The surface of our lawn is approximately 600 to 700m2.
We were looking for an alternative to our ride-on mower, which we took over from the previous owners of our house.
The ride-on mower was far too heavy a solution for the garden.
When its battery broke, we decided to sell the ride-on mower and purchase the Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower.
The cost price of the reel mower approximately corresponded to the annual cost of gasoline for the ride-on mower.
So we wouldn't ruin ourselves financially with this. In the future, we could even save costs with this.
If it was disappointing, we could also opt for the traditional lawn mower after a year.
However, this does not appear to be necessary.
From ride-on mower to reel mower was potentially a risk for a garden with such a grass surface.
It is literally making the movement from sitting (lazily) on a machine, to manually pushing a non-motorized device - over a still reasonable surface, which offers resistance every week.
However, that's one of the reasons why we chose this reel mower: we don't do sports and in the summer we spend an hour and a half a week on the grass… er… walking down makes our movement.
Not everything always has to go faster and without a bit of effort!
That effort is very well worth it.
Trimming the grass for the first time requires some work (if the grass is too long, because it has not been trimmed for a while).
Once the desired "grass height" has been reached and maintained regularly, trimming the grass is a healthy walk.
Due to the different sized sprockets, which provide the transmission - via the chain - from the rear axle to the rotating blades, the effort is limited: the blades rotate much faster than the rotation of the wheels.
They are also quite wide, allowing for a nice stretch in one go.
Those blades are also very sharp: the end result is much better than that of our ride-on mower. You get a nice lawn, without tire marks or pits.
We now also have less cleaning up afterwards, the mulch waste is much less spread out, because it is not thrown away.
Another advantage of a rotary mower is the lack of noise. So you can use it at any time – even on Sundays.
And: no petrol smell while driving!
I don't know anything about engines myself, so maintaining a ride-on mower or traditional lawn mower is not always easy.
You can have it maintained annually, but that is also an additional cost.
Maintaining the reel mower means brushing it off after mowing and occasionally oiling the chain.
The only thing I have had to do a few times is tightening the screw that provides the coupling between the axle of the rear wheels and the sprocket on it, over which the chain runs.
He sometimes dares to unload after a while, so that the blades suddenly no longer turn while driving.
But that is also very easily solved yourself, by tightening the screw!
I think this is a great alternative to a traditional lawnmower, even for a yard with decent grass area!
