Lawn Mower Advice

Stretch

Stretch

Stretch

Soldato
Joined
14 Feb 2004
Posts
14,315
Location
Peoples Republic of Histonia, Cambridge
We moved into new house towards the end of last year and with spring arriving the grass is quickly getting out of hand. I’ve haven’t mown the law yet so I’m not really sure what type of mower would be best suited, but I need one soon or we’re going to have to hire the A Team.

The garden is about 50m * 10m, so a good size and mostly grass.

I’ve been looking at electric hover mowers which are cheep, easy to maintain but not very practical due to the long cord.

A cordless electric, which have all the advantages of a standard electric but with out the cable. However they’re very expensive and you have the problem of battery life and charging etc.

Lastly a petrol mower. Everything tells me I should probably go for this option but I don’t know anything about them and I’ve been told they need regular maintenance. They also vary quite a lot in price.

Anyone have and recommendation for my type of garden? Budget is ideally under £200.
 
get a goat or sheep. They mow and fertilise the lawn, feed themselves plus you could eat them if you ever move.

go to B&Q and have a look. 2 stroke petrol engine ones need little maintenance.
 
I hate hover mowers with a passion.

When I was at school a few years back (ok 6 or 7) I used to cut grass for most members of our family to earn pocket money. I was stuck using hover mowers and they were abysmal.

Because they don't have wheels it is very easy to push them into the lawn and scalp it, and they get stuck more easily too.

I now use a lovely petrol mower, we change the oil once a year (which isn't hard). Other than that we don't do anything with it and it is over 10 years old. I find it much quicker and easier to use than every flymo I've ever encountered.
 
Electric Hover won't do it. In fact don't bother with electrics unless you really want to keep to it.

You want a decent Petrol Mower for a lawn that size, there isn't a huge amount of difference between most models, usually you can get a 'Petrol Mower Starter kit' they aren't hard to look after at all as long as you don't throw it around, I work at Homebase so have to deal with this sort of thing in the summer.

Usually there should be someone around who knows what they are talking about, like I said, usually all the info you need is on the placard they hang on them.
 
Well most these days have adjustable blade heights etc, go for one with a decent warranty just in case it does bugger up, no idea how other companies work but if you take out replacement cover with us directly we replace it even if you break it by accident or anything of the like, you just take it in and we give you a brand new one on the day if its in stock.

/sales pitch.
 
I have a mountfield petrol one and its absolutely brilliant...its got the electric wheels so is easier to push around...think i got it from B&Q about 5 yrs ago...hasnt missed a beat yet and is going strong.

Saying that this weekend i gots to mow my 100' ft backyard lawn :/...geez not looking forward to that...
 
Bosch rotak 40, after paying people to do my lawn every two weeks and going thru tons of different lawn mowers myself after a bit of reading I bought the Bosch Rotal 40 and WOW....
It's really light and easy to move, the power is excellent it doesn't bog down at all (The guy who was doing it let me down a few times so the first time I cut it was up to my knees and it cut thru it like butter!) leaves an excellent finish right up to the edge, I'm not normally bothered about these but every time I use the rotak 40 I smile at how easy this once time nightmare job has become, it's actually now really enjoyably and I never thought I'd say that about cutting my grass! as it's a fair size that needs cutting.
 
have a hayter, never missed a beat. it has a briggs and stratton engine on it (can't remember what model) v easy to start and doesn't need much maintenance. just the odd blade sharpen and oil.
 
Rotty said:
engine is tecumsun
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Tecumseh :D

collisster said:
have a hayter, never missed a beat. it has a briggs and stratton engine on it (can't remember what model) v easy to start and doesn't need much maintenance. just the odd blade sharpen and oil.
Click to expand...
30 years ago they used to call Briggs and Stratton 'Briggs and Scrapum'.
That was until they got their act together and are now very good quality reliable engines.

If you want ultra reliability then go for a Honda, expensive and over engineered for the job they do, although when they go wrong they are very expensive to repair.
My money would go on a Hayter.....good value and relatively cheap to repair when they go wrong.
Avoid B&Q and Homebase mowers as these are likely to be American imports and are built with the 'throw away and get a new one' attitude.....parts for these are not readily available and are expensive.
Spare Parts for the B&Q range of Mountfield mowers which are specific to B&Q. They are not the same as the Mountfield sold in Mountfield Dealers. These include the HP470, SP470, SP534 & SP535
Click to expand...
Mountfield from dealerships are good but not as good as they were, whereas Hayter are reasonably priced and have a good build quality and are reliable as long as you change the oil annually, clean the air filter, change the spark plug and keep the blade balanced and sharp.
Golden rule if you want it to last is not to be a cheapskate....I know of people with Hayters that are in excess of 20 years old and are still going strong.

All this is gleamed from a lifetime of being around mowers as my old man was a self employed horticultural engineer, mower mechanic, for forty five years until he retired a couple of years ago.
Hope this helps
 
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MTD are a good brand too - I've completely thrashed my Yard-man (6.5BHP, YEA!) for the past 10 years, in rough terrain, it's eaten bricks, pipes, everything - all we've done is change the oil a few times, and sharpen the blade.

Now it's dead though - something got into it and the piston rings are shot so it's low on compression and barely goes.

Lasted damn well though. Previous one was MTD too and that only gave up because the chassis rusted away :D
 
We've had two petrol mowers and I wouldn't go for anything else now unless I had a tidgey garden.

First one we got from my Grandfather after he died, it spent it's life before then mowing an acre a week. It eventually died due to literally rusting away after 15 years of use (EDIT: Actually the main problem was the hole that was created in the casing after chomping through too many stones!). Second one we've had for around 8 years. Starting to show a little rust but nothing problematic. Never done any maintenence on either of them.

Unfortunately all I can tell you about the brands are that they were both Red...
 
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My garden is pretty small about 30ft x 12ft, but I've had a petrol mower for ages and it just makes a mowing a bit more fun. When I can be bothered to actually go out and cut the lawn, I love pulling that cord and hearing the engine start up :p

Definitely go for a petrol. I keep a petrol can of unleaded in the shed and it lasts me a while. Mine has a Tecumseh engine and I think the mower is a flymo lawnchief which I got from B&Q or homebase for around £150 a few years back. It looks cool with red wheels. You can still buy new lawnchiefs on the bay for £145.
 
McCulloch mowers tend to be fairly cheap and reliable for petrol mowers in my experience :) (IIRC many of the petrol mowers use the same engines, often by Briggs & Stratton*, or I think one or two others).

We had our last one for about 10 years before it finally started showing signs of having problems due to it being knocked about a bit too much and needed replacement (the cowling was getting knackered, the wheels were no longer adjustable as the screws had got cross threaded, and it was starting to run rough possibly from where my sister would borrow it and leave it out in the rain).

For added fun, if your garden needs a strimmer or similar, Ryobi petrol strimmers are quite handy :) (you can often get the "flexi" range engine with say both a hedge trimmer attachment, and strimmer or bushwhacker attachment cheapish)



*So spares if need be aren't too hard to get, but generally you just need to change the oil once a year, and pssibly clean the spark plug.
 
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