New lawn mower advice...

Kainz

Kainz

Kainz

Soldato
Joined
15 Dec 2002
Posts
23,619
Location
In a cowfield, London, UK
Hey all,

I require a lawn mower for a small garden. In the past my father has always stuck with Flymo, despite me knowing they're absolutely useless these days. I purchased a Flymo Glider 330 'Hover' mower last May (stupidest purchase ever by yours truly...) and just a month ago in April the drive belt shredded itself. I thought mowers were still direct drive so my dad and I were surprised.

Bought a geniune flymo belt replacement, installed it perfectly and managed just one successful mow of the lawn. The second mow today saw the belt shred itself again. Upon inspecting the mower, the motor had not slipped on it's 4 screw mounts, which suggests the belt was just useless.

I had read about flymo drive belts being of poor quality but took the risk anyway. I am at a loss about what to do now. I've got a year old mower that my dad and I have no confidence in.

I don't know what the state of mowers is like these days but I could do with help finding something suitable. We would like an electric mower with grass collection and something that doesn't rely on a belt - is there such a thing? :(
 
Ok. After discussing this with my father as I had mentioned the Bosch Rotak series - he's instead started looking at petrol mowers like the Mountfield HP164 since our budget is £150 tops. Petrol is overkill for our garden but it means no wires at least.
 
I have had a Flymo with collection which was hard work (not one of the original little ones) I now have a Suffolk Punch petrol mower with driven wheels, much better. No cord bigger collection less effort. But probably out of your budget.
 
I had a wheeled Flymo which I persevered with for years despite it having several design faults.

When I moved house, changed to a Bosch Rotak, and it's a massive improvement. Lighter, more powerful, much better design.

I would have though if your lawn is small then a petrol one is a bit of a waste. And I imagine much more involving to maintain.
 
bazzabear said:
I had a wheeled Flymo which I persevered with for years despite it having several design faults.

When I moved house, changed to a Bosch Rotak, and it's a massive improvement. Lighter, more powerful, much better design.

I would have though if your lawn is small then a petrol one is a bit of a waste. And I imagine much more involving to maintain.
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Any idea if that Rotak is a belt driven machine? Having spoken with my father he has stated that the garden is 60ft. I don't spend much time in it unlike he does :o
 
Minstadave said:
Consider stretching the budget and going LiON, I just bought a £200 Greenworks 40V mower and its fantastic.
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Hmm I am not a fan of cordless appliances I confess. Surely the power draw on a cordless lawn mower will be high, therefore requiring the battery be recharged a great deal. Over time the capacity of said battery will dwindle and a replacement would be costly I'd imagine?
 
Kainz said:
Hmm I am not a fan of cordless appliances I confess. Surely the power draw on a cordless lawn mower will be high, therefore requiring the battery be recharged a great deal. Over time the capacity of said battery will dwindle and a replacement would be costly I'd imagine?
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I'm not certain, LiON doesn't fall in capacity much over time and you get 2 batteries with the deal I mentioned. We only have a smallish garden so I don't even use one battery doing our lawn. Using one battery partially once a week means it'll be years until it gets anywhere near performance degradation becomes an issue (most LiON battery backs will last 100s of full power cycles).

Performance wise it seems to give the same performance of my wired Rotak (although I've not tried it on really long wet grass yet) without the fuss of a cable and portability (will be using it our allotment too).
 
I did the same ‘upgrade’ last year, my gardens just about big and long enough to justify a petrol. My electric mower was driving me mad.

Found this Einhell petrol mower for £139 from Toolstation it’s perfect and got good reviews. I would definitely recommend it, all round good spec for the price.

Fits your budget nicely too. It was the cheapest and best bang for buck petrol mower I could find when I did my research for buying myself.

https://www.toolstation.com/shop/La...52/Einhell+139cc+46cm+Petrol+Lawnmower/p30543
 
Thank you gents, looks like you've all given me enough information to go on.

I do think the LiON route is just well out of our price range and that Einhell Sparx mentioned looks quite tempting. I've been told by friends to look out for a machine that has a Briggs & Stratton engine but those seem out of our max £150 budget from the looks of things. I'll spend a few hours this morning looking around but that Einhell PM46 has my eye at the moment.
 
Kainz said:
Thank you gents, looks like you've all given me enough information to go on.

I do think the LiON route is just well out of our price range and that Einhell Sparx mentioned looks quite tempting. I've been told by friends to look out for a machine that has a Briggs & Stratton engine but those seem out of our max £150 budget from the looks of things. I'll spend a few hours this morning looking around but that Einhell PM46 has my eye at the moment.
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If it helps eBay have 20% off code today from 4pm you have to change your account to show you live is the US,there's a post on hotdeals might save you some money
 
Over the years tried and owned many mowers, and also did a bit of landscape gardening with petrol mowers.

My favourite and current mower is a Bosch Ergoflex 34 paid around £99, but they do a 32 slightly narrower for £70 ish.

Cons :

Has a cable.

Pros :

The best mower i've used which gives an immaculate finish and a healthy lawn. The best hoover action i've come across in a mower, really picks up all the grass, as opposed to the flymos and many others which generally dump far too much. This gives great lawn health, reduces thatch, and gives an excellent finished look as leaves, twigs, everything is removed.

Lightweight

Cuts right up to the edge of the mower so easy to cut against sheds/garages etc

Stripes the lawn if thats to your liking

Does my medium sized lawn in two basket fills great at compacting the grass.

2 months of owneship and regular cutting with the Bosch has given me the best looking lawn i've owned.
 
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