Lawn Mower Advice

[beerman]

I love the idea of a quiet lawnmower. I have my grass cut by a service ($15/wk) but my neighbor mows his on the weekend. It seems like he cuts it just about the time I'm ready for a saturday afternoon nap. :-)

[Octave Doctor]

Definately check into getting your old mower looked at--a few years ago I was given three old mowers, all any of them needed was fresh gas and a new sparkplug.

[Mike Sellers]

My last mower was a $35 yard sale special, 21" push mower. But it only takes 5 minutes to mow my front yard (back yard is natural), so my needs weren't great.

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

If you don't have a big yard, consider a reel mower like this Brill:

http://www.green-living.com/index.asp?Pa...n=VIEWPROD&ProdID=65

Two caveats: first, the maximum cutting height on the Brill is only 1.8 inches, which may be too low for some people. Scotts makes a reel model that goes up to 2.5 inches I think. But it's heavier and not as well engineered as the German-made Brill.

Second, any twigs or brush (even tiny stuff) on the yard will lock up the spinning blades (and thus the wheels) on the Brill immediately. If you don't get a lot of twigs and assorted junk on your lawn you're golden, otherwise you may want to go with a power mower.

[AllGold]

If I were going to pay about $300 for a new mower, it would almost certainly be an electric (battery powered not corded) like a Neuton ( http://www.neutonpower.com/ ). No gas or oil and no maintenance other than blade sharpening or replacement. You do have to replace the battery eventually though.

[tenders]

> They said bad gas gummed the carb - That is BS.

Not necessarily. The ethanol in the last few years' formulations does have clogging tendencies. Keeping a few gallons in the garage for the summer (or longer) can bring out the worst of this. I add Sta-Bil to my gas can every time I fill it.

[Grateful11]

AllGold wrote:
If I were going to pay about $300 for a new mower, it would almost certainly be an electric (battery powered not corded) like a Neuton ( http://www.neutonpower.com/ ). No gas or oil and no maintenance other than blade sharpening or replacement. You do have to replace the battery eventually though.

If I had a small lawn that's what I would get.

[lafinfil]

tenders wrote:
> They said bad gas gummed the carb - That is BS.

Not necessarily. The ethanol in the last few years' formulations does have clogging tendencies. Keeping a few gallons in the garage for the summer (or longer) can bring out the worst of this. I add Sta-Bil to my gas can every time I fill it.

Having a carb varnish up from old gas is a very common problem
Any engine that I put into storage and that will not be run gets ran dry and drain the carb if possible.

I've resurrected many a small engine by removing the carb and soaking it in cleaner.
Worse case is a carb rebuild but you might get by with new needles.

I've bought a lot of pretty nice power equipment for next to nothing and cleaned the carb
and was ready to go. I also recommend Seafoam as a regular gas additive.

[M>B>]

Consider the extreme pollution of gas mowers...

http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq...onment.htm

Just Google...

"Pollution of Gas Lawn Mowers"

[OWC Jamie]

M>B> wrote:
Consider the extreme pollution of gas mowers...

http://www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/faq...onment.htm

Just Google...

"Pollution of Gas Lawn Mowers"

Try a flock of geese.

a lawn mower pales in comparison. :-)