Off the Urban Grid

Push Reel Mower–Right for You?

April 26, 2009 – 12:12 am by Lindsay

If you’re looking to scale back on your gasoline reliance (something we may all need to do in the not-so-distant future, if the peak oil folks are right), then you may want to consider replacing your gas-powered lawn mower with a push reel mower. Push meaning this sucker is powered by you.

I own a Sunlawn Classic push reel mower, so I guess I can talk from personal experience on this post. I’ll attempt to answer some of the questions I get from friends and neighbors (especially neighbors who look at me like I’m crazy for not having a gas mower) to help you decide whether a reel mower is a good choice for you or not (in another post, I’ll do a review of the specific mower I bought).

Is a reel lawn mower right for you?

Here are some of the questions I get (and feel free to ask more in the comments if you wish!):

How hard is it to mow the grass with a reel mower?

This depends on how long your grass is! When I first got my mower, the lawn hadn’t been cut in…. er… about 6 months (granted, winter was part of those 6 months, but the grass was pretty high!). Honestly, it was a heck of a workout and took me about two hours (thanks to having an itty bitty house, I do have a fairly large lawn) and left me with some blisters. If your lawn has grown to 6″ or more, I’d recommend borrowing a gas-powered mower for the initial cutting of the season. This isn’t to say mowing tall grass isn’t doable with a quality push mower, but unless you’re as stubborn as me, it’s probably not worth the self-torture.

After that, though, I found the reel mower surprisingly easy to use. I moved from apartment to condo to (only recently) house, so I can’t say that I have a lot of experience with regular lawn mowers, but I have used them, and I was pretty pleased with my push mower.

For those who don’t already know, I’m a gal, and I’ll say that as long as your grass hasn’t grown too high, it’s pretty easy to use a push reel mower. My Sunlawn is quite light, especially compared to a gasoline mower, so even though with a gas mower, the fuel is doing more of the work, there’s really not a lot of effort involved in pushing a 10-pound mower around your yard. I’d say it’s a little more likely to make you sweat than a gas version, but not inordinately so.

Why the heck did you get a reel mower?

This is another question I get fairly often, because I don’t have the smallest of yards. My neighbor has a smaller yard than I do and has a riding mower (he’s retired so I’ll cut him some slack, but I tend to roll my eyes at anyone with a riding mower who has less than an acre). There are a couple of reasons I went with a push mower.

First off, I am trying to cut back on my consumerism and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. That’s probably obvious from the title of this blog. I’m not the perfect representative of the green movement, but if I don’t have to pollute the air, I don’t want to.

Second off, a push lawn mower is simple. If something breaks, you’ll probably be able to fix it yourself (mine came with something like an 8-year warranty so I’m not anticipating a lot of problems). Also, you don’t have to change the oil or mess with spark plugs, air filters, fuel filters, etc. etc. etc. (I don’t think a lawn mower should be as much work to maintain as a car, thank you very much). Basically the only maintenance my mower requires is a little wiping off and a very-infrequent sharpening of the blades.

Third, I’m a desk jockey so honestly I can use the extra workout. Sometimes it cracks me up that I pay money to go to the gym and lift weights and such when I can get a pretty darned good workout just planting trees, building raised garden beds, (push) mowing the yard, etc.

Fourth, I love listening to music or a talk show while I work in the yard. I roll my eyes (yes, I do a lot of that) every time someone powers up some noise-polluting power tool in my neighborhood. I love that I can mow the lawn and listen to something or chat with someone at same time. Shoot, I could even mow at night if I wanted to, knowing I wouldn’t disturb anyone’s sleep.

Lastly, we really don’t know what’s going on with the economy and the price of oil in the long run. In my book, it just makes sense to rely as little as possible on gasoline. I already think large lawns are a waste (which is why a lot of what used to be lawn at my place is now an orchard), so why throw money down the drain in maintaining something that doesn’t really give you anything? What if gas were to go back to $5 a gallon? Or $10? It’s not like it couldn’t happen. If it did, would you really be willing to spend that much money on maintaining something that doesn’t do anything except look nice?

In the end, I figured why buy a tool that runs on gas when you can buy one that doesn’t.

How does a reel lawn mower work on hills?

This one is a little harder for me to answer since my yard is as flat as a pancake. My inclination is to believe it’d actually be easier to use since push mowers are lighter weight than gasoline mowers, so pushing one up or across a hill wouldn’t break your back, but I can’t say for sure. Maybe someone who has hill experience can chime in in the comments section.

Is a reel lawn mower healthy for the grass?

I had to look this up, since I’m not someone who frankly cares a lot what the grass looks like (now my tomato plants, that’s another story). But as it turns out, a push mower may actually give you a healthier, better looking lawn than a gas-powered model.

First off, a reel mower is designed a little differently from a gas one. It has three to seven blades underneath “the hood” that spin vertically (north to south) as opposed to gas-powered mowers which have an east to west spinning blade that tears the grass. A reel mower, instead, snips the grass neatly, as if you were cutting each blade with a pair of scissors.

10 Reasons to Consider a Reel Mower adds this point: “Better for lawn. No ripping or tearing; the clean, even, scissor-cut of a reel mower seals the grass blade, holding moisture and keeping out disease organisms. Yields a natural mulch by dispersing clippings in a fine spray (no clumping) that decomposes quickly. Left on the lawn, the clippings serve as a natural fertilizer for the grass.”

(My mower did come with a grass collection bag, so that is an option if you are composting or some such.)

Push reel mowers are more eco-friendly, aren’t they?

Absolutely. In fact, when I started doing the research I was amazed at just how horrible for the environment a gasoline-powered mower is.

According to Cleaner Air: Mowing Emissions and Clean Air Alternatives, “a traditional gas powered lawn mower produces as much air pollution as 43 new cars each being driven 12,000 miles.” I’m guessing that is over the lifetime of the mower, but even so, yikes.

Some other facts from the site:

• One hour of mowing is the equivalent of driving 350 miles in terms of volatile organic compounds.
• One gas mower spews 87 lbs. of the greenhouse gas CO2, and 54 lbs. of other pollutants into the air every year.
• Over 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment – more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

Talk about eco-guilt.

Is a push lawn mower feasible for a big yard?

I debated quite a bit with myself on whether to get a push mower because I do have a fairly large yard, and most of the push mowers I looked at said for yards up to 4,00 or 6,000 square feet or some such. I never know whether that means lots or yards. My lot is bigger than that, so I waffled a bit before finally biting the bullet. Fortunately, I haven’t regretted my choice.

I think a push mower is going to be a feasible tool for anyone with a typical urban or suburban lot. You’ve got to figure that your house takes up a good chunk of that lot, not to mention driveways, gardens, landscaping shrubbery, tool sheds, etc. For most folks reading this blog, a push mower is probably going to work just dandy.

Now if you’ve got an acre or more, that might be a different story. Then you need to get goats. But that’s the subject for another blog post!

Tags: lawn, reel mower, Tools