Push Mowers

Push Lawn Mower

Introduction to Push Mowers

The push lawn mower is a light, hand powered mower which may be an option for your property. With the many great benefits that it brings to lawn care, pollution reduction and human exercise, it also has some negative points. In this article, we'll have a look at both sides of the coin, so you can decide if a push lawn mower is the option for you.

How Push Mowers Work

The push mower blade system is configured as a cylinder mower, using exactly the same cutting system as seen on those big, cumbersome looking Cylinder Mowers, also known as Reel or Roller Mowers. The cutting occurs when the spinning reel of 4 - 8 blades, spins past a stationary bottom blade. The action is like that of a pair of scissors, giving a nice clean cut, as opposed to the slashing type of cut as seen with Rotary Mowers.

The machine has no engine, is light, and has two wheels, one on either side of the cutting mechanism, as the lawn mower is pushed, the wheels that are connected to the reel, spin the blades, creating the cutting action. Most models now come standard with a catcher which connects to the rear of the mower, which still allows us to get into all those tight spots with ease.

A Perfect Lawn Mower For Some People

The beauty of this type of lawn mower is that if you only have a small lawn area, you can have it mowed within a couple of minutes with ease. So increasing mowing frequency is of no concern, and the results will be a greener healthier lawn from better lawn care. You can even mow without the catcher, because the clippings are so small, they easily break down, returning natural nutrients back into the lawn.

Keep Lawn Mower Blades Sharp

The mower blades need to be kept sharp as this will reduce the resistance when grass is easily severed during the lawn cutting. As blades begin to dull, the miniscule gap between the reel and bottom blades will need to be tightened in order for the grass to cut at all, this makes pushing the lawn mower far more difficult. Without reducing the gap, many grass blades will go through the blades and not be cut properly, and perhaps even not cut at all, making for a very ugly finish. A lawn mower with dull blades should be taken to the mower shop for sharpening.

A Workout While Mowing The Lawn

These machines have a slight resistance when they are pushed, the sharper the blades, the less resistance, the duller the blades, the more resistance. An operator will experience more difficulty when cutting longer grass, and experience more fatigue when lawn mowing larger areas. But perfect to use for small lawns, and less fatigue than using a heavy powered mower in these situations.

Best suited to all forms of medium to high density housing with small to medium sized lawns to maintain.

The Benefits

• Pollution free
• Noise free
• Free exercise
• Small and easy to store
• Nice finish to the lawn
• Easy to maintain
• Perfect for small lawns
• Highly economical - very low purchase cost and maintenance costs

The Cons

Not suitable for larger lawns, due to increased fatigue of the operator.

Not suitable for fast growing lawns. These mowers have no weight, so they cannot push into the lawn and remove and control the thatch on a regular basis. This may result in far more difficult mowing, and the requirement for vertimowing on a regular basis.