Honda HRX476XB Review
A large and powerful lawn mower for larger lawns.
Verdict
Honda’s biggest rechargeable lawnmower is self-propelled and capable of cutting, mulching and collecting a lot of grass. It is the closest thing you’ll get to using a petrol mower, but it’s also extremely heavy and expensive, and you’re going to need a few spare batteries if you’re using it all day, and they’re not cheap either. This is a mower made for large lawns and will be out of place in a small suburban garden, but if you’ve got the need for it the Honda can cut a lot of grass.
Pros
- Self-propelled
- Powerful cutting action
- Large bin
Cons
- Difficult to steer
Availability
- UKRRP: £1165
Key Features
- Cutting widthThe wide cutting width of 47cm makes this lawn mower well suited to larger lawns, reducing the number of passes you need to make.
- CapacityThere’s a large 75-litre clippings basket means that this lawn mower doesn’t need to be emptied often.
Introduction
Big, red, and very heavy, the Honda HRX476XB is a cordless, self-propelled lawnmower aimed at those who mow a lot, or who have a lot to mow.
Be it one particularly large expanse of manicured grass or many gardens on a professional basis, this beast of a grass cutter will be able to cope with it if you’re prepared to put the effort in.
Design and features
- Built like a tank, and just as heavy
- Like using a petrol mower
- Battery door can be tricky to open
When you first see the HRX476XB you would be forgiven for thinking it was petrol powered, as the battery and motor compartment stick up just like the engine on a classic fuel-burning mower does. Fire it up, however, and the chug of the old Briggs and Stratton is replaced by the whirring hum of Honda’s electric powerplant. It is much quieter, but no less powerful.
Build quality is suitably solid: a steel frame and deck overlaid with plastic panels. This leads to one of the main drawbacks of the HRX476XB, its weight. While it is fine going along the ground, with optional forward propulsion to make mowing in straight lines a breeze, you’ll really feel it if you need to lift it over a step or low wall.
Carrying this lawn mower in and out of storage can be a chore, and you might need an extra person to help. Folding back the handle exposes two prongs to the rear that can be used as handles, either for two-person carrying, with the second person supporting it at the front, or to move it like a wheelbarrow.
The battery door is also a touch difficult to access, almost invisible from the top unless you know what the grey handle at the front of the machine is for. Even then, I found that pulling it didn’t always release the door easily. Once it’s open, however, the battery pack slides in and out easily.
There’s no rear roller on the HRX476XB, so you’re not going to get any stripes, but what it does have at the back is a capacious grass box you won’t have to empty too often.
Performance
- Wide cutting deck
- Self-propelled
- Mulching and height options
Nothing can stop the HRX476XB. Modern lawns aren’t just made of grass, but frequently contain sticks, clothes pegs and discarded cheap plastic toys, and I’d bet on this lawn mower every time when it came to a contest.
The 46cm cutting width meant I needed fewer trips up and down to complete my mowing, and the big grass box helps you cut down on trips to the compost heap too. Particularly useful, if you’re mowing a long stretch of grass is the self-propulsion feature, which drives the mower along at a speed you control using a dial at the top of the handle.
Naturally, if you take your hands off the controls it stops, but as long as you’re happy to follow it along it takes a lot of the strain out of moving something so heavy.
This is fine in a straight line, however, but when it comes to the end of the garden, actually turning the HRX476XB around is much less smooth. It doesn’t like to deviate from its straight-line path, whether you’ve got the propulsion switched on or not,
You get the usual height options for your cut, controlled with a button and handle at the side of the mower, and also a lever at the back that gives mulching options. You can have all the grass cuttings go into the collector, all of them be chopped up and returned to the lawn, or somewhere in between.
Battery life tops out at just over half an hour with the 6Ah battery (available as a bundle with the lawn mower and charger), though this will vary depending on what you’re cutting and how much self-propulsion you’re using. Honda claims this is enough to cut 450m² of grass, but for gardeners looking to mow all day is going to mean extra financial outlay, as batteries cost over £150 and only one comes with the mower. A larger 9Ah battery is available alongside a smaller 6Ah battery.
With the Honda fast charger, the 6Ah battery takes 55 minutes to recharge.
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Should you buy it?
You’ve got a lot of grass to cut: A powerful motor and decent cutting width makes short work of large lawns.
You need to cut around intricate corners: This is a heavy lawn mower that’s quite hard to turn.
Final Thoughts
The Honda HRX476XB stands out among mowers not just because of its rich red colour scheme, but because of its size and weight. The idea that you can replace a petrol mower with a rechargeable (and enough spare battery packs) is an attractive one.
This isn’t a mower for your average suburban garden, however. It is at home in large spaces, where its wide cut and liking for moving in straight lines can take a lot of the effort out of mowing a big lawn. If you need a large lawn mower with a little more manoeuvrability, the Husqvarna LC 347VLi may suit better, otherwise read our guide to the best lawn mowers.
How we test
We test every lawn mower we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Used as our main lawn mower for the review period
Used on a variety of grass to see how well the mower cuts
Tested to see how easy the mower is to push, turn and store
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FAQs
Yes, there’s a switch on the machine that adjusts the split between grass trimmings being returned to the ground and going into the bin.
You can use it with the 4Ah, 6Ah and 9Ah batteries.
Full specs
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We currently haven’t received answers to the questions on this product, but we will update this page the moment we do. You can see a detailed breakdown of the questions we ask and why in our sustainability info page.
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.