 207 (Skil). The next chart makes that gap explicit.

Amazon Review Volume by Brand

How many people actually rated each brand's mower, a rough proxy for units sold

Bar chart of Amazon review counts by brand Greenworks has roughly 12,200 ratings, far more than EGO's 2,100, Skil's 207, Ryobi's 175, and Milwaukee's 48. 0 6,000 12,000 ratings Greenworks: about 12,200 ratings Greenworks ~12,200 EGO: about 2,100 ratings EGO ~2,100 Skil: 207 ratings Skil 207 Ryobi: 175 ratings Ryobi 175 Milwaukee: 48 ratings Milwaukee 48

Hover or focus a bar for exact figures.

Greenworks and EGO dominate by volume, meaning their ratings reflect a much broader base of owners across more climates, lawn sizes, and years of use. Milwaukee, Ryobi, and Skil's numbers are thinner and should be weighted accordingly. That's especially true for Skil, for reasons explained below.

What Owners Actually Say

EGO Power+

  • Rating: 4.5 stars (~2,100 ratings)
  • Price tier: $$ (mid-range)
  • Best for: most homeowners

EGO is the brand people argue about most. A widely-discussed r/lawncare thread with over 500 comments centers on a specific, recurring complaint: electric mower decks don't move as much air as gas decks, so grass doesn't stand up before the blade hits it, leaving stray uncut blades scattered across the lawn.

Reader takeaway

Multiple long-time owners in that thread say they've tried every fix on the list, high-lift blades, slower passes, drier grass, more overlap, and still get an imperfect cut next to a gas mower at the same price point. Several also flagged the cost of replacement batteries, north of $400 every 3–4 years, as a real expense the "zero maintenance" pitch glosses over.

Summarized from owner comments in r/lawncare

That said, the same thread is full of owners who call the tradeoff an easy one: no gas, no oil changes, no pull cord, and a cut that's good enough for a typical suburban lawn.

Milwaukee M18 FUEL

  • Rating: 4.4 stars (48 ratings)
  • Price tier: $$$ (premium)
  • Best for: pros and large lawns

Milwaukee barely shows up on Amazon. Most of its mower sales run through contractor channels like Home Depot Pro and Acme Tools rather than Amazon retail, which is why its review count is the smallest of the five. But the owners who do show up on Reddit are enthusiastic in a way the other brands aren't: several describe it as noticeably stronger than competing battery mowers, with a boost mode that impresses people expecting the usual electric-mower power ceiling. It's priced and positioned at the premium end for pros and serious hobbyists, not a typical quarter-acre homeowner.

Ryobi

  • Rating: 4.3 stars (175 ratings)
  • Price tier: $$ (mid-range)
  • Best for: existing Ryobi battery owners

Ryobi owners are quietly satisfied rather than enthusiastic. In the same cross-brand threads, Ryobi owners report years of trouble-free use on both mowers and trimmers, and the recurring praise isn't about mowing power. It's about the 40V/ONE+ battery ecosystem letting one set of batteries run a mower, trimmer, blower, and more. That ecosystem value doesn't show up in a star rating, but it's the reason Ryobi owners tend to stick with the brand once they're in it.

Greenworks

  • Rating: 4.2 stars (~12,200 ratings)
  • Price tier: $ (budget)
  • Best for: budget buyers

Greenworks is the volume leader by a wide margin, and the sentiment matches: it's the brand people recommend when someone asks for a no-drama, budget-friendly first electric mower.

Reader takeaway

One long-time owner reported seven years of use with zero maintenance beyond an unnecessary blade sharpening. Owners also independently arrived at the same fix EGO owners use for the stray-blade cut problem, swapping in a high-lift blade, though several note it draws down the battery faster.

Summarized from owner comments in the same r/lawncare thread

The lower average rating relative to EGO and Skil likely reflects Greenworks' much broader lineup spanning true budget models to mid-range ones, diluting the flagship's score across a wider sample.

Skil PWR CORE 40

  • Rating: 4.5 stars (207 ratings)
  • Price tier: $$ (mid-range)
  • Best for: checking the recall page first

⚠ Safety recall on record

Chervon North America (Skil's parent company) issued a CPSC recall (#25-071, December 2024) covering about 63,000 SKIL 40V 5.0Ah battery packs (model BY8708-00, manufactured before May 2021) sold individually and bundled with SKIL's 40V push and self-propelled mowers. The batteries can overheat and catch fire; Chervon received 100 reports of thermal incidents, including 8 minor burns/smoke-inhalation reports and 49 property-damage reports. Consumers with an affected battery can get a free replacement at skil.com/recalls.

That recall isn't ancient history to Skil owners. An r/lawncare post from August 2026 with over 600 upvotes described a Skil mower battery catching fire while sitting unused, undamaged, and not on the charger:

Dangerous and should not be indoors or next to anything flammable.

u/avtomattick, r/lawncare

Commenters quickly connected it to the CPSC recall and pointed out that many owners never registered their tools and may still be running a recalled battery without knowing it. Skil's raw star rating is tied for the best of the five brands, but it's built on the smallest mainstream-mower sample (207 ratings) of the group, and it's the only brand here with a documented fire-hazard recall. If you own one, check your battery's serial number against the recall page before your next mow.

The AllElectricLawn Score

To combine all of this into one ranking, we weighted each brand 50% on its Amazon rating, 25% on our editorial read of community sentiment from the threads linked above, and 25% on safety record (recalls and documented hazards). This is an editorial synthesis, not a statistical survey. The sourcing for every input is linked above so you can weigh it yourself.

AllElectricLawn Score

50% Amazon rating + 25% community sentiment + 25% safety record, out of 100

Bar chart of composite AllElectricLawn Score by brand Milwaukee scores 90, EGO 89, Ryobi 86, Greenworks 83, and Skil 70, with Skil flagged for its battery recall. 0 25 50 75 100 1st place, Milwaukee: score 90 out of 100 1 Milwaukee 90 2nd place, EGO: score 89 out of 100 2 EGO 89 3rd place, Ryobi: score 86 out of 100 3 Ryobi 86 4th place, Greenworks: score 83 out of 100 4 Greenworks 83 5th place, Skil: score 70 out of 100, flagged for a documented battery recall 5 Skil 70 ⚠ Battery recall on record

Hover or focus a bar for exact figures.

The Verdicts

Best Overall

EGO Power+

Edges out Milwaukee for the top recommendation despite a near-identical score, because it backs its rating with 40× the review volume and costs a third of the price. The stray-blade cut issue is real but manageable, and it's the brand most homeowners will actually be comparing.

Best for Pros & Large Lawns

Milwaukee M18 FUEL

The strongest motor in this lineup by owner accounts, but priced and distributed like the pro tool it is. Worth it if you're mowing for a living or you have the budget and want the most power available in a battery mower.

Best for Ecosystem Value

Ryobi

Not the most powerful or most raved-about, but the most quietly satisfying to own if you already have (or plan to build) a shed full of Ryobi 40V or ONE+ tools sharing the same batteries.

Best Budget Pick

Greenworks

The default answer for "which electric mower should I buy" on a budget, and the sales volume backs that up. Stick to its mid-range 40V models rather than the cheapest entries in its very wide lineup.

Buy With Caution

Skil PWR CORE 40

A tied-for-best star rating on paper, undercut by the smallest sample size here and a real CPSC fire-hazard recall on its 40V 5.0Ah battery packs. If you already own one, check the recall page before your next charge cycle.

Bottom Line

Star ratings alone would have told you EGO and Skil are tied at the top. Add in how many people that rating is actually based on, what owners say once the marketing wears off, and whether a brand has a documented safety issue, and the picture changes: EGO and Milwaukee lead for different reasons, Ryobi and Greenworks are safe, honest mid-pack picks depending on budget, and Skil is the one brand here that deserves a second look before you buy it, or a recall check if you already own one.

Looking for an electric lawn care provider instead of a DIY mower, or want to check whether gas equipment restrictions apply where you live? Both are covered elsewhere on this site.