Need to buy a petrol mower..... suggestions?

Hi All,

We are about to move into our own home with a much larger garden than our current rental property. The garden is on a slope.

Need to get a better mower than we currently have (A very small electric flymo). Have a budget of £250 for a petrol lawnmower. Any suggestions?

 

You'll need our Lawnmower Man *Dim* for that one, he'll be along later.

This is him in action,

 

at £250, they are all very similar, as most of them use similar/the same Briggs engines

here are a few:

for brand new:
http://www.mountfieldlawnmowers.co....ed/s461-pd-46cm-self-propelled-lawnmower.html

(slightly over your budget, but is self propelled and has a large catchbox)
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this small Hayter is not too bad, but is not self propelled:
http://www.taylorsgardenbuildings.co.uk/store/customer/product.php?productid=23995&

for 2nd hand, but well over your budget (a buy it now of £375) ... Etesia Tebb 21
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ETESIA-TE...arden_GardenPowerTools_CA&hash=item3376fa6334

a brand new etesia with similar specs costs over £2000 ... large machine but will last you a lifetime as it's a commercial mower and built like a tank ... if you can stretch your budget, get the etesia

 

If the slope is significant then I think a Hover mower helps.

I prefer a mower with a rear-roller - because if you just have 4 wheels and drop one wheel over the edge it will scalp the edge ... whereas with a roller you do need to keep the front wheel on the lawn, but the rear roller can overlap the edge.

If you want stripes you need a roller. If you want fine grass you need a cylinder, rather than a rotary.

After that I would be considering whether you have long grass to cut, or if it will all be "lawns" - so you only have to cut short grass.

Then the number of safety controls and how much that impede you being able to do the job, add weight, and so on. Try out the weight of the machine - how easy is it to manoeuvre in a tight space?

And finally "engineering". Presumably you can cut your grass in an hour or so? thus the machine will only get light work, so any reasonably well know brand should do the job. Honda petrol engines seem well respected. Blade height adjustment that is easy, and won't "jump out" by itself, likewise forward-speed control (my John Deere has a silly plastic handle, with a notch, that won't stay in for love nor money). For Rotary a guarantee on the hood - my J.D. has a 10 year guarantee, it is built like a brick outhouse, and still the hood split within 2 years :(

Cost of servicing and running costs (acres-per-gallon-of-petrol) worth considering - the cost of the petrol in the lifetime of the mower will exceed the mower cost, if you find one that does, say, 50% extra acres-per-gallon then you will save money, in the long run.

 

if your home is on a slope, don't even consider a hover mower (with no wheels)

they are easy to use on a downlsope, but it's a different story trying to mow uphill with these (I know, as when I started out mowing lawns, I used to use the clients mowers, and more than 50% of my clients own these ... (I don't like hover mowers at all)

one of the best cheaper models is the electric Bosch Rotak 40 .... this is an excellent machine and a pleasure to use .... it does stripes, is east to manoevre, is light, and can even pick up all the grass even if it's wet ... and costs under £150 ... even the slightly smaller one (Bosch Rotak 34 which sells at approx £100) is a brilliant machine

you never have to service it (it costs approx £80 for a full service for a petrol mower, and should be done once a year,)

I am thinking of getting one for the smaller gardens that I do .... I have a few clients that have lawns that are approx 50 square meters ... I don't then have to offload a much heavier petrol mower for a few minutes work, and the owners are normally at home when I work, so there will be no prob to connect to power ... and I don't mind mowing with a cable

 

I bought a Mountfield electric start self propelled petrol mower - an similar version of this http://www.mountfieldlawnmowers.co.uk/s461-pd-es-46cm-key-start-self-propelled-lawnmower.html because my wife couldn't cope with a starter cord, but it turned out far too heavy for her to control/manoeuvre than our previous petrol mower, so now I have to do all the mowing, rather than just re-start after she'd emptied the grass box.

EDIT: That's because we don't have vast rectangular areas of grass, but masses of awkward shapes, narrow dead ends, etc., requiring lots of tight turning and backing up.

A neighbour also bought a mower that turned out to be far too heavy and sold it back to the suppliers.

 

Don't mow uphill with one - either drag [rather than push] it uphill, or tie a rope round the handle, lower it down the first strip and them haul it back up the adjacent one (assuming a bank step enough that it will go down under its own weight). You can also work along the contour with the mower below you - i.e. you are standing above it and it is moving sideways

I wouldn't want to use a wheeled mower on a steep bank, angle of the engine may well not be good for the oil reservoir, and going along the contour would be difficult as the mower would want to head downhill!, and up/down the slope would have its own problems (with the angle of the handle and your body) - I suspect that UP would be easier than DOWN in that regard).

If the slope is "modest" then it won't be a factor.

 

for old people, using ropes will be a mission .... rather use a petrol stihl strimmer on the slopes, and get a decent large petrol self propelled mower like the etesia to do the flats if the garden is large ...

it's big, and it's heavy, but it's easy to manoeuvre and will mow a large lawn in quick time ... just don't try lifting it up though

 

Yeah, strimmer a good idea for banks for less-able-bodied people, for sure

 

looking at the OP's avatar, a large self propelled petrol mower will be ideal (assuming that the photo is of Sarah T's new garden), but it's hard to guess without seeing what the rest of the garden looks like and how steep the slopes are....

if there are huge open spaces, perhaps a small sit on mower would be good in time to come

 

I bought a Flymo, 4 wheel, grass box with Briggs and Stratton engine over 20 years ago. It starts first pull, I may have changed the plug once. I just sharpen the rotary cutter underneath each season, wash filter,Change oil, lubricate wheel bearings. So for me this is a good make. The engine especially.

 

anything with wheels is fine .... the flymo without wheels is the one I dislike ...

 

here's an interesting brand new mower for £249.98 with free delivery:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMC20-Pet...arden_GardenPowerTools_CA&hash=item416578d26f

seems pretty impressive:

6.5HP 4 stroke petrol engine

20” diameter

self propelled

Quad Cut system uses a specially designed all metal blade cutting system delivering 4 cuts per revolution, twice that of a conventional mower - cutting cleanly, cutting smoothly and with a blade cutting speed of almost 200 miles per hour, by cutting faster every time.

The BMC Quad Cut mower is a 3 in 1 mower. Put simply, that means it has 3 separately selectable functions: One for cutting - One for Cutting and Collecting - One for Mulching cutting, with the single lever 8 adjustable height settings between 20mm – 70mm the mower will glide effortlessly over your lawn topping off or clean manicure cutting.

For cutting and collecting with rear discharge into a large 55 litre collection bag.
For mulching – to mulch the clippings, and deposit them to naturally fertilise your lawn.
Let’s not forget that here in the UK we enjoy well-groomed striped lawns - The BMC Quad Cut is fitted with a rear lawn striping comb, ideal for helping to create that true professionally looking manicured finish. And when you’ve finished mowing, there’s nothing more annoying than depositing clumps of grass over your path, shed or garage.

Well – that’s history, the Quad Cut Mower from BMC with its specially fitted deck washer allows you to simply snap on your garden hose and using the same centrifugal technology of Quad Cut, spin wash the underside of your mower making it clean and ready for the next time out.

‘Will it fit in your garage?’ – There’s no doubt about it. - With the BMC Quad cut, after use the handles and grass catcher fold and nest for easy storage.

It will fit in your garage, your shed, your lean to in fact it doesn’t take up very much space at all.

You’d be right to think that a machine of this quality, with this performance and with this specification ought to cost several hundreds of pounds – but you’d be wrong! UK Home Shopping is bringing this fantastic heavy duty mower to you at a fraction of what you would normally expect to pay.

We want you to get many years of satisfactory service out of your BMC Quadcut. To this end, we have fitted a very useful blade maintenance access point on the deck. We also stock low cost handy maintenance kits which give you regular maintenance parts to enable you to carry out simple routine maintenance to help keep your machine working efficiently. Ask about these when ordering or order directly off the website by entering order code 100365 Your 20” cut, BMC self-propelled Quad Cut mower from The British Mower Company takes the strain out of lawn management, and with a cutting speed twice that of a conventional mower, you’ll soon have the finely groomed and striped lawn of your dreams!

Special features include:1. Optional mulching facility
2. Under deck washing
3. Side blade inspection / maintenance port facility
4. Folding handles for easy storage
5. Lawn striper.
Specification:• Cutting Diameter: 20” ( 510mm)
• Wheels Large 10” Drive Wheels
• Engine: Wolf 6.5HP 4 stroke petrol engine
• Fuel type: Standard unleaded
• Deck: Very strong all Steel with under deck cleaning facility
• Drive System: Self Propelled via gearbox and half shaft drive system
• Height adjuster: Single lever height adjuster with 8 settings from 20mm to 70mm
• Grass Catcher: 55 litres capacity
• Low Noise: Only 69dBA @ 7M
• Weight: 38Kg

 

I'd like to see one that won't! That would cut even MY lawns in less than 5 minutes I reckon !!

 

they had to make mention of space, as many would read about the 6,5HP engine etc and automatically think it's way too big for them (most domestic petrol mowers have engines that are 3 1/2 HP)

if the deck were aluminium, it would be even better

but thats a pretty impressive mower for a very good price ... and is spot on SarahT's budget of £250

you would pay considerably more for a similar speced mower, and this one could be used for commercial purposes (would be perfect for a new gardener venturing into business with limited budget) ....

that would sail through tall grass and weeds ... it also comes with a 12 month warranty