Picked it up, noticed the lawn really needed a mow so tried it out. Using my old Izy it took about 2 hours to mow the lawn; it’s a bit awkwardly shaped in places and I usually don’t bother with certain parts round bushes except a couple of times a year to tidy them.
Today took about 1hr 15m with the new mower and that’s taking my time getting used to it, and doing every part that I normally omit. It should be a 1hr job in future. Wish I’d bought it years ago.
I was a bit worried when putting it next to the old one that it seemed big and unwieldy. It looks similar but slightly bigger, which conceptually it is. But the practical differences are:
- 3” wider (21” vs 18”) so there may be one or two less passes up and down each bit of lawn.
- faster, so much so I have to almost break into a jog at its top speed. No need to fiddle with the governor spring, Mik; it seems to be giving me the full 4.8hp already.
- bigger grass box so I don’t have to stop and empty it every time I’ve done an up/down pass on the larger lawn.
- it does mulching so has twin blades. This seems to make it cut the grass more finely even when not mulching so it gets more into the bigger grass box.
- more powerful vacuum effect so it packs the grass box better.
Basically I’m spending less time emptying the box and more time mowing, but that time spent mowing is much more efficient and quick too.
Overall I’m very pleased. It does make the old one look rather shabby too.
The pleasures of a middle-aged man
