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- Very light
- Incredibly easy to use
- Peaceful in operation
- Handles are fiddly to hold
- Won’t store vertically
- Grass collector is bulky
It’s possible to buy any number of cheap battery-powered lawn mowers, but those from a brand as revered as Stihl are few and far between. This said, the Stihl RMA 235 requires more than just a logo and that iconic orange and white colour scheme to stand out above the likes of the Bosch Universal Rotak 36-550 or Flymo Easistore 340R Li.
The Stihl backs this up with an affordable bare-tool price (even if that battery is pricey), an impressive run time and a wide cutting deck relative to its compact body. If you’re already part of the Stihl ecosystem, then the RMA 235 is a veritable bargain – even if it’s not perfect, as we shall see. But bugbears aside, is it among the best cordless lawn mowers out there, and should you buy one?
Stihl RMA 235: What do you get for the money?
Open the box, and it doesn’t appear you’ve got a great deal for your £299 – or £179 if you already have a battery. The handles are bog-standard grey metal which are screwed onto the main unit with four star-bit screws. Fortunately there’s a screwdriver supplied, because it’s a less common fitting than a Pozi or Phillips, and you’ll want to keep that safe should they need tightening in the future.
Once on, the top section of the handle attaches through a pair of double-threaded bolts, onto which screws some knobs which you loosen or tighten to unfold or fold the handle.
The Stihl looks good from a distance, but it feels rather flimsy. If you were being super-critical, you might describe it as Fisher Price. It’s resistant to petrol and UV light, but with a total weight of 13kg (14.2kg including the battery), it’s very light.
There’s no adjustment in the handle but, at 177cm tall, I found it an ideal height – although I also found it fiddly to fold and unfold when taking it to and from storage. The controls are as basic as you’ll get. There’s a lock button mounted a reach away from the horizontal handle, and a trigger bar to start and stop operation.
A handle above one of the rear wheels adjusts through five height settings in roughly 8mm increments between 25 and 60mm. The mower has a 33cm cutting deck, which is fairly impressive given the Stihl is only 37cm wide. Equally impressive is its ability to cut 300m2.
The big 3.6-volt, 4.0Ah battery clips into the mower under a flimsy lid which drops shut, rather than having a latch mechanism. The AK20 battery is worthy of note, because it’s big for such a compact mower, and the supplied AL101 charger takes 135 minutes to charge it fully. The battery has four LEDs showing the state of charge, which can be viewed through a window in the mower’s battery cover, but you have to press a button to view them.
The grass collector can hold 30 litres of clippings but, unlike the majority of collectors which have fabric sides that fold down when not in use, the RMA 235 has a solid plastic body.
How well does it mow?
Despite the Stihl RMA 235’s compact dimensions, the flyweight battery mower mows very well indeed. Even on damp lawns and with the cutting deck at its lowest setting, it rode undulations brilliantly, and there was no clumping or hacking. Given the sub-£180 price tag of the bare unit, I was mightily impressed.
It ate up long straight sections of lawn, and the wide wheels, unobscured by any bodywork, makes it really easy to follow your tramlines. Satisfying stuff.
There are two caveats here, though. That bulky, solid grass collector means the base can’t rise if you’re trying to back it in against low walls or delicate plants. And because the front and rear wheels are of similar sizes, it’s not as maneuverable as those with small front/large rear wheel arrangements, such as the Cobra MX3440V.
There’s only one speed, but even when tackling longer and damp grass, there was no shortage of oomph, with performance that belies its tiny size. That’s particularly noteworthy, because that punch is allied to a pretty remarkable runtime – it took me just over 77 minutes of continuous running on hardstanding for its battery to expire.
It doesn’t need any markers on the side of the mower to estimate the edge of the cutting deck, because those wide, flat-tread wheels do a great job of tracking where you’ve been.
The 30-litre grass collector should be enough for most small-to-medium gardens, but I found the grass-full indicator didn’t really work. The undamped plastic flap clacked as I was wheeling the mower to and from the shed, and remained closed regardless of whether the collector was empty or full. And although it’s a cinch to attach and remove, the square sides means it requires a lot of shaking to empty fully, unless you release a fiddly clasp to flip open the lid – but do that to a full collector, and you’ll spill mulch everywhere.
There’s little to really comment on when it comes to ergonomics, other than to say it’s viceless. If I had to complain, I’d like it if the locking button was a little closer to hand (it’s a small reach away on the side of the handle). And while the trigger bar is easy enough to press, it would be a bit easier on the hand if it was a little thicker.
At 75dBA, it was pretty quiet on test, and vibrations of around 1.5m/s2 means it’s well below daily government limits.
The carrying handle isn’t finished particularly well, which may be a problem if you’re carting it up some steps to or from the shed. And when you get there, the inability for the handle to fold flat and for the mower to stack up on its end will frustrate those with small sheds.
Should I buy the Stihl RMA 235 lawn mower?
If you have a small to medium-sized garden, and you need something that’s light and easy to use, then the Stihl RMA 235 will make a superb choice. Moreover, it performs an excellent cut: not just excellent for the money, but excellent full stop.
The 77-minute runtime I recorded was excellent – the longest of any of our recent tests – and its ability to cut 300m2 of grass in a sitting means you’re likely to run out of grass before the mower runs out of puff.
Its biggest bugbear will be the way it stows away – or rather how it doesn’t. If the handle folded flat and the Stihl could stand upright, it could be a real hit for the lightweight gardener. As it is, you may have to sacrifice a little too much of your potting shed.
