Webb WEV20X2LM47SPB4X 40V Lawnmower review: This heavyweight mower takes the hard work out of cutting grass

If you still enjoy mowing the garden yourself but hate the idea of pushing a heavy lawnmower around, a self-propelled model makes a lot of sense. You still get the satisfaction of doing the job yourself, just without quite as much effort.

British brand Webb has been making garden tools for years, and you might expect a heritage name like this to be a little stuck in the past. However, I was delighted to find that it's combined that traditional pedigree with some clever modern features, making the WEV20X2LM47SPB4X a brilliant piece of garden kit.

Price and availability

The Webb WEV20X2LM47SPB4X is priced at £399.99 and available direct from Webb's website or through garden specialists such as Mower Magic, Toolstation, and The Green Reaper.

It’s quite reasonably priced for a self-propelled mower. However, if you want to max out the runtime you’ll need a couple more 4.0 Ah batteries. Priced at £69.99 each, things start to get expensive.

Unboxing and set up

It’s an impressive, and impressively heavy, piece of kit. Arriving in an enormous cardboard box, I found the only way I could get it out was by cutting the end off and rolling it out. My first impression was of how solidly built this thing is. More used to fiddling around with flimsy folding handles and plastic wing nuts, I was happily surprised to see it comes fully assembled.

The handles are folded down for easy storage, so all I needed to do was pull on the grey handles and extend the handle out and up into “mowing mode”. Apart from charging the batteries, this mower arrives ready to go.

Before I strode off across the lawn, I needed to select a cut height. There are seven to choose from, from a reasonably short 30 up to a wildflower-friendly 70 mm.

Design and features

A muscular and striking piece of garden machinery, the WEV20X2LM47SPB4X boasts a proper steel cutting deck. The cosy foam-wrapped handle folds out from “storage mode” with a satisfying clunk.

The red ambidextrous triggers are comfortable to hang on to, and you get a little information display that shows current battery life and mowing mode, and a big power button. There’s also a slider switch underneath that controls the speed of the powered rear wheels.

As mentioned, this mower is self-propelled. That means the big 27 cm diameter rear wheels are driven by a motor, making this beast an absolute dream to push around the garden, up slopes, and over uneven terrain.

The large 20cm diameter front wheels help it to glide over bumps, and although the self-propelled feature uses up a fair bit of battery life, I think it’s worth it. Especially if you’re mowing in the heat of the day without a hat on.

Adding to the smooth ride are the proper solid tyres around the wheels. Unlike budget mowers with their easily scratched plastic ones, this adds to the overall premium feel.

Weighing in at a goliath 25.5kg, you're not going to tuck it under your arm and carry it up a set of stairs. However, if you need to wheel it over obstacles or even up a couple of garden steps, you can lock the handle down and pull it around like a massive wheeled suitcase. Changing between cutting heights from 30-70mm is easy too, even with a mower this heavy, thanks to a sprung handle down on the chassis.

Now for the batteries. The mower comes bundled with a pair of 20V, 4.0Ah batteries that have a very clever trick up their British racing green sleeves, and I don't think I'm overstating things when I say these are some of the most useful tool batteries I've ever used.

This is because they're charged by USB-C. Forget having a drawer full of different branded chargers – you can do it all with one plug and one cable. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the best leaps forward in useful battery technology I've personally come across.

The two plugs and cables that come with the mower are pretty nifty too. Each plug has a good old-fashioned USB-A port, but the real work is handled by a pair of high-wattage USB-C ports, capable of charging at a useful maximum of 65W.

Being USB-C compatible, the batteries work both ways. That means you haven't just bought a lawnmower, but a couple of super-fast charging power banks as well. I've been using them to charge my phone almost as much as I've been using them to cut the grass.

Open the battery compartment on the mower and you're met with a cavernous space capable of holding four batteries. With the standard dual-battery setup, you get around 30 minutes of unassisted mowing time, which is OK, but doesn't feel quite enough for a mower this big. Splash out on another couple of batteries and you're set for up to 60 minutes of mowing without doing your back in.

The drawback of USB-C charging is that it's a little slower than using a dedicated charger. Whilst some standalone chargers boast a 60-minute top-up time, you'll be waiting up to 80 minutes for a full charge here. It's not ideal, but I'd happily take the slightly slower charging if it means I can charge my phone from the same plug.

When it comes to getting rid of the grass, you have three options. The first is collection using the large grass box at the back, while the second is side discharge. The mower comes with a black plastic chute that attaches to the side of the chassis, neatly depositing the cuttings alongside you as you mow.

The third – and my lazy gardener favourite – is the mulching plug. This mode chops the grass up finely and leaves it where it is, returning some goodness to the lawn whilst saving you from multiple trips to the local dump.

Performance

Getting a big mower like this out onto the lawn is no small feat. It's far too capable for my own little patch, so I took it to a test garden that suits it much better. Of course, that meant picking it up and getting it into the car first. I'm not weak, but a 25kg mower is still a seriously heavy piece of kit. Thankfully, the handle folds down neatly, making it much easier to transport.

Once safely on the grass, the mower really starts to show its best side. You don't technically need to turn on the self-propelled rear wheels, and leaving them off will save some battery life, but pushing something this heavy around isn't much fun. Instead, I pressed the power button, set the speed to slow using the red slider and pulled the triggers.

The mower immediately moved forward at a manageable walking pace, cutting as it went. Keeping it in a straight line was easy, and the power remained consistent whether I was mowing on flat ground or heading up a slight hill. It takes almost all the effort out of manual mowing, while the large grass collection box took ages to fill. Once it was full, though, the extra weight of all those cuttings did make the mower a little harder to handle.

I measured the noise at a reasonable 84dB, which is comparable to a vacuum cleaner. It's nowhere near as quiet as one of the best robot lawnmowers, but it's still perfectly manageable. Using the self-propelled mode on its lowest setting, I managed just over 20 minutes of mowing before the batteries ran out. The small LED readout makes it easy to keep an eye on the remaining charge, but that runtime still feels a little short if you've got a particularly large lawn to tackle.

One feature I really like is the variable-speed motor. It runs at its normal speed for most of the job, but automatically kicks things up a notch when it detects thicker grass or weeds. You can select Max Power manually using the controls, but I left it in Auto for most of my testing to conserve as much battery as possible.

I review plenty of lawnmowers of all shapes and sizes, and one of my favourite features always comes down to storage. If a mower can stand upright on its end, it takes up a fraction of the space in my shed. So, when a beefy mower like the WEV20X2LM47SPB4X can do exactly that, I'm a big fan.

Verdict

Big, powerful, heavy – yet effortless. It’s hard to find bad things to say about this imposing lawnmower from Webb. Featuring a huge cut width, powerful self-propelled rear wheels, and marvellous USB-C rechargeable batteries, it takes the hard work out of keeping the lawn looking trim.

Alternatives to consider

If you want to look at the competition, then the WORX WG749E comes in at a similar price and cut width. If you want to spend a little more, then STIHL’s excellent RMA 248 runs on their versatile AK 20 battery platform.