Poss OT : Lawnmower thoughts

[Reckless]

Been thinking of getting a petrol lawn mower for ages now. Looked around and the prices range from the dirt cheap (£80) to the outrageous (£1000+)!

Specs I'm after: Petrol (no cable, easier to mow wet grass as [usually?] more power than electric) Rotary blade Roller (stripes and helps with uneven lawn) Self propelled (wife needs encouragement to help out with the task!) Grass collection Reliable manfacturer. Cost £400-£500 ish

The one I've eyed up closely is a Honda 425 (specific model with the above features). Anyone got any bad things to say about this one or others that would be as good?

Thanks in advance!

[Andrew Gabriel]

Most electric ones have cheap universal motors which are completely the wrong torque profile for a lawnmower. If you do buy an electric one, go for an induction motor. You'll find it more powerful at cutting the grass, even though it may have a less powerful motor, and as it has good torque at full speed, it it less likely to be slowed by a clump of thick grass. You may need to go to a lawn mower specialist -- when I last bought a mower some 6 years ago, none of the ones stocked by the sheds were induction motor types.

Ah, that probably means a cylinder mower.

I had a petrol driven mower for just over 30 years. It had a Briggs and Stratton engine, which was actually still fine when the mower eventually had to go because the bodywork rusted to bits. I gave the engine one oil change every 10 years, and possibly one or two new sparking plugs;-)

[Chris]

Ebay is always worth a good look. I bought my petrol one at a fraction of the cost

Chris

[Andrew McKay]

Mountfield gets a thumbs up from me. We've had a couple. The first had a Briggs and Stratton engine which was fine for the 15 years or so we had it - had to dump the mower because the handle broke away from the base and it wasn't economically repairable.

Andrew

[Alho]

I use a honda 425hrb (think thats the model) on a garden i maintain, i think the "RB" stands for rotor brake, which in a safety feature, let go of the handle and the blade stops, but the engine continues.. Used it for about 3 years now, no problems, starts first pull every time - even after winter rest. it is used once a week, about 4 hjours continuous cutting, copes with quite long grass no problem. quite heavy to manoevre without the drive on. also quite expensive,

[Mark Spice]

Me Too!

My parents have a Mountfield which is currently in 22nd year and still going well and I have an old one as well. Mine gets new oil and the spark plug cleaned once a year (last week in fact) and that's it as far as maintenance goes.

Hope this helps

Mark

[Heds]

We have just picked up a Hayter Harrier 2 (Briggs and Stratton 3.5HP Engine) for £15. It was being put into a skip along with other garden tools so we offered some cash for it.

A quick oil change, filter clean and a new spark plug and it was working first pull of the cord. It is a rotary and has a roller, self propelled. Great fun watching my 4 year old engage the clutch while holding on to it :-).

Anyway,

I have since seen these for around £100 s/h in local papers. It's a solid machine, built like a tank and sorted out our 'meadow' in no time. As other posters have said, they seem like very reliable machines and I have so far been very impressed. If they last 10-15 years from new then they are also well worth the price tag new.

/Heds

[Mark]

They seem to work fine for the first 3 laps, then go bang ! ;-(

[Kaiser]

You have the mentality of a 3 year old. Would you would have a good laugh when the 4 year old trips and falls under the mower?

[Reckless]

Some great responses - thanks to all. This one made me laugh though :)

[Toolmaker]

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote

I am surprised. Can you name a rotary lawnmower that uses a series motor? In my experience all rotary mowers on the market today are fitted with induction motors, even the cheap 'own brands' in the sheds.

From a manufacturing point of view, this means simplicty and therefore cost-saving - the blade can be bolted straight to the output shaft of the induction motor without the need for gearing, as well as giving a longer life. A series motor runs too fast to be able to do that, even ignoring the issue of torque.

No, some rotary mowers also have rollers, for example

[The Natural Philosopher]

Old hayters are good news. The modern ones less so. #

Well done!

Ive gor a 12 year old Hayterette. Cast cahsis push aolng roraty. Still does the business. Engine got hard to start, had a regrind of the valves and its OK now.

[John Rumm]

I have a Hayter harrier 41 (14") manual drive mower. Never been that pleased with it to be honest.

On the plus side the engine (Briggs and Stratton) is great. The single handle height adjustment is good as well.

However it has never been that good on damp grass and tends to clog far to easily - you can spend most of your time unblocking it. The motor break is a pain in that you let go of the handle and it stops the engine rather than just the blade. Although the main shell is cast ali, the undercarriage is plastic and that has basically fallen appart over the years (its about 10 now). Last time I used it, it decided that it was time to covert itself into a hover mower. The rear axel fell off again... did another 15 meters of cutting (holding it up by its handle) before the front height adjust machanism also let go at the front, leaving the thing beached with no wheels on the ground! I gave up in disgust at that point (last cut of the year), I figured I would sort it out "later" (which I guess needs to be about now!)

[Alan]

Honda are good but pricey both to buy and for spares.

Others have mentioned Mountfield and Hayter - good makes but beware as they have rubbish stuff available in the sheds aimed at those who just want something cheap.

Please go to your local independent mower dealer for some quality advice and after sales service. I trust they will also offer prices as good as you would see elsewhere (at least the one I worked at does). They will also assemble it, oil it and ensure it is perfect before you take it away.

Alan.

[Heds]

Fair enough if I hadn't been right behind him holding on to the handles at the same time while the engine was at a slow setting.

Was about as safe as it can get.

Thanks for your concern though.

Next week, I think he can try using the chainsaw.....

:-)

/Heds

[Kaiser]

If you're so clever take a look here

[Heds]

Thanks for the link.

I know what I did had some element of risk. I had thought about what I was doing and decided that it was safe. There was no risk of him slipping, I was holding the handles.

I do not allow them to run on the grass when I am cutting, I always wear safety goggles (these mowers sure do spit bits out at an amazing speed) and steel capped boots, and generally make safety my No 1 concern (wife used to work in Intensive Care Unit, so I have heard enough scary stories).

To be honest, I even worry about taking my kids in the car, in case of an accident.

Please do not think that I am some nut case who lets his children use equipment unsupervised, I certainly do not let them anywhere near my guns, chainsaw, mower, drills, welder etc etc.

regards,

/Heds

[Andrew Gabriel]

Maybe they all changed in the last 6 years, but all the Flymos and the like used to be universal motors. I was often asked to look at friends'/neighbours' ones when the brushes wore out, but the brush holders and wiring were always melted too, at this point so they were not repairable. I had one like this in a rented house too, which put me off electric mowers for a long time until a lawnmower specialist showed me an induction motor one. I could hear some neighbour on Saturday with a universal motor mower -- pretty instant full speed, but no torque when the going gets a bit tough.

I'm pretty sure blades were just on the end of the drive shaft of the universal motors. Universal motors can be designed with various different characteristics. (Washing machine ones can be quite interesting, as when run with no load and no servo feedback, some of them will overspeed and fly to pieces.;-)

[Toolmaker]

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote

Flymos - yes, maybe, as I guess that the weight of the induction motor might hinder their ability to 'fly'. OP asked about rotary mowers (actually he asked about petrol rotary mowers, so we are probably already off at a tangent), and in my experience all on the market in the last 5 years or so use induction motors. Will check on motors used in hover mowers at the factory tomorrow.

I agree that they can be designed with different characteristics, but I am not sure that they can go so low (normally no-load speed for a universal motor is 15,000-20,000 rpm which is a bit fast for a lawnmower blade).

[Tony Williams]

In article , Toolmaker wrote: [snip]

AFAIR, my 1500W Flymo, (bloody awful thing), is a universal motor with a step-down belt drive. I don't know what the exact speed of the blade is. It 'feels' like somewhere between 3000 and 4000 rpm, but that's just a wild guess.

The step-down also incorporates a slipping clutch, (to try and limit the stall current). With a series- -wound motor it is definitely good practice to get into the habit of tilting the mower (off the grass) at every start-up. This extends the life of the brushes.