anyone have a reel push mower?

lil_scorpio1985

anyone have a reel push mower? is it easy to use? does it do a good job of mowing? any recs? thanks!

diana3215

We bought a 16" reel push lawn mower a few weeks ago. My husband uses it the most but I have tried it out and really like. The plus is that it doesn't need anything to run and it does cut really well. The negative is that you need to take the time to rake up the grass you just mowed and sometimes you do have to go over a spot a few times. I think it is well worth it, plus a nice workout! Keep in mind our yard is pretty small though.

diana3215

For the rec question all the places we checked (Sears, Lowes, Home Depot) had the exact same one for the exact same price.

SheilaE

We have one and we really like it.  Although, ours is about 20-30 years old.  Ours is heavier than what they are now days.  I have no idea what brand ours is.

We never have to rake up after mowing but then again we do it at least 1-2 times a week.  The shorter the grass is the easier it is to mow.

I have seen them at Sears and Lowes.  You can get a bag to put on it to catch the clippings if that is something you are interested in.

CDMay2006

Ours is quite old (garage sale find) and we perpetually neglect to sharpen it, but it still does well.  You can adjust the cutting height just as with a gas-powered mower, but leaving grass longer helps reduce water needs.  We usually leave the clippings on the grass (unless we waited too long to mow; then we rake it up).  I love how quiet it is.  And it doesn't take much longer -- yesterday i mowed our yard in the same amount of time it took the neighbor to mow their comparable lawn with a gas mower (though i did work up a sweat).

toadstool

We have one. It is a couple years old, we got it at sears. We really like it. It's easier to cut the grass if you keep up with it. Once you let it go, it can be a pain to cut. Our yard is very small so it works for us.

pixieprincss

Yes. We borrowed one from a friend to try it out and then bought a used one off CL. The first cut was the hardest because of the length. The next two cuts were fast and easy.  I agree with PPs that it is easy if you keep up with the lawn. It doesn't like springy tall weeks AT ALL. So, keep up with the cutting and it is easy peasy.

I love that it is so quiet!

diana3215

People hadve a good point. I should have told you we had to rake because of letting it grow too long. It was about 1.5-2 feet tall when our HOA gave us our warning. If you do it regularly you shoudl be okay.

heliocentric

We have one and DH stopped using it. As others mentioned, you really need to keep up with the length or the reel mower will just push it over instead of cutting it. Where we live that can mean mowing 2-3 times a week, which is very difficult for us. It's also hard to push if your lawn is lumpy or uneven.

If you have a small, even yard that you can mow frequently, it should work just fine.

littlemissflip

Like others, we had problems with our reel push mower only because we didn't mow often enough.  Once the grass/weeds get too long, the mower mostly just pushed them down flat instead of cutting them.

Another problem we had was that we have several large trees in our yard that are always dropping twigs/sticks, and these jam up the reel mower if you don't go through and pick them all up from your yard beforehand. 

But the main problem we had was that our lawn is really lumpy and bumpy and uneven (tree roots, etc.), so even on the highest setting, we'd end up gouging big chunks of our sod out when going over bumps (and then failing to cut grass in the depressions).

I love the idea of push mowers, and I was sad to replace ours with an electric mower, but... the electric mower has been working better for us with our sad little lumpy twiggy not-mowed-enough lawn

SuperGreen

We have one, it's a couple years old from Home Depot.  It works great, like PPs said you have to mow often.  If you let the grass get too long it wraps around the mower and bends instead of being cut, so you have to go over the same patch several times.  If you keep up with the grass it works great.  It's so quiet and easy to store.

Emmii's Ocean

littlemissflip:

Like others, we had problems with our reel push mower only because we didn't mow often enough.  Once the grass/weeds get too long, the mower mostly just pushed them down flat instead of cutting them.

Another problem we had was that we have several large trees in our yard that are always dropping twigs/sticks, and these jam up the reel mower if you don't go through and pick them all up from your yard beforehand. 

But the main problem we had was that our lawn is really lumpy and bumpy and uneven (tree roots, etc.), so even on the highest setting, we'd end up gouging big chunks of our sod out when going over bumps (and then failing to cut grass in the depressions).

 

This, exactly. I could have written it word for word. 

cyprissa

We have one. When we lived in the duplex with a small, flat yard it was great. Although like the peeps said, you have to mow more frequently.

Now we have a bigger yard and a hill so we caved and bought a rechargeable electric mower....it was taking DH way too long to mow with the reel mower.

blackcatshady

It is a GREAT workout! I never realized how much a regular lawn mower kind of propells itself until i started using a reel push mower!

uncannycanuck

We also went with cordless electric/rechargable.

It seemed to fit our needs better. If you don't go for manual, electric (corded or cordless) is the next best thing.