Lawn Mowers

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Cutting your lawn correctly can make a huge difference to how healthy it looks and how envious your neighbours are. To do this you need to choose the correct type of lawn mower for your size and shape garden. In this article we look at petrol lawn mower's, electric lawn mowers in both cylinder lawn mower and rotary lawn mower types. We shall also discuss hover mowers to see whether they really are a lot less bother.

Petrol Lawn Mowers
Electric Lawn Mowers
Cylinder lawn mowers
Rotary lawn mowers
Hover mowers
Scythe
Buy Lawn Mowers Online

Petrol Lawn Mowers Back to top

The key advantage of a petrol lawn mower is obvious and that is that it has no cable. Wow the things you learn on the internet? The end. No, there's more. Generally speaking this is a big issue for people with large gardens who do not happen to have a few hundred metres of extension cable to drag back and forth (add infinitum) across their lawn. The other added bonus is that you do not have to replace this cable every 6 months after shredding it with your lawn mower. Another advantage is that they are powerful. If you have an area that occasionally gets out of hand or perhaps a meadow type area, then a petrol mower will usually breeze through the job (although as a young lad I remember lifting the front end of my petrol rotary lawn mower up and bringing it slowly down on the twitch in my next door neighbours garden else it would stall the lawn mower engine - now that garden got out of hand!).

There are disadvantages though. First is price in that a basic petrol lawn mower will set you back£100. A better model, say a Mountfield SP530 Self Propelled 53cm Petrol Rotary Mower will cost about£280. Another disadvantage for me, and remember I am quite a sensitive chap, is the noise they make. I have enough noise in the house with the wife and kids running around screaming let alone a 4hp engine 1 metre from my ears. I suppose I could wear ear defenders - and maybe try them on when I cut the lawn as well.

Electric Lawn Mowers Back to top

The key advantage of an electric lawn mower for most people will be the price. A basic rotary electric lawn mower will cost you about half the price of a rotary petrol lawn mower, so say about£40-50. They are generally quieter and lighter to use and need less maintenance than a petrol lawn mower.

The key area they lack in, apart from the previously mentioned tether to the national grid, is power. A basic petrol lawn mower is at least 3hp whilst an electric lawn mower is a at 1.5hp ( electric lawn mower engines are rated in watts where 1hp = 746 watts) going up to about 2 hp. Does it make a difference to the lawn cutting? Again depends on the size of the lawn, how regularly you cut it and the type of grass. In a small to medium garden you shouldn't have any problems with a standard electric lawn mower you would get from the DIY store. If you have a bigger garden then the cable won't stretch and you have to buy a petrol mower. So, its not a problem really then? (OR you could drag a petrol generator around the garden to plug the electric mower into?!)

Cylinder lawn mowers Back to top

A good cylinder lawn mower is the best type of lawn mower that you can buy to cut your lawn with. End of story really, as rotary can't compete. A good analogy is that a cylinder lawn mower is like having your hair cut at a hairdressers and a rotary mower is like having it clipped using a home barber kit. In case you don't know what a cylinder mower is, its like one of the old style mowers that folks used to have to push around before the invention of electricity and petrol. As the lawn mower goes forward, either pushed by you or under its own propulsion, a horizontally mounted cylinder rotates with a series of cutting blades on its surface trimming the grass to the desired height. The disadvantage is the cost. Whilst you can buy a push cylinder mower for less than£40, it is hard work. A basic electric cylinder mower will cost you closer£80 which will get you a grass collecting box and a roller behind the cutting blade, which should give you the stripes on your lawn you have always desired. Something a little bit more refined such as the classic Suffolk Punch will set you back over£350. But for that you get a piece of lawn mowing history and a 3 year parts warranty. OK, so your not bothered about the history bit, well its a good lawn mower.

Rotary lawn mowers Back to top

A rotary lawn mower cuts the grass using a rotating blade (I kid you not). This hacks the grass down and leaves a torn finish to the grass blade.
Need that striped finish on your lawn, then you don't have to have a cylinder lawn mower to do it, a rotary lawn mower will do a good a job as long as it has a roller on the back. Rotary lawn mowers will give you a tidy finish that looks respectable and have the advantage that it will still easily cut your grass after the winter break when its a little too long. There are also available for less money than cylinder mowers, in both petrol and electric versions.

Hover mowers Back to top 

The basic cutting method for a hover lawn mower is the same as for a rotary lawn mower the difference here is in the design of the skirt that surrounds the cutting blade. The rotation of the blades creates a down draft and the escaping air lifts the whole of the lawn mower off the grass surface so that it floats a few cm above it. This can mean that it is very easy to push around the garden and, providing that you are not interested in getting stripes, means that you can mow the lawn from side to side if you wish. I currently own a hover mower, sold by Flymo in this case, and am very happy with it. It suits my medium size garden, is quiet, collects the grass, is easy to clean and empty and didn't cost that much (about£90 I think a few years ago). Hover mowers without any means of grass collection are very cheap starting from as little as£20!

Scythe Back to top

This was how large country estates used to maintain their newly fashionable lawns that Capability Brown was laying (although not personally I suspect). Advantages with a scythe are that you can scare the daylights out of the neighbours by dressing up as the Grim Reaper whilst you cut the lawn. Disadvantages include cutting your legs off and having armed response units telling you to 'drop the weapon'.

Buy Lawn Mowers OnlineBack to top

You can buy lawn mowers from any decent home and garden centre on the high street. However you can often get much better deals if you buy lawn mowers online. One such place is Greenfingers who supply a range of quality gardening tools (including lawn mowers) at very respectable prices.

Lawn Mower Back to top 

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