Saturday, April 2, 2011

Lawnmowers

We currently have a petrol mower (aka temperamental beast).  It's big, it's smelly and it starts only when it wants to.

It's made us think, is it really the best option for our 100 square metres of soon-to-be lawn?

Our options...

Reel Mower / Green Mower / Old fashioned mower



Are we mad for considering one for the new place?  Feels like stepping back in time!  However, with only a smallish area of grass out the back to cut perhaps it's one of the best options.

Let's see...

  • Light weight - check
  • Cheap - check
  • Easy to store - check
  • Unlikely to break down - check
  • Good for the environment - check
  • Quiet - check

Here's a review and a bit more info on them here and here.

Electric Mowers



Hmmm, electric mowers.  Conjures up images of running over cords and getting electrocuted to me but "B" has been chatting to some of his workmates and several of them think this is where mowing is at!  Interested me enough to look into them a little more.

The picture above is of a cordless Bosch electric mower and got some pretty awesome reviews here.  Pretty exxy (although I'm sure you can get cheaper ones but I do love Bosch) and some of the benefits are:

Pros

  • Light weight (about 60% equivalent weight of a petrol mower)
  • No fumes
  • No temperamental start up
  • Great finish to the lawn
  • Quieter than petrol mowers
  • Low operating and maintenance costs


Cons
  • About 1 hour battery time (would suit us though, 30 minutes tops for our soon to be back yard)
  • Expensive (about $700 for this one)

 4 Stroke Petrol Mower



It's only fair we look into the pros & cons of a 4 stroke petrol mower as a comparison to the above...

Pros
  • Perfect for a really large lawn
  • Gets through long grass
  • Great finish to lawn
  • Can be reasonably cheap

Cons
  • Have to store fuel
  • Loud
  • Smelly (fumes)
  • More maintenance issues

Obviously there's a load more different types from ride on mowers, roller mowers (for perfect-bowling-green-looking grass) to self-mulching mowers but I think we'll be choosing between a Reel and an Electric Mower.

What type of mower do you have?  Do you love it?  What do you recommend?



4 comments:

Chuq said...

We have that exact same Bosch battery lawnmower - the 37 LI. Bought it a few months ago. Yes, expensive, but definitely worth it! Highly recommended!

Karla said...

So great to know, thanks Chuq!

Cass said...

We have a fantastic Honda Petrol Mower... it starts every time with one pull. Cuts the lawn well and it does not blow smoke and does not seem to smell. It cost us a lot of money but it has been worth it as I have currently about 400m2 of lawn to mow... next house will be a 1/4 of that... eventually I would probably get something smaller... like the idea of the the first one but not sure on how well they cut...

Unknown said...

Another great post and yet another thing I have to add to my thinking list! After 3 years living in a flat this completely slipped my mind... :)

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