Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower review: a perfect budget cordless mower for small gardens

Spring in the air, warm weather making an appearance and being able to welcome friends and family into our gardens – that means time for some garden maintenance. So I was very pleased when the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower showed up. Our split-level lawns had been left over winter and although I went over them with the strimmer a couple of weeks ago, they were looking very untidy and the grass was quite long again in patches.

Our bottom lawn (the largest of the three levels), is maintained by a robotic lawn mower, but it cannot easily access the top two levels, or the lawns at the front of our house. Therefore, we usually do them with our corded mower. For me, it is rather heavy, loud and, of course, there is the matter of the cable (and extension cable), which you spend half the time moving out of the way.

This is the first cordless mower I’ve tried, so I was eager to see just how much time it saved me and if it did as good a job as our corded mower. It is also very low in price compared to other cordless models on the market, so I will admit I wasn't expecting to be blown away. However, see why it earns a place on our best lawn mower list despite being a budget buy.

Einhell GE-CM 18/33 cordless lawn mower: key product specifications

• Power type: 18V 4.0Ah Li-ion battery
• Battery length: 30 mins
• Charging time: 1 hour (for full battery from low)
• Cutting width: 33cm
• Cutting heights: 25–65mm
• Grass collection box: 30L
• Lawn size: up to 200m²
• Size: 60.5 x 39.5 x 37.5 cm
• Weight: 10.9kg

First impressions of the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower

The first thing I noticed was that the box was a lot lighter and smaller than I expected. Upon opening the box, I was also pleasantly surprised that a lot of the mower was already assembled – there were just four parts and a bag of screws and fasteners. I also liked that the grass collection box is made from flexible material with a plastic top, making it lighter and easier to empty.

Getting started

The mower comes with two booklets – one for safety and one for operating instructions. After a quick look though the safety instructions, I moved on to assembling the mower. As I have used cordless products before, the first thing I did was put the battery on charge to save time whilst setting up the mower. This wasn’t listed in the first paragraph of instructions, so anyone following the instructions step by step, may end up waiting a bit longer before they can operate the mower. 

I then continued to assemble the mower, which was really simple and required no tools, which is always a bonus. There are illustrations as well as written instructions and I used both. All you need to do is attach the two lower push bars on either side, mount the top of the push bar, clip the cord to one of the bars, mount the catch basket (grass collection box) and insert the battery. The only thing I found a bit tricky was working out which side the washers went on the bars – but I soon found this out by re-reading the relevant paragraph in the instruction manual. The other thing to note is there are two different holes in the lower push bars, so you can attach the push bar according to user height. 

With three lights on the battery charger indicating that the battery was full, I clicked the battery into place under the cover flap. Setup took 15 minutes in total and with that, I wheeled the mower outside, ready to go. 

The Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless mower puts safety first and there are two safety mechanisms in place before you can start the mower. This is to stop unauthorised use and a very good feature for us, seeing as we have a very inquisitive three-year-old, who loves machines. The machine comes with a safety plug (that looks almost like a key) and you insert this in a slot above the battery. This completes the safety circuit and the mower cannot physically operate without this in place. I noted that I must remove it, every time I left the mower unattended.

The second safety mechanism is that to operate the mower, there is button on the handle you must press before grasping the switching bar which starts the mower. To stop the mower, you simply release the switching bar.

What is the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower like to use?

The instruction manual gives you a few hints on how to mow a lawn, including cutting heights for the time of year, safety points and a suggestion of overlapping the mowing swathes in straight lines. The manual explains to select the cutting height according to the current length of your grass. Cutting the grass too short can damage your lawn and the manual reminds you that you should never cut it back by more than half the height in one go.

As our lawn was very long in places, I set the cutting height to the highest setting (65mm), by pushing down the lever and sliding it to 65 on the scale. The cutting height can be set between 25mm and 65mm, at five intervals. As our lawn is an irregular shape and surrounded by walls, borders and paths, I always cut around the edge first, then in lines for the middle. As soon as I set off, I noticed how light and easy the mower was to push around. Our larger, corded mower is a lot more difficult to manoeuvre, especially as you have to occasionally step off a wall on to a lower level, to reach the edges.

I did the whole of the middle level without having to empty the grass collection box. Another handy feature of the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower, is it has a filling level indicator, which is a plastic flap, opened by the airflow that the mower generates when operational. When the flap is closed during mowing, this means that the box is full and must be emptied. A benefit of the material grass collection box is, if it’s not too full, you can get closer to the low wall edges. Plus it’s very light, making emptying the mower very easy.

With the grass collection box back in place, I completed the top level of the lawn. The two levels took just under 15 minutes in total and it was noticeable how much quicker the task was when you don’t have a cable getting stuck in between rocks and having to be moved out of the way. Back garden done, I effortlessly wheeled the mower along the garden path, to the front lawn, which I mowed in just five minutes. 

The only thing I was aesthetically missing, are the lovely lines lawn mowers with rear rollers leave in your lawn. The mower did leave lines, but these were just left from the wheels in the longer grass.

Regular cutting
I must admit that we do not cut the lawn as regularly as we should as it’s normally a long and arduous task. But knowing that this now only takes 15 minutes, I have added mowing to our list of weekly chores. 

A week after the first cut, I mowed the grass again, this time adjusting the cutting height to make the grass shorter. I checked the battery level by pressing the handy button, which shows how many bars of power there is left and found that it flashed on one. I charged the battery until it was full, which took an hour. I then inserted the battery and the safety key and changed the cutting height to 45mm. 

This time, because I cut the grass a lot shorter, I had to empty the cuttings box three times, but it still only took 20 minutes. The Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower still handled cutting the grass with ease, but I could tell where it hit the longer and thicker patches of grass, as you can hear the blade slow down. 

At one point, the mower stopped and sounded a long beep. I noticed the grass box was full and after consulting the manual, I couldn’t find any information on what this meant, so I emptied the grass cutting box. The mower didn’t start back up again, so I removed the safety key and battery and had a look at the blade. There was a big clump of grass stuck in between the blade and the mower base, so I removed this while wearing thick gloves and then put the battery and safety key back in. This time, the mower sprung back to life and I had no further problems. It would be helpful if the troubleshooting section included a bit about this, though it can be the result of cutting the lawn too short in one go.

I have since used the mower weekly and it’s been quick and easy. The only extra task I have had to do is strim the edges next to the walls as unfortunately, the mower doesn’t get close enough to cut the grass here. Our garden guests have commented on how nice the lawn looks, so it's obviously doing a great job.

Noise
Usually, lawn mowing is quite a noisy task, with sometimes an accompanying feeling of guilt for disturbing your neighbours, but I found the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower to be a lot quieter than our corded mower. The fact that it makes mowing the lawn a lot quicker, also helps minimise prolonged noise.

Ease of use

For the first use, as setup, mowing the back lawn and front lawns all in all took less than an hour, it’s clear that I found the mower particularly easy to use. It really makes a difference being able to just wheel your mower out from storage and straight to work, without having to faff around with extension cables and plug sockets. Though this is testament to the ease of the best cordless lawn mower rather than something specific to the Einhell, it being lightweight and easy to turn certainly helps.

It’s also very simple to empty the grass box, due to it being so light and only having to lift the chute flap to remove and replace it. When I’m finished, all I need to do is wheel it back into storage and fold the handle.

Additional features

Although I haven’t ever used the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower long enough to see just how long the battery lasts, if you did have a large lawn, a benefit of this product is that it’s part of Einhell’s flexible and powerful ‘Power X-change’ family. This means that if you have any other products in this range, their batteries are interchangeable. So, if the battery runs out, you can just pinch one from another product, or keep one on charge, to replace the dead battery.

The batteries themselves come with three LEDs to show how much charge they have left. All you need to do is press the button on the battery indicator switch and a number of LEDs will light up to show you if there is enough battery to complete the task. The battery charger also has indicators and there is a full indicator guide in the operation manual as well as a handy troubleshooting page.

Another feature of the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower is that it’s driven by a brushless motor which means it has a longer running time and life than a carbon brush motor. Plus, the push handle can be folded away for more compact storage in a small space such as a shed. It really is a great buy for small gardens, but is more than enough mower for our medium space too.

The level indicator on the grass box is a very handy feature, which means you won’t end up with loose grass cuttings all over your lawn and the two safety mechanisms also help me feel at ease, knowing my son won’t be able to start it on his own.

How does the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower rate online?

It won’t come as a surprise that I have rated this mower five stars, as it was just so simple to set up and use, also giving the desired results. 

After having translated other reviews (most of them are in German), reviewers rate the mower highly with the majority also awarding five stars. They agree that the assembly is simple – with the benefit of not having to use any tools – it’s easy to use, cuts the grass well and many love that they can swap the batteries with other Einhell tools. I would also agree with a lot of users, that it’s a great mower for the price and is cheaper than similar mowers which don’t rate as highly. I was quite surprised by how brilliantly it performed knowing that cordless mowers can be in excess of £300.

The only negative remarks are from users with large lawns who were frustrated with how long the battery lasts. Some say it didn’t last for 200m² stated, but others disagree and say they managed to get at least 30 minutes’ worth of mowing.

Overall, I would highly recommend the Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower to anyone looking to ditch their corded mower and has a small to medium sized garden. I will definitely be looking out for other Einhell products in the same power range.

How does it compare to similar models?

The Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower is the cheapest cordless lawn mower Gardeningetc has tested, but got the same rating as the Worx WG779E.2 40V cordless lawn mower. The difference between the two is that the Worx model has a roller and a mulch plug that you can remove to mulch your lawn. If these features are key for you, then it might be worth spending that little bit more and buying the Worx 40V cordless. Battery life is similar, cutting width is only one centimetre narrower on the Einhell and they have the same grass box capacity and weight.

The Worx claims to be for gardens up to 350m² and the Einhell says just 200m² but as the grass box size and battery life are similar, we can see it coping with similar lawns. We did not test it to the limit of its battery life to confirm. 

If you have a bigger garden, Einhell has a range of cordless mowers with broader cutting widths and bigger grass boxes, so for gardens up to 600m² you might want to consider the Einhell GE-CM 43 cordless. However, at twice the price, we think you really do get a lot for your money with the GE-CM 18/33 – especially if you are willing to have spare batteries and more trips to the compost bin.

About this review and our reviewer

Bethan Davis is a PR officer, currently on maternity leave with her second child. With two kids under the age of four, their garden needs to be safe, tidy and low maintenance. She tested this Einhell GE-CM 18/33 Li cordless lawn mower over a period of several weeks, meaning plenty of cuts and some healthy spring growth in between. She started it off on a long lawn, before doing regular cuts and paired it with use of a robot mower – the Worx Landroid M500 robot lawn mower which she reviewed for Gardeningetc last year – to maintain her medium-sized garden. 

The space has terraced and sloping sections of lawn, which are unusually shaped and can be difficult to reach with a corded machine.