Customer Reviews

American Lawn Mower 1815-18 18-Inch Reel Mower

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This item is not for everyone. If you have a relatively small, healthy yard that is free from debris then it will probably work for you. I am not a connoisseur of grass, but the variety I have has very slender, fine blades, and tends to flatten very easily (when walked upon, etc.). This is not a problem for a power mower, because the circular action of the blades works as a vacuum to pull the grass up before it is cut. The push-reel mower does not have that advantage, and grass that is not standing tall can easily escape the blade. Therefore, one pass does not yield an even cut, so it is usually necessary to repeat every pass from a different direction to get satisfactory results. For that reason, this item would not be very practical for a large yard. If your grass is of a thicker variety, as I think you may find more of in the south, then the mower would probably work more efficiently.

If you have large trees in your yard, you may want to consider the effects of the fallen leaves or twigs-this mower will not handle them as a power mower does. A small twig can stop it in its tracks...

There are several ways in which this item compares very favorably with a power mower. For instance, the maintenance is much less demanding-no tune-ups, refueling, oil changes, or fouled spark plugs, etc. Also it is considerably lighter and smaller than most gasoline mowers, and therefore much more easily stored. The operation is not silent, but is certainly much quieter than a gasoline engine. I find it easier to persuade myself to get out and mow-it seems less of a chore. And while the environmental consequences may be marginal, I'm sure there are those that find satisfaction in the fact that they may be making a difference in that arena, no matter how small...

The cost is not outrageous, but I might expect to pay a little less for what I got. The construction is sturdy enough, and the assembly was not much trouble (although my mower contained a defective part, I contacted the manufacturer and they shipped a replacement part very quickly). The grip on the handle does not take prolonged stress well, but otherwise I have had no problems.

Ultimately, I am satisfied with the mower. It does a pretty good job for what I need, but I can certainly see how its limitations might make it the wrong choice for some. Weigh the pros and cons carefully...

This is the perfect mower for the perfect lawn. Unfortunately, mine isn't the perfect lawn (yet). I was looking for a quiet and clean mower without the hassle of extension cords or the price of a cordless and this fit the bill perfectly. So, after reading the reviews, I bought it, use it, and like it. However, having recently moved into town from out in the sticks, I find I need to re-adjust my `mowers are a great way to deal with anything in the yard under three feet tall' attitude. When the previous reviewer said the tiniest twig stops it he wasn't exaggerating, no matter how fast you get it moving it's just NOT gonna cut wood. Also, it does a fine job of decapitating dandelions but tends to leave the stems standing. Again, I like this mower and am glad I bought it (it's just fun to mow with), but be aware that this mower is for grass only (the old lawnboy did equally well on grass, fern, pine or madrona...) If your lawn tends more toward the rough than the green, you might want to look elseware. It may sound like I'm complaining but in truth it's my yard, not the mower that needs fixing. I plan to get our new yard into shape fast so I can enjoy this cool little mower.

I bought my mower a few weeks ago and have used it a couple times on my 1/2 acre lawn. It cuts beautifully, and nearly as quickly as my old gas powered mower. I have enjoyed being able to hear the birds and enjoy the fresh air while I mow. The mowing is a little bit more of a workout than pushing a small gas mower, but anyone who can walk should be able to push it easily. A couple of caveats though, the mower does not cut wet grass well, but I have had good experience cutting grass up to 6" long when it's dry. Also, it requires a clean lawn, even the tiniest twig will stop the blades, but the sticks are easily removed from the blades. The Amazon reviewer thought it was difficult to assemble. While I agree it could be easier, I was not frustrated and had the mower assembled in less than 15 minutes -- and I'm no genious at assembling products. Also, height adjustments could be simpler, it takes 5-10 minutes to readjust the height with a couple of wrenches. Overall, I'm very pleased with the mower -- I now view mowing the lawn as pleasant recreation rather than slavish noisy work!

I admit that I was a heavy user of those noisy and stinky gas machines, until recently when the self-propel feature went kaputt half way through the job. I found myself pushing a 6HP B&S mower in 90+ degree heat. The phrase "walk behind mower" suddenly had real meaning. The very next weekend I went to a local garden store and purchased the 18in American Lawn Mower (at a lower price than my favorite web retailer). Setup was very easy except for those darn e-clips. It was fortunate that the manufacturer included an extra e-clip because I mangled the first one. I opted to leave the foam grip off. The material seems like it would deteriorate in a few months anyway, but if you have delicate hands it's a must. This was my first reel mower. I found it to be very manueverable, plenty of height adjustments, excellent clean cut (bermuda) and very little clumping of grass. The 18in reel allowed for speedy cutting of my 1/3 acre lot. Plus I got the added bonus of a great cardiovascular workout; no need for that health club membership! Although I would not recommend a push reel mower for hilly yards. I would also consider the Great States 2000 20" reel mower also available at Amazon.

...my wife now likes to mow the lawn!!! I recently retired my gas powered lawn hacker to try this reel mower. When my wife saw me put it together and zip through the lawn, she insisted on taking turns! Mind you, she has refused to help with the lawn for the 12 years we've been married.

As for the unit itself, absolutely satisfied. Lot is about 1/2 acre bermuda, takes less time to cut using this than with a power mower, mainly because I tend to walk faster with this one. Cut is amazing, grass has almost recovered from the years of hacking with single blade butchers. Got the grass catcher, but it was a real pain to use. Plus, I do a quick (and I mean quick) mow twice a week, so I just quit using the catcher and let the clippings mulch in.

Another great plus, my kids used to go inside while I mow because of the noise. Now, they stay outside and play. No running out of gas, no pull cords, no fuss. I am a convert!

Ok, most of the reviews here seem to be more like a review of reel mowers vs power mowers. This PARTICULAR reel mower is pretty good, as far as reel mowers go. There are few reel mowers wider than this one, I think it's the "Scott's Classic" which has a 20 inch cutting width. You will find that with reel mowers, a wider cutting width is good, but also makes it harder to push. I find with this mower, I need to overlap as I'm coming back down the lawn. Here are some of my thoughts on reel mowers, that you might consider;

1) Reel mowers only cut if you push it FORWARD. That means you have to turn around at the end of a row. With a power mower, you can just pull the mower back along the next row.
2) You HAVE TO mow more often with this. One problem I had was that I let the grass grow JUUUUST tall enough that a few strands escaped the blade. This resulted in a pretty decently cut lawn with many single strands of tall grass in it!
3) Reel mowers aren't very good for cutting the edges, because the blades sit between the wheels. You'll need another way to trim the sides of the lawn.
4) You have to overlap your cuts, because some grass will just be bent instead of cut, so overlapping the cut as you come back down the row helps to get those missed blades...it also doubles your lawn mowing! SOme people mow "east west" then "north south". Since overlapping makes for the best reel mower cut, it's best to have a pretty wide mower. This mower, at 18" is not bad. Get this mower over it's smaller sibling, the 16" one. Also consider the Scott's Classic mower.
5) It's pretty light and easy to push.
6) It does actually cut your grass. Different types of grass may yield different results though. Most lawns are a mix of grass anyway.
7) Not so great running over leaves...the leaves just stay behind.

I'll be honest. After buying this mower, I went and bought a used electric mulching mower. My situation is that there is a tree that dumps a lot of leaves on my lawn and the electric is better at it. HOWEVER, I do the bulk of my mowing with this reel mower, it's light and has no extension cord (or gas) and does a pretty good job. The electric is for when I've let the situation get out of hand. Given the two, I prefer mowing with the reel mower for all the reasons that are given in other reviews.

Height adjustment is pretty easy. The rear roller bar can be adjusted up and down by unscrewing it's "legs" and moving bolting it on higher or lower. There are 3 holes in the frame, and three holes in the "leg" so you can adjust the height to a decent number of stops. It's best to cut grass fairly high (2-3 inches) so I leave mine at the highest setting.

As reel mowers go, if you read other reviews, you've probably got a good idea of how reel vs power/rotary mowers stack up. This particular reel mower is pretty darn good at a really good price. For the price that those fancy European high tech reel mowers go for, you can get this one and a cheap electric one, or a weed whacker to clean up the edges. The width of this mower is good because it is wide enough so that you can cut a decent swath of grass with each pass, but it's not so wide that it slows the mower down, or bogs you down by trying to cut so much grass.

Oh yeah, with this mower, if you pull it backwards (for instance, you have completed a row of mowing and need to pull the mower back to turn around for the next row going the other direction) it has a tendency to "flip". Meaning that the rear rollers tend to flip under the reel, which requires that you lift the mower up and push it forward to flip the wheels back out behind the machine. This is highly annoying. I mean, I can live with it, but I wish it didn't do that. Maybe a different design would not flip, and certainly a mower with only the two wheels would not "flip". Just an idiosyncracy you should know about.

There is a sharpening kit available for this mower as well. Basically, you paint a lapping compound onto the blades and run the blades backwards via a supplied crank handle.

This mower was much better than what I ever could have hoped for. I left my 6.5 HP Craftsman mower in Missouri when I moved. I liked that mower, but using this is much better. I may be the motor behind this reel mower, but with only about 25 pounds to push around, it seems just as easy as pushing my old one around that had a motor on it.

Handling Hills:
I was concerned before getting it by the reviews that said it may be hard to get up hills. My back yard is level with with the basement floor and I push this mower up the side yard hill to the front yard with ease. It is just that light.

Handling Twigs:
I was also concerned by the reviews that said any twig will stop it dead in its tracks. I have alot of twigs, but most are thin. The mower has no problem chopping up twigs up to the thickness of a pencil. And, if a larger twig gets stuck, I just back up and kick it out.

Adjusting Mowing Height:
The other thing I wasn't sure I would like is adjusting the mowing height. When I read you had to undo bolts, remove them and put them back, I thought, Oh no. But, removing the bolts takes no tools. If you are familiar with removing a quick release tire on the front of a bicycle, adjusting the mowing height is at least that easy. In any case, it is just as easy as adjusting the height on my old gas mower.
Anyway, I have rarely been so pleased with a purchase. I got this for $90 at Amazon, and that is a great deal. I looked all over for different kinds of reel mowers. The Brill may be better, because it is a little lighter and does not need to be sharpened ever, but I sure did not want to pay 4-6 times as much. As for sharpening, I doubt that I will have to have this mower sharpened as often as I had to have my old gas mower tuned up. As for other reel mowers, they are all heavier. What is so great about this mower is that its light weight makes mowing with it at least as easy as with a gas push mower. The only thing that could be better is for a wider cut, but then you would get more weight, and I don't want that because I have had back and shoulder pain in the past and am of slight build.

I purchased this mower last yr. so I gave it a good work out before I wrote this review. My lawn is a mono stand of midnight blue grass. So I bought a reel mower to get a better cut and not to mention the blades stay sharp longer than rotary mowers. Well anyways this mower works perfect I get a perfect cut everytime. The only problem was the handle can be a problem during assembly other than that I have no complaints.

I never write reviews of any product - they rarely impress me. But this is first time I ever felt that I should write a review.

I used to mow my small 3K SqFT lawn with a gas mower and I could not take it any more. I was skeptical to buy a reel mower. But being a mechanical engineer and with good grasp of how things really work - I signed up to but this mower.

Took it out of the box assembled with in 30 minutes (I spent 20 minutes putting the foam sleeve on the handle bar - use silicone grease to make it in 5 minutes) rolled it out onto the lawn and just started mowing. It was that easy. Since this was the first mowing of the season the grass was as tall as 6 inches in some places. But couple of passes took care of it. I took a little more time (20%) - but it was ok with a light mower like this.

I wish I had bought this instead of my gas mower in the first place.

However there are few points to remember before you buy this mower (not really a show stopper)

1. Watch for sticks on the lawn .if they get stuck just reverse the reel you should be good to go
2. Need a little elbow grease if you have a rolling lawn like mine
3. No safety guard on the reel - keep the kids away from playing with it .The blades are really sharp and they are all over the place

All the green talk apart - this would be one less noisy thing in your life.

This is second best this I ever owned - first was my bicycle :)

Note: A lot of people do not comeback and update their reviews with any issues and ideas during the use of a product - this is bad. I will update this edit with my experience after the end of the mowing season.

I am a great fan of manual mowers for small lawns, having found that a good manual mower can in fact be easier (and sometimes faster!) to use than a heavy gas or even electric machine, as well as being a lot easier on the ears and the hands. Manual mowers cut cleaner, too. Sure, they won't chop up leaves and sticks and other yard detrius, but that's what rakes are for.

I don't own this mower- a neighbor does- and while it worked very well when he first bought it, it's become increasingly difficult to use over time as the blade dulls and parts rust and wear. If you're going to use a manual mower you've got to pay attention to care, much more so than if you use a gas mower. I recommend spraying all moving parts with a coating of Boeshield (available from Amazon) on a regular basis, for one. And get an annual sharpening.

There are two mowers I prefer to this unit. One is the Scotts, which is easier to push, and can be sharpened at home with a simple to use kit instead of paying $50 or $60 at a sharpening service. But my absolute favorite manual mower- and the one I use- is the Brill, from Germany. It weighs 17 lbs, and doesn't need sharpening for 8 years. Maybe Amazon will carry it one day.