manual/reel lawnmowers?

[SweetPotato]

Does anyone have one? We're moving to a new house with a smaller, flatter lawn area, and want to ditch our old gas-gussler for a new reel mower. Does anyone have any recommendations on brands, etc.? We've only seen the ~$100 ones at Lowes, Menards, etc. and don't really want to spend too much more, but we do want to be happy with our choice.

[IntuitiveJamie]

:
Me too!

[sweetcheeks]

This will probably be of no help since it's the beginning of the season but we got our reel mower at the end of season clearance a couple years ago for $30 (can't remember the brand). I love it! I can mow when the kids are outside or in the way early AM when it's still cool out and not have to worry about p!ssing off the neighbors.

[insahmniak]

We are going on our third season with a Scott (?). It was around $125. It's quiet, doesn't stink, never needs gas or oil. I just don't get why more people don't use these things. Completely baffles me. Oh, but mistakenly running over dog poo still gives roughly the same effect. (Neighbor dogs somehow love our yard.)

We like ours a lot. It's adjustable - you can raise and lower the wheels. Our DD LOVES to push it around with us. And I just love that quiet rotary sound of the blades slicing the grass.

One thing - it probably needs to be sharpened and I have NO idea how to do this. We're going to have to figure it out this year.

[eco_mama]

We have a reel mower and love it. Great investment for only $100.00.

[Narn]

Ours was like 80 some bucks at Home Depot. We bought it last year and so far so good! I think DH is a little embarassed to be seen pushing it around our yard. But our neighbors yard is the same tiny, tiny size, and he looks like such an ass trying to push his electric mower around all the stuff in his yard!

[jdejong]

My dh insisted upon one several years ago when we bought our house, and I'm so glad he did! We have a Brill, which we bought online from Sunlawn. It's worked great, although it does need to be sharpened. DH also broke a wheel, completely his fault, and getting a replacement from Sunlawn was pretty easy, although we were without a mower for a couple of weeks.... so he actually got another one off of Freecycle. It was old, and needed to be sharpened, but that might be a good way of getting one cheaply. We love how quiet it is, and how clean of course I now get irritated by other loud mowers in the neighborhood, although a couple of our neighbors do use a reel too. Maybe this summer we'll convert more!

[Mandynee22]

I don't think I've ever seen a reel mower LOL I guess I'm sheltered :-X
When I moved here (and thus had a yard to mow LOL) my father bought me a nueton mower for xmas.
(http://www.drpower.com/TwoStepCatego...&Redirect=true)

It runs on a battery (so no gas, oil or cords) and is really quiet... but still uses energy. He said he didn't trust me using oil or gas and I would run over a cord (he knows me so well)

[pampered_mom]

I've been wondering about this. We have a medium ish size yard and I was still thinking it would work for us. It would be nice to have something we didn't have to buy gas for and that I would be interested in using. I won't mow the lawn because the exhaust fumes make me feel ill.

[Belleweather]

I also want one, but I hear they're bad for hills and yards with a lot of sitcks and branches lurking in the grass. Anyone have any experiences with that?

[mugglemom]

Originally Posted by Belleweather

I also want one, but I hear they're bad for hills and yards with a lot of sitcks and branches lurking in the grass. Anyone have any experiences with that?

Not sure about the hills but the sticks will jam it up and you'll have to keep stopping and taking them out. We don't have a lot of trees so it isn't a big problem for us. We have a Scott and it works great. Even better, our village gave us a rebate of $80 for replacing our gas-powered mower with the reel mower.

[insahmniak]

Originally Posted by mugglemom

Not sure about the hills but the sticks will jam it up and you'll have to keep stopping and taking them out. We don't have a lot of trees so it isn't a big problem for us. We have a Scott and it works great. Even better, our village gave us a rebate of $80 for replacing our gas-powered mower with the reel mower.

Awesome! I've wanted to get this started for our community, which is fast approaching non-attainment due to poor air quality (ozone). Leading contributor is poorly-burned fossil fuels. Some mowers can put out many times as much of this ozone-producing pollutant as a vehicle. We have "don't mow in the afternoon" suggestions during our yellow air days, but it's not enforced of course and the mowers buzz right along just before dinner (a popular time to mow). Can you let me know which village you're in? You can PM me if you want. I'd like to give our city more information on this. They're under great pressure to clean up our air and this might be a great chance to get more gas-powered mowers out of our neighborhoods. :

[insahmniak]

Originally Posted by Belleweather

I also want one, but I hear they're bad for hills and yards with a lot of sticks and branches lurking in the grass. Anyone have any experiences with that?

Branches and sticks will get caught in the reel and you'll need to bend over and pull them out. And they dull the blade, as with any mower. Regardless of which mower you use, it's a good idea to walk the yard and rake/pick up sticks before mowing anyhow because of the effect on the blade. I would think running over sticks with a fueled mower would be dangerous. Anyhow, if you have a "back 40" you can always consider letting it go au naturale.

I can imagine some hills being tough with a mower. Maybe try sideways?

[janasmama]

Reel mowers are great! I used one at the nursery I worked at but we don't use one at home because we have a lot of sticks in our yard because we have 3 huge elm trees and they are messy!

If you get a reel mower you should get a grass catcher with it though because although it is good to leave some clippings some times you shouldn't do it everytime, it will make you lawn look rather crappy.

[janasmama]

oh, and as far as sharpening the blades, unless you are really good at sharpening blades and have the right tools you should really take it to a professional so you don't ruin them....sometimes people who copy keys also do sharpening but you might have to call around.

[melissa17s]

We had one. I wish it worked for us, but it did not. Our yard appears flat, but the grass is bumpy. It was so hard to mow- it would take hours getting hung up on divots in the yard. Apparently, you can get yards tamped to be more level, but we have not done it, yet. We found a man that repaired discarded lawnmowers and have be using that for the time being. I hate smelling like gasoline and exhaust, but in the 5 or so years that we have owned it, we have only used about 1 gallon of gas.

[dirtyhipegirl]

I love mine... I actually look forward to mowing every week. Yeah it sucks when the sticks get caught up in the blades, but I just try to pick them all up before I mow. It's great exercise too.

[laohaire]

We don't have a very big yard, but a lot of it is on a VERY steep hill. DH actually got the reel mower for that reason. A gas powered mower is just too heavy to push up that kind of slope (seriously, it's STEEP). He had originally been using a weedeater for that area, but it was killing our grass and very time consuming. He's so happy with the reel mower, which is light enough to push up and down the hill (still an effort but not nearly as time consuming as the weed eater).

While the hill was the primary reason he looked into the reel mower, he was also very excited about its other benefits. Obviously, no gas, oil or electricity. Quiet, so he can mow whenever he wants without disturbing neighbors or sleeping toddlers. Light so mowing on the flat part is a breeze. And this year, he might even be able to mow with a toddler playing in the yard (not a real possibility when mowing with a gas or electric device).

He was so happy with it he recommended it to another family who bought the same model.

I can't remember the model name, but he splurged and got a nicer one rather than a cheapie. His feeling on such matter is that it's better to get quality equipment than risk something being in the junk yard in a couple of years. Our model has 7 blades instead of the standard 5, so mowing is easier. And the blades require no sharpening for I believe 7 years (most require yearly sharpening).

[SeekingJoy]

We have a small, level yard and LOVE ours. I don't worry about using it around the kids. Quiet. No pollution. We bought ours at Lowes when we moved out of the apartment.

[moondiapers]

Originally Posted by insahmniak

We are going on our third season with a Scott (?). It was around $125. It's quiet, doesn't stink, never needs gas or oil. I just don't get why more people don't use these things. Completely baffles me. Oh, but mistakenly running over dog poo still gives roughly the same effect. (Neighbor dogs somehow love our yard.)

We like ours a lot. It's adjustable - you can raise and lower the wheels. Our DD LOVES to push it around with us. And I just love that quiet rotary sound of the blades slicing the grass.

One thing - it probably needs to be sharpened and I have NO idea how to do this. We're going to have to figure it out this year.

We take ours to a proffessional sharpener every year for about $40. Our yard is even on a slope and it's still lighter and easier to use than our old gas powered push mower.