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Lawn Mowers

foxwelljsly

foxwelljsly

Me too, I ate one sour too.
If there was such a thing as dadsnet, I’d be asking this here, but there isn’t……

When we moved 5 years ago I bought a 16” petrol lawnmower.

After being pushed 4km (according to my Garmin) around our garden weekly for 7 months out of 12, it still starts first time, but bits have started falling off it, the height adjustment lever has snapped and the wheels are wobblier than very wobbly things.

I think it’s time to buy a new one.

We are not getting a ride on or a robomower - neither would be suitable for our niggly non-contiguous lawns.

I’d like a wide petrol rotary mower with a bit of power assist to make the job a bit quicker and easier.

What’s a good mower? Or, like DACs, are they all the same?

All Thoughts and recommendations welcome.

Cheers
 
Not so much I'm afraid. I have a far too big collection of mowers since I keep inheriting them from my stepfather when he junks them for a minor issue which I easily fix (like the starting cord has a knot in it!!!).

I've got a 30 year old Mountfield classic 35 18 inch with a proper Briggs & Stratton engine, metal deck , self propelled and that's my favourite but it's on the way out because the deck is rusting through.

Also got a 15 year old Mountfield RS100 self propelled plastic deck 16 inch which has a Chinese engine. It's just not anywhere near as good but will probably last forever and does the job. Has a well known recurrent issue with blocked up carb.

Also got an Argos no brand Chinese cheapie push along which has the same engine and only cost £100. It's pretty much still new since I never use it.

if yours is dead at 5 years old it must have been utter rubbish!

No ideas what I'd buy now if I had to but I reckon I'll be dead before I actually need to.
 
When I moved from 5 acres to a smaller garden, I took the 53cm Husqvarna with a Honda engine with me. It’s done a hell of a lot of work and been absolutely battered. Won’t break and will last a lifetime in its current environment. The other decent ones I’ve had were Snapper and Viking (Stihl).
 
I have a Hyundai mower. It is the easiest starting mower I've ever had. I'd buy another without any hesitation. I suspect a Honda might be easier to find spares for though. Honda are a lot dearer though.
 
I got one of these in the spring, so not had a lot of use but seems good so far. It is certainly well put together. It needed a breather now and again when the grass was very long, but now, after a few cuts, it copes fine. I stopped using the petrol mower years ago when we decided to get a gardener (so much easier, but he's gone now) and when we pulled the old mower out of the shed after about 10 years of non-use, the thing was a rusting wreck so it was put on local freebies and went in not time.

At the time of using the petrol mower it was a PITA as I was driving mainly deisel cars, however it appears now that you can buy "proper" lawnmower fuel (apparently they are not keen on E10). My local filling station only sells E5 so I'd have been good (ditched the deisels), but I still figured electric+battery was the way to go with garden stuff and power tools generally.

Size-wise we are on a corner plot so the back garden is not big, but the front, if we got rid of all the grass, could park about six vehicles, so not huge, but undulating, and not having to push takes a lot of the effort out. The battery is still over half full after doing front and back.
 
I maintain my mother in law's Toro for her and it's a very nice machine. Ours is an older Hayter with an alloy deck and it's done very well.

I would expect Honda to be good.
 
I bought a push Hayter in October 2016, love the thing, especially the Briggs Stratton engine.
However, at the time, cordless electric mowers were very limited in their abilities, so I didn’t buy one. Now? I probably would. And I’d recharge it for free from our solar panels.
 
I have never heard of any rotary mower engine failing, no matter the make and pretty much no matter the abuse and/or neglect.
Relying on recommendations based on a mower that is now 10-20 years old is likely wishful thinking as there are no time machines available at any cost to be able to go back and buy one.
Rotary mowers fall to pieces at varying ages when the pressed steel body/deck rusts through. Why no company (that I have ever seen) ever went with the really heavy, almost indestructable, injection-moulded plastic decks that flymo use/used to use, baffles me, but then they'd last almost for ever.

My current cheapie has a hose connector set into the deck, beside the engine so that you can run it with water flushing all the underside of the debris that causes it to rot. It did work for a while, but not once there was wear on the underside of the deck. It also makes one hell of a mess/small lake.
 
Have you considered going cordless electric (battery powered)?

You can get them with powered wheels, such the one we have from Ego Power. Even my wife likes it!
 
I have a Hayter 16" electric push. It must be well over 20 years old, and still very solid. The deck is a thick aluminium casting, so no steel to rot or plastic to go brittle and break. Not sure what the current range is like though. I might treat it to a new blade this year, as it still has the original.....but I say that every year and never get round to it.
 
colasblue said:
Not so much I'm afraid. I have a far too big collection of mowers since I keep inheriting them from my stepfather when he junks them for a minor issue which I easily fix (like the starting cord has a knot in it!!!).

I've got a 30 year old Mountfield classic 35 18 inch with a proper Briggs & Stratton engine, metal deck , self propelled and that's my favourite but it's on the way out because the deck is rusting through.

Also got a 15 year old Mountfield RS100 self propelled plastic deck 16 inch which has a Chinese engine. It's just not anywhere near as good but will probably last forever and does the job. Has a well known recurrent issue with blocked up carb.

Also got an Argos no brand Chinese cheapie push along which has the same engine and only cost £100. It's pretty much still new since I never use it.

if yours is dead at 5 years old it must have been utter rubbish!

No ideas what I'd buy now if I had to but I reckon I'll be dead before I actually need to.
Click to expand...
It's still alive, it has a Briggs and Stratton engine, but needs new wheels and height adjuster. It's also a bit too small for our garden.
 
I'm still using a Honda HRB mower made in 1996. It's been used for contract work for a large part of it's life. On it's last legs now though. Honda (still) make good, reliable, long-lasting, repairable kit. The polymer deck is undamaged.

Equivalent replacement Honda model is around £1,200. You get what you pay for. Having said that, no need for top pro-grade gear in a domestic setting, I'd be interested in what the other reputable makers are producing. The bottom end of the "pro" range or top of the "domestic" range is a good place to start. Most makers have a "lightweight", semi-disposable range. Best avoided.
 
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