Just bought a Sunlawn 18" reel mower....

Works very well, I love watching the grass flip up behind it (it's so retro). Anyway, trying to talk the wife into selling the gas mower. Its the little things that will make a difference.

in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1976. I wish I still had it. They do a great job but its a struggle if the grass gets too high.

I had a reel mower - what a nightmare! Of course this was back when the earth was still cooling and I can tell you there is nothing quite as romantic as hitting a piece of semi-dried St. Bernard crap hidden in the bermuda, and having it assplode into shit-shrapnel on a 100 degree day.

This moment brought to you by:

Ours is - we inherited (so to speak) one that is almost exactly like the picture you posted here, and it ROCKS (confession - we have a tiny lawn and a big garden).

Yeah, it clatters and yeah, it's a lot of work in tall grass and yeah, the neighbors give us weird looks when we wheel it down the sidewalk.

Who cares? It's from the ACME COMPANY!!!!!!!!!

that is too funny.

Yes, partially powdered dog turd on a sweaty day, although atmospheric and evocative of days gone by, is not an experience that I can personally recommend. I'da much rather had a playstation.

someone else will be using it in the manner you didn't feel comfortable with.

If the idea of the reel mower is to lessen the impact of another combustion engine, then your principles should dictate the distruction of the one you have, not passing it along to someone else.

Of course, that doesn't count if you only got the reel mower to get some extra exercize. :evilgrin:

long grass emergencies then. I'm never going back to a full time gasoline mower. Some of the people in the neighborhood have riders even for their suburban plots. What a waste.....

are a very serious problem if you have a reel mower!!! Keep the gas mower too!!!

http://www.cleanairgardening.com/

Never dealt with them, though.

I traded my reel mower in for an nice electric model. The reel became a nightmare to cut the grass especially if it gone long due to rain or me traveling.

I'll probably have it sharpened every 2 years tho... just for giggles....

...to sharpen our "American" brand reel mower. You take the drive wheel apart, slop some grit-paste on the blade, and spin the blades backwards across the "knife".

If you go on vacation or if you're laid up and can't manage to mow the lawn in a timely fashion, that gas mower will come in handy. Trying to cut overlong grass with a reel mower is an exercise in frustration and futility. The gas mower will just chew it all up no matter how long it gets, although it will probably take more than one pass.

Gasoline lawnmower engines are horrendously dirty. I've heard it said that lawnmowers are devices that turn gasoline into pollution. Designing a biodiesel lawnmower, even one that uses SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) might be a good way to develop some consumer interest and demand for biofuel technologies. A lawnmower that can use vegetable oil biodiesel would not automatically be obsolete if that source of fuel didn't take off, especially with the SVO option.

--p!

That's "what if" thinking, but it certainly is conceivable.

On the other hand, one wonders why people pay thousands of dollars for health clubs and power mowers.

In the 1970's, in Los Angeles, I had a private, if quixotic, war against the internal combustion engine and rode my bicycle exclusively for transportation. For a period of about two years, I spent probably a total of an hour - and a terrifying hour at that - inside an automobile. There were some downsides, including the breaking of existing droughts, and the feeling that the automotive world was trying to kill me by running me over, but the upside was that I was in splendid physical condition.

I could ride from Redondo Beach to Malibu, hop off the bike, run for an hour in the canyons, hop back on my bike, ride back to Redondo Beach and not even feel tired. On some level, I have great nostalgia for those times.

because we'd all like to rid ourselves of (our neighbors and their) smelly, noisy gas mowers (at 6 AM on a Saturday).

My suggestion was purely for practicality. Those push mowers are great for regular grass cutting combined with an aerobic workout. However, in a pinch, it's nice to have a stinkpot mower around for a job the reel mower won't handle.

Back in the good old days when I lived in New England and had a lawn I used the reel mower for most jobs, pulled out an electric mower if I'd gotten lax and neglected to cut it in time for the reel mower to handle.

That was the reason for my suggestion.

I currently have an electric mower, but need one with a higher blade

really just to "deadhead" it in the fall

which most lawns I've seen here in southeast Texas have, and which shouldn't be cut too short (although I have neighbors who scalp their yard about once a month). I wish they made them that could be set higher.

Bought ours last year; clean and quiet, plus no gas or oil required.

http://www.drpower.com/twostepInquiry.aspx?X=1&name=Neuton_Mower_G&src=AW45300XE22C3309

Since the riding mower broke. I do a bit at a time. I hate that riding mower because it has a huge turning radius and is noisy, stinky, and dangerous. The reel mower struggles with the land that is lumpy due to rodent holes and odd forms from old construction. I need to bring in some dirt and level that off.

The neighbor offered to lend me his riding mower because he thought ours was still broken. I did not know him well enough to tell him that I was "striking a blow against the petro-fascists at Exxon-Mobil".

Great workout for the triceps and deltoids, I noticed. Happy reeling!