We spent at least 8 hours searching and analyzing for reel push mowers reviews. These results are the culmination of our efforts.
Do you need a push reel lawnmower?
A great way to improve the appearance of your lawn is through real mowing. It’s also known as cutting short, mowing low, or even cylinder mowing. But whatever the name of it, it involves changing how you cut your lawn. So first, I will cover how you get started, the equipment you need, and the major pitfalls of real moaning that you need to know before starting. And lastly, we’re even going to visit the grass lab to take a closer look at the lawn to see if it actually makes a difference using a real mower and if it’s worth the effort.
Why do we want to use a real mower?
The first reason is if you want to cut your lawn below two inches, a real mower is the only way to get a good cut and deliver one of the cleanest cuts you can get in your lawn, which is actually healthier for your turf. Now more to come on this when we visit the grass lab. If you like lawn striping, reel mowers can deliver much better stripes than most conventional mowers. And that’s because they typically have rollers built in that are going to give very pronounced stripes. And cutting with a real mower can be one of the healthiest things you can do for your lawn by giving it a nice clean cut. And as you’ll see, using a reel mower has a lot more benefits than just cutting your grass short.
What do you need to start?
You are going to need a special lawnmower if you want to get into reel mowing. And that brings us to our first choice. This is a john deere greens mower used on golf courses to cut grass very short. And by that, I mean below one inch. These are very expensive new and most people will buy these on the used market. Now our second choice is made by a company called California trimmer. This is a real mower as well, and it’s much more flexible for a homeowner because this model will allow you to cut from very short heights all the way up to three inches. Take a closer look at using each of these mowers by starting with the john deere greens mower.
Now, this is a cool little kickstand in the back, which is really handy, and you need it because this mower is a little bit different than anything you’ve probably ever used before.
It starts with a regular pole start, and this model has a Honda engine. But here, what’s unique is these wheels do not stay on the machine when your mind; they’re called transport wheels, and you have to take them off before you mow the lawn because when it most, it rests on that rear roller. And here’s a close-up of the front of the john deere; it’s got an excellent blade system. It’s also got that front roller to help a balance, and in the middle there, that piece with the stars is used for breaking up grass thatch or splitting up the roots to help promote growth and give a better appearance. Now here’s a quick demo of using this machine. My lawn is not caught ultra short. So I’m just using this at the highest one-inch setting. Now here’s our second option. This one is made by a US company called California tremor. It’s a full real mower, but this is a lot more flexibility. Here is a grass box on the front, and that’s to catch the clippings when your mind. Now I often mow without this box and let a little bit of mulching action happen with the blades.
Please take a closer look at the front of the machine; you can see why it leaves such great stripes. And that’s due to this solid steel roller in the front. And above it is the reel that does all the work. This is also made of steel, it’s got seven blades, and it really does a great job cutting the lawn. And here is a pretty clever design for adjusting the machine’s cutting height from this one spot. All I have to do is move this lever, and the whole machine will adjust to the height I want. I don’t need to turn any screws or anything else. It just lifts that roller up and down to get it to where I want it.
What drives this machine is this rubber roller in the back. This is simple, but it does an outstanding job of my lot for getting this more around, and I never lose traction.
Now let’s take a quick look at the California trimmer doing some lawn mowing.
We finish the demos. Now we’re going to go into the grass lab and take a closer look at the actual blades of grass. We’re looking at the blades cut by the real mower, and you don’t need to be a scientist to see that these are very sharply cut. This is better for the grass, making it less susceptible to disease, insects, and other kinds of problems. So this is an excellent result that you want to see when you’re cutting your lawn.
We’re going to look at some grass blades cut with a regular mower or rotary mower. Now what you’re looking at here is very typical. In fact, these aren’t even that bad. My blades are very sharp on my rotary mower, and they’re pretty high quality, but you can still see a huge difference in how they look. The edges are torn, and they’re rough. This is a very average hyper cut, but it’s still not optimal for the lawn; many people get into real mowing, and then they find out that there are serious problems or expenses they never expected. And the first one, of course, is, in fact, money; the cost of a real mower can be a lot more money than a traditional mower upfront. The other bad news about real mowing is that you’re not going to get away with that one expensive mower.
In fact, you’re going to need a second mower like this because real mowers don’t allow much cleanup. So if you’ve got leaves or twigs, you’re going to need some mower with a bag to get some vacuum ability so that you can clean up your yard. So that adds another expense and a second piece of machinery. So on a regular more, they use blades like this, which you can easily swap out; you can change them every year and resharpen them. But the biggest consideration is if you hit a rock or a big stick that causes damage, the blades and a regular mower can be changed pretty easily. But when we switch over to a real mower, this is very different.
These reels are generally not easily removable, and most people are going to do what I’m doing here, which is called back lapping. Now, this is nice because you can sharpen these blades pretty easily. But if you hit a rock, you’re going to have a big expense on your hands. And it’s quite a hassle that you don’t have with your rotary mower.
Reel mowing your lawn can set it apart from others. This example here was done with the California trimmer. It was adorable. And you can see the stripes how good they look. And it just gives a great overall appearance. But getting into real mowing is no small feat. And you’ve got to understand what you’re faced with, including the cost of maintenance and things that are just different than a regular mower. And you can see right here that there’s nothing wrong with rotary mowers; this area still looks great. But when you real mall, you can get that extra edge that sets it apart. Or you can cut ultra-low. So whatever your choice is, mowing your lawn, in general, is always a good thing. But you can make your own call that works for you.
