Lawn Mowers

[Laurie]

HELP! I need to purchase a lawn mower and have
absolutely no idea what would be a good choice.
brand wise, hp wise… etc.
I’m a single woman and don’t need a POWER machine.
My yard is flat mostly and will not need front
or rear wheel drive… Thanks!
-laurie

[BobB]

Hi Laurie, I have had a Lawnboy mower for 26 years and it is still going strong, BUT I have always done the maintenance on it myself. You should think about the fact that any mechanical device will need periodic maintenance. If you are not comfortable doing the maintenance yourself, find out what repair shops in your area has the best reputation for quality work. Visit several of them to see which you are most comfortable with. I’d suggest visiting them on a saturday morning when they are busy, and listen to how the treat customers when they are rushed. Then buy a mower that they recommend and service.
Good Luck
BobB

[Jules]

the husbandperson and I just moved from an apartment to a house with a LARGE yard and needed to purchase a lawn mower.

Our first inclination was to get a manual reel mower, but given the size of our lawn, plus the thatchiness of it, we nixed that idea reluctantly.

However, if I had a small or flat lawn that wasn’t too thick, I’d still go with that option. We looked at two different ones – one was made by Lee Valley Tools and had a cylinder that didn’t need sharpening – instead, you replace the cylinder every 10 years or so. Good if you’re an idiot about sharpening like I am. Great balance, practically pushed itself. The other one we looked at was made by Gardena. Again, great balance, smooth action. Forget any ideas you might have about manual reel mowers being hard to use – they’re great.

Electric was out for us, again due to the size of the lawn, but that would have been my second choice, just because I don’t like to use gas engines…I have this thing about flammable liquids, which is odd considering my hobby (I’m a soapmaker and so many of my scented and essential oils have low flash points!). Can’t recommend any brands or anything, since we didn’t really look at electric too hard.

What we ended up getting was a chain store brand (Yardworks by Canadian Tire for the Canucks in the crowd) with a 6.0 hp Briggs & Stratton Quantum Touch-and-Go engine (electric starter), that is self propelled. A necessity with our large lawn and the husbandperson’s bursitis (and my arthritis). Everyone that we talked to, regardless of what make of mower they were trying to push, recommended the Briggs & Stratton engine very highly. Might be a bit more power than you’re looking for, but it does have a very nice light touch from being self-propelled.

Not knowing how large your lawn is, and not being a lawnmowing maven by any means, I can’t really recommend anything for you, these are just my own thoughts since we just came out of the process!

Dunno if that was any help or not…

[Jason]

Depends on the size of the lawn. I have 1/3 akr. After looking I went to sears and snapper they are the most common. I chose the sears because of cost. I do highly recomend a drive frount or back, if lawn is uneven the big wheels help. other than that I am happy with the sears and I can alwas get parts no matter where I live. Just try to get parts for a yard boy or something.

[Henry In MI–Great Lakes Moderator]

Laurie, storage of your mower is another issue to consider. I have a shed that is about a foot and a half above the ground at floor level and it’s not hard for me or the kids to lift a mower in or out but it could be for you. For what it’s worth, we did real well by buying a $100 (now $160 or so) Sears mower and throwing a tarp over it when the mower had cooled. I still got 4-5 years use out of a mower which translates to $40-50 bucks a season in mower cost except gasoline. How nice I was to the mower as far as a new spark plug every year or so and oil changes were also cost factors and once rust got a good foothold it could progress pretty quickly. But we valued play equipment, swings and such, and a good kids lawn with interesting bugs and such as more important than a garage to them.

Our 2 across-the-street neighbors have beautiful sodded lawns and they both have electric mowers and mow the grass daily, the only “workout” they or their lawns get except for the walk to the convenience store to get lottery tickets. The neighbors, not the lawns, buying the tickets, of course. But with this much mowing, we appreciate the consideration of the quiet mowers.

Reel mowers do not always work as well on days when it’s 100 degrees in the shade, except they ain’t no shade, as they do in the mower shop in springtime. Heat expands things. If you adjust for hotter temps, the cutting will be ragged in the fall. This is true with either people powered or motor powered reel-type mowers. Pushing a reel-type mower ranks second only to plowing with a mule in the worst job category but only because the view is better but control is worse with the push mower.

Henry in MI

[jon]

I have a Murray 17 horse riding more. I ran out of gas with it and when I put gas in it the starter will not do any thing. Any HELP

Jon

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