First petrol lawnmower - talk to me

[hornetrider]

Morning chaps.

Have recently moved to a house with a nice patch of lawn of approx 1/4 - 1/3 acre. This is a big step up for me from a conventional size garden so I'm obviously ditching my electric and moving into the world of petrol mowers (self propelled) for the first time.

I've done a fair amount of research (including on here) and the advice as always is very good - but quite expensive

So, the usual recommended brands as far as I can tell are Atco, Hayter and Honda? These range pricewise from ludicrous to incredibly steep, and reassuringly expensive, as far as I can tell.

As usual I'm looking for a bit of an angle to perhaps go a bit leftfield, get some good functionality and also save a fair few quid on the price too. With that in mind I've been searching around and come across a couple of good looking mowers on paper, wonder if anyone had any experience or feedback good or otherwise?

First up we have ze German Einhell at £250 (down from £400). It's German right, how bad can it be? 46cm cutting width, 3 in 1, single lever height adjustment, powder coated deck and many other features, plus chunky rear tyres for the offroad gnarly look. Comes with a 2 year warranty.



http://www.mowdirect.co.uk/einhell-gh-pm-46-shw-3-...

Secondly we have the catchily named Oleo-Mac at £300 reduced from £500. OK it's Italian, but I've got an Italian bike which is ace so this must be good too right? This one is a 4 in 1, massive 200cc engine for extra powerrrrrr and looks like it could climb an Alp on those tyres. Lots of features as above, plus it also has a 3 year manufacturer warranty!



http://www.mowdirect.co.uk/oleo-mac-g53-tk-allroad...

So, what do we reckon? Smart or folly?!

[hornetrider]

BoRED S2upid said:

Have you discussed the options with your gardener?

Thanks chaps and Mike for some good feedback.

Our lawn is split into two bits, with a rock border between them. I need to buy a small ornamental bridge to traverse this border, and also we'll be cutting out a decent portion of the grass shortly to turn into an allotment, and also planting a small orchard, both of which kind of rules out a ride-on as being an option or strictly required.

The two I've linked above are both mulching, as I think we'd use a combination of grass collection to compost and mulching to cut down on composting volume.

I also kind of like this McCulloch at £260 which has a B+S engine:



http://www.cheapmowers.com/acatalog/McCulloch-M46-...

[hornetrider]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Get the German Einhell, paint out the "E" and replace it with an apostrophe and a "K".

I was thinking that if you squint, it looks like 'kinhell