Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag Review 2022

The powerful new black & decker electric lawn mower featuring an electric motor and the ability to bag or mulch gives you the options you want and need. If your yard is small to medium and you detest the noise and hassle of a gas-powered lawn mower the The Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag may be just right to meet your needs.

The Lawn Hog Electric Lawn Mower features a large cutting deck which easily adjusts to your preferred grass height, and a special comfort grip adjustable handle. You can choose to mow when you like without the worry of disturbing neighbors and all without the mess and added cost of gas and oil.

Smelly gas tanks to refill and dirty filters and worn out spark plugs will be a thing of the past. Cushioned, adjustable hand grip reduces vibrations that can lead to fatigue and gives you the ability to adjust to the height that is comfortable for you.

Included is a convenient bag to easily gather grass clippings, which detaches easily for dumping or composting. Or keeping the bag off allows you to mulch your lawn with the trimmings, naturally fertilizing your lawn with much needed nutrients.

MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag will easily take care of your small or medium sized lawn, and will mow within a 100-foot radius of the nearest outlet.The Lawn Hog is compact for easy control, comes ready to go right out of the box and the handle folds for easy storage.

The 19-Inch Lawn Hog Electric Mower is covered by a full two-year warranty.

Amazon.com is a trusted source of online products and has some of the best prices on lawn mowers including the MM875 Lawn Hog.

Features and Specifications

Black & Decker lawn mower MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag
Corded electric lawn mower with 12 amp motor for plenty of power for mulching or bagging
Effortless to start and maintain; produces zero emissions

Cushioned grip and handle height adjustment for comfortable operation
19-inch deck size; weighs 52 pounds
2-year limited warranty; includes rear bag assembly and rear mulching insert
Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag

Reviews

Well one thing I can tell you for sure is that people were very happy with the fact that this black and decker lawn mower comes assembled with the handle flipped to the front. You just pull it back and tighten two levers and its ready to go right out of the box with no hassles cutting your grass.

The simplicity of maintaining the Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog is a huge plus which consists of keeping the mower clean and sharpening the blade occasionally and the free shipping on this model and not having to deal with lugging it is and added bonus.

One man had this to say:

“This is my second season owning this black and decker lawn mower and I was getting more and more frustrated that it didn’t cut grass as well as gas-powered mowers. But I have figured out a solution that makes this electric lawn mower cut as well as any gas-powered mower, even as well as the ‘professional’ riding mowers.

1. Sharpen your blade! Or you can buy a replacement blade. I check the sharpness before each time I mow and sharpen about once a month. Keep your blade sharp!
2. Keep the underside clean of grass. Scrape with a plastic scraper and spray with cooking oil like PAM or DW-40.
3. Buy the right kind of power cord–preferably 12 gauge OUTDOOR power cord.
4. Finally, most importantly, don’t use the mulching attachment! Instead attach a side discharge chute (part number: 242867-00).”

He said that the blade removes easily for sharpening, which is especially important if you nick a one, etc. and that a sharp blade normally will cut even thick, tall grass (up to 2 1/2 – 3 inches) very well and that a dull or heavily nicked blade will cut poorly on any machine, and particularly on electric machines, whose power is normally limited by operating on household current. He suggested sharpening the blades every 2-3 times you mow, depending on height and thickness of grass saying that thick grasses (bermuda, etc.) will dull almost any blade on one cut of a large yard.

Someone mentioned that they use aerosol bug & tar remover intended for cleaning the finish of automobiles to clean the bottom of the mower after the mowing is finished saying that the bug & tar remover and a couple of sheets of paper towel were sufficient to wipe the grass and cooking spray residue from the bottom of the mower.

The handle bars have an adjustment to accommodate taller people, although a few mentioned that they wished it adjusted to an even higher height for people over 6′. A few people said that it did not have a height adjustment but that is not correct.

Although the mower weighs over 50 pounds reviewers said it is well balanced so it doesn’t feel that heavy. Although this model is not self-propelled most people thought it was easy enough to push while others complained that it was heavy. Reviewers were pleased with the option of either mulching the clippings to fertilize the lawn, or bagging them up when they just wanted to dispose of them or use them as compost. People were happy with the way this mower mulches but stated that it will not cut evenly if you push the mower too fast and several said that the one lever wheel adjustment couldn’t be easier adjusting all four wheels with ease at the same time. And as mentioned earlier you do have the option to put on a side chute which is sold through Amazon.

One thing most everyone agreed on was that you absolutely need to use the proper 12 gauge outdoor cord, not 14 or 16, as this will allow the motor to draw more power

One man said he purchased the 14 gauge Coleman cord Amazon recommends as an accessory and quote “Unfortunately, as Black and Decker have now informed me, I’ve done serious damage to my mower because it requires a 12 gauge cord!”

There were some negative comments that need to be addressed:

Firstly if you do not use the correct gauge cord as mentioned you will not have the power you need and there is a real possibility that you will ruin your motor and B&D will not honor your warranty as mentioned in the above paragraph. Some have said they used the 14 gauge with good results but it is not recommended by B&D.

Many people said that this model as with all electric lawn mowers does have noticeably less power than that of a gas mower but that it was a good trade-off not having to deal with the noise and smelly, dirty maintenance of the gas mower also saying that being much quieter gives them the freedom to mow when they choose without disturbing neighbors with one man even saying you could have a conversation while mowing if you so choose.

It is important to realize that the Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag is not intended for use with large lawns more than 1/4 acre and the shorter the cord the more power you will obviously give to the motor. It is suggested that you can use up to 100′ 12 gauge cord with good results.

One problem that many people mentioned is that the bracket on the mower where you are to anchor the power cord requires that you bend the cord into an eye and squeeze it through an opening which is smaller than it should be. It can be done but several people complained that it was hard to do and thought it would also shorten the life of the cord being squeezed so tightly. The size of the opening works for smaller gauge power cords but not as well for 12 gauge cords which is what you need to use according to B&D’s instructions.

Another prevalent complaint that we found was that because the deck is made of plastic as with most electric lawn mowers these days, it is prone to serious damage if you run over rocks, tree roots, sprinklers etc. Besides nicking your blades (causing it not to cut evenly you may also damage your plastic deck and sometimes even the motor.

Here I would like to insert a few lines from reviewers who had serious damage from such encounters:

“as a rock strike deflected the blade into the bottom plastic of the mower and it was destroyed–chopped up. I didn’t want to pay the price for a battery power mower so got this one again and am being more careful.”

“On first use I went over some protruding tree roots and the blade hacked into the underside. So the roots must’ve caused the blade to angle up into the deck. I unplugged and used a hack saw to remove the half inch thick and about 10 inches long part of the deck that got sliced and was hanging down. The mower still worked OK so I used it 7 more times this season”

“Then I ran over a small root. Any normal mower would just sputter a little, at worse stall out. But this mower’s deck is made of plastic so when the blade hit the root the blade took a big chunk out of the deck. The plastic motor fan broke too since the metal blade is mounted to it.”

“hit an unseen piece of a concrete block and it ripped a 2″ hole in the housing on my 3rd use of this mower. My last B&D electric mower lasted 30 years until the housing rusted away. How long do you think this mower’s housing will last? Unless you’re 100% confident you’ll never run over anything except grass, I’d recommend staying away from this mower.”

“I ran over a rock that was half buried in tall grass. The rock forced the blade into the plastic under carriage, slicing a chunk of plastic loose from the bottom and binding the blade. The mower was left inoperable. Black and Decker offered to repair the problem at no charge. Their fix consisted of applying glue to the sliced plastic part so it wouldn’t hang down and catch on the blade. Not pretty, but it worked.

Today, I hit another rock. Same thing happened in a different place on the under carriage, and again, the mower is inoperable. I haven’t decided what to do yet.

Bottom line… mowers DO occasionally hit rocks. It happens, no matter how careful you are. I can accept damage to the mower blade, but destruction of the mower itself should not be so easily accomplished”.

“Flimsy. Even though the motor shaft on this mower is metal, the deck is made of plastic. I was mowing around a tree and the blade hit a small root that was sticking up out of the ground about 1 inch. This was enough force/bend the whole blade and shaft which sent the blade careening up into the mower deck. I thought the mower was going to be damaged beyond repair as the incident caused the shaft to be out of alignment. But the whole thing is so flimsy, I was able to manipulate it back into place. Plus I had to replace the part which is called the “fan.” This part goes between the deck and the blade and got busted up when the blade hit the root.”

“The problem with this mower is its badly designed motor/drive-train. After mowing for a couple of months, I ran over some hard object that caused nasty shock to the blades. The result of this was that the motor housing was dislodged and the brushes did not align properly any more with the contacts. Basically the misalignment was causing a partial short. Sparks and smoke coming out of the engine. So I took the motor apart and tried to realign the top of the housing so the brushes were aligned properly with the contacts. I discovered that it is practically impossible to get the proper alignment back. This is the first point of bad design: If you’re going to design a mower whose armature is directly connected to the blades, why the f*&# do you design it so that the motor is so sensitive to even the slightest misalignment? And then why design a system that has about 0.5 inches of free play in the top of the motor housing?

Now, in it’s second year of use, the motor of the mower has completely died. This time, one of the copper contacts on the armature broke off. As the motor conducted its final death spin, the broken contact destroyed the housing of both brushes. Motor is now useless! Second point of bad design: People, this is a MOWER, the motor should be able to take abuse, especially since as I mentioned above, the armature is connected directly to the cutting blades. How is it possible that the contacts break off? I see other one star reviewers who had the IDENTICAL problem!!”

“On the second use I hit one of the sprinkler heads. It totally trashed the motor. Knocked it out of alignment and tore up the magnets. It is now a $250 piece of junk on the lawn mower repair guy’s junk pile.”

Some people who had medium sized lawns (1000-1500 sq. feet) even with thick grass had good luck with the MM875 Hedge Hog lawn mower, stating that it did not have as much power as a good gas powered mower, but for normal frequent cutting there is no problem. If the grass gets high, then it slows down, but taking narrower cuts and maybe raising the height of the cut solves this problem as well.

Also several reviews alluded to the fact that the corded electric lawn mowers are best suited for small to medium, lawns without much obstructions such as trees, shrubs and flower beds in the middle of the lawn. For one thing the reach of the cord and also it just makes it much easier to handle the cord. Most mentioned that once they got used to the cord it was not a big problem and it was much like vacuuming a large living room.

The instruction pamphlet clearly suggests to start with your cord in a little pile and mow away from it, zig zagging away. Many reviewers said they had no cord issues at all with this method.

Some say it can be problematic in damp conditions and if you just try to bull your way through heavy wet grass you can stall it and ruin the motor.

Some said if the grass is wet or you let the grass get a little too high it is best to mow it with the setting on high, then go over it again with a lower setting otherwise it would choke out if the grass is too high and the mower is too low. Also that you need to take you time so as not to bog it down and stall the motor.

One man said this: “This happened to me and I melted the motor bushings. Luckily, they are easy to order and install, and are about $5 each (you need two), and you can do this yourself with a soldering iron or small gas torch and a screwdriver and T20 sized torque wrench (to get the cover off).”

One man hit a mound of dirt and the blades stopped but he did not let go of the lever because he thought it would just pull out of it like a gas powered motor but that is not the case with an electric motor and it kept trying until it began to smoke. He should have let go of the lever immediately and the mower would have stopped.

He flipped the mower to clear the grass and tried to start it again, but to no avail. It had flipped the breaker. The mower was still able to work (lucky). You can easily short out the motor that way. He suggested that if he had used a GFCI outlet the mower would have stopped sooner without overloading the circuit.

A few commented how that the older mowers seemed to last for years without the problems of the new mowers and that the motor is not designed to last as long today. I tend to believe that is so and not just the motor. Someone stated that the motor casing sheet metal is a bit thin as well.

“The deck is plastic and the way it’s molded gives it strength but also limits how close you can get to things.”Since the mower does not cut close to fences or other obstacles some reviewers suggested that if you want really clean edges that you also need an edger suggesting that the Edge Hog is an excellent choice. Click Here to see the Edge Hog. One man suggested that if you really want to go green go all the way and get the B&D BV2500 leaf blower and good electric trimmer as well. See Edge Hog above.

The BAG

Many reviewers were not as happy with the rear grass catching bag as they could be complaining that the opening for the clippings to shoot through was too small and easily clogged especially if the clippings were wet and it didn’t really close against the mower that well. Some complained that as the mesh bag was made of a fairly loose weave instead of plastic and let some smaller clippings and dust go through.

Some people said that they had to empty the bag too often because it would only get about 1/3 full but another reviewer gives a good tip:

Here is a good tip given by one man:

To assure the bag fills evenly:
With the bag empty – cut for about 2-3 minutes, stop the mower, take off the bag, shake the accumulated contents to the rear of the bag and put the bag back on the Lawn Hog. Now you should be able to cut until the bag reaches capacity and it will fill evenly.

Most of the reviewers were not impressed by the cheap, flimsy quality of the plastic parts of the Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag with many complaining that the padding on the handle did not wear very well sometimes cracking or tearing. Some said the handle was made of relatively cheap tube metal that does not stay tight at the folding joints with one saying that the wing nuts were always loosening while mowing.

Some thought that the on-off switch and lever was extremely poorly designed with plastic rubbing against plastic, More than a few complained of the plastic nut securing the blade although safe was sometimes hard to get off requiring a lubricant such as DW-40 or Liquid Wrench to loosen.

The plastic insulating washer under the nut that holds the blade on wears allowing the blade to slip when you try to remove the nut that holds it in place. Good idea to order a replacement insulating washer or two just in case. The part number is 241381-01 which you can get on the B&D website.

“However, when I recently tried to remove the blade, the washers broke away from the blade and spun around so the nut could not be loosened. I tried everything I could think of without success. Finally I called Black and Decker and was transferred to their local repair center. The person I talked to there said to bring it to a car garage and have them take the nut off with their air impact wrench. I took his advice and sure enough, the nut popped right off. Upon removing the blade I discovered the culprit was the plastic blade insulating washer. As it wears out it allows the blade to slip when you try to remove the nut that holds it in place. Horrible design by B&D. The best thing to do is order a replacement insulating washer-the part number is 241381-01. Overall nice mower, but poor blade fastener design.”

One man said he was mowing with the (MM850) for 11 years without anything happening to the plastic.

Here is a very good tip from him:

Quote: “You are right that if the small plastic ridges which wrap around the blade and the metal “spacer” break off there will not be much holding the blade in place. It shouldn’t break unless you hit something, in which case the slipping plastic limits damage to the motor and shaft. I take the blade off about every 5 days when I do the lawn to touch up the sharpness and the mounting still is OK on mine. I only hit something (a large rock) hard enough to stop the motor once. It knocked the motor mounting snap ring loose, which made the motor flop around noisily, but the plastic thing just slipped without breaking. Lucky.

I think what might be happening to some people is the nut gets loose, allowing the blade to slip over the plastic. Leaving it go until the ridges wear off the plastic which makes it is about useless. Since I take my blade off so often, I am also tightening the nut regularly.”

Here’s a good tip from yet another smart reviewer:

Clean it externally each time after mowing, however, one should make a note to take the black hood off of the top every now and then to clean the grass out.

Quote “One day I noticed it didn’t sound as strong – sounded more like a hum, and next thing you know it wouldn’t start. I took the black hood off and sure enough there was A LOT of grass under the hood. I turned it over, dumped it all out, rinsed it out, blew it dry with a blow dryer and waited approx. 1 hour to let it dry further. Sure enough, it powered up just as strong as it did on day one.”

In summary even considering the negative comments we need to remember the Black & Decker MM875 Lawn Hog 19-Inch 12 amp Electric Mulching Mower with Rear Bag is designed to perform well on small-medium lawns that are fairly flat without too many obstacles such as trees, tree roots, uneven terrain, rocks etc. It is not designed to be used with rough, uneven, large or hilly lots. Most of the reviewers even the negative ones agreed that under these conditions this model would work well.