Reel mower for smaller yards

[Anonymous]

Anyone use an old school reel mower? My mom hates those things, but I feel like she's basing her opinions on reel mowers from the 60s. Are they a lot better now? Is there any reason to spend money on a battery rotary mower for a small yard? Are they really that hard to push and/or get jammed all the time?

[Anonymous]

We have one and it is fine for a very small yard.

[Anonymous]

I had one for years and the new ones are the same as the old ones and they’re all kind of a pain. It’s not even really good exercise because you’re mostly just picking twigs out of it. I got a little battery powered mower and it’s awesome, never going back.

[Anonymous]

We were all in for a reel mower except learned it can’t cut long grass so if you miss a week of vacation you have to dig out the scythe.

[Anonymous]

We have a reel mower and a weed whacker for our small yard. If it goes jungle-like because we’ve been away, we use the weed whacker to trim down the tops.

[Anonymous]

this is one of those things that people buy to make a point moreso than for any practical reason

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is one of those things that people buy to make a point moreso than for any practical reason

We have one for a small back yard. It's cheap and easy to store and I don't have to buy gas or remember to charge a battery. We have a service for our front and side yards. The mower cost less than the service would have charged to mow our back yard once.

[Anonymous]

I have used one for the last few years. Didn't want to have to deal with having gas around. It doesn't cut as clean as gas mowers and sometimes sticks can jam it up. Regardless of that I have no plans on switching back to gas or electric (which I had before the reel mower)

[Anonymous]

We’ve had good luck with a Fiskar brand push mower years. Easy to adjust the height.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is one of those things that people buy to make a point moreso than for any practical reason

Not true, I had one because I had nowhere to store a gas mower (no garage). But now that the battery ones are so good I have switched.

[Anonymous]

We had one but didn’t quite understand as first time homeowners how big our lawn was. They’re great for small lawns (or if you really like a workout).

Downsides are as noted by others above: if you miss mowing for a week, you have to scythe it, weed whack it or borrow a neighbor’s mower. Sticks do jam it up, which is three seconds of using another stick to knock it out but if your back is sensitive, it can really jar you. We ended up getting a Sun Joe that we like.

[Anonymous]

I have a townhouse with a postage-sized lawn. I bought this and it is great. Just had to buy extralong power cord and extra string. One string thing lasts me a season

https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECKER-BESTA512CM-Compact-Electric/dp/B078YYPWLY/ref=asc_df_B078YYPWLY?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80814156492408&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584413749307788&th=1

[Anonymous]

I really liked mine when my yard was small. Now on a .3 acre lot, the battery mower is a lot easier.

[Anonymous]

One of our townhouse neighbors uses one and in the amount of time he spends pushing and then taking up all the clippings I could have done my lawn twice. It looks sloppy too. Get a little ryobi.

[Anonymous]

We had one when we had a very small yard (.10 acre). It did not use it for a whole season before I purchased a gas mower. If you have any trees tiny sticks jam it. Grass that is too high will also jam it. It was not worth my time.