In article ,
"David.WE.Roberts" writes:

Back in the day when I researched mowers the choice of rear roller or four
wheel was not to do with wanting stripes - you still get stripes(ish) with
a mower with four wheels.

If you want good stripes with a 4-wheeled mower, set the
cutting height slightly differently on each side.
Done it by accident with my brother's small mower a couple
of times!

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 12/03/2014 09:30, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Nthkentman" writes:
Electric mowers are for the occasional garden lawn mowing Sunday enthusiast,

I used to agree (having repaired a good many friends' ones).

However, induction mowers were getting harder to find (people
won't pay the extra, not understanding the difference), and
it was some years ago since I last checked the market and
bought one.

Was there not some EU directive on motor noise that was going to prompt
a general switch to induction motors?



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article ,
John Rumm writes:
On 12/03/2014 09:30, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Nthkentman" writes:
Electric mowers are for the occasional garden lawn mowing Sunday enthusiast,

I used to agree (having repaired a good many friends' ones).

However, induction mowers were getting harder to find (people
won't pay the extra, not understanding the difference), and
it was some years ago since I last checked the market and
bought one.

Was there not some EU directive on motor noise that was going to prompt
a general switch to induction motors?

Sounds like the EU.

There's one coming which limits the power of vacuum cleaners, but
I can't imagine any of the bureucrats use a vacuum cleaner, so if
it takes twice as long, what would they care?

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:18:35 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

There's one coming which limits the power of vacuum cleaners, but I
can't imagine any of the bureucrats use a vacuum cleaner, so if it takes
twice as long, what would they care?

Except it won't, because there's plenty of efficient vacs already under
the power limit - and plenty of inefficient, noisy, shit ones waaaay over
it.

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
John Rumm writes:
On 12/03/2014 09:30, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Nthkentman" writes:

Electric mowers are for the occasional garden lawn mowing Sunday enthusiast,

I used to agree (having repaired a good many friends' ones).

Are they, bejabers? Mains electric mowers are by far the best solution
for small lawns, and we have had a few for the past 30+ years.

Was there not some EU directive on motor noise that was going to prompt
a general switch to induction motors?

Sounds like the EU.

Sounds like the Daily Wail, actually. It isn't hard to make a
reasonably quiet petrol motor if one tries, and almost all of the
better ones are.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
Adrian wrote:
On Wed, 12 Mar 2014 16:18:35 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

There's one coming which limits the power of vacuum cleaners, but I
can't imagine any of the bureucrats use a vacuum cleaner, so if it takes
twice as long, what would they care?

Except it won't, because there's plenty of efficient vacs already under
the power limit - and plenty of inefficient, noisy, shit ones waaaay over
it.

It's probably a safety matter, anyway. Even excluding the people
who use vacuum cleaners for strange and unnatural purposes, the
most powerful are definitely a potential danger if one gets the
end of a bare tube against bare skin.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 11/03/2014 23:22, Brian Gaff wrote:
A goat?


I dream of being able to cut the grass, the hedge and the neighbours
overhanging branches with a vaporising laser beam.

--
Adrian C

On Tue, 11 Mar 2014 22:09:25 +0000 (UTC), Adrian wrote:

On Tue, 11 Mar 2014 20:34:48 +0000, Vir Campestris wrote:

We've had a pocket handkerchief for the last mumble years, but this
one's a little larger - about 50x25 metres.

I'm not really into stripes. Suggestions for a mower please?

We were in your position last year.

A small ad for a mildly used Viking (Stihl) 17" rotary got jumped at. We
were ambivalent about stripes, too - but this one has the roller, so
shrug

On balance, with somewhat lumpy ground in places, I think it scores over
wheels, since it doesn't drop one rear wheel into a hollow and scalp the
hummock.

On my 'lawns' I rely on the scalping to keep the dimmocks under control -
the dimmocks are made by ants, especially in v. wet weather.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ...

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
John Rumm writes:
On 12/03/2014 09:30, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Nthkentman" writes:

Electric mowers are for the occasional garden lawn mowing Sunday
enthusiast,

I used to agree (having repaired a good many friends' ones).

Are they, bejabers? Mains electric mowers are by far the best solution
for small lawns, and we have had a few for the past 30+ years.


Which part of the op's post about the size did you miss? 300ft x 80ft....
That's a bloody long extension lead

That's NOT a small garden suitable for an electric mower on regular use.

"Vir Campestris" wrote

We've had a pocket handkerchief for the last mumble years, but this one's
a little larger - about 50x25 metres.

I'm not really into stripes. Suggestions for a mower please?

We have an ancient mains electric Hayter with aluminium deck that I
inherited from my mother in 1993, broke once due to me being careless but
the spares were easily available and cheap.
Personally if I were in the market for a petrol mower for such a lawn as
yours I would take a serious look at the Honda range.
http://www.honda.co.uk/garden/lawnmowers/

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

In article ,
Nthkentman wrote:

Electric mowers are for the occasional garden lawn mowing Sunday
enthusiast,

I used to agree (having repaired a good many friends' ones).

Are they, bejabers? Mains electric mowers are by far the best solution
for small lawns, and we have had a few for the past 30+ years.

Which part of the op's post about the size did you miss? 300ft x 80ft....
That's a bloody long extension lead

You clearly did not read the post I was responding to.

(a) That is NOT a small lawn. (b) It is complete nonsense that
they are for solely the class of gardeners specified; they are
commonly used for business premises (often large ones), where the
amount of grass is small and next to the building.

I wouldn't use one for a 24,000 square foot lawn, either. Mine
is a tenth that size, at most.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article , nthkentman2
@gmail.com says...

Which part of the op's post about the size did you miss? 300ft x 80ft....

He said 50 x 25 metres, which is about half that size.

I use a 50 + m cable to cut our hedges.

Janet.

On Tue, 11 Mar 2014 20:34:48 +0000, Vir Campestris
wrote:

We've had a pocket handkerchief for the last mumble years, but this
one's a little larger - about 50x25 metres.

I'm not really into stripes. Suggestions for a mower please?


Last year I treated myself to a Honda HRX. We have a little bit more
grass than you mention above but it handles the area well. One great
advantage is the Roto-stop function which stops the blade when you you
let go of the handle, but the motor continues to run. For someone
like me with slightly iffy shoulders it is marvelous. It has a
polycarbonate deck which so far has stood up to my mistreatment
(forever nocking it against concrete curbs) without any problems. Not
cheap but worth every pound.
--
rbel

In article ,
Vir Campestris wrote:

We've had a pocket handkerchief for the last mumble years, but this
one's a little larger - about 50x25 metres.

I'm not really into stripes. Suggestions for a mower please?

(Needless to say, whatever you buy, it must be self-propelled!) And it
should be petrol, because for that size lawn you need a big one.

I cut quite a lot of grass, of different sorts. I have a really crappy
old petrol mower, which I got in the small ads of the local paper (worth
a look), which I use for doing the rough edges and awkward bits, and for
the biggest bit of grass I cut, I have the use of a ride-on
(Mountfield). I guess this piece of grass (which is a really awkward
shape) is maybe 50m x 50m - the ride-on is a real blessing, partly
because the grass is also on at least two slopes: a real bloody nuisance!

If I'd been the one to buy the ride-on I'd have bought one which
collects the grass: this one can only mulch, which as others have said,
makes a bloody mess ... in particular because we never have a dry
summer, not ever (not up 'ere lahk anyway). Thus you're left with lines
of wet grass up and down the place. (The theory of mulching is very
good; I think it arose somewhere where they have long hot dry summers.)

And in conclusion: I've asked two professional gardeners what sort of
mower they buy for choice, and they both said without hesitation:
"Honda, every time".

hth
John

On 12/03/2014 18:08, Janet wrote:
In article , nthkentman2
@gmail.com says...

Which part of the op's post about the size did you miss? 300ft x 80ft....

He said 50 x 25 metres, which is about half that size.

I use a 50 + m cable to cut our hedges.

Janet.

I have to use a hedge cutter.