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American Lawn Mower Company - Push Reel Lawn Mower
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JK
I just moved into a rental duplex with a yard of about 3,000 square feet to take care of. Not huge, but not a postage stamp either. Being a rental unit, the "grass" in the yard is mostly dandelions, crabgrass, and broadleaf weeds, with the occasional patch of dense fast-growing grass. In other words, a whole lot of exactly what this mower supposedly can't handle. But it is light enough and the cutting path is narrow enough that you can power it through, and if it stalls, back up a couple of feet and try again. It's a very well-made mower, the blades are pre-sharpened, the reel turns easily and smoothly, and the mower cuts cleanly even through the heavy stuff with very little effort. It took me about 40 minutes, with plenty of overlap between passes, to complete the neglected and overgrown yard.The only change I made was to set the reel to the highest mowing level, 1 3/4 inch, which is around what most gas mowers cut at by default. The lower preset level would probably cause the mower to constantly bog down in the thickest part of the broadleaf weeds. At the highest level, it just takes the tops off of them. For a rental yard, the results look fine, about on par with the neighbors' gas-mowed yards.I wouldn't want to tackle a large yard with this little mower. It would be easy, but would take forever. For a smaller yard, it's well-suited. The actual cutting width is about one foot. If you figure on 1/2 or 1/3 overlap between passes, you're really only cutting 6 or 9 inches width per pass. So, even a smaller yard will take a while. But the mower is remarkably easy to push. Not much harder than a full-sized self-propelled gas mower, seriously.Assembly is quick. You'll need a pair of pliers or vise grips. Assemble the handle sections by attaching them with bolts and locknuts. The locknuts have plastic wings on them so you can tighten them by hand. Slide the foam grips onto the upper handle sections. The completed handle assembly then slides onto two inward-facing pegs at the top of the mower section. The outward pressure of the handle lower arms pretty much keeps them in place on the pegs, but there are C-clips to push onto grooves in the pegs to keep the handles in place. You'll need the pliers to squeeze the C-clips into the grooves. That's it, the mower is assembled.Adjusting the height of the reel involves removing two bolts and locknuts that hold the back rollers in place. You'll need a wrench to do that. There are holes in the vertical supports for the back rollers, and holes in the back of the mower. Remove the bolts from the preset holes, move them to other holes, replace the locknuts. It took me longer to move the reel to the highest setting than it did to assemble the mower.As the instructions suggest, hit the blades and reel with plenty of WD-40 before and after each use to keep them rust-free and also to help keep the grass from sticking to the moving parts.Overall, I'm very pleased with this little mower. It's a small dog that thinks it's a big dog, and it gets the job done. For the price, the quality is remarkable. It's surprisingly easy to push and use. A great value. Recommended.
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The Bees Knees
Holy Manoly. Susan here. Put the thing together in ten minutes (had to find a small spanner to keep hold of the bolt head while I turned the knobs on tight for the handle assembly).I'm going to add four photos to this review to show you just how long our grass was/is ... and how much little old me got done in 25 minutes.It's 90°F outside and I had to come on in. Notice I DID wear a hat! Great way for me to drop 10 lbs (one of the reasons I bought the little thing). Great arm exercise and stomach too ... not to mention the legs with all the walking! Will put sunscreen on later on.Don't worry, I WILL NOT be cutting all 2.34 acres with this! (We have a SCAG mower that needs a repair hence a quick eighty-buck purchase delivered in two days!) I am REALLY pleased with it straight out of the box. I didn't adjust the cutting blade height ... I just pushed it and away I went! I did have to go over some areas twice -- no surprise -- the grass is L-O-N-G so I did a few overlaps too, just like I would with the power SCAG mower in dense areas.I like the way you can pull it backwards on its rear rollers (keeping the blades off my concrete patio!) so you can move it to store it. Yes, it's light enough to lift and carry but obviously KEEP your HANDS away from the blades. Nuff said.
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Sandy
I love this little manual grass cutter. I really love it. And I have a yard with lots of sticks.I live on a wooded hillside lot. My front yard is tiny and drops off with steep slope (think cliff) and my other grassy area is up above a retaining wall behind the house. I didn't like using a power mower in the front yard because it felt like the heavy mower wanted to go over the cliff when I got close to the edge. And lugging the power mower up the retaining wall steps out back was a pain. So I bought the lightest, smallest model of this reel mower and couldn't be happier.I see lots of complaints about the reel getting jammed on sticks. Sticks do jam the reel, but I found that the jam is pretty easily cleared by using your foot to tap the reel back towards you (just step on a blade and push it down), or if that doesn't work, rocking the mower forward a little (sort of walking it, one wheel, then the next) does the trick. I've only had to actually bend down and pull out a stick a few times.The mower is so light that I can easily carry it up the stairs to the top of the retaining wall. I'm a woman, in her 50s, and in moderately good shape.And it does a really nice job of cutting the grass. You need to take you time and maybe go over spots with high grass a few times. But I find is kind of relaxing and fun. Have you ever used one of those old-fashioned carpet sweepers? It's kind of like that.Oh! And it's quiet. No motor. Just the sound of the reel turning. Mow in the morning and not wake your neighbors :-)
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Craig Brubaker
I have about 1200 ft/2 to cut and got this because I have no place to store a regular rotary mower of any sort. So many people warned me about how hard it would be, how slow, how it doesnt cut tall weeds, how sticks jam it up, on and on.All I can say is I LOVE IT!I push the whole yard in about 20 minutes, including a few overlaps to get stragglers. True, it does not cut grass taller than about 6" or so very well, the blades/weeds just sort of lay down as the mower goes over and get skipped. My first time out required criss cross pattern cutting to get it all, but on routine cuts now it is a breeze. The mower pushes easily and cuts well at any reasonable walking speed.Yes, the occasional stick or piece of mulch stops me, fortunately twigs are not a major issue in this particular yard, YMMV. If I do find something that stops it (and it STOPS! be ready to buckle over the handle which fortunately folds away when this happens) a simple turn of the reel backwards with your foot lets whatever it was drop free and you can carry on.My lawn has improved since switching to this from having a yard service do it with their big rotary machines. Knowing what I do now, I would have spent more up front and gotten a wider model with 5 blades instead of 4, but that is me not any fault of the product.
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Karl S. Keene
This is one of the best purchases I've made in a long time. I grew up using a heavy old-fashioned reel mower, so I thought I knew what to expect. However, as you will see in this video, this newer model is much lighter, easier to maneuver around, and cuts grass like a dream!This mower was easy to put together, just be sure to pay close attention to the included instructions. I didn't need any tools to assemble mine.This mower is 14" wide, which isn't much more than one foot wide. If you have a small-medium area to mow, this mower is a great choice! Just keep in mind, that if you have a large lawn, you will have to do more trips across your lawn than you would with a larger gas-powered mower.I highly recommend that you rake your yard before use. This is a fine mower and it will cut your grass well - but it is not a power mower and it doesn't cut through twigs and branches very well. It will jam up if it catches a twig or branch, which can be annoying if there are lots of twigs or branches in your yard. Unjamming the mower is easy - just rotate the blades backwards gently with your foot. I discovered that this mower won't cut down really tall weeds - it just pushes them over, as it did when I tried to cut a weed down in this video. (I'll just have to dig up or pull out those tall weeds!)The greatest thing about this mower is that it isn't a gas guzzling, pollution spewing, noise making machine! There's no more gas or oil to purchase, and and all you smell is your freshly cut grass!
