Bosch CityMower 18V-32-300 Review: 32cm, 31 Litres, 300 Square Metres
Bosch will tell you this mower does a 300 m² lawn. It will not tell you how many minutes that takes, and the people who have actually pushed one around give four different answers — 15, 20, 25 and 30. That gap, plus a 32 cm deck and a 30 mm minimum cut, is the whole buying decision.
Where the reviews line up
There is no Which? verdict and no national consumer-title test of this exact model that we could read. The evidence comes from three places: a hands-on test at DIY Garden carried out by a working landscape gardener, a specialist single-subject blog at EasyLawnMowing written by Mark Haley, and buyer ratings pulled together from Power Tool World and GrassTrimmerReviews. They are not equally strong, and we have said so under each one.
All three land in the same place on the machine's character. It is unusually easy to push. DIY Garden's tester calls it possibly the most comfortable mower he has used and scores manoeuvrability 5/5; EasyLawnMowing describes it gliding around the lawn. At 9.4 kg with a carry handle, it is a mower you can lift down a step or hang on a garage wall, which is most of the point of it.
It cuts a maintained lawn well and an overgrown one badly. That is the consistent line. On short, regularly mown grass everyone reports a clean finish, helped by the grass combs that pull the edge into the blade. On long or wet growth the 32 cm deck and 18 V motor struggle — DIY Garden's word, not ours.
The 30 mm minimum cutting height is the most under-reported limitation. Three settings between 30 and 60 mm means you cannot scalp, which is fine, but DIY Garden found it left flower heads standing. If you like a short lawn, this is the wrong mower.
The battery is the argument. Bosch publishes an area — up to 300 m² — and no minutes at all. DIY Garden measured roughly 20 to 25 minutes on the supplied 4.0 Ah pack including grass-box emptying, and called it the shortest run time of the cordless mowers it tested. EasyLawnMowing quotes 15 minutes for 300 m². GrassTrimmerReviews says 20 to 30. Nobody is lying; they are mowing different grass. Assume 20 minutes of real cutting and buy a second battery if your lawn is near the top of the range.
On price, ignore the RRP. Just Lawnmowers lists an RRP of £329 and flags the model as discontinued; on the same day the kit was £139.95 at Power Tool World and the bare tool £209.99 at Screwfix. The spread is the story.
The three reviews this summary is built from
- DIY GardenHands-on test by Derek Smith, a landscape gardener of 22 years, on two lawn types. Scored 4/5. The only measured run time we found.
- EasyLawnMowingSpecialist blog, Mark Haley. 84/100. Useful on the grass box and handling; some of its figures match the older CityMower 18.
- Power Tool World & GrassTrimmerReviews3.8/5 from 6 reviews on this exact kit; 88% satisfaction from 600-plus reviews across the wider CityMower 18 family.
Before the review: which CityMower are you being sold?
Bosch has used the CityMower name across several machines and the listings blur together. The 18V-32-300 is the 32 cm brushless model. It sells under at least three part numbers: 06008B9A77 and 06008B9A07 are kits with one 4.0 Ah battery and a charger; 06008B9A08 is the bare tool with neither. Screwfix's £209.99 listing is the bare one. Some retailers also list it as CityMower 18-32 P4A, and the older CityMower 18 and CityMower 18-300 are different, earlier machines whose reviews and buyer ratings get folded in with this one. Check the part number, not the name.
Specification at a glance
| Spec | Figure | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting width | 32 cm | Bosch DIY GB; every retailer agrees |
| Cutting height | 30–60 mm, 3 settings, central adjustment | Bosch DIY GB, Screwfix, Power Tool World. An Amazon Australia listing title claims 20–60 mm — we have used Bosch's UK figure |
| Grass box | 31 litres, rigid box (not a cloth bag) | Bosch DIY GB; EasyLawnMowing rates the rigid construction for durability |
| Battery in the box | 1 × 18 V 4.0 Ah, Power for All, plus charger (part 06008B9A77). Bare tool 06008B9A08 has neither | Bosch DIY GB and Power Tool World; Screwfix lists the bare version |
| Run time | No figure from Bosch — it publishes area only. Measured: 20–25 min (DIY Garden, 4.0 Ah, including emptying); 15 min for 300 m² (EasyLawnMowing); 20–30 min (GrassTrimmerReviews) | Three published figures, three publishers, all named |
| Charge time | 1.6 hours (Bosch) · 95–96 minutes (Power Tool World, Gardencentre) · 240 min full / 120 min to 80% (Just Lawnmowers) | Depends which charger ships; Power Tool World specifies an AL 18V-44 |
| Weight | 9.4 kg (Bosch DIY GB, Tooled-Up, Gardencentre; Screwfix states 9.4 kg without battery) · 9.9 kg (Just Lawnmowers, EasyLawnMowing) | Nobody states clearly whether the 9.4 kg includes the 4.0 Ah pack. Treat 9.4 as bare |
| Noise | 69 dB(A) sound pressure and 89 dB(A) sound power (Power Tool World) · 74 dB(A), type unstated (Screwfix) | Two retailers, two numbers. Bosch's GB page did not publish either where we could read it |
| Recommended lawn size | Up to 300 m² | Bosch DIY GB — a recommendation, not a per-charge promise |
| Dimensions | 1210 × 360 × 1030 mm (L × W × H) | Bosch DIY GB, repeated by Tooled-Up |
| Warranty | 2 years standard; 3 years on registration with MyBosch. Battery 1 year | Bosch says register within 4 weeks; Screwfix's listing says 30 days. Register in the first week and the conflict cannot bite you |
| RRP | £329.00 (Just Lawnmowers, which also flags the model discontinued). Bosch's own GB page showed £240.12 | Checked 18 September 2026 |
| Live UK prices | £139.95 kit at Power Tool World · £209.99 bare tool at Screwfix · £199.99 at Tooled-Up · £249.93 at Gardencentre (out of stock) · £269.00 at Just Lawnmowers | All checked 18 September 2026. Amazon excluded by our own rule |
DIY Garden
This is the strongest evidence on the page and the only genuinely hands-on test of the 18V-32-300 we could find in English. Smith ran it over two deliberately different surfaces on his own farm: an overgrown, uneven patch of long grass, and a flatter area of thick clover. That is a better test protocol than most product blogs manage, and it produced the one number Bosch will not give you — roughly 20 to 25 minutes of use from the supplied 4.0 Ah battery, including the time spent emptying the box.
His verdict splits cleanly. On the positive side he describes it as light, easy to use and possibly the most comfortable mower he has tested, credits the ErgoFlex handles with reducing strain, and rates the dead man's switch and safety arrangement highly. On short, maintained grass he reports a clean finish. On the other side, he says plainly that it struggled with the long overgrown section, that it has the shortest run time of the cordless mowers in his comparison, the smallest box at 31 litres and the narrowest deck at 32 cm, and that the 30 mm minimum height left flower heads standing. He also thinks it is priced a little high for what it does — a judgement made before the discounting we found this week.
What he does not measure: noise in dB, cut height accuracy, or battery degradation over a season. It is one tester on one farm, not a laboratory.
Watch: BOSCH CITYMOWER 18V-32-300 Review 2025 | Compact Cordless Power!
A review of this exact model. We confirmed the video exists and its title from two separately worded searches, but could not read the uploader's name — see the caveat box below.
Watch on YouTube ↗EasyLawnMowing
A specialist site that does nothing but lawnmowers, which is worth something — Haley knows what a grass box is for. His most useful observation is about that box: at 31 litres it is small, but it is a rigid moulded box rather than a cloth bag, and he argues that will outlast the fabric collectors on rivals. Anyone who has replaced a split cloth bag after three seasons will know what he means. He is equally clear on the grass combs, which lift the blades at the lawn edge into the cutter's path and are the reason this mower trims closer to a wall than its deck width suggests.
He quotes a typical mowing time of 15 minutes for a 300 m² lawn on the 4.0 Ah battery and a recharge of about an hour and a half, and describes the machine as lightweight and beautifully easy to handle. That matches DIY Garden on feel and undercuts it on time.
Two reasons to weight this source below the first. He gives the weight as 9.9 kg, which is the figure carried by older CityMower 18 listings rather than Bosch's current 9.4 kg for the 18V-32-300, and his headline refers to the CityMower 18V-32 generally. Some of what you are reading may describe the previous machine. And the reader engagement is thin: one comment, from someone asking how it copes with wet grass. Nobody answered them, and neither can we.
Watch: Bosch CityMower 18V-32-300 Test ► Inkl. Erfahrungsbericht nach 1 Jahr Nutzung! | Wunschgetreu
German, and the only clip we found from an owner reporting back after a full year of use — the time frame no written review on this page covers.
Watch on YouTube ↗Power Tool World and GrassTrimmerReviews
Read both numbers with their sample sizes attached, because on their own they mislead in opposite directions. Six reviews is not a sample. Power Tool World's 3.8/5 is the only rating we found attached to this precise part number, and six people cannot tell you anything statistically — but it is notably cooler than the glow around Bosch garden kit generally, and worth knowing before you read the second figure.
The 600-plus figure is not this machine. Enda McLarnon at GrassTrimmerReviews aggregates buyer feedback across CityMower 18 listings and reports 88% satisfaction, 69% full five stars and only 4% poor ratings, with a reported run time of 20 to 30 minutes and a recharge of roughly 1.5 hours. That is a healthy distribution from a real volume of owners, but it spans the earlier CityMower 18 as well as this one, and his price at the time of writing — £285.87 — is nowhere near what the machine sells for now.
The complaints that do surface are consistent with the editorial test rather than contradicting it: buyers praise the cutting power on normal grass, and the only recurring grumble is that the mower was not big enough for their lawn. That is a 32 cm deck and a 300 m² recommendation doing exactly what they say on the box, bought by people who needed a bigger machine.
Watch: Bosch Green 18v CityMower 18V-32-300 Cordless Lawn Mower
Retailer-produced, so promotional in tone, but it is the clearest look at the kit contents — mower, 4.0 Ah pack, charger and the 31-litre box — from the shop showing the 3.8/5 rating above.
Watch on YouTube ↗Strengths and weak points
What holds up
- Comfort and manoeuvrability: 5/5 from a landscape gardener who does this for a living.
- 9.4 kg with an integrated carry handle — liftable, storable upright, genuinely a small-garden machine.
- Rigid 31-litre grass box rather than a cloth bag, which should outlast the fabric collectors it competes with.
- Grass combs cut closer to walls and borders than a 32 cm deck implies.
- Brushless motor, and the battery fits the wider 18 V Power for All Alliance, so a second pack earns its keep elsewhere.
- Three years of cover if you register with MyBosch — a genuinely useful upgrade on the standard two.
What people complain about
- Run time. The best measured figure is 20–25 minutes, and it is the shortest in DIY Garden's cordless comparison.
- Long or overgrown grass defeats it — the tester's own word was "struggled".
- Minimum cut of 30 mm with only three settings. No short lawns, and flower heads survive.
- 31 litres is a small box, so on a full 300 m² you will be emptying it repeatedly.
- Nobody publishes a battery-included weight, and two credible figures circulate (9.4 kg and 9.9 kg).
- Two different noise figures from two retailers, and no independent measurement at all.
- At least one retailer lists it as discontinued, which matters for spare parts as much as for price.
Who it actually suits
Buy it if your lawn is a town garden — say 100 to 200 m² — you mow it most weeks so the grass never gets away from you, you keep it at 30 mm or above anyway, and storage space matters more to you than deck width. If you already own Bosch or Power for All Alliance 18 V batteries, the bare tool at £209.99 changes the maths again. At the discounted kit prices we found this week it is very hard to argue with.
Look elsewhere if your lawn is at or above the 300 m² Bosch recommends, if it regularly goes three weeks between cuts, if you want a striped finish or a cut below 30 mm, or if you are not willing to buy a second battery. A 34 to 37 cm deck on a bigger platform will cost more and weigh more, and it will finish the job in one go.
What we could not check
- The videos were confirmed by search listing, not by opening them. YouTube would not load for us, so we verified each video the way our rules allow: the exact watch URL and its title had to appear in two differently worded searches. All three did. We have not watched them, and for the first one no search listing showed the uploader's name, so we cannot tell you whose channel it is.
- Battery-included weight. Bosch, Tooled-Up and Gardencentre all say 9.4 kg; Screwfix says 9.4 kg without the battery; Just Lawnmowers and EasyLawnMowing say 9.9 kg. Nobody states the battery-fitted figure outright, so add roughly 0.6 kg for a 4.0 Ah pack if it matters to you.
- Noise. 69 dB(A) pressure and 89 dB(A) power at one retailer, 74 dB(A) at another with no type given. Neither is an independent measurement and we could not read Bosch's own declared figures.
- Argos and B&Q prices and ratings. Both list the machine — Argos as product 751/7046 — but both pages are rendered in a way we could not read, so we cannot date a price or a review count from either. Amazon prices are excluded by our own rule for this page.
- A rating with a real sample size for this exact part number. Six reviews at one retailer is all that exists. The 600-plus figure covers the wider CityMower 18 family.
- Independent consumer-title testing. Which? has a page for the older Bosch City Mower 18, but we could not read a tested verdict for the 18V-32-300 and found no Expert Reviews, TechRadar or Trusted Reviews test of this model. Nothing here should be read as expert-lab backing, because none exists.
- Wet grass. Asked by a reader on EasyLawnMowing, unanswered there and unanswered everywhere else we looked.
- Whether it is genuinely discontinued. One retailer says so; Bosch's own GB page was still live with a price on the day we checked.
- The 20–60 mm cutting height claim in an Amazon Australia listing title. Every UK source says 30–60 mm and we have used that.
Sources and prices last checked 18 September 2026. Cordless mower prices move sharply in and out of season — check the listing in front of you, and check the part number while you are there.