lawnmowers? Are they all crap?

[dmc]

Mowing the lawn this afternoon and all the magic smoke escaped from the mower :-( I wasn't stressing it at all - it's just died (no power, god awful noise and several of the windings are a charred mess :-/).

This was a 100 quid flymo rotary in it's third season. ~6x12m lawn so nothing major. Having dismantled it and seen just how crap it is I'm pondering just buying a cheap and chearful 40 quid job and accepting it will probably only do this year. I'm reluctant to spend another 100 quid on a flymo model...

Any feel if any of the other brands are any better? There are some Bosch models for 80 quidish but are they just as crap as the flymo? (and more importantly, just the same as the MaxPowerUberOwnBrand models that go for half the price?).

I'm tempted to go cheap and just assume it'll be crap - less chance of being disappointed :)

Any recomendations? Previous one was something like the flymo on

- want something similar. Petrol not an option ta - want leccy.

Darren

[Dave Osborne]

The Bosch Rotak models are a best-buy in Which? magazine (if that carries any weight with you).

[Jules]

Hmm, my Dad had one of those ancient Flymo petrol hover models from way back - apparently it finally gave up last year. One of the engine supports had cracked and it was getting a bit unreliable close to the end, but it must have done close on 40 years of service, which isn't half bad. I'm not sure if that can be expected from any mower these days, petrol or electric :-(

[meow2222]

There's a very simple way to get a machine thats likely to last well, if that's all you want - buy an old one. And I mean old.

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

It's a long time since I've seen a Flymo, but I used to have neighbours with them, and had one myself in a rented house, and they were all crap. Spent many hours with them in bits, and they aren't intended to be repairable.

Find an induction motor one. I've bought two over the last 15 or so years, and they're still both working fine. You may need to go to a lawnmower centre. When I last looked at the ones in the DIY sheds, they were all universal motor mowers like the flymo, although that was 10 years ago. A universal motor is cheaper, and unsuited for grass cutting.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Buy my old Hayterette..build like a tank..not leccy tho.

[Al]

Works for me. Ditto leaf blowers / garden vacs. Built to last a year and a day. Buy cheap, salvage the copper content, bin it buy a new one.

Al.

[www.GymRatZ.co.uk]

a good-un

:-)

[Owain]

Pet goat?

Or a push-along from a second-hand dealer.

Owain

[newshound]

How do you recognise this from the outside?

[Andrew Gabriel]

My parents bought a Sears petrol mower when we lived in the US in 1965. I used it until 1995. It was still working, and the Briggs and Stratton engine (2.5HP or 3.5HP, can't recall now) was perfect, but the steel bodywork was cracking, and I had visions of a catastrophic failure with bits of mower and blade flying in all directions. The blade had caught one bit of loose steel ducting, and ripped it off. I was unaware until a few seconds later when I heard it land on the other side of the road, and even then, I didn't realise for a few moments that it had come from the underside of the mower.

[Andrew Gabriel]

You can't. Need to check in the instructions/specifications, or if you're in a specialist lawnmower centre, ask the staff. Both my induction motor mowers are German (different makes though).

Induction motor mowers tend to be less power than the same size universal motor mower. This is because the induction motors used seem to be more efficient (the energy goes into the grass cutting, and not making the motor red hot).

[Steve Firth]

Oh well in that case your answers are easy. Yes, they're all crap. All electric mowers are crap. All rotary mowers are also crap, but perhaps slightly less crap when powered by petrol. Sometimes they are a necessary evil since they do work where a cylinder mower will not and they cost less than a decent flail mower.

But if you want a decent mower at a reasonable cost then get one with a petrol engine. Even "cheap" brands such as Power Devil and Sovereign are way better than electric mowers, especially better than Flymo which really are the pits.

[Steve Firth]

Well, it should indicate which ones to avoid (ie. avoid the Which? best buys).

[brass monkey]

In what way are petrol ones better?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Power. You are limited to about 3KW which is about 4bhp. You can't cut a lot with that.

[Jules]

Such as:

[Steve Firth]

They're more powerful, less messing about, it's impossible to cut the non-existent cord and you don't have to fiddle about trying to keep the cord out of the way of the lawn mower. In general the grass boxes are bigger and the mowers can be self-propelled which is a real benefit unless your garden is the size of a handkerchief.

For years my wofe insisted on having electric lawnmowers for some weird reason. Then eventually she let me buy a petrol mower. After a couple of days she was asking me why we had messed about with electric mowers for so long.

The nagatives with a petrol mower is that you have to learn how to start it and some people just down seem to be able to work a recoil starter. And those who can start one usually just drop the handle after starting then wonder why the handlle breaks so easily.

The only thing that killed off my previous petrol mower was the cost of a new carburettor after the old one failed. It was actually cheaper to buy a new mower.

[The Natural Philosopher]

You can get little walk behinds with electric starters now..

Well you obviously don't buy the sort that I do. Even the little Hayterette I bought for a couple of hundred 30 years ago =

cant be replaced much under =A3400.

And the ride on was a couple of grand.

[Steve Firth]

Well no, I wouldn't. I'm not a tit.