The landlord wants us to keep the lawn trim. We don’t actually have much in the way of a lawn - most of it is moss, but there are a few patches of grass. The lawn mower we have is crap. Should we just get one of those powerless push mowers where the wheel turn cylinder blades to turn the grass? Are they cheap? Are they effective? Low maintenance? Any personal experiences or recommendations?
My neighbor uses one, she has a patch of Mother Front Lawn about as big as a parking place. It hardly makes any noise (puuuuuuush… puuuuuullll), and the grass is nicely cut.
Also… at Congressional CC where they played the US Open this past June… they used manual mowers only. Because of the exquisite cut.
I have one (they’re called “reel mowers”). I haven’t used it in a while because our current landlord takes care of the grass. In our previous place, I had maybe a few hundred square feet of grass to deal with, and it was fine for that. It is quiet and low-maintenance (no gas, no oil, few moving parts). However, if you let the grass get a little too high, the mower (at least the model I have) tends to push the grass over rather than cut it like a powered mower will. I also had trouble with dandelions. The little buggers just bent over and popped back up once the mower passed them. So, I ended up having to yank them out by hand as I came across them. I don’t know if this is a problem with all reel mowers, though.
Overall, I like our mower and think it’s a good way to go if you don’t have a lot of grass to cut.
I remember those damn things all too well – and I had a fancy one with rubber tires. If you are just cutting short grass they do just fine but is the grass gets tall enough that the blades don’t pull the grass in and against the cutting table they do very poorly. Buckhorn weeds were the bane of the lawn cutting days of my youth. What a delight to get a motor powered rotary mower.
I used one when I was a kid cutting a neighbor’s lawn for pennies. A bit more muscle required to push them (which is no bad thing) and not bad unless the grass is of a tough variety or, as Bayard says, a little too long.
I used to use one on a tiny bit of grass, like 10’x5’ and had the same experience as everyone else. It works good if the grass is not too high and there’re no tough weeds. It also helps to have the blades sharp and the bearings oiled.
We got ours from a yard sale and for the first couple of months I would just use it as I got it and complain about how crappy it was. Then my brother suggested sharpening the blades. So I looked up how to do that and it mentioned to oil the bearings too. So I did and the thing was great from then on.
Keep the blades sharp (twice a Summer), & well-oiled, & they ain’t hard to use.
I used one for a while. They’re nice, but you have to take extra care not to do anything that might dull the blades, like leaving the mower out in the weather. You should keep the blades clean as well. You’ll have to sharpen it every year or so, and you may have to adjust the blades. Also, they aren’t as cheap as you may think! You can get a very cheap gas mower or an electric that would suit your needs for the same price. All in all, for a small lawn I do prefer the reel mower.
I think some of the people in this thread may need to sharpen their blades, or maybe I was just lucky with my lawns. When had one, and when I’d let my grass get too long, it would be a bit tough to mow. Just get a bit of a running start (a couple of paces) to get the blades going at a good clip, and that sucker would cut anything I had to deal with, even wet grass. I wouldn’t want to do a big lawn with one, though.
I was lazy and never sharpened and rarely oiled the thing, and it lasted for years that way. If you treat it better than I did it will last long enough to pass on to your grandkids.
I dunno how much they cost new, but I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find one free (or almost) off of Craig’s list or some such.
My sister has one, and I used to have one for a few years – fine, as said above, unless long spindly shoots are an issue.
Anyway, it’s his yard – just get the cheapest mower you can and do the best you can with it. And tell him if you doesn’t like it, he can go eat some bags that are full.
I have used, with a friend, some rusted out scythes to clear the lawn of a rental house when we were young. Russian peasant style can work fine, if you’re young and retarded, or just ate a bunch of acid and had nothing else to do that day. Yep, I’m sure the lawn looked just great when we were done.
mrAru cuts our yard with a weed whacker. We only have about 300 square feet of anything resembling a lawn. Takes him about half an hour, and it works on the stupid forsythia bush as well [keeping it trimmed back from the road so we can see to pull out.]
I have one, bought it for my last house which had a tiny bit of front lawn, extensive flower beds and a big back yard that the dogs turned ito a moonscape so it never needed to be mowed.
Worked great as long as the grass wasn’t too long or weedy. Otherwise it took 837 passes to get it looking nice and remotely uniform. I think it depends on the type of grass or groundcover you have (mine wasn’t effective at all on clover.)
IMHO, a neighborhood teenager is a better option. My next door neighbor’s teenager did their lawn once a week or so; I paid him $5 to come mow my little strip of grass at the same time. I hate mowing lawns so YMMV.
I used a reel mower for a couple of years - it’s fine on a small lawn.
Quoth Bayard:
Some might consider that a feature, not a bug.
I think dandelions are pretty (tasty, too.) 
But if the OP lives in a well-groomed area, s/he risks the ire of neighbors who don’t want dandelion spores wafting onto their lawns.
I’ve generally just used a weed-whacker if my yard was that small.
I used one of those just this afternoon. The grass was a little overgrown, so I really wore my little chicken wings out! But I do quite like the idea of being about to take care of the grass without having to concern myself with filling it up with gasoline.
bad for rolling uneven gound, hard to finish edges and corners, tires the arms.
on the other hand, only an incompetent keeps a rolling lawn. edges and corners are always trimmed and finished with shears. and excercise is good for you.
I got one this summer, and I don’t love it, but it’s doing an acceptable job on the flat back yard. I think I might still get an electric mower for the very hilly, challenging front yard.
They aren’t cheap as previously mentioned - I could have gotten an electric mower for not much more, but I do like mowing emissions-free and getting a good work-out at the same time.
You could also check your local used listings for a used mower - that’s how we got our old one. It cost something like $30 and lasted for seven years.
Similar situation four or five years ago and we decided upon an electric because of cost. I don’t remember the numbers. If electric is considered an option then do some shopping as back then at least there was a considerable range in prices from place to place.