Petrol lawnmower

[Onoff]

41 minutes ago, daiking said:

I might just see if there are any German supermarket specials available.

 

In an attempt to find the cheapest mower...

 

Bet they won't beat this:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/352073280887?chn=ps&dispItem=1&adgroupid=45192390362&rlsatarget=pla-331477165372&abcId=1129006&adtype=pla&merchantid=7457754&poi=&googleloc=9045888&device=m&campaignid=861899495&crdt=0&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%2Frover%2F1%2F710-134428-41853-0%2F2%3Fmpre%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.co.uk%252Fi%252F352073280887%253Fchn%253Dps%2526dispItem%253D1%26itemid%3D352073280887%26targetid%3D331477165372%26device%3Dm%26adtype%3Dpla%26googleloc%3D9045888%26poi%3D%26campaignid%3D861899495%26adgroupid%3D45192390362%26rlsatarget%3Dpla-331477165372%26abcId%3D1129006%26merchantid%3D7457754%26gclid%3DCNnjmdq4kNUCFZEy0wodHsUGmg%26srcrot%3D710-134428-41853-0%26rvr_id%3D1259863328223

 

Surely buy two for the second battery and spares?

Edited July 17, 2017 by Onoff

[Declan52]

Went with this one in the end.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/mountfield-sp53h-51cm-160cc-self-propelled-rotary-petrol-lawn-mower/4561f

 

So far so good. 

[daiking]

10 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

In an attempt to find the cheapest mower...

 

Bet they won't beat this:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/352073280887?chn=ps&dispItem=1&adgroupid=45192390362&rlsatarget=pla-331477165372&abcId=1129006&adtype=pla&merchantid=7457754&poi=&googleloc=9045888&device=m&campaignid=861899495&crdt=0&ul_ref=http%3A%2F%2Frover.ebay.com%2Frover%2F1%2F710-134428-41853-0%2F2%3Fmpre%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.ebay.co.uk%252Fi%252F352073280887%253Fchn%253Dps%2526dispItem%253D1%26itemid%3D352073280887%26targetid%3D331477165372%26device%3Dm%26adtype%3Dpla%26googleloc%3D9045888%26poi%3D%26campaignid%3D861899495%26adgroupid%3D45192390362%26rlsatarget%3Dpla-331477165372%26abcId%3D1129006%26merchantid%3D7457754%26gclid%3DCNnjmdq4kNUCFZEy0wodHsUGmg%26srcrot%3D710-134428-41853-0%26rvr_id%3D1259863328223

 

Surely buy two for the second battery and spares?

Lol, a spare blade is £18. The mower is actually £260

[Onoff]

4 minutes ago, daiking said:

Lol, a spare blade is £18. The mower is actually £260

 

I get to wear the hat with the big D on then! 

[daiking]

3 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

I get to wear the hat with the big D on then! 

I hate eBay pages that do that. Put the cheap accessory price for the default machine listing and picture.

[daiking]

I took @billt 's advice in the end (sort of). Bought a crap Chinese made Bosch in the sale at Wickes. 37cm/1300W/£50.

 

First cut of the lawn, 10 days after laying. It was ok, light enough to throw round and none of the tinkering required of a petrol motor. Just need to perfect my mowing with a trailing cable. Filled the 40l cliipings box 3 times for 170 sq m of grass at the mid height setting. Hope its collects less if I do it more often now.

[Nickfromwales]

14 hours ago, daiking said:

if I do it more often now.

Yup..........IF,

Mowed mine the other day, emptied the bloody thing about 9 times. I bought a second hand self propelled petrol mower from the local mower repair guy for £100. 149cc B&S 4-stroke engine. 3-4 years out of it before it needed a £50 service and it's still going. Will need the clutch looking at next year so maybe I'll just get another, better used one. 

[gravelld]

Just invested in a Stiga model, with mulcher and push button start (bit of a luxury that bit). I realised afterwards how much easier a more powerful engine makes the mow - this one just powers through compared to my previous very average Mountfield.

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, gravelld said:

Just invested in a Stiga model, with mulcher and push button start (bit of a luxury that bit). I realised afterwards how much easier a more powerful engine makes the mow - this one just powers through compared to my previous very average Mountfield.

How the other half live

 

[Onoff]

I stopped mowing ours years ago. No beer holder for one thing. My only involvement is putting the belt back on when she tries to put it in reverse, checking the fuel/oil, pull starting it and giving it the odd jet wash. I must get around to sorting the leccy start. Too tight to buy a new battery!

 

(Westwood 12Hp T1200 btw).

[gravelld]

19 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

How the other half live

 

Wasn't particularly expensive, a Honda would cost double!

[Nickfromwales]

The hondas are very highly sought after in the used market. 

Push button just takes all the fun out.....next thing you'll tell me it ticks over whilst emptying the grass box too.....?

[Declan52]

If you use the mulching plug you don't need to empty anything!!!

 

[Jeremy Harris]

I find our cordless Makita mower OK.  It's not massively powerful, but does a pretty good job if you remember to cut the grass often, so it doesn't get too long.  I like the fact that it uses the same battery packs as all the other Makita tools I have, so I could just buy the bare machine.  The only snag is that it uses two battery packs, so I really need to get a twin pack charger.

[Barney12]

All this fussy wussy mower talk. Up here on the moor we go for the slightly more agricultural approach as our grass is well erm more moor! 

 

Plus it removes small trees, limbs, slow rabbits and much more  

 

 

[gravelld]

24 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

The hondas are very highly sought after in the used market. 

Push button just takes all the fun out.....next thing you'll tell me it ticks over whilst emptying the grass box too.....?

 

The irony is that with a mulcher you only end up starting it once anyway... no grass emptying.

 

Push button start was definitely a nice-to-have, added to the requirements sheet because SWMBO couldn't start the old mower... plus also the fact I've also secretly wanted a car with push button start (years following the touring cars in the late 80s/early 90s) and this is the closest I'll get!

[ProDave]

Just now, Nickfromwales said:

The hondas are very highly sought after in the used market. 

Push button just takes all the fun out.....next thing you'll tell me it ticks over whilst emptying the grass box too.....?

They always USED to do that. Remember when they had a throttle lever on the handle, put it down to idle when you took the grass box off. None of this dead mans handle and having to stop it to empty the box.

 

My Suffolk Punch was like that. I bought it to mow the 10ft by 30ft lawn of my first rabbit hutch house. Everyone else mowed such a tiny lawn with an electric mower, but such was my hate of dragging a cable around........   I was also the first to make a gate in the back garden fence. Everyone else in the terrace carried the lawnmower through the house to cut the 10ft square front lawn, another bonkers idea.

[billt]

Gave up collecting grass years ago. If you cut regularly you can get away without a mulching mower, and if you don't a mulching mower's likely to struggle.

 

I've got 3 Stigas, one with push button start, one with key start (both B&S engines) and one with pull start (Honda engine). My experience is that B&S engines are just as reliable and easy to start as Honda - Honda have just got better advertising.

[daiking]

On 2017-7-27 at 08:08, Nickfromwales said:

Yup..........IF,

Mowed mine the other day, emptied the bloody thing about 9 times. I bought a second hand self propelled petrol mower from the local mower repair guy for £100. 149cc B&S 4-stroke engine. 3-4 years out of it before it needed a £50 service and it's still going. Will need the clutch looking at next year so maybe I'll just get another, better used one. 

Yea of little faith. I have done it again because it's probably going to rain all week. 

 

Considering I haven't had to mow a lawn for 20 years*, the novelty will not wear thin for a while.

 

 

*I've done it a handful of times in that period

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by daiking

[Onoff]

Missus did ours again today!

 

I'm going to whack a jump start pack on the battery to see if the starter/solenoid are ok and that it turns over on the key. Then maybe buy a new one of these and a solar cell to trickle charge it.

 

 

 

[Jimbouk]

Having seeded the lawn immediately in front of the house, almost two months ago, the time had come for a cut.

 

Managed to bribe my daughters to remove numerous bucket loads of pebbles from the surface, took an old mower from home to site this this morning. As a treat between sanding and priming skirting boards, I decided to cut the grass, all going well, even getting stripes.

 

I start getting over confident going into the longer grass around the edges and on the banks, all good what can go wrong?

 

BANG, that’ll be the crank bent then!

 

Oh well it could have been worse, I’d been concerned about firing a pebble through the very expensive glazed frontage....

 

So what was the verdict on a cheap petrol mower? Buy now or wait until the Spring?

 

I’m going to use a Robomow ultimately for the lawn by the house, with  a ride on for the bulk of the rest, but need something for the fiddly bits.

[SteamyTea]

My sister used to cut lawns for a living (people in North Oxford have too much money).

She tried just about every mower going, ended up only getting Honda ones.

She said they were easy to start, even after a winter in the shed, never packed up and cost nothing to run really, just a basic service once a year.

[Temp]

On ‎7‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 14:58, Onoff said:

I get to wear the hat with the big D on then! 

 

That's ok. I nearly purchased a cheap Henry vacuum cleaner until someone pointed out it was a tiny one for cleaning keyboards.