Makita DLM533 Battery Powered Lawn Mower: A Comprehensive Review

The Makita DLM533 is a battery powered lawn mower designed for large lawns. In this review we cover why I picked the DLM533, the factors I considered and my thoughts on whether I made the right choice.

I recently moved house. I went from living on a housing estate in a town to a village in the countryside. As a result my lawn grew. A lot. My corded Flymo simply wasn’t going to.. cut it. In fact the 10m cord wouldn’t get me half way down the garden. Not wanting to wrestle with an extension lead every week or two I needed something cordless. 

The Flymo Easyglide 330 served me well for many years. It’s simple, easy to use and if you only have a small garden it works perfectly with minimal faff. Just mind you don’t run over the power cord. 

Wind back a few years and there wasn’t much choice. For a small lawn you used a corded electric mower and for a larger lawn you used petrol. With the drive for green living, and the rise in popularity of set and forget vacuum cleaners, there has been a surge in robotic and battery powered mowers.

Spurred on by a lawn growing ever higher, I set out with the dream of a robotic mower that I could let loose, sit back and admire. This dream was quickly ruled out. I discovered most robotic lawn mowers suitable for a lawn this size (approx. 400sqm) require:

• An outdoor power socket – which I don’t have 
• An easy path onto the lawn – which I don’t have thanks to gravel boards on the edge of the lawn
• A perimeter wire around the entire lawn, branching in and around any objects like rockeries or trees. This would have been a mile long game off buzz wire with the hazards in my lawn
  • OR
• Strong GPS / mobile signal – which I don’t have given poor mobile reception and tree cover
• The first cut of the season to be completed before using the robotic mower 

Whilst technology is always evolving and a bit of effort on my part will solve some of these challenges, the biggest gotcha was that an appropriate unit was going to cost 2-3 times the price of a battery powered unit. 

Ok, so why not petrol? Simply, I didn’t want to faff around filling up a jerry can, transferring into the mower and storing the petrol. I was put off about the longer term maintenance costs and things that could go wrong. To me, battery power just seemed cleaner, easier and hey I can be a little more eco-friendly! Batteries work out cheaper to run per mow, but we’re talking pennies here, hence petrol or electricity costs per cut were not a deciding factor for me. 

At this point we’re a few weeks into the research process and my grass is another inch longer. Whilst a battery powered mower would have been an obvious choice for many given my situation, the next steps of the research process are perhaps the most important – finding the right battery powered mower for my lawn. 

It is really important to do your research. Starting at £250 for a small mower without batteries, the last thing you want to do is spend a significant chunk of money on something which doesn’t meet your needs. 

The key things that stood out for me were:

• A wide enough cutting blade that I wouldn’t be going up and down the garden in narrow lines for days 
• A big enough battery to cut the entire lawn in one go. I work full time so if I find a gap in the British weather, I want to get the lawn cut!
• Self propelled – as I live on a hill and I’m not getting any younger 
• Able to cope with a 400sqm lawn
• Ability to mulch the lawn rather than collect the cuttings 
• Variable cutting height – largely so I can tackle the jungle
• Not deafeningly loud
• A battery ecosystem that I can use for other tools, particularly garden 

Battery Ecosystems

If you want to invest in a semi-professional battery ecosystem then you’re really limited to DeWalt, Makita, Milwaukee, Ryobi or Bosch. Ryobi and Bosch are mostly limited to those looking for better bang for their buck. Having recently set fire to my Bosch battery powered drill, cueing a somewhat hasty throw out of the back door, I wasn’t convinced I wanted to make a big purchase of their battery technology. Truth be told the drill was quite old and perhaps using a 32mm spade drill bit wasn’t a fair test. With that in mind, seeing numerous complaints about the quality of Ryobi products equally put me off. 

I already owned a DeWalt multitool (DCS355D) and Jigsaw (DCS331N) so was familiar with the DeWalt quality, however the single 2Ah battery I owned was unlikely to get me far. Looking across the DeWalt range, there wasn’t an awful lot of choice, although it’s clearly an area they are expanding and one to keep an eye on. Milwaukee are similar, seemingly a well rated professional brand however limited choice when it comes to garden power tools. 

So that left Makita who already have a huge range of tools, or dropping the battery ecosystem requirement. 

I was tempted by offerings from Hyundai however Makita seemed more popular and readily available from a number of suppliers in the UK. 

The Makita line up is tricky to understand, often the product pages between model numbers only differ by a single line; aluminium deck vs steel, self-propelled vs non self-propelled. Add in the complexity of the final letters of the model number indicating whether the unit is bare or comes with batteries and you really do have to pay attention when comparing prices!

Looking through the line up, the Makita DLM533 battery powered lawn mower met my requirements. 

The 53cm cutting blade seems like the largest available for a standard push or self-propelled lawn mower. I’m somewhat sceptical any of these mowers would be suitable for the advertised lawn size, but given my neighbour has a ride on lawn mower I felt going big would be worth it.

You can put two pairs of batteries into the mower at one time. When one pair runs out of charge, simply turn the selecting dial to swap to the second set.  

It’s a self propelling variant to help on the hills and comes with a large 70 litre grass box to avoid having to stop every few minutes. Alternatively it comes with a plug to allow mulching of the grass clippings.

Cutting heights are available in 10 increments from 20mm to 100mm. This is more than enough range for the first cut of the season and for a short well manicured lawn during the summer months. The mower is advertised at 92 dB(A) with a quiet mode. 

One advantage of the DLM533 is that it takes two pairs of batteries, but only draws power from one pair at a time. When the mower runs out of power, you simply turn the dial to use the other set of batteries. If you’re worried about running out of juice you can take the first set out to charge them whilst still cutting with the second set of batteries.

Making the jump from my sub £100 Flymo to the Makita DLM533, a mower that was going to cost over £1000 once you factor in batteries, this felt like quite the investment. Looking across other manufacturers however, any comparable mower was a similar price, and the battery ecosystem here gave me many more options for other tools which I also needed. I was going to face the same problems with my corded hedge trimmer and corded strimmer! The Makita DLM533 I purchased came with two 6Ah batteries, which when coupled with the two 5Ah batteries I bought along with some other tools gave me confidence I could finish the lawn in one go. 

So did I make the right choice? I think so. Whether luck or good judgement I have a mower that’s lasted me a year now with no issues. It takes me under 90 minutes to cut the lawn including getting everything out and tidying up. The two 5Ah and two 6Ah batteries are enough to cut the entire lawn in all but the worst conditions. Only once have I been unable to finish the lawn in one go. That was when I’d left it for 3 weeks, tried to cut too much off at once, which lets face it is probably not the best for the lawn anyway, and it was rather damp – thanks British weather.

At 40+Kg the mower is heavy, particularly when taking it out of the box – many regrets turning down the delivery person’s offer to help carry it into the garage! Once unpacked and on the wheels however (minimal assembly required, just fitting the handle) you don’t really notice the weight. On the hills, particularly if a little damp and muddy underfoot the self-propelled functionality comes into it’s own. You can set the desired pace with the slider and simply engage and disengage the forward motion by pulling the grab bar. It’s simple, intuitive and completely optional if you want to conserve a bit of power on the downhills and flats. 

The mulching mode works effectively, just remove the grass box, tuck in the mulching plug and get going. Clippings are cut relatively small and they disappear pretty quickly into the lawn. 

As for the quiet mode, although the mower isn’t too loud regardless of the mode of operation. When you reach longer or damp grass the mower will automatically increase the power to ensure a good cut. This strikes a nice balance between power consumption, achieving a good quality cut and also keeping noise levels down. I don’t have to wear ear defenders, and people can easily get my attention. You can’t have a conversation with the mower on, however the beauty of battery power is it’s only a single button to start.

One of the best parts of this is that I’m now fully invested in the Makita battery ecosystem. Batteries are a significant portion of the cost, particularly for smaller devices like drills, impact drivers, strimmers and hedge trimmers. 

Makita DLM533: Final Thoughts

If you want a reliable, eco-friendly lawn mower that requires minimal effort then I can’t recommend the Makita DLM533 enough. If you’d like something smaller, the DLM series contains mowers with cutting widths of 33cm, 43cm, 46cm and 48cm. The larger variants are offered with a self propelling option (i.e. driven rear wheels) or manual push version (which will save you a few £s at the cost of a bit more effort!). 

If you are looking to purchase a Makita mower, it’s worth keeping an eye out for periodic Makita battery redemption deals. When I purchased I was able to claim two free 5Ah batteries with the combination of tools I bought, a saving of over £120.

The Makita range is viewable on the Makita UK website.