Greenworks Pro 21″ 80V Cordless Lawn Mower Review – Updated

Hello again gang. These are the results from our Greenworks Pro 21″ 80V Cordless Lawn Mower Review. If you are a regular here at C-ELMR, you would know that we have been reviewing Greenworks products all week and we will be giving you reports each day for the next two weeks. Our reviews focus mainly on the design of the mowers and customer reports of satisfaction and dislike after purchasing these Greenworks 80V Pro mowers. We will also be showing you some videos of the mowers at work from disgruntled and/or satisfied customers who provided video reviews on different forums after purchasing the Greenworks mowers.

These are the areas of major importance to you when purchasing a mower from Greenworks or any other brand:

1. Design
2. Power
3. Performance
4. Efficiency and ease of use
5. Durability
6. Ease of locating replacement parts
7. Value

Yesterday, we gave you part 1 of a 5 part review of the Greenworks G-Max 40V Mower Reviews…View here

Today we will be giving you the results from one of our 2 Greenworks 80V Pro Lawn Mower Reviews. These include:

1. Greenworks 80V Pro Push Lawn Mowers which include the following models

• Greenworks Pro GLM801600 80V 21-Inch Cordless Lawn Mower
• Greenworks Pro GLM801601 80V 21-Inch Cordless Lawn Mower
• Greenworks Pro GLM801602 80V 21-Inch Cordless Lawn Mower

2. Greenworks Pro MO80L510 80V 21-Inch Self-Propelled Cordless Lawn Mower -Review can now be viewed here

C-ELMR Product Review 100010

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Product: Greenworks Pro 80V 21-inch Cordless Push Mower – GLM801600, GLM801601 & GLM801602

Manufacturers: Globe Tools Group

General Market Price: $300 + 

All three models of Greenworks mowers in the GLM801600-2 line are the same except for the batteries that Greenworks package with each model. They are matched as follows:

1. Greenworks Pro GLM801600 80V 21-Inch Cordless Lawn Mower  – Just the mower 
2. Greenworks Pro GLM801601 80V 21-Inch Cordless Lawn Mower – Mower + 2 – 2Ah batteries + charger
3. Greenworks Pro GLM801602 80V 21-Inch Cordless Lawn Mower – Mower + 1-4Ah battery + charger

Warranty: 4 years after the date of purchase but only upon registration of product at Greenworks

Best Places to buy online for the best price: Amazon and eBay 

This is a YouTube video from Greenworks showing the features of the mower. We will be comparing these claims to what customers are saying about the mower. If this mower is all hype and no substance, you will know by the end of this review. Greenworks Pro 80V 21-inch Cordless Push Mowers have both good and bad features. We will show you both the good and the ugly, then you can decide if this mower is worth your time and money.

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Design – Awesome convenient design

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This is a very well designed mower. It has adequate height and cutting power adjustments, durable material, and an energy-efficient motor. Let us look at the different design features and point out the flaws we found with each.

Start option

This Greenworks mower is hassle-free to start with a modern push button and pull bail switch option.

Starting and stopping

• Ensure that the charged battery is loaded in the mower
• 
• Press and hold down on the green safety lock-out button close to the back handle of the mower.
• Still holding the button, pull back the bail switch towards the back handle of the mower
• After the mower starts, release the safety lock-out button and start mowing.
• To stop mowing, release the bail.

Height Adjustments

There is one handle at the back of the mower on the right-hand side and this adjusts all four wheels. This is the preferred type of adjustment. Adjusting the back and front separately is a waste of time and can lead to errors.

There are seven different cutting heights. 1st setting is 1 1/4″, 2nd is 1 2/3″, 3rd is 2″, 4th is 2 1/3″, 5th is 2 3/4″, 6th is 3 1/7 and 7th setting is 3 5/8″.

The maximum height adjustment is okay, but still a bit too low for the power of the mower. A mower this powerful should have a higher height adjustment to tackle higher grass.

Weight and size

According to customers, the Greenworks mower is very light and easy to maneuver around the lawn. It is L 34.4 x W 23.4 x H 17.3 inches. It has a 21″ steel deck.

Motor

A Brushless motor increases torque, delivering maximum power with less heating up and wasting battery power. Customers have said that it is indeed driving a power similar to that of a 160cc gas engine mower. It has smart cut technology built-in where it revs up when it meets high, thick grass and uses less energy to go through shorter, thinner grass.

Cutting options 

Has all the options you need in a good mower so thumbs up here

– Video tutorials provided in the ease of use section below

1. Bagging
2. Mulching
3. Sideways Discharge

Batteries

 

2 Ah batteries

These are lithium-ion batteries with a charging time of 30 minutes and an operating time of 30 minutes. In taller grass, the mower will use more energy to cut the grass so it might last 25 minutes instead of the full thirty minutes. NB Ampere hour (Ah) means the amount of energy in a battery that will allow the release of 1 Ampere of current each hour. The higher the Ah of the battery, the more energy it stores, and the longer it will last.

You get 2- 2Ah batteries and a charger with the 803001 models. Unlike the Greenworks 40V G-Max push mowers,  where both batteries can be placed in the mower and the other one kicks in when the main battery drains, this mower can only hold one battery so if the battery dies while mowing, you will need to fetch your spare 2Ah battery and replace it to finish mowing your lawn.

4 Ah batteries 

These are lithium-ion batteries of the same size as the 2Ah batteries but they have more energy packed into the cells. They will last for 60 minutes after a 30 minutes full charge (twice the time of the 2Ah batteries). You get one of these plus the charger with the 8036002 models.

A great plus for the Greenworks Pro line is that both batteries are compatible with all the 80V Greenworks Pro tools and can be easily removed and used interchangeably. They are compatible with all three charger models GBA80200, GBA80400 and GCH8040.

Storage

• You first pull and turn the handle knobs 90 degrees
• Lower the handlebar forward until it is resting on top of the handle deck
• This mower can be stored vertically leaning on the handlebars or horizontally.

Noise level

Quiet enough for you to use your earphones for music while mowing. The video under “Performance” will give you a pretty good idea of how the Greenworks 80V DigiPro sounds. One thing to note here is that it gets louder in thick grass as it revs up.

Power and Performance -As good as a gas mower?

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Based on the specs on this thing, the Greenworks Pro 80V  should cut through some pretty tall grass without bogging down much…like a Pro. The blades arrive sharpened and ready to go. With the lightness of this Greenworks mower, the power of the 80V batteries, and the efficiency of the brushless motor, you should have a very easy time cutting your lawn. We are satisfied to say that this is exactly how customers reported their experience with the Greenworks Pro 80V push mower. It performs well with all three features. Mulching and sideways discharge are both carried out without any clogging of the mower outlets.

Bagging Performance

When cutting high grass, it revs up. During the second it takes to do this, one customer said that it will leave some grass behind, so you might want to pause a bit when it revs up or pull the mower back then go forward again. It only revs up when it encounters high or thick grass.

According to another customer, it handles her hilly lawns well without leaving patches. Most customers said that it handles tall thick grass like a gas mower….but

There were some complaints that the mower does not handle tall grass very well. This was puzzling to us because with such a powerful mower, tall grass should not be a problem. Upon further investigations, and follow up questions, we realized that those who had problems with the mower’s ability to cut tall grass were starting the mower at a low cutting height, very well knowing that they had a monstrous overgrowth on their lawn. This will damage the motor of any electric mower. How? When it starts bogging down with grass stuck around the blades and motor, you will distort the magnetic coils when you try to force it to continue mowing… then you will call Greenworks and complain that it died on you. Then because you have a 4-year warranty, you will get a new mower but if you repeat your actions, you will get the same results.

Another customer said that the mulching does not work as well in very tall grass.

My Advice to You

1. Start mowing from the highest cutting height on any electric mower if you have overgrown grass.
2. If your mower blades stop spinning, do not force it. Stop mowing, clear the grass from around the blades and motor, then restart the mower and go at it again.
3. If the mower just cannot handle your monstrous overgrowth, use a trimmer over it before you start mowing.
4. It is best to know your lawn and the seasonal growth and mow regularly to prevent damage to your electric mower motor.

Remember, You should start out at the highest cutting height available.

Sideways Discharge Performance

Take a look at the video below from a customer who bought the Greenworks Pro 80V mower showing how it handles tall grass.

Efficiency and ease of use – Pretty easy

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Greenworks 80V DigiPro requires some assembly but it is no hassle at all. The handlebars are disassembled in the box. We did not see where to take off any points for this section. This mower is easy to assemble, easy to start, easy to stop, and easy and convenient to store. The blades can be changed without much trouble as well.

You must be tired of reading by now so I found a video tutorial on YouTube explaining how to do all of the above procedures.

Take a look at this assembly video from Greenworks and continue to the other videos to see 

1. Starting and stopping the mower
2. Installing and removing the mulching plug
3. Attaching the grass catcher bag
4. Replacing the cutting blade
5. Installing side discharge chute
6. Adjusting cutting heights

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Durability – Will you need to replace it any time soon?

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• Very Sturdy Blades
• Steel deck
• Brushless motor
• Charger cools battery before charging.

Points to note

• You will destroy this mower if you try to push it through the bogging. If it starts to bog down, turn it off and clear out grass.

• The batteries are supposed to last up to ten years so if your mower stops working within a short period of time, you are covered for 1 year with the battery and 4 years with the mower.

• The crappy thing about their warranty is that they only allow one replacement of any part on the mower. Why? I don’t know but I don’t like it. What if I get two bad apples? Well, such is the Greenworks warranty. They will assume that your house or garage has faulty wiring…which might be the case in all fairness. If you totaled two batteries in a short time span, the problem might be your wiring.

Overall Assessment – What are the pros and cons of this mower?

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Pros and Praises from Buyers

• No cords yet this is one of the most powerful electric mowers on the market today
• Easy to assemble
• Easy to start and runs wells
• Noise level is way below that of a gas mower
• Fast charging batteries
• It folds up nicely so that it can be stored both vertically and horizontally. Definitely a space saver.
• Height Adjustment works well and easy to adjust.
• Convenient to have seven different cutting heights. 1st setting is 1 1/4″, 2nd is 1 2/3″, 3rd is 2″, 4th is 2 1/3″, 5th is 2 3/4″, 6th is 3 1/7 and 7th setting is 3 5/8″
• One handle adjusts all wheels heights
• Replacement blades are so cheap that it’s worth not bothering to get the current one sharpened.
• Goes smoothly down thinner grass and powers up through thicker grass to save energy
• Cuts damp grass without bogging down often
• The mowers really handle tall grass well if adjusted to the tallest height
• Handles thick grass well
• Very durable batteries – ten-year lifespan
• Batteries can be used for other Greenworks 80-volt tools
• The charger will detect if the battery is too hot to charge and will cool it down with the built-in fan before charging. This does increase the amount of charge time required but will protect the battery a little.
• Light and easy to maneuver around your lawn.
• Glides over bumps and patches without any problem
• Very durable and light material -steel deck gets a thumbs up

Cons and Complaints from Buyers

• Mulching does not work very well in very tall, thick grass.
• It is incapable of handling any other type of overgrown thick plant matter as it promptly stalls.
• Clippings do not always make it into the bag.

Point to note – Clippings are good for your lawn. It improves soil water retention and will encourage new growth in bald patches so I do not have a problem with this feature. Do you? Answer in the comment section.

• – For lawns bigger than 1/2 acres, multiple batteries are needed if one doesn’t want to wait on a charge.
• -In the hot season, the charger needs to cool down the battery first before charging requiring about 50 minutes to charge.

Value and Comparison to other Brands – Better options?

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The Greenworks 80V DigiPro is more expensive than a lot of push mowers but it gets the job done more efficiently than the cheaper brands and mowers with less power. It is one of the most powerful cordless electric mowers on the market. Kobalt also has an 80V push mower that we reviewed a few weeks ago.

We will be doing a comparison of both mowers after the release of the Greenworks 80V Self propelled Lawn Mower Review so subscribe to C-ELMR to get an email when those are released in the next two weeks. If they have already been released at the time of your visit, they will be in the suggested posts below the article so keep an eye out for those.

For now, my opinion is a great, big, fat thumbs up for this mower.

Another mower that we could compare to this is the Ego 56 V mower which is running in the same price range with more power.

Kobalt 80V lawn mower can also be compared here. I can say off the bat that the Kobalt mower is slightly cheaper but does not cut tall grass as well as this Greenworks Mower.

Recommended for – Is this mower right for you?

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I would recommend the Greenworks 80V DigiPro 21″ Push Mower for anyone with a budget of USD 500-$ 600 who wants a powerful Eco-friendly mower for a lawn of 1/2 acre or less. If you want to do a bigger lawn then you might have to do some recharges or keep your lawn well kept so that the mower runs on low energy. If you have other Greenworks 80V tools then you should definitely add this to the collection because you would only spend $300 to get a great mower as all your batteries and chargers would be compatible.

Comparison video- Ego self propelled mower versus this GreenWorks mower

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