# What's a good reel mower? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602 "2014-05-16T18:56:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/1 "2014-05-16T18:56:39Z")
I’m on the lookout for a good non-powered reel mower. The ones made by Fiskar look pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/2 "2014-05-16T19:28:47Z")
Husqvarna makes a couple of models that are quite well-built and reasonably priced. We’ve got two or three years on ours (touch-ups and corners the riding mower won’t reach, plus some quick general mowing here and there) and all I’ve had to do is adjust the cutter tension a few times. Night and day from the heavy, clunky, ill-cutting monsters of yesteryore, a few of which I learned to toss Olympic distances… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/3 "2014-05-16T21:19:31Z")
I have a cheap Sears one, now 16 years old. It gets sharpened every year or two, and I replaced a bolt, but that’s about it for the maintenance. It isn’t that light and it cuts okay but not great, so I only vouch for its reliability. Maybe I should look at some others next time I’m in the hardware store. That’s all I have - I sneer at puny northern California lawns. At the moment we are on one watering a week rationing, so only a few weeds are growing. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/4 "2014-05-17T01:36:38Z")
Oh brother, does this bring back a flood of bad childhood memories which I had almost completely forgotten due to years of therapy until I stumbled upon this thread. (Thanks a lot Czarcasm.) We had a yard the size of a football field. I’m shutting down now. I’m going away, yeup, I’m going away… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/5 "2014-05-17T03:35:02Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I have a cheap Sears one I think that’s what mine is. Haven’t looked recently. The problem I have with it is that the dandelions grow faster than the grass. The reel mower just knocks the stalks over without cutting them. Does OK on the grass, though. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/6 "2014-05-17T04:08:52Z")
I tried a non powered rotary mower, but it never would cut daisy stems, which we had lots of. Grass, no problem, daisies just bent with the blade. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/7 "2014-05-17T20:49:21Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think that’s what mine is. Haven’t looked recently. The problem I have with it is that the dandelions grow faster than the grass. The reel mower just knocks the stalks over without cutting them. Does OK on the grass, though. That’s what my reel mower is too - and it does the same thing with dandelions. Stalks sticking up all over everywhere but short grass. So I use my battery mower in dandelion season and save the reel mower for later in the summer. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/8 "2014-05-18T04:33:49Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think that’s what mine is. Haven’t looked recently. The problem I have with it is that the dandelions grow faster than the grass. The reel mower just knocks the stalks over without cutting them. Does OK on the grass, though. That is a negative. I can keep ahead of the dandelions by digging them out, but I have lots of other weeds. I was impressed by how well my neighbor’s power mower did when I borrowed when my grass got very long. I do have an electric weed whacker which does a good job. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/9 "2014-05-19T18:33:35Z")
You won’t like the manual mower unless you have a perfect manicured lawn with no twigs or leaves or big weeds to get in the way. Have the lawn or yard done professionally and then touch it up with the push mower … that’s what I had to do: [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA10Z0CA1100](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA10Z0CA1100) > [@](#): > > world’s most advanced reel mower makes mowing your lawn eco-friendly and easy ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-reel-mower/688602/10 "2014-05-19T18:44:55Z")
I owned [this American reel mower](http://www.amazon.com/American-Lawn-Mower-1204-14-14-Inch/dp/B00004RA3F/) for a few years, and was happy with it. When I first got it I was living in a townhouse, and for the last year I was living in a small single-family home (that actually had less mow-able grass than the townhouse, because there was no back yard). I never sharpened or oiled it. I left it at the last house when I moved out a month ago, because I moved to a house with a pretty big yard and have hired a lawn service. On preview: while it’s true that moving twigs, etc., out of the way can get a bit old, I still preferred that to the idea of paying for someone else to cut such small amounts of grass.