Measuring Power

What do all the power measurements mean?

Your main concern is probably whether or not the blade of the lawn mower will spin quickly enough to efficiently cut your grass. In actuality, the ratings of mowers are determined by much more technical aspects.

For gasoline powered mowers, there are three measurements of power that you may see:

• horsepower (hp) refers to the maximum amount of power that is produced by the engine;

• torque is the percentage of horsepower that is transferred to the cutting blade;

• cc (cubic centimeters) is a measurement of the engine's power that is based on the displacement volume of its cylinders.

 

There are two different types of engines to consider.

The first is the two-stroke, which is also referred to as the two-cycle.  Two-stroke engines offer the advantage of more power but also produce more pollution.  The other type is the four-stroke.  It lacks the power of the two-stroke engine, but doesn't produce as much pollution.

Power in electric and cordless lawn mowers is measured in volts, amps, and watts.  Horsepower can be calculated by first multiplying the number of volts by the number of amps to determine the wattage.  Then you simply divide the wattage by 746 to calculate the horsepower of the mower.

The amount of horsepower doesn't necessarily indicate greater or lesser cutting power.  Because of this fact, in 2007, many lawn mower manufacturers started the practice of rating walk-behind mowers based upon their torque power or cc' instead of their amount of horsepower.  If the amount of torque isn't provided in the stats of a gas mower then the amount of torque can be determined by the number of cc's.  Generally speaking, higher cc's indicate higher torque as well as a larger amount of fuel required per stroke.

You certainly don't want to purchase a mower based solely upon its power measurements.  You also want to be sure that it possesses the features that you desire as well as a warranty and high ratings from reviewers.