Petrol lawn mower

Can anyone recommend a particular petrol lawn mower for a medium sized garden lawn? Does it make any difference whether it has a plastic or metal deck? Do makes vary much as there's a huge price range? Thanks.

I'm no expert ..

Totally depends on your needs/budget /lawn size ?? etc

As a rule of thumb anything over 2000m2  really needs a ride-on (or half a days mowing)

Maintenance will make the difference, if you can spend a little more ?

My ride on is about 10 yrs old  but  needed new valves & Carburetor !  Now running nicely !  ( Always fingers crossed )

The engine is a Briggs & stratton ,so parts & longevity is now proven !

Most mowers are made up from different parts,  & from different manufactures !!

The choice is yours !  Hp rating for engine suggestion about 4 hp

Happy shopping /take your time & SHOP AROUND !

I agree with Dragon 87 - do you want stripes? do you want a bowling green? My patch is uneven in places and I went for mower with no roller, with a pull string start - as a  woman sometimes I don't have enough oomph to start it and feel next time I'll pay the extra for a push button start. I went for a mower that has 4 different heights as different parts of my garden serve different purposes.

Plastic or metal - my first lawnmower was all metal and I was using Hammerite on it toward the end of its life. This one is metal/plastic. I have found the grass bag more flimsy on this model but it holds more. Mine is a mountfield and has a Briggs and Stratton engine, which has run fine for the last  5-6 yrs - I change the oil regularly and clean the air filter too. I think I got it from B n Q where I could have a good fiddle with all aspects of the machine before I then went about looking for the best price... happy shopping.

My Atco with a 3.5hp engine + roller lasted for 27 years.  Unfortunately the two mowers I've had since (i.e. in the last 4 years) have been rubbish by comparison.  Current one is a Hayter - similar engine size, plastic deck, no roller, electric start with the option of pull-start - but, that bit won't work for me.  Easier to fill the fuel tank than the other machines though, and it has a "mulch" setting.  It's supposed to be "semi-self-propelled" (whatever that means!) and I find it really quite hard work on the bumpy & uneven areas of my garden,  OK on the good bits though. The so-called lawn is definitely somewhat the worse for not having a relatively heavy mower with a roller, which coped well with molehill remains/subsiding mole & vole tunnels/rabbit latrines etc.

The current Hayter has a couple of features which I really don't like:-  it's almost impossible to connect the charger unit to the machine and just as difficult (when you've finally succeeded) to disconnect it.  The other thing is that it's really quite awkward to remove & replace the grassbox.

I didn't try the machine myself before I bought it - just had a demo.- so I suggest you try to have a go yourself with whatever mower you're considering and that might help with your decision.

btw my nickname is the one I used on the Beeb - HCF was one of my whippets (now only recently deceased) and I'm in fact a granny, who's often known as "Ma". 

`i recently purchased a mcculoch 148cc mower on offer for £150 at argos for my gardening business cant fault it its quite light has a metel deck with a briggs and straton engine i think metel decks are by far more durable 

I bought a Mountfield 4 wheel mower 7 years ago. It worked fine. The only problem was that I had lots of borders and island beds, and when mowing along a lawn edge the front and back wheels on one side dropped down into the border and I scalped the lawn edge. To combat this I had to use the handle frame to hold teh deck horizontal, which was hard work and put a lot of strain on the handle frame bolts. 

I three years ago I bought an identical mower - 46cm - but with a rear roller - not for the stripes, but because the rear roller held the deck horizontal even when one third of the mower was off the lawn. So no more scalping. 

This spring the mower fired up first time.  

Hi Gold1locks - I have exactly the same problem ref lawn edges & still miss the old Atco!  I'm considering putting in some paviours as an edging, to take the mower wheels.  D'you think it would work?  I don't want a contrast (colour-wise) and have seen some edging paviours which would look OK, in that the colour more or less matches the soil.   What do you think?     Ma.

Hi hypercharleyfarley

I think it would work. I would do likewise but I have 100 metres of border edges including island borders and it would be very expensive. 

Hello again G'1locks - I've not measured the edges I'd want to deal with, but it could well amount to 80m - no straight lines, so actually getting the work done could be a bit of a problem in itself.  Maybe I need to get some quotes................. but glad to hear you think it would work - IF I'm prepared to shell out the money!

It depends on your budget, I have a hayter harrier 56, and it's done more miles than the average car of similar age. I have had it for 11 years and it's still going strong. It has a split roller at the back so easier for turning it. It has a 21" cut and the whole of the back is the chute into the collection bag. None of this getting blocked and it cuts wet grass and the two of us have often been known to cut grass in the rain. But I know they are about £1k to buy.  When I bought mine I got it cheap, a mere £850. Would never change make, but if harry keeps going as long as I do, well I won't need to change him. The only thing I would prefer is an electric start, but then that's adding more possible problems. 

I agree that it depends on your budget and need. Metal mowers are more durable then plastic. Esay to handle and low cost maintenance. You need to get more careful while doing shopping for mower. Happy shopping

Louie - if you look carefully you'll see that this thread is over a year old - the problem has been solved by now.  

Afraid that's what happens when you use random Googling to try to promote your business 

Can't believe this thread has seen the light of day again. Started reading it and then thought - that's exactly what I think....only to find that I had written the comment !

Dove, what do you mean by 'promoting your business'....I am a bit at sea when it come to techno stuff, though I know enough not to click on threads for kitchen units!!

Just scrolled down and saw Louie's  other thread... now, I know where you are coming from Dove. I think this influx is worse that the foreign gobbledy gook we were struck with before. Hopefully, they will all get lost somewhere between japanese knotweed and manure on this site...

I just clicked on his name and saw what he'd written for his personal details etc 

Ah! I see what you mean. It reads a bit differently from yours. I then checked mine, nothing on there!! I really should put something on mine - I'll have a think for some flowery language as I pot on my seedlings this morning. 

I was a landscape maintenance supervisor for 26 years, it was up to me to get the right mower for the jobs we had to do, and they had to put up with some real battering, working in all weathers, I always like the hayter range as it has been said in earlier comments there a good reliable mower, expensive yes, hard working yes, cost against reliability no match, Size of you mower depends on lawn size, the bigger the lawn the larger mower required. The inevitable happened cost came in too the equation. Ten we turned too the Mountfield range not so good but cost effective, but they did'nt last as long.

My internet research sugests I have crab grass !

The research was conducted in true fashion - after I bought a new mower thinking it was the cylinder mower not picking up the long flat pale grass that is taking over, so bought a rotary thinking it might 'suck it up' to the blade. Still waiting for it to grow a bit before the great trail commences.

Bought a Honda.  I heard that the reaason so many Honda cars on the road due to folk beng impressed with their mowers... bah

Crab grass in North Lincs ?!   Your weather must've improved - must be that global warming 

 "Digitaria is a genus of about 300 species of grass(family Poaceae) native to tropical and warm temperate regions." 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitaria 

Mmm, must admit most of what i gleaned was from America...

Any thoughts on what the horrible coarse grass coul be?