Goodbye Engine-less Lawnmower

June 2004: Amy and Kyle have just bought a home in Hartford, their first … it’s time for some yard work.

I was very excited to have property to take care of for the first time since I worked summers during college as the maintenance guy for our Town Park back in Vermont. As you might imagine, the lawns up there are a little larger than down here in the City. The parks I maintained involved quite a bit of mowing – acres and acres.

Our lot in Hartford, on the other hand, is 0.16 acres. Most of the land is taken up by house, driveway, gardens, and a crushed stone “patio” area, so there really isn’t much grass at all. I figured it would be a breeze to keep it mowed. A riding mower was out of the question. Not only was it complete overkill for the time and effort required, but we also don’t have anywhere to park it. A traditional push mower and a string trimmer were more than enough to keep our property under control.

The local home improvement center had numerous options for lawn mowers. One that really jumped out at me was a reel mower – the kind that doesn’t have an engine – just spinning blades that act like scissors.

Because the yard was so small, I figured it would be a nice solution. Small, so it wouldn’t take up much room in our shed. No engine, so I wouldn’t have to deal with buying and storing gasoline, and just a little more environmentally friendly than the other options. Plus, the extra effort of pushing the thing around for 15 minutes would be a good way to get some exercise. So I bought one, why not give it a shot?

July 2004: Reality of a reel mower sets in.

It turned out that reel mowers aren’t all that effective with a lawn that is bumpy and weedy. The bumps cause the reel to bounce around, making it difficult to keep the wheels in contact with the ground, which is critical for maintaining the system’s momentum, and for getting a clean cut. The result on our lawn was a very uneven cut, and lots of missed blades that eventually grew quite tall. Reel mowers are also less effective at the longer blades and weeds, meaning that the stuff I missed the previous mowing would either get tangled in the reel or get missed again. I had to use the string trimmer to clean things up.

Reel mowers work great on golf courses. I eventually realized that there were considerably more differences than similarities between my lawn and a golf course. My lawn is not made up of a uniform grass type. My lawn is neither irrigated nor chemically treated. My lawn is nowhere near as smooth. And my lawn is not mowed frequently to maintain the grass height. So my lawn is not a good match for a reel mower. Nevertheless, I was determined to stick it out for the first year to give the reel mower a fair shot.

May 2005: Kyle gets real.

Going into our second summer, I decided to get serious about the lawn and buy a normal lawn mower. I no longer wanted to work extra hard to mow the lawn, more frequently than otherwise necessary, yet still end up with sub-par results. The first couple of mows with the power mower were wonderful – the lawn looked perfectly smooth.

The reel mower moved to the back corner of the shed, out of the way. It was still available if needed, but was no longer the primary mower.

July 2005: Kyle can’t get the gas mower to start.

Gasoline engine lawn mowers have their challenges too. For me it was trying to figure out why it consistently took 25 pulls to get the things started. Seriously? Just start! I never had this problem with my reel mower.

This issue did not cause me to pull out the reel mower.

July 2008: Kyle’s gas mower needs a tune-up.

Why does the mower’s engine sound like it’s slowing down every 5 steps? Maybe it needs a tune-up. An oil change. Or a new spark plug. What else do small engines like this need? It probably needs the blades sharpened, but that’s not causing it to sound funny.

On the plus side, I figured out why it was so hard to start. When storing it in my shed, I was tilting it about 30 degrees to the side and driving it on two wheels in order to avoid an obstacle. Somehow that was causing the engine to flood, which made starting it much more difficult.

Reel mower? What reel mower?

May 2011: Kyle’s gas mower still needs a tune-up.

The gas mower still works, but the sounds it makes do not inspire much confidence. Like modern electronics, it seems to me that the lawn mower was built to be thrown away rather than maintained and kept for a long period of time. It cost about $100. And I can’t imagine finding anyone who would be willing to figure out what’s wrong, buy the parts, and fix it for less than $50.

I’ll just keep using it until it finally gives out, offer it for free on CraigsList to someone who can fix it, and then go buy a new one. And maybe this time I’ll get one that actually comes with an instruction manual that talks about how to service it and what parts might be needed. I can follow instructions. But I’m just not interested in trying to figure out what’s wrong and then try to fix it. Besides, if it makes it through this season, year 7, then it will have cost about $15 per year to own plus $10 per year in gas. I’m comfortable with $25 per year in equipment costs to mow the lawn.

July 2011: Kyle decides to part with the reel mower.

The reel mower has been sitting in the shed since it was retired in 2004. For a while I had hoped to fix the lawn so that it would be reasonable to use it to mow. But now I’ve accepted that even if the lawn does get fixed (which is unlikely), I would still prefer a gas powered mower.

It’s time to get rid of the reel mower. Would anyone like it? I’m planning to listing it for sale on CraigsList, but if any reader is interested in giving it a go, I would be happy to let it go for free.