Reel mowers

jennyk213

If you have a reel mower, would you recommend it?  Is it a ton of work? How large is your lawn?

Ours is about 6000 square feet, although we're talking about converting more of it to gardens so we'd have maybe 4000 - 5000 when all is said and done.  We also have one pretty steep hill. I don't see how it's much more work than a gas or electric mower but DH thinks I'm crazy.

CDMay2006

Our lawn is ~3000, with a small hill.  If you go across the hill instead of up and down it, it's not nearly as tiring.  It is more work than a powered mower, but it's nice that you don't have to fight to start it, keep an engine maintained (oil, gas), or pay attention to a cord.
If you get a new reel mower, or an old one that has been well cared for and recently sharpened, it's not bad at all.  I like that i could do it in the evening without disturbing the neighborhood.

toadstool

We have one that we got from Sears. It works well, but it is more work. What kind of grass do you have? These mowers work really well on thinner blades of grass. If you have grass that has thicker blades, then mowing is more of a challenge. It is a workout to use these types of mowers, but I don't think they are as bad as people imagine.

CDMay2006

You can sharpen the blades yourself (a kit's around $20), or take them to a service shop (there are several in my city; they don't seem uncommon... just nondescript).  I also think sometimes the problem isn't actually that they aren't sharp enough, but that the blades need reshaping, or maybe adjusting, due to wear.  I'm not really sure, though.

jennyk213

Thanks for all this very helpful info.

I did read that about the thicker grass blades.  We have a fescue mix, apparently, and the blades are finer. It sounds like some mowers are better for thick grass vs. thin. 

How is it harder to mow? Is it like a walk in the park or like you're pushing a heavy shopping cart through the grocery store or something harder than that? I wish we could try one out before we buy one.

LolitaC

We have the Fiskars Momentum.  Its kind of like pushing a heavy shopping cart with resistance if a self propelled gas mower is like walking in the park. We have St.Augustine, and keep it cut high, about 3 inches, and if we skip a week can get a bit too long and be more difficult.  Also it can miss grass blades that are really long.  But we love it.  Its nice not to have to worry about the noise, and DH can mow really early in the AM before it gets really hot.

It can be harder to manage the turn around.  A gas or electric you can sort of pop the front up and turn it on its back wheels, you cant do that with a reel mower.  You have to do like a 3 point turn.  Buts its a great workout!

I really reccomend it, but whoever does the most mowing has to be on board.  

toadstool

LolitaC:

We have the Fiskars Momentum.  Its kind of like pushing a heavy shopping cart with resistance if a self propelled gas mower is like walking in the park. We have St.Augustine, and keep it cut high, about 3 inches, and if we skip a week can get a bit too long and be more difficult.  Also it can miss grass blades that are really long.  But we love it.  Its nice not to have to worry about the noise, and DH can mow really early in the AM before it gets really hot.

It can be harder to manage the turn around.  A gas or electric you can sort of pop the front up and turn it on its back wheels, you cant do that with a reel mower.  You have to do like a 3 point turn.  Buts its a great workout!

I really reccomend it, but whoever does the most mowing has to be on board.  

SuperGreen

LolitaC:

We have the Fiskars Momentum.  Its kind of like pushing a heavy shopping cart with resistance if a self propelled gas mower is like walking in the park. We have St.Augustine, and keep it cut high, about 3 inches, and if we skip a week can get a bit too long and be more difficult.  Also it can miss grass blades that are really long.  But we love it.  Its nice not to have to worry about the noise, and DH can mow really early in the AM before it gets really hot.

It can be harder to manage the turn around.  A gas or electric you can sort of pop the front up and turn it on its back wheels, you cant do that with a reel mower.  You have to do like a 3 point turn.  Buts its a great workout!

I really reccomend it, but whoever does the most mowing has to be on board.  

Ditto this.  This was DH's experience with our reel mower, which we had for a long time.  He really liked it.  Once we put in all the garden beds, there wasn't enough room to manuever the reel mower.  So we switched to a battery-powered weed whacker.

jennyk213

SuperGreen:

LolitaC:

We have the Fiskars Momentum.  Its kind of like pushing a heavy shopping cart with resistance if a self propelled gas mower is like walking in the park. We have St.Augustine, and keep it cut high, about 3 inches, and if we skip a week can get a bit too long and be more difficult.  Also it can miss grass blades that are really long.  But we love it.  Its nice not to have to worry about the noise, and DH can mow really early in the AM before it gets really hot.

It can be harder to manage the turn around.  A gas or electric you can sort of pop the front up and turn it on its back wheels, you cant do that with a reel mower.  You have to do like a 3 point turn.  Buts its a great workout!

I really reccomend it, but whoever does the most mowing has to be on board.  

Ditto this.  This was DH's experience with our reel mower, which we had for a long time.  He really liked it.  Once we put in all the garden beds, there wasn't enough room to manuever the reel mower.  So we switched to a battery-powered weed whacker.

That's my dream.  I know DH will veto me if I come out and suggest getting rid of most of the grass.  We converted about 1/3 of our yard to gardens last year and I have him on board to connect 2 of the gardens so that will cut the lawn down even more.  Slowly but surely....  Before he knows what happened, we won't need a mower. 

Thanks for all this super helpful info. It gave me more to talk about with DH. 

SuperGreen

Heh, I understand where you're coming from. In our relationship, it's DH that wants to get rid of all of the grass.  If it were solely his decision, our backyard would be all veggie beds and there would be no place for the dog to go to the bathroom!  As it is, the dog's square keeps getting smaller and smaller.  I keep vetoing DH's requests to turn our front yard into veggie beds.  It's all ornamental plants (no grass) that I put in myself, so it's staying put!

meltoine

I use a reel mower primarily because DH is hardly ever home, so I mow while the baby is napping and I can still hear the monitor with the reel mower as opposed to a power mower. It works great for the most part as long as I keep it up. The only problem I have is when we get heavy rain and the soil erodes a little so the ground is uneven  - then it's much more difficult. 

derky17

I wonder if our mower might be out of true or the blades aren't sharp enough.  we have a generic one from Lowes, and it's a BEAST to mow our lawn if we let it grow for more than a week.  DH had me try once and I'm pretty fit and this gave me a REALLY good workout.  It was HARD and there was more than one time when I had to use all my body weight to get it moving. 

We have a tiny, flat front yard (our mower doesn't work at all on the grass in our side yard) I think our front is mostly Zoysia ?  The blades of grass are too fine in the side yard--they just bend (but even when the mower was brand new it didn't cut the side yard.)

We got it because our yard is so small, but I don't know if we'll keep the reel mower forever just because it is so hard for us.

 

jennyk213

Thanks ladies!  Next time we see our neighbors outside, we're going to asked if we can borrow theirs to see how we like it.  After reading comments here and elsewhere online, we're worried that our lawn is too uneven and full of twigs to make it worthwhile.

CDMay2006

jennyk213:

Thanks ladies!  Next time we see our neighbors outside, we're going to asked if we can borrow theirs to see how we like it.  After reading comments here and elsewhere online, we're worried that our lawn is too uneven and full of twigs to make it worthwhile.

Sounds like a good plan.  Good luck!