Spec me a....... Lawnmower?

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

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Joined
31 May 2005
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Nottingham
Am thinking of going Petrol for the following reasons:

Im fed up with cables
I Like the idea of a self propelled mower
I believe petrol mowers to be better at cutting?

Are Mountfield mowers any good?
Are McCulloch mowers any good?

Are these "Mulching" mowers any good? I like the idea of not having to empty the cuttings box.

Thanks all.
 
Half tennis court maybe... its an odd shape so its kind of hard to tell :p

It is self propelled though... I propel it myself :D
 
I use a Mountfield petrol rotary (with a Briggs and Stratton engine) for a lawn that's about 4.5 tennis courts in size.

It's reliable, doesn't require much servicing (literally all you need to do is change the oil and check the spark plug gap every year) and does a good cut.

As for self propelled mowers, unless your garden is hilly I wouldn't bother. It's not much effort to push a mower, plus self propelled mowers have a lot more to service/to go wrong.

Something like this - http://www.mountfield-lawnmowers.co.uk/buy-online/product.php?xProd=88 would be ideal.
 
MuvverRussia said:
I use a Mountfield petrol rotary (with a Briggs and Stratton engine) for a lawn that's about 4.5 tennis courts in size.

It's reliable, doesn't require much servicing (literally all you need to do is change the oil and check the spark plug gap every year) and does a good cut.

As for self propelled mowers, unless your garden is hilly I wouldn't bother. It's not much effort to push a mower, plus self propelled mowers have a lot more to service/to go wrong.

Something like this - http://www.mountfield-lawnmowers.co.uk/buy-online/product.php?xProd=88 would be ideal.
Click to expand...

Good points.

What about a mulching one such as this:

http://www.mountfield-lawnmowers.co.uk/buy-online/product.php?xProd=131
 
What size lawn and is it awkward to mow parts of it? If it's quite small and nice and square then a nice small cutting width (25-28cm) non-self propelled would be the best value for money, if there are a lot of awkward corners then work out if a slightly larger mower and strimmer combination would get the job done quicker/easier than a small mower with lots of maneuvering.. Anything up to say 40m2 would be easily manageable by a un-propelled mower. Above 40m2 up to 2-300m2 then a self propelled mower with a cutting width of 32-40cm would be up to the task. Above 300m2 and you are into tractor mower territory.

There's also the choice of rotary or cylinder. If you aren't after that bowling/golf green finish then a rotary would be a good option, still cut's quite close, but can handle longer grass that isn't cut as often a lot easier than a cylinder mower, they usually run on wheels so are easily guided, this helps if you want those nice straight lines on a striped effect lawn (you'll also need to make sure it has a roller between/in place of the back wheels). The bag is usually at the back of the mower. A cylinder mower is great if you want to really get those bowling green finishes, they come with a choice of the number of blades, the higher the number of blades you will usually find the better cutting it gives. They can cut a lot closer to the ground than a rotary. Pretty much all cylinder mowers run on a roller so will give the striped effect to the lawn, but they can take a bit of getting used to with regards keeping in a straight line. The bag is usually on the front of the mower.

Never had anything to do with mulching mowers, though i would guess that even though they claim to mulch all the grass, if you were to walk on the grass after mowing for the first couple of days then you would get mucky feet! :) Don't forget, once you have a nice clean lawn free of weeds/moss then grass cuttings make a great addition to a nice little compost heap.
 
I have used a lot of different mulching deck mowers. Some are better than others but you will find that nearly all of them need to cut the lawn every 4 or 5 days to ensure that no grass lumps are left behind. If you leave the lawn 10 or more days then you will need to cut it twice to mulch it all down.

If the grass is wet is doesn't mulch so well and gets clogged up in the deck and then all of sudden it works loose and leaves a large pile of grassy soup goo behind.

On the whole mulching deck mowers are great but you have to be more on the ball with how you use them. A rotary grass collecting mower on the whole is the better choice for most people.
 
KefKef and Usel - Thanks for the comments.

Is only a small rectangular garden. No awkward parts.. just rectangle.

I am not a regular gardener so I only tend to mow it when my dog goes out and I realise I cant see it as the grass is too long :) Saying that, with a good mower, it may get done more often.

Currently using a Qualcast Cylinder which is total PAP for long grass as you probbaly know.

I want a nice looking lawn which the kids can play on.
 
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my dads a landscape gardener so he goes through a lot of mowers, and yeh i agree with the honda ones being the best.
 
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