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Fiskars 6201 18-Inch StaySharp Max Push Reel Lawn Mower
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Model Of Item : 6201
Product Brand : Fiskars
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Fiskars 6201 18-Inch StaySharp Max Push Reel Lawn Mower
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Best mower I have used : Fiskars 6201 18-Inch StaySharp Max Push Reel Lawn Mower
I definitely would NOT recommend this for everyone. Do see the significant downsides I list as well as my reasons for giving it 5 stars. [See updates below for the reason I am now giving it only 4 stars.]
I chose this mower because I hate the sound and smell of gas mowers, and I have no idea how to tune an engine or change a spark plug, and did not want to be bothered with filling the tank and changing the oil and so on. I have nothing against gas mowers, and am not the eco type, so my decision to buy this was nothing to do with any alleged environmental benefits.
I have used an electric mower in the past and did not have any problem not running over the cable, but that was in a smaller lawn. In the case of my current lawn, an electric mower seemed really not very practical for me because I have an acre, and although at least half of that is not lawn, it seemed very daunting to think about how long an extension cable I would need, and I think it might have been difficult to get around all the trees and beds here without getting the cables tangled up.
I rejected the battery-powered mower idea because apparently they are very heavy, and I'd have to charge the battery, and it probably wouldn't be enough charge for me to mow the whole lawn, and so on. A reel mower, to me, seemed like a better option, because there is less to go wrong and less technical knowhow is needed to operate and maintain it. It is a simpler beast.
I found the videos of this mower in use very persuasive. It looked so easy, quiet and pleasant to use, and, well, more interesting than the other reel mowers available. I did once try another reel mower and it didn't really work at all well. This one does actually mow the lawn.
If you have a very flat, bowling green like lawn, I think this mower would be beyond compare. It is quiet and very pleasant to use on long flat runs. I mowed my lawn at 5.30am recently without disturbing anyone. However, if, like my lawn, yours is hilly, full of landscaped fiddly bits, and not perfectly even, or if you have huge numbers of tall pine trees dropping pine cones and debris, or if you have clay soil that makes part of your lawn waterlogged a lot of the time, as I do, and you don't have the time to check that your grass is thoroughly dry and only mow when it is dry, this may not be the best choice.
Despite the fact that all these reasons not to buy this mower apply to my lawn, I still would still choose to buy this mower again if I had had the chance to try it on my lawn before I bought it. For a start, I think the challenges of my lawn would be challenging with any other mower. Part of the reason I bought this mower was that the lawn service I was using was damaging my lawn by mowing when it was wet, and even when they used a gas push mower rather than a ride-on one, it still damaged it. Why pay $50/week for someone to damage my lawn and no doubt bring my lawn diseases and weeds?
Do note that this mower is not light. I personally like working out, and I use this mower to get a low-intensity aerobic workout. It gives me great pleasure to mow the lawn and get a free workout and save $50 all at the same time. If you have no desire to workout, then unless you have a simple flat lawn like the one depicted in the videos demonstrating this mower, my advice is to get a self-propelled mower of some kind. The workout I get from using this to mow my hilly, complicated lawn is really quite good, because it uses my legs, core, and upper body, shoulders and arms (a bit like the VersaClimber, costing thousands of $$$!). It is a bit of a drag to turn the mower around at the end of each run, unless you think of that as part of the workout benefit of this mower, as I do, but again, that applies to many other mowers too, not just this one.
When the lawn service was mowing my lawn, they would mow it in the same way each time, the easiest, quickest way, rather than taking the trouble to mow it in straight lines parallel to the house one week and perpendicular to the house the next. It is better for the lawn, and looks much nicer, to change directions each time you mow. If I were to mow the lawn the easiest, quickest way instead, it would be a lot easier with this mower, but even doing it the obsessively neat way I do it, it is still very doable for me.
I have tall fescue grass that an expert told me needs to be cut at 3.5 inches. Apparently many mowers can't do that. This one can. I do wonder whether it might be easier to mow if I kept the grass shorter, like on the videos I've seen demonstrating this mower, but on the other hand, with all the pine cones littering my lawn, keeping the cutting height high may be a good idea for times when I don't notice a pine cone and mow straight over it, as has happened many times without any problem.
I go around after mowing and clip the few tall grass weeds that have been missed by the mower. Again, I think it is a mistake to think that other mowers would handle those tough tall bits better. Certainly the lawn service mowing left a few tall uncut stems, and they were using professional equipment.
Call me strange (as my neighbours do!) but I still really like this lawn mower, and actually enjoy mowing the lawn for the first time ever in my life. I am very glad I chose this one despite everyone having told me it would be a huge mistake to get a reel mower.
UPDATE: I recently left the lawn uncut for longer than usual, and many very tall (like 9 inches or more) tall tough stalks were left uncut by the mower. I went around the whole lawn manually cutting all the long tough uncut stems, and it took me the best part of the afternoon to do it, and I was beginning to think maybe the lawn service wasn't such a bad idea after all!! However, the next couple of times I came to mow, there were only a few tall stalks to cut manually and it was easy. I have concluded that it is quite important to cut weekly or more and be sure not to ignore any tall tough stalks left after mowing, if you want to keep the lawn under control and you are keeping the lawn long (3-4 inches).
Finally, while it took me three sessions to mow the lawn the very first time I used the mower, my grass-cutting fitness has apparently improved, because I can now do the whole lawn including manually cutting the tall tough stems in one session that is not too long. It certainly takes a lot longer than the lawn service take to do it, but it is really not too bad, and it is still fun to use this mower. I love the way the grass shoots out the front, and dances in the wind if there is wind. Several friends have offered to GIVE me their mowers, but I (still!) prefer this one even to a free high-quality self-propelled gas one! It is strangely satisfying.
FURTHER UPDATE: I just want to mention, for the benefit of anyone thinking of buying this mower, that the problem identified by some who have given this mower a bad review (one star, for example) is true. It really doesn't cut the tall tough bendy stems. I am currently experimenting with different possible solutions for this problem and will update again when I find a good solution. Currently, I am cutting my grass almost twice a week, and manually cutting those tall stems every time I mow. I do find that if I mow twice a week, changing the direction (from parallel to the house to perpendicular to it, for example) that the mowing is much easier and few tall stems are left uncut. But if I leave it a week, it is a bit of a disaster.
I do one straight row, then turn the mower round and do the next row, using the wheel track left by the previous row. This of course leaves whatever was under the wheel tracks uncut, but I tried mowing between rows and it did not really help because the grass had been flattened under the wheel track so still wasn't cut, and doing that made it take longer too. So I minimise the wheel tracks by using the same track in the next row of mowing, then the next time I mow, a few days later, I go perpendicular to the previous mowing tracks to get the grass uncut in the previous mowing but which has by then risen again. This seems to work well as long as I mow twice every 3 or 4 days or so. But there are still some tall stems.
I have now bought a string trimmer for those times when serious cleanup of tall tough stems is needed after mowing. I do wonder, though, whether my grass is unusually fast growing and tough compared to other grass. I have never seen anything like the tall stems that shoot up in my current lawn.
Despite the need for a string trimmer to trim the uncut stems I STILL like this mower, and STILL would choose it over a gas, electric or battery-powered one, but when I fail to mow for a whole week I do start to question my decision to give up the $50/week lawn service! But apart from the tall stems this mower does do a really good job. I LOVE the look of the neatly-cut rows of grass. I am reducing my rating to 4 stars because the tall uncut stems problem does now seem quite significant, but I still don't feel remotely inclined to switch to another mower, even one of the ones my friends want to give me for free.
FURTHER UPDATE: When my parents were visiting recently, my father took a look at the mower and he said it was a miracle that it was cutting anything at all: the blades were not connecting at all. He said the only way it can have been cutting anything was by ripping leaves of grass as I was running behind the mower. Now that he has made the adjustments (actually easy to do, and he said I should re-adjust it REGULARLY) the mower is less silent than before (more of a chugging noise) but it cuts like a dream. When I heard the chugging noise as my father checked his adjustments before handing it over to me, I was worried that it would be harder to push and that the blades would get worn down. In fact, to my astonishment, even though my father had reduced the cutting height to 2 inches, it was EASIER to push than before, and the grass is being cut into much shorter little pieces somehow. My father said that blades do get worn down, and that there is no way around that if you want a cutting device like this to work, and he said that the same would be true for all other lawn mowers, not just this one. So glad I got this one! I bought an electric leaf blower and already the extension cable has a large gash in it, and I find I am not using it because of the tediousness of hauling out the extension lead each time. So glad I didn't get an electric mower. I am tempted to put my review back up to 5 stars again!
