No gas mower, the reel thing

[swirt]

Faced with concerns of disturbing guests as I mow around their cabins (both for noise and kicking up dust) combined with rising gas prices I bought a reel mower. I had one as a kid and it was a big heavy monster.

I bought the Scotts Classic (20" cutting path) and I have to say I am mostly very happy with it. It is light and easy to push (siginficantly easier than my self propelled mulching mower) and as I had hoped, it doesn't make much noise and raises no dust. The mowable part of my yard is roughly half an acre and it takes me only 5 or 10 minutes more than when using my self-propelled mower. Up hills, down hills.. no problem. One other thing I like about it is that you can mow at the edge of a mulched area (like the edge of a flower garden) and it won't suck up all the mulch and spray it all over the yard.
The one drawback it has is that it can't cut anything that is taller than half its height. Anything taller than 5 or 6 inches just gets pushed flat before it gets to the cutter. So grass gets cut just fine and many weeds get cut without a problem. Its the dandelion flowers and stems that don't get cut (the dandelion leaves get cut). So for me in the early part of spring when the dandelions are in full force, it is a problem.
Overall though so far so good, I like it, it makes me feel Greener just pusing it I'm still keeping my mulching mower for heavy dandelion season, for mulching leaves in the fall, and for when I have gone a way for too long on vacation and the yard is severely overgrown.
Pros: comes close to paying for itself in one season, quiet, clean, no dust, no fumes, cuts grass easily lightweight (~30 lbs)
Cons: doesn't do well with dandelion stalks or super tall grass, won't chop up leaves in the fall, won't bust up small sticks the way my mulching mower does.

 

[muirford]

We have never had a gas mower, ever, and only had an electric one for a short time when we lived in upstate NY. We have had a reel mower for the last 10 years and been very happy with. You do have to keep up with the lawn, and we get this very fine grassy stalks that the reel mower won't cut, but otherwise it's a great mower. Especially the no noise part.
Jeanne

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

We have never had a gas mower, ever, and only had an electric one for a short time when we lived in upstate NY. We have had a reel mower for the last 10 years and been very happy with. You do have to keep up with the lawn, and we get this very fine grassy stalks that the reel mower won't cut, but otherwise it's a great mower. Especially the no noise part.
Jeanne.

My favorite Author Phillip Gulley had this one his blog which of course cracked me up. It has to do with mowing, so I am going to post it here. Phillip Gulley is the author who lives in Indiana and writes the Harmony Series (amongst other books):
[h2]Back to Mowing[/h2][h3]Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008[/h3]Last week, I gave our lawn its first clipping of the season. The man who fertilizes our yard came the next day. Now I'm having to mow every third day. In short, I paid him eighty dollars to double my work load.
This is the eighth season for my lawn tractor and I'm sad to report it's working just fine. I keep hoping it will break down so I can get a zero-turning radius mower. There are thirty-one trees, bushes and other objects to steer around in my yard and I'm starting to get forearms like Popeye from muscling around the tractor. There are many things I enjoy about spring, but being on the front end of eight months of lawn mowing is not one of them.

 

[Samster]

No way am I mowing 2 yards in the heat here with a reel mower. Just not happening....

 

[swirt]

No way am I mowing 2 yards in the heat here with a reel mower. Just not happening.....

LOL I too may be singing a different tune when the heat of summer hits.
And it is no comparison if you are currently using a riding mower. But compared to a self propelled walk behind mower, I actually find it easier to use because it weighs less than 30 lbs (compared to my walk behind which is probably closer to 70lbs) so that when I go to change direction it is a lot easier to do so. Also My self propelled mower has a top speed that is less than I could push it on the long straight aways so on those I can actually go faster than the self-propelled which helps me make up some of the time I lose on the more hilly parts of my lawn.

 

[Samster]

No way am I mowing 2 yards in the heat here with a reel mower. Just not happening.....

LOL I too may be singing a different tune when the heat of summer hits.
And it is no comparison if you are currently using a riding mower. But compared to a self propelled walk behind mower, I actually find it easier to use because it weighs less than 30 lbs (compared to my walk behind which is probably closer to 70lbs) so that when I go to change direction it is a lot easier to do so. Also My self propelled mower has a top speed that is less than I could push it on the long straight aways so on those I can actually go faster than the self-propelled which helps me make up some of the time I lose on the more hilly parts of my lawn.
.

I don't even think that a reel mower can cut our thick Emerald Zoysia grass. I wonder? Still when it's in the 90s and 90 something percent humidity, I don't think I'll try to find out.

 

[swirt]

No way am I mowing 2 yards in the heat here with a reel mower. Just not happening.....

LOL I too may be singing a different tune when the heat of summer hits.
And it is no comparison if you are currently using a riding mower. But compared to a self propelled walk behind mower, I actually find it easier to use because it weighs less than 30 lbs (compared to my walk behind which is probably closer to 70lbs) so that when I go to change direction it is a lot easier to do so. Also My self propelled mower has a top speed that is less than I could push it on the long straight aways so on those I can actually go faster than the self-propelled which helps me make up some of the time I lose on the more hilly parts of my lawn.
.

I don't even think that a reel mower can cut our thick Emerald Zoysia grass. I wonder? Still when it's in the 90s and 90 something percent humidity, I don't think I'll try to find out.
.

Yes those are the days for sitting in a hammock with a frosty fruity rum drink , while the cabanna boy mows your lawn. LOL The guy at homedepot said if I didn't like it I could bring it back within 10 days...the mower, not the fruity rum drink

 

[YellowSocks]

We had a reel mower in Maryland for our tiny yard... wonder if we still have it or we gave it away? We have an electric one which I love, but dh informs me that we have significantly fewer extension cords than we used to.
Dare I ask how much it cost?
=) Kk.

 

[swirt]

We had a reel mower in Maryland for our tiny yard... wonder if we still have it or we gave it away? We have an electric one which I love, but dh informs me that we have significantly fewer extension cords than we used to.
Dare I ask how much it cost?
=) Kk..

~$120 at HomeDepot

 

[Samster]

We had a reel mower in Maryland for our tiny yard... wonder if we still have it or we gave it away? We have an electric one which I love, but dh informs me that we have significantly fewer extension cords than we used to.
Dare I ask how much it cost?
=) Kk..

~$120 at HomeDepot
.

It was already in the mid 90s today and it's not even Summer yet. 90s for the rest of the week.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

mid 90's to high 90's all week for us as well.

 

[YellowSocks]

mid 90's to high 90's all week for us as well..

This will be the first week with temps above 80, I think.
=) Kk.

 

[swirt]

mid 90's to high 90's all week for us as well..

I hear the heat is coming.... went out yeterday and fired up the AC units in each cabin to make sure they were ready.