Accessories

Great Mower - Serious Handle Design Flaws
Summary: Great product with a wide deck and easy to push. Handle design is awful and actually broke after several weeks of use!

Pro's:
- 20 inch deck is great and still extremely lightweight. Good because some overalap is required with push mower
- "Blades" are safe and very effective. I have a 4 year old and 9 year old and no worries about them
- Very quiet and smooth performance
- Small amount of "give" in handle helps with cornering

Flaws:
- Small diverter behind blades can collect grass and slow you down, especially when wet
- Handle design is CHEAP!!!!! Connects at the middle with two flimsy rods and some screws. This makes the performance rickety and actually broke on me after a few weeks of mowing. I had to duct tape them together to finish the job and now am figuring out how to get it fixed. My neighbor has the same issue and he is thinking about putting hose clamps on them to make them sturdier. It seems ridiculous that you would have to buy additional hardware to reinforce a poor design!

A couple of notes about reel mowing that don't have to do with this product.

- Be realistic in your expectations. If you start mowing in the Spring when the grass is thickest and you are out of shape, you may be setting yourself up to quit before you give it a chance.
- Doesn't pick up leaves! Mows right over them in most cases. So you may want to keep the gas mower for the fall and spring or invest in a lawn sweeper.
- Some annual bluegrass and other weeds can literally bring you to a halt! I've found myself almost chopping through this stuff. Again, you may want to keep your power mower around just to get through the spring.

My summary on this is you should see it almost like a bicycle at first. It is a perfect supplement to powered transport and can really get you in shape, have fun, and reduce pollution. But there are times when you really, really, need the car and so shouldn't get rid of it right away.

Half done job
The cutting portion of the mower seems well built and solid. The handle and arms of the product are terribly weak. Why would any engineer design such a poor quality handle? The product is only as good as its weakest link and the handle scores a minus 2 and the mower scores a plus 4 giving a net score of plus 2.

This could be a great product with just a little more thought put into the design of the handle supports.

My new hippie mower
Prior to purchasing this reel mower I read all the reviews at the time and found most loved it and some found it to be a lot of work. I had also used similar reel mowers in the past and enjoyed them, no fuel to purchase much lower yearly maintenance, etc. It is of course a human powered mower with some natural resistance to get the blades going, but not hard or miserable by any stretch. Our lawn became smaller in the last year and I didn't want to use our power smoker of a gas mower any longer.

So, far (1 1/2 months) the mower works great, was easy to assemble, and is easy to adjust cutting height. This mower has one of the highest cut settings I could find to ensure good water retention in our lawn soil. Also the two rear wheels make turning easy and there was no adjustment necessary out of the box to have an even deck height.

On the downside only two things you can't muscle the mower into tight places that involve a twist the handle will twist a little as well. Second and of not much concern, if the lawn is cut when really tall there will be some areas that flatten out and don't get cut. So you'll have to take another pass, although I had to do this with the gas mower also. Some people in other reviews stated that not all blades were cut dead on even and flat, I don't live on a golf course so some irregularity is fine with me, it looks more natural, grass was never intended for yards in the first place.

Better than expected
I wanted a "greener" way to mow the yard. After comparing electric and reel mowers, I opted to buy the Scott's Classic. When I opened the box I was pretty skeptical at how this thing was gonna cut my yard. The only two things I needed to do out of the box were to attach the handle and change the cutting depth. Both were simple. 30 minutes later I was cutting my yard. I have to admit, it's intoxicating to cut grass with this mower. No loud motor, no smelly fumes, no vibrations....just a nice quieter "whish" as the blades move. I was very surprised at how easy the mower was to push. It was actually easier than a heavier gas mower. One of the best features of this mower is how nice it manicures the grass. Golf course quality!!! WOW!
The only draw back to this mower is that you cannot let your grass get too high between mowings. Higher grass is harder to cut. It also has trouble with certain tall and thick weeds but I just pull them as I go. No biggie! I love this mower and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a greener approach to a beautiful yard.

A mower that doesn't cut the grass
I purchased this recently for a small lawn. But if the grass is even two inches high, the mower leaves uncut streaks requiring a second pass over these.

Consumer Reports recently commented on this power and said to give it a pass as it doesn't do a good job of cutting the grass.

I'm rather disappointed.