Recommend tme a lawn mower

neas

Hi all,

Have just moved into my new home and dont have a lawn mower/ strimmer. I have a decent sized garden to mow (nothing huge etc). I've been dealing with the overgrown things at the moment but am going to move onto mowing the lawn and front lawn bit...,

thing is im a fish out of water on this one, i havent the foggiest whats the best mower to get at all.

I dont want to spend a bomb on the thing. I have a few questions:

1. Are petrol mowers better? For a small area? I have an outside electrical point so an electric mower wont be a problem i think
2. If electric are ok, which one is pretty decent?
3. Will they last a while?


I've heard all sorts of stories of people getting cheap flymo modfels and the blades getting blunt after a year or so. e

So anyone got any tips for a reliable but moneysaving lawnmower?

~~Diane~~

I bought a new one this week, Qualcast Panther 30, it's a manual mower, lightweight but very good. I've 2 13ft x 23ft lawns, so not very big lawns, and I cut them yesterday in no time at all. I did have a hover mower and compared to that this new one is 100 time better.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Qualcast-Panther-Sidewheel-Cylinder-Mower/dp/B00027YJAI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=garden&qid=1282040431&sr=8-1

I got mine from Amazon because I had vouchers but Argos has it on offer also.

janibrown

I was told never to buy an orange lawnmower (flymo) as they always break and do nothing for your lawn always go for a green one I have one from b&q electric dont know the make but it has a roller and a grass collecter and also 12 hight settings its great and really easy to use think it cost around £70 but that was 4 years ago and was looking at them the other day and they seem to have gone down in price I love my mower and it gives my lawn very nice stripes because of the roller, if fact we origianally got a flymo with a gras collecter on it but it ruined the lawn so took it back to b&q and swapped it for the one we have now hope this helps
Jani xxxx

Davesnave

Funny how Flymos always break and ruin lawns, yet they have been going donkey's years!

I bought mine secondhand for £50 twenty years ago and it is still going strong. No, it won't make lovely stripes, but it handles anything I throw at it lawn-wise, and for people who detest going in straight lines up & down, it allows for a more creative, free form approach!

No, I don't know which lawnmower will suit you, but a petrol one will need a service every year or two, so don't forget to factor that in, at £25+ a throw.

morg_monster

how big's the garden?

Personally I would see if there are any local bargains on ebay for a working electric lawnmower in good order, and see if you can get it for ~£10. Yes it might be a flymo or something but at least it will see you through the rest of the summer (you'll only be mowing for another couple of months probably), and then if you want something better or a petrol mower for next year, you'll have time to do some proper research (or, you'll get a mower you like and have saved a packet). Not sure where in the country you are, but with the amount of rain we are having at the moment our grass is growing at an alarming rate!

we found loads and loads of local 2nd hand mowers on ebay and in the end got a qualcast hover type mower with plastic blades for £8. our back garden is about 25m long (although some of that is patio and its not very wide), and we have paved paths surrounding all the grass so its a bonus to be able to push the mower right over the edges without causing any damage. For us the plastic blades are absolutely fine (but we never let the grass get too high - although if your grass is really long you might struggle with any mower and need a strimmer first). Another bonus is that it is very light and maneuvrable so its just as easy for me (5'3" weakling) to mow as my DH, and it only takes 10 mins to do the whole lawn. People say the plastic blades don't last long; well maybe so (although we've only gone through 2 blades this summer) but I bought a bag of 25 blades for £1 from wilkos so I don't really care that much!

mrbadexample

Hayter Envoy. Good quality, will cope with just about anything you throw at it (long grass, rough ground etc.)

At about £190 new, this looks like an absolute steal.

janibrown

Davesnave wrote: »

Funny how Flymos always break and ruin lawns, yet they have been going donkey's years!

I bought mine secondhand for £50 twenty years ago and it is still going strong. No, it won't make lovely stripes, but it handles anything I throw at it lawn-wise, and for people who detest going in straight lines up & down, it allows for a more creative, free form approach!

No, I don't know which lawnmower will suit you, but a petrol one will need a service every year or two, so don't forget to factor that in, at £25+ a throw.

Unless you have a very kind Dad who will service it 4 you lol :rotfl:

lindos90

We have had a petrol lawn mower for a few years and have found it much better than our previous electric one (Although I can never pull the cord hard/quick enough to get the motor going!).

However we have now moved and have a much smaller lawn that has an odd shape to it (lawn edges go up to curvy walls etc) and the petrol one is just too long and combersome to do this, we really need something thats much more manoverable.

My husband is thinking of a hover mower, but from the research ive done im reluctant for the following reasons

-their very nature of hovering means they have a 'downdraft' which flattens some of the grass, so cutting is not even, and has to be done over and over to try and get all the grass cut.

-as the grass box fills it gets heavier, so you start cutting at one hover level, and by the time the grass box is full, its hovering closer to the ground, and therefore cutting shorter.

There are a few hover models, the one with a handle that looks like a vacume handle is aparently the worsed for manovering!

I quite like the idea of a manual one, with a good grass collection, but as its my OH that usually does it, I'll probably nor get much of a say in the end!

Any suggestions welcome!

fishpond

"Any suggestions welcome!"

Sheep (a very old type of lawnmower thats been around for years and is easy to start);)

datostar

I had a Flymo petrol wheeled rotary mower with an orange plastic deck. I noticed severe vibration one day and saw that the engine was actually moving on the deck. Inspection revealed that it had torn itself away - the securing bolts had pulled through the plastic and only gravity was holding it on. I had visions of an airborne Briggs & Stratton with a big metal blade! Dumped it and replaced it with a Homelite (Mountfield) HL454SP self-propelled job. After just over a year, today one rear wheel lost its drive, then jammed. Took the wheel off (securing bolt immediately broke off at the touch of a socket wrench) and found a pathetic plastic planetary gear inside the wheel had disintegrated, damaging other bits and pieces and jamming it. Can't get the wheel back on even without the gears because of the snapped bolt shank still in the axle. Will cost me for repairs now. Checking consumer reviews revealed that a big £350 McCulloch from Homebase did a similar thing after only a month, stripping the plastic gear rather than breaking it into pieces. El cheapo rubbish bought in and given the badge of formerly reputable manufacturers. Unless you're willing to pay a lot for something like a Hayter, you may as well buy the cheapest electric one you can find and throw it away when it breaks.

SailorSam

I switched to a flymo 2 yrs ago and thought it was rubbish, now that it'd died i got a Spear & Jackson rotary last week from Argos for £75, it had good reviews and although i've only used it once i'm much happier than i ever was with the Flymo. It's easier to use and gives a better cut