I need a new lawn mower (old one now very broken after I hit a flint the size of an apple). My garden is small about 41metres square. About half of it is surrounded by path and easy to spin the current rotary round in. But the other half is surrounded by bushes and plants. They are either nice and I don’t want to damage them. Or they are spiky and want to damage me. I end up having to do an ackward 15 point turn at the end of each run.

Do I go for another, smaller rotary lawn mower and just accept it takes time.
Or do I get a good hover mower which should be easy to manoeuvre but won’t give me nice stripes?

I’ve never used a hover mower they seem to get very mixed reviews.
Any help gratefully appreciated.

P.S. I don’t need a petrol one as the plug is outside next to lawn.

40cm Bosch Rotak will be fast and give nice stripe.

Hovers are crap and collecting hovers are even worse. Rotary all the way, cordless battery powered one for me.

Cannot afford cordless (although I’d love one). Dubious about Bosch. Everything I’ve ever bought from them has broken!

Our hover is fine. Cuts the grass and collects it. Not sure what else it is supposed to do. Copes well with stones, roots and various debris. If you do go hover get a metal blade. The plastic one We had before did not cope so well.

I have a petrol hover, it gives a good cut. No collector though, but if you manage to cut the grass often enough the cuttings are so fine their is no need to rake.

Ive got a bosch rotak ergo flex. No other lawn mower comes close to the cut and clipping pickup. Lawn looks its best ever too.

Previous mower left clippings everywhere, which created thatch and an unhealthy lawn.

I had a flymo (grass collecting) and it was great, but got rid for a Bosch rotary. Its not a patch on the Flymo. Looking forward to it packing up so I can revert to a hover. My lawn is pretty flat, so no undulations or anything, so not sure if that makes a difference.

The problem I find with hovers is that if the grass isn’t completely dry, the extra weight means that they don’t actually hover so you’re constantly emptying them. I’m just about to get a wheeled mower for the new house (with larger garden).

Only had one push along mower and hated it compared to the Flymo’s I’ve used.
We’ve currently got a fairly cheap grass-collecting Flymo that must be at least 6 years old.

Ours works OK with wettish grass, but the box does fill up quite quick. Only takes about 30s to empty though – pull basket out, tip in bin and chuck it back in.

Ive got a bosch rotak ergo flex. No other lawn mower comes close to the cut and clipping pickup. Lawn looks its best ever too.

+1

Does an excellent cut.

My old Bosch Rotak was great – only swapped to petrol when I ended up with a bigger garden.

Bosch Rotak +1

Seems to be a divide.
Despite the positive reviews here the Bosch mowers don’t seem to be getting good reviews else where. Only problem is they appear to be about the only brand on sale in the DIY shops. I’m leaning towards a hover mower…!

I had a Bosch and it was rubbish, but slightly better than previous Flymo
Got the biggest own brand one from B&Q (it’s blue) I could for a sensible price (£120 I think) and it’s been great for the last couple of years, doesn’t have a roller though so. No stripes but I’m too impatient for that anyway (and no point with dog and kid chewing up the lawn anyway)

Despite the positive reviews here the Bosch mowers don’t seem to be getting good reviews else where

Eh? See the review for this one on Amazon here. 4.5/5 over 562 reviews. Seems pretty conclusive to me.

^^^ Concur with this,

same model I have and Amazon reviews are always a good indicator!

Hated my hover that I inherited with the house, underpowered and gave me a bad back as it was draggy and I have a steep lawn.

Got a petrol rotary and its much better.

Could hover mowers be an endangered species? If they ban powerful mowers they must be at risk seeing as lots of the power goes to making them fly rather than cut?!

Bosch, use it twice on your lawn and you will notice the difference, lightweight, but cuts like a heavyweight, but the big one for me is it cuts right up to the edge of the mower, making it great for doing edges