What…..petrol lawnmower

What would you suggest?

We’ve recently moved and the new place will need a petrol mower I think. Back is 50mx20m ish.

Want self-propelled but other than that, meh. Garden is pretty level. Would seem to be mostly moss so maybe I’ll not need to mow it?

Mountfield is cheap but I suspect for a reason. FIL recommends Honda which will be just about achievable for our budget.

Don’t want to spend more than £500, would be happier if much less.

After the move we have no money and this feels like somewhere I can save a few pounds.

Anything to avoid? Are they all much of a muchness?

I hate shopping for things I know little about.

Cheers

Honda powered

Have a self propelled Mountfield which has a Honda engine, still going strong after 4 years. Never misses a beat, works perfectly and I’ll replace it with a Honda if / when it dies.

Edit our back garden is a similar size to the OPs. Self propelled is the way to go.

Not exactly what you’re after but we got an electric one off of B&Q and it’s brill, really light and easy to manouvre. Our garden’s not quite as big as yours (mebbe 40 x 10 or 12) but the only time full charge doesn’t cut it is if it’s been left for a few weeks. Once the early season cut is done, a single charge’ll cover it fine. :) Might be this one? Two batteries and a 46cm blade.

https://www.diy.com/departments/erbauer-ext-elm18-li-cordless-36v-lawnmower/3663602418276_BQ.prd

Would have thought one of the bigger cordless ones would do it. Allow for a couple of batteries as 1000sqm is unlikely to be a single battery job. Should be under £500 unless you go for Ego. Pick something that matches your other batteries if you have them and save ££s on the additional batteries.

Honda. I’ve had mine for 18 years and it starts first pull on the cord every time.  A doddle to service and maintain yourself and is just superbly made and put together.

still going strong after 4 years.

I should hope so!

I got a B&Q own-brand machine with a Briggs& Stratton engine and that’s still going strong after nine years (although I replaced the carb a couple of years ago).

If you get a petrol mower make sure you check what fuel it needs and add a suitable additive if required (the latest E10? unleaded has bioethanol in it which isn’t suitable for all engines).

I’ve got a Honda that must be at least 20 years old. Not entirely sure as I was given it by my dad when he moved to a house with no lawn. It’s just gone through into a rust hole but that’s user error putting it away with damp grass clumped under it. I can fix it easy enough as it’s a steel chassis.

Still starts and runs well on a service every few summer seasons. Maybe a bit expensive,  but good value.

Why don’t you consider paying a gardener to cut it for you. £500 will buy you alot of grass cuts, and then you have more riding time.

ive got the same mower as Pondo and its great.
no faffing about with fuel, or servicing an engine.
No messing about with cables.
relatively quiet.
use the same batteries for your strimmer and hedgecutter.

Im sure an electric Hayter is better, but i would rather have the extra couple of hundred quid for beer and crack.

I tried petrol mowers initially with an ancient mountfield that the deck had rusted and been patched on – but the Honda engine on it was still running beautifully. Even in really long grass it felt unstoppable.

I decided to get a new non holed mower in 2016 and wanted something that striped the lawn so went for a Lawnflite with a powered roller on the back. The mower has eeemes pretty decent and does indeed stripe the lawn. The Briggs and Stratton engine on it still runs nicely – I’ve done a couple of oil changes on it and air filter / spark plug changes at the same time. Other than that it still runs like new.

I’d say this mower struggles more in longer grass – it hasn’t got quite as much ooomph as the Honda. I think headline it’s the same power but maybe it’s lower in torque.

I’d buy again if going petrol – but when this one dies I think I might look at cordless.

My mower is a Lawnflite LF43SPBR for reference. Cost me just over £300.

I think I considered mountfield and Hayter and neither were quite as good value.

I bought a cheap Mountfield from Screwfix with the chinese Briggs & Stratton engine when we moved in 8 years ago and it’s still fine. I’ve serviced it once in that time (£15 service kit), other than that just check oil and put petrol in it. I use a scarifying blade in it too which must put a lot more load on than the usual cutting one.

£400 now gets you a bigger, Honda engined one – it’s what I’d probably buy. https://www.screwfix.com/p/mountfield-sp53h-51cm-167cc-self-propelled-rotary-petrol-lawn-mower/502rk

I’d love a battery one but the good ones start at much more than £500 and that’s before batteries.

I’ve got a person propelled Mountfield, had it for 22 years now (my god, where did that time go?!). It’s always started on first or second pull. I didn’t do any kind of servicing for the first 19 years, year 20 it was getting a bit spluttery so I cleaned the spark plug. Last year the pull string stopped retracting so I treated it to a service at the mower shop. They replaced the pull string spring and serviced it, all for about 35 quid. Should be good for another 20 years!

Stiga Multiclip – been using/abusing one for about 12 years now with next to no maintenance (not that I’m recommending it but its been serviced once).

Pretty sure mine has a Stiga branded engine but as long as there is fuel in it it always starts first time, even between seasons.

Bonus is it’s a dedicated mulcher with a bell deck so there is no cuttings to pick up or have laying around not rotting either.

Mine has the adjustable tilting handle which is actually a useful extra if you have to cut upto prickly hedges.

I’ve had a Honda Izzy for over 20 years. It’s rarely maintained, starts, runs. Been great.  Not sure if they are still available but I’d have another if I needed one.

Hard to look beyond the Honda. Re stripes: went for a roller to achieve the desired effect but i think the regular rolling has helped compact the lawn with negative impact on the quality of the grass. Given the decision again I would likely go for a wheeled one and slightly less obvious stripes.

We had a Yamaha which was serially abused for 20 years and would start first time, no matter what. Absolute tank. Don’t bother with electric ignition to save a few quid

Do you need or even want that much lawn? Consider some other planting or cultivating a more wild garden. Much better for biodiversity. We have a pretty wild garden now and I much prefer it. Takes very little maintenance. We just have a small battery mower to make some paths through it.

In my experience I’d avoid Mountfield. Plastic crap with shafts made of cheese. I wasted £440 in spring 2021. Replaced it 4 months later with a 2nd hand Toro which is bullet proof in comparison. IMHO of course.

For a level lawn of that size an able-bodied person shouldn’t need self-propelled, it’s something else to go wrong and it’s more expensive. YMMV
Mine is a 5-years old Honda Izy; a “proper” mower centre will often have demo/PX for sale too

Run it on E5 petrol or Aspen fuel (4x price but the fumes are nicer to breathe and it keeps the carb clean) and empty petrol at the end of the season. Aspen has a good shelf-life and can be left in the tank

Honda Izy for the last 20 years here. Well, two of them, but only cause the first one was stolen. Both great, can recommend the mulching kit, super effective and no need for clipping catching.

I bought a petrol powered Alko when we moved in 2016. Sharpen the blade every year and change the oil. Apart from that it just works. Also had enough power to mulch mow if wanted. Few similarly priced mowers could do this at the time without a fair bit more cash.
At the time anything half decent with a branded engine was much pricier and a couple of the shops I asked in weren’t keen on Mountfield or Cobra own brand engines.
I expect my next mower will be battery. There were only one or two 46 cm mowers available with batteries at the time and they were big money. In 5 years I expect (hope) that most will be. A cord isn’t really an option for us with a garden on 3 sides of the house and lots of in and outs round beds etc.
YMMV

I put up a similar thread last year, couldn’t afford or even find a honda that was in my price range and went with a husqvarna LC247S which was 340 delivered, its a great mower from what I can tell of the one summer I’ve used it 😂

Had a Mountfield for 11 years. In that time I’ve only had to replace the ignition coil and spark plug. Used quite a lot too.

I’d happily buy another.

I went to our local indy garden machinery place 10 years ago expecting to buy a Honda for north of £500 based on what I’d researched online. they convinced me to buy an AlKo for less than half that. its been faultless in that time, haven’t even serviced it.

I was the shop this weekend to investigate a service kit and blade sharpening and noticed the newer model of the same thing is still well under £300.

not self propelled and no roller, but id totally recommend the brand

@nickjb – I’m considering a similar approach in our new garden. I certainly won’t be doing whatever the previous occupants did to turn it into an outdoor carpet. Does the battry mower cope OK with longer grass?

50m x 20m you say…

…and you’re not going to get a ride-on!!??

Where’s your sense of fun!! 🤣🤣

I certainly won’t be doing whatever the previous occupants did to turn it into an outdoor carpet.

That’s great. Most people do seem to get stuck in just going with the usual norm. There’s lots of alternatives.

Does the battry mower cope OK with longer grass?

Yeah, its actually pretty good with long grass. Ours doesn’t have a particularly wide cut but it does chomp through what’s there.

We’re on our 2nd Efco petrol lawnmower, first one did +10 years and the current one is 5-6 years old.

We only got the new one as the body & running gear just got to the point where it needed enough work a new sale one was about the same price.

As we’ve space in the barn both machines are sat side-by-side – and the 1st one’s engine started 2nd pull last year.

Original one is a Honda, current one is a Honda copy.

Current one is a bit more temperamental and usually takes 3-4 pulls to start from cold.

When this one ‘dies’, I’ll replace it with another.

Both bought from the same local dealer, and will buy another from them too.

Honda, my dad has two, one with a patched hole, but the mower is very old. They just work.

The advice I was given 10 years ago was ‘the best Honda Izy you can afford’. I did, and it’s been utterly brilliant. Faultless.

I’ve got one of the Mountfield Briggs & Stratton screwfix self propelled jobs.

It does the job, starts fine, not too heavy and taken a fair bit of abuse. The wheels are crap though and slowly falling off, the cut hight adjust is held in place with zip ties.

I was told Honda Izzy but they are now silly money.

Bloke round here who owns a grass cutting business recommended getting a cobra with Honda engine.

Next time I will go electric start and variable speed

Another vote for Mountfield. 10 years and still going after being treated like crap for those 10 years. Replacement parts are available from Mountfield which is very useful.

The only thing that hasn’t really been discussed is cutting width. There are links for everything from 43cm to 51cm ^^
Start with storage, access and whether you’ll need to pick it up. Wider will be quicker (obvs), but, depending on the lawn design, less manoeuvrable

Have a similar sized garden. Used to have a husqvarna petrol mower – worked well for about 20 years. But it eventually died.
Now have a greenworks battery mower with 2 batteries and it works pretty well and is so much quieter. Would never buy a petrol mower again.

Cheers one and all. Knew STW would come to my rescue.

I like the idea of an electric mower but suspect none will be around after 20 years like some of their petrol counterparts mentioned above.

We’ve a local lawnmower engineer so will wonder down this weekend and see what they can repair/recommend but the Honda Izy or a Honda engine variant looks like the winner. I’m hoping for a second hand one to save a few £.

We will be spending a great deal of effort to shift from the sea of green and a pond will be in shortly.

We’ve still not found the box with bike kit in yet which should be the more pressing issue.

Does the battry mower cope OK with longer grass?

My erbauer can tell if the motor is bogging down and gives is more power to compensate. you can hear it turning up the juce if you hit some thicker grass.

No problem taking down waist high meadow though*
*- do a cut on maximum height available. Then go over it again at a more civilised length.

My dad had an old Hayter Harrier 2. He tells me fondly he had that mower before he met my mum, so feels a special relationship with it. Cast alumium deck and is on its second briggs and straton engine, Ive trotted behind it for many miles in my life.
I had refused taking it on when he asked (’cause we lived in a flat)
He got older and got a ride on in the end.

He gave the mower away to a “mate” who then proceeded to drop a jcb bucket on it and smash the body.
We both feel more of a loss about that machine than some family deaths.

Yeah, I have a 37cm Einhell cordless as that was all that was available locally when I needed it. It will happily cut through the longer grass on a high setting. What I really wanted was an Ego with no battery as I already have an Ego hedge cutter/ pole saw, but I couldn’t find one anywhere at the time. But tbh, our lawn area isn’t so big that we would need the extra power of something like an Ego. The toolstation sourced little Einhell is fine.

We have one of these – Cobra MX534SPH Petrol Lawnmower 52CM

Honda powered, self propelled with a decent sized deck. We cut ~ 0.75 of an acre with this and it’s chomped its way through more than it has had any right to! Really smooth engine and plenty of torque when propelled. Gear 3 could have you running behind this!

We run ours on Aspen which has helped to escape blocked carb issues and needing to drain etc after the last cut of the season.