Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Oil it first! Thanks to other reviewers who mentioned oiling; without you I would not have known why my brand new mower was locked up tight; I was about to start adjusting the distance between the blades and the cutting surface with a screwdriver, when I remembered what you had written. To oil, I poured some expensive, high hydroxytyrosol extra virgin olive oil on a paper towel and wiped it onto the blades. (I had just run out of White Lightening bike lubricant but the olive oil was handy. No big deal at all. If you are considering a push reel mower because you don't like petroleum products, rest assured that you can use just about any vegetable oil or skin-friendly silicone instead.) I chose this lawn mower because it was the one that has the highest setting (3 inches), and because it has the widest cutting path. I've never mowed a lawn before, so I really had no idea what I was doing. But I know plants, so I know that if you cut too low it damages the grasses, and that longer grass looks a lot prettier and darker green than grass that is razed short. My grass was already about 5 or 6 inches in some places. The soil was saturated and the grass itself was still wet from lots of rain. But once the machine and I got to know each other, I was able to mow the lawns faster than the rider mowers in the neighborhood. Simply walking behind it at a normal pace turns out to be exactly the right speed to efficiently cut the first time. I did have to fluff up some patches with my hands and go over them again, but that's because they were long, fine, and weighed down with rain. When I was trying to accept that mowing would be a weekly task, I thought that the upside would be an upper-body workout. I was a little disappointed that not much effort was required. I was in street clothing and shoes and didn't even have my hair tied back, because I had only intended to test a small patch to see how difficult it would be. Since hardly any effort was required I just went on and did the job as-I-was. Adjusting the height of the blades is also no big deal. I want to kill a few patches of lawn and replace it with flowers. So I lowered the blades all the way (takes 5 seconds right in the field, no tools) to cut that grass much shorter). I couldn't say whether that's harder or easier to do with this machine than others. I hadn't even expected to need such a feature so I didn't shop for it. But I'm really glad to have it. I appreciate the guard across the front. It enables me to shove the mower right up under some low-hanging shrubs, cutting the grass without cutting the shrubs. The assembly instructions were a little mysterious, and the pictures, including the one in this ad, show the handle attached BACKWARD. The top of the handle should angle down, not up, or the leverage will be lost. I put my handle on as shown and attempted to mow that way for 10 minutes until I realized that su'pm wa'n rite. Ha ha, very funny, Scotts. Hope the neighbors didn't see that. Fortunately all the bolts have wingnuts so it was easily corrected in the field.