The only use for an electric flymo I've ever come across is if you have 45 degree grass banks - then it's the one thing that works well, swinging from side to side from above (or below if you like Russian Roulette with your toes).
to let it grow longer than I should and when I get round to mowing it it's always longer than it should be and usually damp.
after a minute or two so I have to poke it clear with a stick.
to stall as much.
Not electric, but one of these?
Same here. I bought a 2nd hand mower with a B&S engine on ebay about 5 years ago for £30. It's still going strong and starts without issue. It's currently being fed on a diet of 12 year old petrol recovered from a car which had been standing for years in the garage before I scrapped it, and is running fine on it! I don't have a very big lawn, but the previous electric mower was so pathetic I gave it away when I bought this one. Soooo much easier with the petrol one.
geoff wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@virginmedia.com:
I had this problem when the bottom blade wasn't set properly - so that rotating blade was missing the lower blade and not shearing the grass in a proper scissors manner. Are you sure it is set properly - try (unplugged) if it will cut newspaper. Often the bottom blade gets damaged, distorted - or its purpose is not understood
I hated Briggs and Stratton engines. I've got a Honda mower and still like the engine.
to let it grow longer than I should and when I get round to mowing it it's always longer than it should be and usually damp.
after a minute or two so I have to poke it clear with a stick.
to stall as much.
Look for an induction motor mower. You may have to go to a lawn mower specialist as these are more expensive, much longer life, and not stocked by the sheds.
Cheap rotary mowers use universal motors (i.e. with brushes) because they're dirt cheap. But they are completely the wrong torque profile for grass cutting - they have no torque at top speed, and only generate torque as you slow them down, at which point they are much less effective at grass cutting.
An induction motor is the opposite. It has very little torque at slow speed, and maximum torque at almost it's top speed. This means it generates max power when cutting the grass without slowing down, although you may have to momentarily lift the blades out of long grass to start it.
An induction motor mower is more efficient at grass cutting, so you will generally find they are rated at a lower power for a given cutting width than a universal motor mower, but that doesn't mean they are less powerful at cutting the grass - quite the opposite.
The tendancy to clog depends on other aspects of the mower too, but chances are, if you buy an induction motor mower, it's probably better designed throughout, not just the choice of motor. I have two of them (I cut the lawns of two houses), one 20 years old, and one 12 years old, and both are working fine, although the older mower's height adjustment has seized up (it's stored outside in the rain), and it did need a new motor capacitor a few years ago - about 2 quid from CPC.
B&S are a good compromise between price and something that actually works! Honda is good, but expensive. Anything cheaper than B&S doesn't work very well.
The ill working plastic carburettor in my B&S equipped Mountfield B&Q cheapie put be off the whole thing. It failed me after about 3 years. I put more money up and bought a Honda Izy 16. Faultless, takes no time to do the whole lawn and well behaved if a bit overgrown. Very easy to start.
I have a Bosch Rotak electric mower and it's probably the best electric mower I've ever used (I've had flymos - hover and rotary - and cylinder mowers in the past).
It never struggles power-wise with long grass etc. The only issue is that if the grass is long and damp, the grass "exhaust" clogs easily and eventually the blockage backs up and starts to foul the blade. But that can be fixed to a great extent by clipping the downward pointing flap upwards - at the expense of grass-cutting coated trouser legs as the grass then exits horizontally rather than downwards....
And of course, don't use a grass collection box if you are cutting really long grass or you'll be emptying it every 10 feet. Just live with the cut grass on the lawn...
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