20-Inch Corded Electric Lawn Mower, Ultra Light Push Mower, 13-Amp High Output Motor, 3 in 1 Cutting Versatility, Tool Free Height Adjustment, 7-setting Cutting Height (MM2000)

Warning: Long, opinionated, sanctimonious, but 100% truthful review to follow, by a reluctant, foot-dragging self-styled expert in mowing with an electric mower. If you are easily POed, you have been warned. 5 stars is based, not on this mower being the ultimate of all products I have ever used, but on perceived future worthiness and proper present operation. (As of July 17, 2015 I have been using this for 3 months.) I explain that because I realized people have radically different ideas about ratings after I saw a review of some cheap, perfectly functioning item which said 5 stars could only apply to sublime items, should you ever encounter one in your lifetime, which is how he rated novels less worthy than William Shakespeare, and that was how he was going to rate products. IMO, good sense tells us that mundane, engineered products all have inherent inadequacies in our losing struggle with the real world, so rating products as if they were art is foolishness. I will mention some faults with this product, but as a total evaluation, they should be taken as incidental. In other words, this mower cuts grass blades as well as any rotating mower can. It has the power, in effect, of gas powered mowers that might cost a few hundred dollars more, and is fabulously more convenient to use. You can stop here if all you want is an opinion without details. I weighed the mower without the bag (which I don't use because bagging is pointless) and it was 43 pounds. The Amazon specs say 53, which may be because of the bag. The height adjustment lever, which is convenient by being on top, and easy to move by having a long handle for good leverage, therefore also gets easily knocked out of its locked #7 position when it is hardly brushed against by low branches of my many shrubs, dropping to #4 position, scalping the lawn. For the first few cuttings this happened a lot, but now that I have learned to watch it doesn't. The top hand-operated skewers, something like quick releases on bicycles, that let the handle be folded quickly for storage, could not be made tight even with the adjustment knob all the way in. Some washers I added were enough. Since other reviews do not mention this, either something was left out in my case, or B&D has changed something. The levers on the quick-releases sometimes hook onto branches. In fact all kinds of things on the MM2000 get hooked, whereas the older models had smooth housings. I could make false, bragging claims about my wisdom when I decided on an electric mower around the year 1970. Like: It was better for the environment! (which it is.) Or: it is more economical to operate! (which it is.) Or: it is much lighter! (which it is.) Actually, I had a job in which my primary work during the growing season of Michigan was pushing a very nice and expensive gas lawn mower all day to get what the big tractor mowers couldn't get at, or near, or under. At home, I had a classy push reel-mower, which was murder in the blasted humidity and heat of summer, but I declined to replace it with a gas mower, because it was too much for me to endure the sound of a gas-mower for one more second than I had to. While again wistfully contemplating the gas mowers at S--rs, I noticed an obscured, wimpy little thing off to the side: an electric mower, audaciously claimed to be quiet-er. Whether you can claim something loud is quiet-er is a question for philosophers, but it did not sound at all like a gas mower. And it cut as well as the gas mowers, but much easier. It may not have survived the 4 foot weed stalks my on-the-job mower could manage, after I acquired the technique, but that was not even slightly relevant. That light, little, aluminum-housed, mower with a novel pair of side-by-side 8 inch blades, lasted, with some repairs, for 27 years, I suppose because my lawn was so small, and electric motors do not require elaborate engineering to be durable. (The repairs were: a switch, one set of brushes, and the two belts.) The old thing which I thought would last forever gave out in 2 years when I moved to where the lawn took 3 and 1/2 hours to cut. 27 years without smelling or keeping gas, without once having trouble starting, without any new spark plugs or tuneups, with less than half the effort of pushing and maneuvering a gas version, without hearing the nasty popping noise. That mower was followed by a B&D MM850, an ancestor of this current (but totally re-engineered) model, which could only handle a mere 17 year pounding, again with some repairs. (The replacements were a set of brushes, one new blade, a top bearing, and the clips that hold the wheels on. I replaced the rusted out, flimsy clips with endcaps.) I will mention that I have a 4 year technical degree in electronics, which does not qualify me to design electric motors, but it is some credentials, in case somebody wonders. The electric motor of this model supposedly is rated at 13 amps. It does not use 13 amps. A rating means different things when applied to different equipment. So, for instance, you have circuit breakers in your breaker box rated at 15 amps. That means you could use 15 amps, not that you are using 15. Electric mowers by their nature pull more amps if you load them down. 13 amps in the case of this mower's motor probably means that past 13 amps the motor will progressively get hot enough to burn the insulation on the windings. (And the rating is probably done in free air, not inside a stifling enclosure such as the mowers housing.) That means you risk failure if you operate your mower at 13 amps for prolonged periods. I rigged something to measure the amps while cutting grass 3 inches taller than the mower's maximum height adjustment, at which the mower was pulling 3.7 amps, not 13. At as fast as I could walk, and you could then hear the motor bog some, it was 4.2 amps. So when the manual advises a 14 or even 12 gauge cord, this is because of lawyers, not either safety or the requirements of the mower under normal operation. Naturally, I did not think of this when I bought my cords. I have a 100 foot, 14 gauge, 2 wire cord, to which I add a 50 foot, 12 gauge, monster 3-wire cord to get to the furthest part of the lawn. It is of no use to run a 3 wire cord to a device that has two prongs, as this mower, and practically all electrical lawn equipment does. So why are two wire cords very hard to find? This mower, as well as its ancestors like my MM850, has a DC motor with a bridge rectifier to convert the house AC to pulsating DC. AC motors are everywhere and not expensive, and refrigerators and furnace blowers use them. It makes sense to use AC motors with AC, does it not? And AC motors don't necessarily have brushes, which wear out and cause problems, nor bridge rectifiers, which drop the voltage a couple volts and waste a bit of power. The rectifier drops voltage (2 volts), in the same range as 150 foot cords some people seem worried about. And there ARE mowers that use AC motors. For what reason is B & D going with DC? It is my understanding that DC motors do not overheat when they are slowed down significantly, or when operated at lower voltages, as some AC motors do. That's good. (DC motors turn slower, and use less power, at lower voltage.) But brushes do cause problems. Probably most people who think their lawn mower "has conked out" (and it isn't just the switch) have worn out the brushes. (Brushes are what they call the replaceable contacts that supply the rotating motor with electricity.) It is not a difficult replacement if you are handy with a screwdriver. But I have also had my old mower suddenly refuse to run, or run very slowly. After getting off the cover, blowing out the astounding amount of very fine crud inside, and working the brush springs, to get out particles blocking the brushes from good contact, the mower is revived. Lifting and banging the mower down on the sidewalk a few times often works, but don't get carried away. Although the manual instructs you not to get inside (as demanded by lawyers), that means debris will accumulate inside until it ultimately strangles the motor to death. People accustomed to replacing their cheap-crap gas mowers frequently may not realize they can get another long period of good operation out of their electric mower by getting inside. The motor cannot be totally sealed, because air must circulate to cool the motor. (There indeed is a fan inside the blade housing which draws air through a couple of small holes (prone to clogging), which draws cooling air into miscellaneous openings on top). But dust and mostly tiny particles of grass which the mower kicks up gets drawn inside, and can get in the motor and lodge in the brushes. The first time I opened up the forbidden motor compartment of the MM850, after a couple years, I was baffled why they would line the inside with a greenish foam rubber mat molded exactly to the interior of the cover. They didn't! The new MM2000 makes it just as difficult to get inside, by having screws set in deep holes that fill up with fine grass clippings you have to blow out. The reason electric motors last a long time, compared to gas motors, is that the only wearing parts are the two bearings that hold opposite ends of the shaft that turns, and those don't cost much. Gas mowers have that and a lot more, and the parts take a tremendous pounding from the brief but strong explosions of the gas. Yes they can make cheap gas engines, but they can't make gas engines that last cheap. Battery mowers are a mistake. You may feel a cord is too much hassle, but lugging and charging expensive batteries, which are only able to last a couple of years, because the high energy cycling wears them fast, is a hassle. Isn't electricity expensive compared to gas? Yes, but the conversion to useful work is much better for an electric motor than a gas engine. 90% efficient is not a big deal for an electric motor. 30% efficient in practice would be a miracle for a gas engine. IAC, here is the calculated cost for me. Around here, the total maximum charge for 1000 watts for 1 hour is $0.17. While in operation, the mower uses under 500 watts. If it took less than an hour to cut the lawn, it would cost under $0.09 for the electricity. For 3 1/2 hours, it would be under 30 cents. (0.17 x .5 x 3.5) At $200 for the mower, assuming it lasts 15 years, that comes to $13.33 per year. In my case, that comes out to 44 cents per cutting. So, not counting my labor, total out-of-pocket cost is 74 cents per cutting. I mentioned that bagging clippings is pointless. Here is how I came to think that: In the later 70's the ecology movement erupted. One idea was that to reduce creating ever-more eco-destructive landfills, we should not put biodegradable material in them. Manufacturers and eco-fanatics then proclaimed that specially designed mulching mowers, which chopped the cuttings short enough to fall unobtrusively between the grass blades (provided the lawn was left long enough to hide them) were eco-correct. Frankly, I 'd prefer to avoid bagging the clippings, not because of eco concerns, but that bagging is three times the work of not bagging. So I, after seeing articles claiming that they had found some ordinary mowers that did just as well as the mulchers, tried my suddenly out-dated mower (set to maximum height) and found it worked too. I monitored for the potential lawn disease that might result, which never happened. On the contrary, the lawn stayed greener between fertilizer applications, and after a few years of this, I seldom put fertilizer on the lawn. (True, the grass is not that deep blue-green you get after fertilizer anymore, except in spring, but it is a pretty green.) To be clear, if you cut more than an inch off the grass blades, or have the height lower than 3 1/2 inches, you risk seeing grass clippings laying on the lawn. I have not bagged the clippings since around 1975. The mower is working fine as of July 7, 2016. (To be continued when I have time. )

Very strong motor and blades. My yard had thick and very tall grass and on the first use it pulled through like a champion. This is my fourth cut in the last 9 weeks and it's still kicking hard

Arrived May 30, 2024. From the beginning, with power disconnected, blade did not turn freely, but I thought perhaps it had some kind of mechanical brake since it ran and did not make odd noises or overheat. By 4th or 5th mowing on July 28, 2024, when I stopped to let a dog and neighbor pass, it did not start up again. When I checked the blade with power off, it was very hard to turn the blade, so motor could not turn it anymore. This mower should never have left the factory and been sold. Possibly someone else had returned it and it was sold to me as new. I will add to this review when I figure out in-warranty service or full refund. I received a replacement under warranty. It too has failed in the identical way 7-15-2025 on the 6th or 8th mowing. B&D did not want the first mower back, so I disassembled it to see why it failed. It has a mechanical brake. Since there are ventilation holes between the internal body and the yard debris bag, the mechanical brake is subject to grass and dirt. This buildup eventually causes the braking action while mowing and stalls the motor completely. While this was the immediate cause of failure of the first mower, the majority of the bearings were in corroded condition. They looked like the mower had been warehoused somewhere between manufacture and Amazon and had experienced flooding, but put in a new box and sold. I have not disassembled the now failed warranty replacement because I don't want to void the warranty. B&D has to know that these mowers, due to poor design are not suitable for advertised purpose. Don't buy this model! Perhaps look for the direct drive models that have a DC motor with electric braking system whether this brand or another brand.

Carefully bought this for my tiny dorm front patch since campus grounds crew ignores it. Setup was super easy, I snapped everything together in like 15 minutes between classes. The mower is light enough that i can drag it out of the storage closet without help, which is nice because I’m 5'2 and not strong at all. It cuts clean and the bag catches most of the grass, so I’m not tracking clippings back into the hall. Only meh thing, the cord is kind of annoying. I keep stopping to move it so I don’t run it over and it tangles around the bikes. For a small space though, it works well and keeps the RA off my case.

This is a fantastic mower. Works very well. Remember this is a corded mower. It has fantastic 13 amp motor. Cuts great. Raise to the level you want it to cut. Does not burn grass. Very good product

Mower arrived on time. Handle was easy to adjust and has several setting making it adjustable and comfortable for any person. The deck has an adjustable handle which is easy to use and clearly marked for height adjustment. The motor has enough horse power that it can even cut light brush. The mower handle folds down for easy storage as well as fitting into the bed of my Tacoma P/U for when I take to our summer place. And that’s the best part of this mower. No gas or oil to transport, Storage for the winter without worrying about draining gasoline, or having to do a tuneup in the spring. As they say in the computer industry, it’s a plug and play.

Has good power. Easy to put together and simple to operate. One you get used to having a power cord attached no problem getting around the yard. I like how close you can box near the edges of your lawn, cut down on some weed eating. 99.9% happy with this purchase and it works for me with the size lawn I have with a 150 power cord. Only issue the foam rubber padding on the handle starting coming off after the first use. I just bought some heave duty foam tape and I was good to go. BE CAREFUL DO NOT RUN OVER THE CORD!!!!!!!

UPDATE: The mower was missing one O-Ring for the lever that allows the mower handle to be folded down for storage. I have been in a RIDICULOUS back and forth mess of emails with someone named Anna in Customer “Support”. She refuses to send me ONE tiny O-Ring. She passed me to someone else who told me that I must buy the entire handle in order to get the ring. These support people aren’t in the USA. B&D is located in several countries, such as the Ukraine. Maybe it’s a language barrier, but I do NOT recommend this company’s products because there is no “support”. The mower works OK, in my small weedy yard, BUT, this is THE last Black and Decker product I will ever buy! If this is the customer support I get for a tiny missing O-Ring, I can’t imagine what I would have to go through if the mower stops working! You get what you pay for! Updated: I volunteered to PAY for two different o-rings this Anna says exist for two different MM2000 mowers. I offered to pay for the o-rings, plus all shipping and handling costs! I just want a tiny missing O-Ring and this person just keeps repeating that I’m to find the type number on a non-existent sticker! Over and over, back and forth for days! There is NO WAY that two different models of this MM2000 mower with a folding handle would be different! This company is absolutely The Worst!Ugh! UPDATE #3: I was informed by customer “support” that this ring is only available if I order the full assembly of the folding handle lever! Absolutely Ridiculous! It’s a brand new mower, and they didn’t include this black ring that fits in with the screw and bolt. It probably costs Black and Decker 2 cents, and they refuse to send it after leaving it out of the plastic bag. I’d sure hate to ever have to replace anything of value or importance to the operation of this mower! This is what you get when buying a product whose customer “support” teams are overseas in the Ukraine!