A simple view of the technical aspects of garden lawn mowers

[Jayge]

To help you select what type of lawn mower you require lets look at some simple aspects of lawn mowers and what the different technical specs mean to your decision. If you have a very small lawn a smaller 'town house' type lawn say :10m x 10m or smaller, an electric lawn mower may suffice, lightweight, low maintenance and often cheaper, there is not much point getting a lawn mower at the top end of the scale if you only have a samll garden. There are a few very high quality Hybrid cordless lawn mowers on the market now with litium ion batteries that are absolutely fantastic, years ago these cordless lawnmowers just didnt last long enough as the batteries wouldnt hold enough charge long enough...but the modern high tech Litium ion battery has overcome this problem, I will talk more about these hybrid mowers later on.

For gardeners who need to mow a larger area than 10m x 10m, petrol lawn mowers are likely to be a better choice. There are several major criteria which will affect your choice of petrol lawn mower

Lawn size & Type: For medium sized lawns, select either a 40cm/16", or 46cm/18" model.

If your lawn has undulations and is uneven, or you just want to make the task easier, you could select a self propelled model, which, as the description suggests, has either driven rear wheels or roller. If the area to be cut is a rougher, less formal type, then select a high wheeled model.

For large lawns, go for a 48cm / 19" to 53cm / 21" cut size lawn mowers

most of these size models are going to be self drive, as obviously pushing a large mower for an extended period of time can be quite tiring.

If you have an extra large lawn and are going to work the mower particularly hard, then look at the higher end professional spec lawnmowers, typically these will be shaft driven rotary mowers with quality alloy decks, a good engine, honda, Briggs & stratton, kawasaki or subaru, to name a few. Other features may include cleaning port options, for easier maintenance etc.

Collection Method:
Collect: Grass is thrown direct from the specially designed blades without touching the ground through a large opening between the rear wheels and directly into the catcher, where the grass circulates and is evenly distributed until the bag is full.

Rear or side Eject: If your lawn is a less formal area where collection is not essential and quick mowing is important. Then a side or rear eject petrol lawnmower may do. This is achieved either by abuilt in deflector chute or by the fitment of an optional deflector chute.

Mulching lawn mower: Mulching is ideal where you wish to achieve a "tidy", rather than a more "formal" finish, and where you wish to add the nutrients from the cut grass clippings back into the lawn rather than recycle them in the compost heap. Please remember that when mulching you will not be able to cut as low as when you are collecting the grass clippings and will need to cut on a more regular basis.

Leaf collection: a good petrol driven rotary lawn mower should do a good job of collecting fallen leaves from the lawn, for best results collect when dry and set the cutter height to achieve the best collection results.

What type of finish do you require?

If you just want a tidy lawn, rather than a formal finish, then go for a 4-wheeled rotary lawn mower, this will give you a nicely finshed , clean looking lawn. If you want a more formal lawn finish with the traditional British stripe, then you should consider selecting a rear roller mower. Rear roller rotaries are ideal for cutting over the edge of borders without scalping the grass.

Professional green keepers will tell you that the very best lawns are cut by a cylinder mower, rather than a rotary. The key difference is the scissor type cutting action of a cylinder mower, whereas the rotary cutting system is not quite as clean or precise. With a cylinder lawn mower you can cut lower and the heavy rear roller will give you that sought after stripe.