2023 test7 productsBlades, Bits & Abrasives
Which Lawn Mower Blade Brand Wins?
We compared 7 lawn mower blade options head to head. Oregon G5 Mulching came out on top. See the measured results, the runner-up, the budget pick, and a link to the full test video.
Winner
Oregon G5 Mulching
Price shown in test: $22
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Budget pick
Oregon (High Lift)
Price shown in test: $22
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Claims | Specs | Air Speed Test | Bagging Test | Leaf Test | Side Discharge Test | MulchingTest (bag/chute removed) | Rebar Test |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Oregon G5 Mulching$22 | claims tungsten carbide is fused into the blade, creating an ultra hard layer at the cutting edge and increasing time between sharpenings; made in USA | 8 in sharpened edge, the most of any blade tested; two cutting elevations; effective cutting angle close to 30 degrees; by far the heaviest blade at 1104 grams | 30.6 mph, almost as good as the high lift blades; 102.7 decibels, the loudest yet at that point in the lineup | packed 12.8 lb into the collection bag, the most yet; made a clean cut and did a great job reducing the size of the grass clippings | made by far the most dust and did by far the best job yet of lifting and mulching leaves, pulverizing about 95 percent of the leaves with very little unfinished business; final rating of 1, the best score | hit a pretty thick patch of grass and did a great job dispersing the clippings, also did a great job mulching them | the Craftsman engine did not make enough torque to handle this blade, but the blade itself did by far the best job yet of mulching the clippings | the heaviest blade, carries a lot of momentum, but held up very well with just a small chip to the blade edge; part of the top group rated as holding up very well |
| 2Maxpower Mulching$25 | claims greater cutting surface for increased mulching performance and a centrifugal airlift design for uniform chopping distribution; made in USA | 7.5 in sharpened edge; effective cutting angle 31 degrees; weighs 930 grams | 22.46 mph, the slowest yet at that point; 103.6 decibels, the loudest yet at that point | covered a lot more ground than the high lift blades before the bag plugged, did a great job mulching before tossing clippings in, made a very clean cut; finished second behind Oregon G5 at 12.6 lb, just two tenths of a pound less | stirred up quite a bit of dust, doing a terrific job but not quite as well as the Oregon G5, with 80 to 90 percent of leaves thoroughly mulched | clippings collected around six to six and a half feet from the discharge chute; did a great job mulching the clippings, though narrator notes it has less throw capability than the Oregon G5 | Craftsman engine held RPM just fine with this blade, though it did not mulch the clippings quite as nicely as the Oregon G5 | barely slowed the Briggs and Stratton engine down; narrator hit the rebar a second time after finding little damage; ended up with the least amount of damage of all the blades tested and the highest possible durability rating of 1 |
| 3Maxpower 3-N-1$20 | can be used to bag, discharge, and mulch grass clippings; made in USA | two cutting levels, 6 in sharpened edge, second level about 11/16 in above the first; effective cutting angle 40 degrees; weighs 886 grams | 31.8 mph, about 6 mph faster than the Oregon high lift blade; 101.5 decibels | moved into the lead at 11.4 lb, about 2 lb more than the Oregon blade; made a great clean cut and did a little better job mulching clippings than the Craftsman OEM and Oregon blades, though most clippings were not fully mulched | performed very well lifting and mulching leaves, seemed to perform just as well as the Oregon high lift blade | performed very well, a lot of clippings thrown beyond the length of the 8 ft test board, mostly full length with very few remnants | Craftsman engine had plenty of power to maintain a pretty good RPM with this blade, made a great clean cut, though there was quite a bit of unfinished mulching business, same as the Oregon high lift blade | engine came to a sudden stop and caused a lot of damage to the rebar; the blade ended up with bends in it (unintentionally letting it mulch), and was bent pretty badly with the most blade edge damage seen up to that point in the sequence |
| 48TEN High Lift$22 | claims to be the best option for bagging or throwing grass clippings a long distance and performs well in thick grass, but requires more horsepower for optimal performance | 4 in sharpened edge; effective cutting angle close to 28 degrees; the lightest blade tested at 662 grams | 27.3 mph, moved into second place behind the Max Power 3-N-1 at that point; 102.4 decibels | 8.4 lb, moved into third place behind the Oregon and Max Power blades; grass was mostly intact without being mulched and did not cut as cleanly as some other brands; the Craftsman engine worked a little harder to keep this blade spinning at peak RPM | not much dust generated; did not do a very good job lifting and mulching leaves, leaving behind quite a bit of unfinished business | may have hit a thicker portion of grass than some other brands and did not do a good job dispersing clippings compared to the max power blades; clippings mostly full length | Craftsman engine had plenty of power to maintain good blade speed; performed about the same as the Craftsman OEM blade and the Max Power blades at mulching | engine came to a sudden stop and the Briggs and Stratton air filter blew off; the blade itself experienced the least amount of damage seen up to that point, just a small dent, and survived without bending; part of the closing top group rated as holding up very well |
| 58TEN Mulching$30 | claims to be the best option for clearing thick mowing conditions; precision sharpened, hand balanced, hardened and tempered | about 3.75 in sharpened edge; effective cutting angle close to 30 degrees; weighs 780 grams; made in China | just over 20 mph, the slowest yet at that point; 104.4 decibels, the loudest yet at that point | 8.8 lb, about the same as the 8TEN High Lift blade; narrator says grass seemed to have been ripped away from the plant rather than cut, and 3.75 in of sharpened edge did not seem adequate; the Craftsman engine worked noticeably harder with this blade than other brands | stirred up quite a bit of dust and pulverized the leaves; outperformed all other blades except the Oregon G5, with around 90 percent of leaves thoroughly mulched; narrator calls this leaf-test result too close to call against the Arnold Extreme, describing it as a tie between the two; final leaf-test rating of 1.5, tied with Arnold Extreme for second behind the Oregon G5's rating of 1 | performed about the same as the Max Power mulching blade, tossing clippings around six to six and a half feet, though the max power blade did a better job mulching | the Craftsman engine really struggled and finally stalled with this blade; performance was not quite as good as the Oregon G5 at mulching the grass | engine came to a sudden stop; narrator notes the new 8TEN blades are the dullest in the lineup, and that dullness helps the blade head survive an impact |
| 6Arnold Extreme$32 | produces high turbulence allowing grass to be repeatedly cut and re-cut into smaller pieces; claims to let you bag up to 50 percent more grass; made in USA | 4 in sharpened edge; effective cutting angle close to 30 degrees; weighs 780 grams | 20.6 mph, about the same as the 8TEN mulching blade; 104.2 decibels, about as loud as the 8TEN mulching blade | not explicitly numbered in the transcript for this specific pass; leaf and discharge results below cover this blade's performance | covered about the same territory as the 8TEN mulching blade, sharper edge (4 in) than the 8TEN mulching blade's 3.75 in and a cleaner cut than it, but not as clean as some other brands; did a terrific job lifting and mulching leaves overall, rated 1.5, tied with the 8TEN mulching blade for second behind the Oregon G5 | performed about the same as the max power and 8TEN blades at both dispersing and mulching clippings | Craftsman engine struggled to maintain RPM and finally stalled; did not mulch the grass clippings quite as well as the Oregon G5 mulching blade, and the cut was not as clean as some other brands | engine did not slow down too much on impact, but the blade itself experienced a very small bend and quite a bit of edge damage |
| 7Craftsman OEM stock blade (Craftsman M220 self-propelled mower) | not tested | brand new, never used; two cutting levels; 6 in sharpened edge; effective cutting angle close to 37 degrees; weighs 696 grams | 31.6 mph; 102.2 decibels | 6.8 lb; made a very good clean cut but did not mulch the grass, and the bag became plugged | not nearly as much dust as other blades; did a decent job lifting and mulching leaves at 60 to 70 percent mulched, but took two to three passes to do so | threw out full length grass, most collecting around five to five and a half feet from the discharge chute | Craftsman engine has plenty of horsepower for its own OEM blade; made a nice clean cut and did a decent job mulching, though some unfinished business remained | engine came to a sudden stop; a large chunk of the blade edge was missing and the blade experienced a pretty bad bend |
How it was tested
- air speed generated by the blade (mph), measured with an air speed meter, plus noise level (dB) 24 inches behind the mower
- weight of grass clippings packed into the bagging collection bag after a set mowing pass (lb)
- leaf lifting and mulching performance on packed leaves, rated by dust generation and percent of leaves mulched
- side discharge dispersal test: distance and completeness of grass clipping throw
- mulching performance with the bag and discharge chute removed, including engine RPM and torque strain on the Craftsman mower
- durability test: blade and engine response to striking a piece of rebar, with some blades struck a second time
“so which blade is the best a lot of Assessments were subjective however the organ G5 mulching blade came out on top with the best average finish of 1.6”