<OT, so sue me> LVT Reel Mower and Garden Wagon

I still have a "reel" mower like was discussed. It is about 35 years old, and runs like a top. I think there would be safety concerns with the open spinning blades, and they take a person who know what he is doing to sharpen them. They also don't mulch, so there is more visible grass, and they don't work very well with long grass, nor do they grind up dandelions. They do cut very nice though, and are very easy to turn. I use to be able to operate it at full throttle all the time, but it must have gotten faster, because I can't do that any more!

Reply to
ToolMiser
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I used to hate mowing but I now see it as a great way to exercise and get something done at the same time. At my weight, using a reel mower, I burn about 400 calories/hour, which is about the time it takes to mow my lawn. This translates into a couple of bottles of fine Czech beer which I consume during my cool down period. (Brill's website has a chart showing calorie burn while mowing.)

Reply to
fatman985

I just bought a Gardena 6000SM reel mower. It appears to be a Brill Luxus 38, but with the handle from the one of Brill's Classic line. Beats me. Cost me $219 CDN at Home Depot.

It kicks butt, and flings grass everywhere if you hit it at a good clip; it was coming up to my waist! It had also just finished raining. Yes, I know they say not to cut in the rain but read on.

My grass had to be something like 17cm in places with an average of

15cm. My grass is nice and healthy and thick, and covers approximately 1200 sq/ft. It's true that the max height is 45mm (1 3/4 in?), but my neighbours (I live in townhouse) just cut their grass with rotary mowers and when I had finished the height looked to be pretty much the same. I used 45mm for this run. It's worth mentioning that the manual says that it'll handle 14cm grass. I didn't have a _hard_ time but it definitely needed some effort. There is a bit of a trick to it. Basically, don't let the handle rest on it's stops when pushing, bring the bar up till it is pushing in the middle between the reel and the guide wheels at the back. This way there is equal pressure pushing the mower equally into the ground. The other thing I did, when it got tough, was to grab the middle bar of the handle (this 'bar' doesn't come with the Luxus 38 as the handle is more 'stylish'. Check out
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see the handle I have) and push down on it as well. This let me, literally, get the grass flying with little problems with the results.

The Gardena/Brill mowers are really, really good as far as I can tell. I think mine was a smidge (and I mean a little) off for blade adjustment as the metal feeler gauge that comes with it seemed a wee tiny bit loose when inserted. Didn't seem to stop it from cutting though. It did seem to leave a single blade uncut once in a while but the grass was REALLY long, and it had just finished raining.

I also cut my front lawn which had been cut by my neighbours rotary mower about 5 days ago. With this the reel mower was a joke. My daughter did half of it and she's only 10. You simply walked along, holding the handle properly of course, and it snipped the grass. Piece of cake. I Mom even grabbed it from me just for old times sake. She told me that the Gardena was very different experience then the one she used as a kid.

I think it's light weight (17 lbs) and non-contact blade (you shouldn't have to sharpen the blade for 6 - 10 years apparently), sealed bearings, and simple height adjusters (a couple of knobs, and there is a clear height measurement per wheel) are what make this such a great machine. You can really wing it around.

Don't even look at other reel mowers, I tried the Scotts one in the store and the resistance from the contact blades, with no grass, was the same as the Gardena cutting the grass. You really have to try one to see how good it is.

If you get it from Home Depot there is a no questions asked return policy. Or so they told me. :)

Reply to
Peter

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