Hi all. I am in the process of restarting my maintenance round after taking a year off, and I am looking at new mowers.
At the moment I have a cheap mountfield 17" that I won in a facebook competition, which served me well in my first year, but I am well aware that it isn't a great mower. I have a couple of questions really about mower choice and increasing my productivity:
1. Is bigger better? I'm looking at the 53cm/21" mowers and wondering if that size is a good choice for general use? I can keep the mountfield going for rough/very small work, but If I'm paying out a lot of money, I would like to know I will have an increase in my work speed.
2. Quality of cut. The mountfield generally has to make 2 passes over the same patch in 2 directions to get a nice finish. Will a good quality mower leave a good finish in one pass? Obviously this will cut my mowing time in half.
I realise the more I spend the better quality machine I will get, and spending time on here I have learnt a lot about which machines people recommend, but my full experience of petrol mowers has so far been the cheap mountfeld, so I really just want some reassurance that the investment is worth it.
Cheers in advance
Graham :)
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Replies
Whats your budget and what does your local dealer(s) stock?
My local dealer is Broadfield mowers, they sell through http://www.mad4mowers.co.uk/category/lawnmowers online, but have a regular showroom. I can't really afford more than £600 at the moment, so I was pondering over the izy, as a local contractor uses them for the verges etc, and they said they are pretty good for a non pro mower. Plus they are quite light, which is helpful as everywhere round here has steps etc.
An Izy isn't a bad choice. A Viking 6 series mower would be good as well.
Stiga is another choice. They're owned by the same company that owns Mountfield so your dealer may be able to service them (higher end mountfields as bascially stripped down Stigas). This one comes in budget http://www.stigalawnmowers.co.uk/turbo-power-50sb-48cm-self-propell...
Get a push one as they are lighter than the self drive and also have less to go wrong.
I have a 16-17 inch izy I can't quite remember the size that has done 4 seasons on all the small/ arkward stuff. Only oil changes and spark plugs and filters changed
Poor finish on your mower may be as simple as a blade sharpen.
In response to your question - if you are dealing with steps/ terraced gardens unfortunately such 'pro roller' mowers as the kaaz/lawnflite/honda 536 series would be out because of their weight of approx 70KG (you can't safely lift them - I know I have one!)
No decent rotary mower should really need two passes over the same area to get a decent finish unless very long or excessively wet - key is keeping blades sharp, having enough engine power and enough engine revs - as well as the much neglected fact of keeping grass bag/air vents on a solid box clear - jet washing every week helps.
For a good generic wheeled mower the Izy are pretty good - easy to start, reliable and economic on fuel - personally I wouldn't have a push mower as my main/only mower but if you are dealing with small gardens it could work I guess. Self propelled Izy's used to be very slow in comparison to everything else - although adapting drive pullies etc helped its not something you could do to a new machine under warranty.
Hi Graham
If i was going to limit myself to just one mower that could do everything i would get a Etesia Pro 46 with a honda engine(one that you push)i think the code is PHE. Very light very strong will cut long grass short grass wet grass long wet grass short wet grass crap grass etc etc you name it it will cut it and it will keep cutting it for years and years. I bought mine off ebay for £350 secondhand and we cut everything from the size of a postage stamp to the half the size of a football pitch with it.For the record i have a Honda 21 roller, Contax C800 and have just bought a Etesia Bahia so i do have other options but the little Etesia will do everything.I have tried Vikings but they are, in my experience, not strong enough .If you need a roller mower get a Honda. In terms of cutting times the Etesia will keep up with my Honda and is quicker if the grass is long/wet.Its very easy to push along so consequently you go quite quickly!You are the variable drive! Finish is very good,it takes up little room , doesn't fall apart and collection is the best there is.
Hope this helps
Ross
Thanks for the advice guys, I think I might keep an eye out for a decent etesia on ebay etc for a little while, and if I don't see anything grab an izy from my local dealer. Think I'll go for a self propelled though, as every customer I have has some kind of sloping lawn.
I just got a bench grinder for xmas, so blades should stay nice and sharp from now on :)
My ideal setup would be an etesia for the people not interested in stripes, and a kaaz type roller for the more cared for gardens. But I'll work my way up to that :)
An often debated point, but it is possible to impart a 'basic stripe' via mowers such as an Etesia ..and has been much discussed on LJN (do a quick search).
There is an LJN member who is one of the main re-sellers of pre-owned Etesia's - worth hunting down (HarryTheCat on ebay).
Note that Council's normally give there guys push Etesia mowers for the fact there's less for them to break (and it keeps them fit ;)
Also worth hunting down and looking at : Toro 4W HiVacs mowers (commercial variant). 53cm cut with box, mulch or let fly as standard. New ones come in ~ £600+vat. Aagin a quick search on LJN will unearth lots of info and views.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Etesia-18-push-contractors-mower-Briggs-a...
harry the cat had about 3 etesias from him now still got 2 the engine blew on the other but I used it for 2 years before that so it had had about 8-9 years of hard work by then !
Thanks Gary, I had a look through HarryTheCat's ebay shop, and it seems like a gold mine for ex-council commercial mowers. I will definitely keep an eye on it.
I assume you mean retro fitting a rubber mat type thing to a 4 wheel mower to get a stripe? I was playing with that idea myself after reading it on here a while back, I also found that toro do a tow behind roller to achieve the same kind of thing. I suppose there are options out there :)
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