If you have stood in a garden centre looking at a row of Mountfield mowers wondering why one costs £185 and another nearly twice that, the short answer is power source, propulsion, and lawn size. Mountfield has built its name on dependable mid-priced machines, and the range splits neatly into mains-electric mowers for small gardens, hand-pushed petrol mowers for medium lawns, and self-propelled petrol mowers for larger plots or anyone who would rather the machine pulled itself along. Pick the wrong one and you either overpay for power you never use or buy a mower that leaves you exhausted halfway across the lawn. Here is how the main models line up and which garden each one actually suits.
The Electric Princess Range for Small Lawns
The Princess 34 and Princess 38 are mains-powered electric mowers built for small to medium gardens, and they are where most people with a modest lawn should start. The Princess 38 runs a 1600W motor with a 38cm (15 inch) cutting width, a 40-litre grass box, and a 15-metre power cable, and it sells for around £185/$235. The smaller Princess 34 takes the cut down to 34cm (about 13 inches) for tighter spaces and costs a little less. Both carry a rear roller, which is the feature that earns them their place: the roller flattens the grass behind the cut to lay down the light and dark stripes most people associate with a cared-for lawn, something cheaper wheeled electric mowers cannot do.
The honest limit of the Princess range is the cable. A mains mower is quiet, light, starts with a button, and needs almost no maintenance, but you are tethered to a socket and you have to mow in a pattern that keeps the lead behind you and away from the blade. For a lawn up to roughly 200 to 300 square metres that is no hardship. Beyond that the cable becomes a genuine nuisance, and the case for petrol or cordless battery grows. If your lawn is small, flat, and close to the house, the Princess 38 will give you a striped finish for under £200 and outlast a bargain-bin mower by years.
The HP and SP Petrol Mowers for Medium and Large Lawns
Once a lawn passes the point where a cable is practical, Mountfield’s petrol mowers take over, and the key letters to understand are HP and SP. HP stands for hand-propelled: you push the mower yourself, and the engine only drives the blade. SP stands for self-propelled: the engine also drives the wheels, so the machine pulls itself forward at walking pace and you simply steer. The HP45 is the workhorse hand-pushed model, fitted with a 123cc OHV engine, a 45cm (about 18 inch) steel cutting deck, and a 60-litre collector, and it handles lawns up to around 600 square metres. It costs from about £264/$335. Because you provide the forward effort, it is lighter on the wallet and has one less drive system to maintain, but on a large or sloping lawn the pushing adds up.
The SP46 is the self-propelled step up, with a 139cc STIGA engine, a 46cm (about 18 inch) cut, six cutting heights, and the same 60-litre canvas bag, priced from around £300 to £312/$380 to $395 depending on retailer. The self-propelled drive is the reason to choose it: on anything larger than a few hundred square metres, or on any noticeable slope, having the mower pull itself turns a chore into a walk. There is also an SP46 Elite that adds a higher-specification engine and build for buyers who want more durability for frequent use. The rule of thumb is simple. Choose HP if your lawn is medium-sized and flat and you do not mind pushing; choose SP if the lawn is large, sloped, or you simply want an easier job.
Petrol brings power and freedom from cables, but it brings maintenance too, and this is where buyers often underestimate the long-term commitment. A petrol mower needs fresh fuel each season, an annual oil change using the grade in the handbook (typically SAE 30 for these small four-stroke engines), a clean or replaced air filter, and a spark plug check. Skip the oil and you will eventually seize the engine; leave stale fuel in the tank over winter and you will spend a frustrating spring trying to coax it into life. Budget both the money and the half-hour of servicing a couple of times a year, or the running cost advantage over electric disappears.
Matching the Mower to Your Garden
The single most useful thing you can do before buying is measure your lawn in square metres and be honest about its shape. For a small, flat lawn within reach of a socket, the Princess 38 at around £185/$235 gives you a striped, low-maintenance, quiet cut for the lowest price. For a medium lawn of up to 600 square metres where you do not mind the exercise, the hand-pushed HP45 at around £264/$335 is the value choice. For a large lawn, a sloped lawn, or anyone who finds pushing hard work, the self-propelled SP46 from around £300/$380 earns its extra cost on every cut. Cutting width is the other number that controls how long mowing takes: a 46cm deck clears a given lawn noticeably faster than a 34cm deck because each pass covers more ground, so on a big lawn the wider machine saves real time week after week.
Two practical points often get overlooked. First, storage and weight: petrol mowers are heavier and need ventilated, dry storage away from living space because of the fuel, while the Princess folds down small and can live in a cupboard. Second, the rear roller. If a striped finish appeals to you, check the model has a rear roller before buying, because the wheeled budget mowers in the same price bracket will not stripe. Across the range the reason to choose Mountfield over a supermarket own-brand is build: steel decks, recognised STIGA and Briggs-style engines, and spare parts you can still buy in five years, which is what keeps a mower out of landfill and earns back its price over a decade of use.
Where Mountfield Sits Against Rival Brands
Mountfield occupies the middle ground, and that is its strength. It is dearer than the cheapest mains mowers from value brands but built to last far longer, and it is more affordable than premium petrol names while using similar quality engines. The one gap worth knowing about is cordless battery. The Mountfield petrol line competes on power and run time, but if you want the quiet, push-button, no-fuel convenience of electric without a cable holding you back, a cordless battery mower from a brand built around lithium-ion may suit you better. For most buyers, though, the choice comes down to the three questions that have run through this guide: how big is the lawn, is it flat or sloped, and do you want to avoid petrol maintenance. Answer those plainly and the right Mountfield picks itself. For a wider view of the petrol-versus-battery decision, see our guides comparing battery and petrol mowers and choosing a mower for a small lawn.
