What is it?
The Karcher LMO 18-33 is a compact cordless lawn mower designed to take on lawns up to 250m2. If you're looking for something that will cover a larger area of lawn on a single charge, check out our review of the EGO LM1701E.
The Karcher LMO 18-33 is powered by a 18-volt lithium-ion battery. You'll need to plan ahead a little before cutting your lawn as the battery takes over two hours to charge with the supplied 2.5Ah battery. Once charged, you should expect a run time of up to 24 minutes.
As this cordless lawn mower is designed to cut modestly-sized gardens, the Karcher LMO 18-33 has a cutting width of 33cm (you can probably see how it gets its name now). There's only three adjustable cutting heights, ranging from 65mm down to 35mm.
There's a good-sized 35-litre collapsible grass box that comes with a full indicator, while the Karcher LMO 18-33 is nice and lightweight at only 11.6kg.
Retailing at £305, we've seen it available online for around £250, making it good value for a cordless lawn mower.
What's it like?
You shouldn't have any issues getting it out of the box and getting set-up. We'd recommend the first thing you need is get the battery and charger unpacked and plugged in to charge. With that done, there's the simple task of sorting out the handlebar.
There are a couple of wing nuts supplied that allow you to attach the top half of the handlebar to the bottom part (these two parts are already loosely connected to the lawnmower thanks to the power cord running to the dual power handles at the top of the handlebar). With these tightened up, you can then slot the bottom part of the handlebar into the lawnmower chassis. Depending on your height, you can adjust the handlebar height to suit you.
With the cutting box on (or there's mulching plug supplied if you'd prefer) and the battery charged, you're good to go. Thanks to the lightweight nature of the mower, it's easy to carry (and there's a built in handle) and move from your shed or garage to your lawn. Before you start, you can set your cutting height and if we're honest, the plastic height adjustment handle is a bit flimsy to use - something more solid would be preferable, but then that would probably be reflected in the cost.
Press the central button on the handle in combination with a pull of one of the power handles and the Karcher LMO 18-33 springs into life. Without any leads to avoid, it's pretty easy progress cutting a moderately sized lawn and can be used singlehandedly. It's also pretty quiet - something that should help keep the neighbours happy on a Sunday afternoon.
We'd have liked to have seen slightly lower minimum cutting height than 35mm to get a closer cut, but we're really impressed by the digital LCD display of the battery. Rather than a set of vague LED lights to guide you on how much battery power you have left, there's a clear countdown display on the battery that shows how much charge there is left.
While Karcher quotes 24 minutes of charge, we found we were getting longer than that in real-world tests, allowing use to easily cut both the front and back lawns the charge to spare.
Once finished, the handle can be folded in on itself - you'll just need to slacken off the wing nuts enough to do this. With the grass box resting on top, the Karcher LMO 18-33 folds away nice and neatly.
Should I buy one?
If you've been getting fed-up with your corded lawnmower and you've got a reasonably sized lawn to cut, then the Karcher LMO 18-33 is worth a look. As we've touched on, a closer cutting height would be nice, but it's easy to use and the battery life should be up to the job for a lot of small gardens. Especially if you can find one for under £250.
