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New house and now have a small/medium garden to mow.
Are Flymos that bad?
Or is a Bosch better.
What are you mowing?
Depends how small, but I'd say go petrol. Electric ones are a pain and sound whiney.
Buy petrol
Never look back. Cables are just a huge pain.
Bosch electric for a small/medium garden.
Electric is you care about the planet....
Lawnmower-trackworld. I need to jump on board. Out flymo has just died but it was always fine for out little patch of green. Could just about now it all standing in one spot.
About to move and new house has a much bigger garden. Must be over 300 square meters. Any suggestions on a suitable mower for that? Also, how difficult is it to make a stripy lawn? Always fancied one of those.
As T1000. Petrol mowers are pretty rubbish for the environment.
Bosch electric, loads better than flymo or qualcast. I've had all three.
If petrol, get a Honda for reliability
Have flymo - it's a hateful thing. Looking at the Hayter electric mowers, just for that touch of class... (-:
Bosch Rotak
Old Flymo with a metal blade lasted 20 years, no problem. New Flymo with a plastic blade just didn't cut grass effectively. Bosch electric is fine.
Bosch electric for a small/medium garden.
+1
Agree with greybeard re flymo blades. If to get a flymo then get one with a metal blade. Much better.
I asked this same question back in April. The General consensus was a Honda Izy, and, budget permitting, that's what I would've bought. Sadly, my budget was MUCH less, so I ended up with Bosch Rotak for £20. it's fine, yes the cable is a pain, but it's MUCH quieter than a petrol, which means I can mow in the morning without irritating anyone.
My garden is around 230sqm and whilst the cable is a pain, it's more a first-world-problem than anything else.
Went from Flymo to Bosch. It's loads better. The rear roller gives stripes very easily, which is great if your lawn allows for a regular mowing pattern.
Bosch Rotak. Even if a small garden I'd go big width though.
I've never known anyone with a petrol mower who hasnt had issues.
We have a Mountfield Princess. Mountfield are famous for their petrol mowers and we had an old one. Replaced it with a 16" electric with rear roller and collection box and it is fine for our 200 square metres of lawn. The cable isn't a problem provided you have a long one and keep it on one side and mow across from this side.
Just making this decision for our 70sqm lawn and have decided on a Bosch rotak, just undecided on which model/how wide, probably 34cm.
Large lawn petrol, but for a small lawn Bosch is all you need, it's lightweight, cuts amazing close to the edge of the mower and the finish is impressive, ok it feels lightweight and a bit flimsy, but so far it's not let me down, if you don't like cables the rechargeable one is good. Invest in a spare battery, not cheap!
I swapped from a flymo five years ago and it was the best decision I ever made.
Petrol wise if you don't want to spend Honda prices, have a look at the mountfield range with the Honda engine, we used to use them at work (x parkie) and would easily run 8 hours and lighter to throw about than the Honda's.
Battery powered Bosch. It's a great bit of kit and well worth the money.
Apparently a sit-on lawnmower is one of the key indicators of your success in life.
+1 for the Bosch Rotak. We have a small/medium garden and it's been great for the last 4 years of regular mowing.
What's a small, medium or large lawn?
My small/medium garden won't be needing a petrol or a sit down mower.
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Looks like the Bosch Rotak takes the win.
Ta
Another Rotaker here. Two years with no negative comments so far.
I'm on my 4th Rotak. Great when they work, but the motors do burn out quicker than expected. The newer models (2013+ model?) are IMO less well built. Getting the bucket on/off is more fiddly and it sometimes splits apart.
Trouble is there's not much else out there to compare more favourably.
Interested in the figures indicating that electric is more environmentally friendly than petrol. Could you point me at any.
Apparently more petrol is spilled in the us by people filling mowers every year than the Exxon Valdez disaster. Read that somewhere, be interesting if its true. And that's before you even turn it on and its inefficient engine starts polluting.
UCLA quoting the environmental protection agency so make of that what you will:
[i]EPA estimates that gas mowers represent 5% of U.S. air pollution, using 800 million gallons of gas per year. A new gas powered lawn mower operating for one hour produces as much volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides as 8 new cars each being driven for one hour at 55 mph.
EPA also estimates that over 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled while refueling lawn equipment each year—more than all of the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in the Gulf of Alaska. One gas mower spews 88 lbs of CO2 and 34 lbs of other pollutants into the air every year. [/i]
Let's face a large area of manicured lawn is hardly a good choice environmentally speaking anyway.
What about a manual mower? Think you can get cheap qualcast, and likely to be many old ones about. Much more satisfying mowing the lawn with your own effort moving the blades.
Definitely the best option from a ecological perspective, and if 2nd hand it might even be british made.
As above. SOAP's garden doesn't look much bigger than mine and I've been quite happy to use a push mower for the 20 years we've lived there.
In the true stw spirit of suggesting something that's traditional but actually not as practical I feel I should speak up for the petrol cylinder mower. Had years of good service from a 16" qualcast. It's a pain if you miss three weeks plus as you have to do a few passes but the rest of the time it's v satisfying
And the average us lawnmower is?
You do realise that new 2 strokes were banned and the new 4 strokes are on set emissions ?
Oh and daffy- glad your not my neighbour. Your electric mower isnt as quiet as you think, its just a different tone.
As per pedlad , 4 stroke 16 inch qualcast cylinder mower , makes a grand job
Its about 20 years old , its lifecycle emissions from creation to destruction probably less than those who use the disposable electrics every couple of years.
300sqm I'd probably want a 17" petrol mower. A roller honda would be best, stripes are easy... run the mower 2-3 times around the edge of the lawn, then start running it up and down. Stripes shall appear 🙂
For the OPs demands I'd just get any 16-18" electric. Bosch seem reliable enough. But do get a wheeled mower with a bag, neater job than a flymo.
So this thread is making me sad about buying a petrol mower but I hate cables.. Any one had any experience with cordless?
I've been looking as well but I can't see a self propelled mower with a roller for the stripes in electric for competitive money. I'd Luke to go electric but there only seem to be petrol ones to suit my need.
What have you been looking at onza?
You may need to compromise a bit if you want an eco friendly solution. Does it need to be self propelled for instance?only seem to be petrol ones to suit my need.
That size? I'd just use a manual. Means you can do it any time morning noon or night and not disturb the whole neighbourhood. Plus, by the time you fart about unreeling/reeling cables or filling petrol (after realising it's jellified over winter, your plugs are corroded or you simply forgot to get more after last time) and such you could be just about done.
If getting a petrol, my suggestion is a Lawnflite.
Had a Bosch which was fine but the grass collector feel apart from day one, an annoyance only. Then some good lawn chat at work introduced me to mulching mowers and one quick gumtree search found a 2nd hand Mountfield just half a mile up the road. In great condition, it is petrol and the lack of cables makes way more difference than I thought would, it's also overkill for my garden but it takes me 5 minutes now with no cuttings to speak of. Think trailrat had it on lifecycle assessment of modern petrol mowers, electrics get replaced where petrol more on...
Get a goat. Good for the environment and you can eat it in winter when the grass stops growing 🙂
+1 for Bosch.
Bought ours for about £40 three years ago. Still going strong despite weekly (ab)use
tod456 - Member
So this thread is making me sad about buying a petrol mower but I hate cables.. Any one had any experience with cordless?POSTED 2 HOURS AGO #
One of my mowers is a Bosch li ion that I think is on its 3rd year now. It's been flawless. I use it on the small lawns. It can't handle long grass as the cut out will kick in but for a light weight, average size garden it's perfect. It's great not having cables to mess about with.
Has anyone suggested a bespoke scythe yet? With a Damascus blade and a shaft of English oak inlaid with small merino-horn images of a mountain-biking sheep.
For the first time, I replaced my gasoline mower with a rechargeable electric one--I was skeptical at first, but now glad I did. It's a dual battery model (Kobalt, sold by Lowe's here in the US, but there are several electric makers globally). It takes me about 25 minutes to do my lawn and have enough battery power/time to easily double that.
Sure a lot more pleasant than the hassle of storing gasoline (which goes stale) and the ever-possible, hard-starting issue with small engines.
That said, my last gasoline mower had a Honda engine and better than any of the many others I've had over the years.
+1 for rechargable battery powered Bosch
The bosch is nice but Makita do one and I think I can use my drill batteries so it will 1/2 the price. Anyone used the Makita ?
I went from Flymo hover to Bosch Rotak 36 for 2 smallish lawns, and it was so much better. Metal blades instead of plastic give a better finish. Little combs on the side of deck help to give good finish up to the edges too.
Cordless electric look enticing, but cost seems quite a bit higher and battery life and replacement could be an issue longer term, although admittedly less of a problem for Makita system as Tod456 mentions.
Bosch electric for a small/medium garden.
+1 - they're quiet, cut well and there's very little to go wrong with them. I've never understood why people find electric cables difficult to manage.
Bosch Rotak +1
I have a Mountfield self propelled petrol mower and it's OK, bit of a bastard to start first after 3 years use, once its been started its OK. It does just seem to work.
I have quite a large garden, so for me an electric mower isn't a 'sane' option as you would need a ~150M extension lead. It takes 4 hours to cut and strim and move the cuttings with petrol kit, so god knows how long it would take with electric stuff.
I also have a ryobi strimmer which I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy its so bad...
We use these guys. They take a while (about a week) but it's easier than doing it yourself with a machine. I think we did the edges once with scissors to neaten it up.
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Okay, measured the new garden. Not as big as I thought. 8m x 22m and I'd like stripes. I'm not sure I fancy pushing all that way either so self propelled would be nice but there don't seem to be any electric mowers with that spec without being silly money.
Dearlord . You also bought that ryobi strimmer! Its offensively bad. I reckon the hand blender outthe kitchen be better!
It jus knotted te grass round rater than cut it when i did the ditch.
Replaced it with a 49cc hitachi brush cutter. Its vicious and takes less than half the time !