American Lawn Mower Company 1204-14 14-Inch 4-Blade Push Reel Lawn Mower

Let me start by saying I have wanted one of these manual mowers literally for YEARS. This summer brought my son and I the perfect excuse to buy one, as we picked up a couple yards to mow/maintain, and neither of the weed-eaters provided were either very reliable, or worked at all. Also, the yards are cut up into many different configurations, if that makes sense, and the large riding mowers provided were not capable of getting in close to the buildings or other ornamentation. Enter this excellent "old-fashioned" tool. I love being able to find tools like this that are well-made with attention to quality and last-ability, if I may coin a word. My kiddo is steeped in the electronic, tech age and to see the ingenuity and resourcefulness of times past really thrills him. Every time he uses it, he gets great exercise, learns attention to detail in the way he has to manipulate it to get every last blade of grass, and afterwards, he has such a sense of accomplishment! He repeatedly tells me, 'I am IN LOVE with this machine!' Also, I have to say, it handles longer weeds or overgrowth pretty darn well, with a bit of effort and elbow grease! Wouldn't recommend it for cutting that all the time, but in spurts it works really well on taller grass. Just be patient and go at it in sections and it will handle the cut quite well. Couldn't ask for better craftsmanship. Heavy and substantial materials that appear to be made to last. The cut is crisp, clean, and precise. The only thing I could wish was that the rollers were made of heavy duty rubber rather than thick plastic. I think they might hold up better over time that way. Love the adjustability of the height of the cut! A bit of work to rig it the first time, but super steady afterward. Also, putting it together wasn't too tough, but the little locks that hold the base of the handle to the actual machine were just adequate, however. I'm afraid they might wear down rather quicker than I'd like. Also, if I may be so bold as to suggest it, including four of them might be a great customer service perk. Just in case one gets bent or lost, or one wears out faster than the other. I don't really want to place an order for two measley locks, y'know what I'm sayin'? I suppose I could run to Home Depot or our local hardware store to get something I could rig to work, but including a couple sets would just be nicer all 'round. In conclusion, BUY THIS if you've been wanting/needing a really efficient, cost-effective, non-fossil-fuel, non-electric, well-built and sturdy mower for your yard. Do be very cautious about twigs and stones or rocks, though. You wouldn't want to muck up these blades, and if anything will do that, it would be those two things. But if you set your cutting height to the highest cut (which is really best for your grass), twigs, etc., aren't really much of an issue unless you never rake your grass or have a plethora of older trees that drop lots of stuff into your yard.

Okay first of all, I'd just like to say that I am autistic, and I absolutely LOATHE mowing the lawn. The mower is too loud, the vibrating of the handle makes my arms go numb, and I can never quite pull on the cord hard enough to get it started by myself. I always have to find someone else to turn it on for me. And not to mention the fact that the smell of gasoline gives me a headache. So I finally decided to see if any old-fashioned mowers still existed, because I would much rather deal with something slower and time-consuming if it meant I wouldn't have to deal with using a normal lawn mower. Imagine my surprise when I found that there are /new/ manual lawnmowers, and I can just order them from Amazon! So I decided I had nothing left to lose, and I would give it a try. Best. Decision. EVER. NOTE OF ADVICE: If you have difficulty putting it together (specifically, attaching the handle to the blade part), find someone with more upper-body strength to help you. They'll get it done in two seconds. (it took me half an hour of attempting to do so before I gave up and waited for my sister to get home so she could help me) Also: it only cuts while you're pushing it forward, so all you have to do to move it when you're not cutting is to pull it along behind you. As for cutting grass? I love it. It works perfectly, aside from a few snags on branches that I didn't notice. If you move it forward and back a few times, you can cut even tall weeds! Much easier than pulling them out by hand in the areas that the normal gas mower can't reach. It's not silent, but it's also not the deafening roar of a gas mower. If I had to describe the sound, I'd say it's a whooshing sound, and much much quieter than a gas mower. Plus, you don't have to deal with your arms vibrating or constantly having to turn the mower back on! No more buying gas, no more struggling to pull on the cord hard enough to turn the mower on, and no more complicated wire-pulling to turn it off. All I have to do is push forward, and the grass gets cut. Stop walking, and it stops cutting. It's easy to maneuver, and it's not so heavy that I can't pick it up and carry it up a flight of stairs to my porch if I need to. I'm never using a gas mower again.

**Update three months later** After using the mower throughout the spring and into the summer, I'm knocking off a star. Don't get me wrong - I still think this is a phenomenal mower for the price and am very glad I bought it. It's definitely a conversation piece when neighbors see me outside using it, it's great exercise, and has saved me a ton of money. But it's got some downsides that I didn't immediately understand. First - the jamming I mentioned initially is out of control. Any twig, small rock, piece of mulch, sometimes even a large leaf causes it to freeze up. I swear sometimes I spend more time clearing it than actually mowing. Second - if your lawn has gotten long (it happens) or is the slightest bit damp, whether from humidity or sprinklers, it tends to skid over the grass instead of mowing it. So you'll have to go over those spots 2-3x each to get them short enough. This last one isn't a criticism, but I've found that in my yard it performs better if I mow in a small patches vs in long rows. It has been a great first mower, but I'll likely be looking for a battery-powered one during the end-of-summer sales. ************* This is an important thing to know: until I got this mower, I had never in my life used a lawnmower. Or had any interest in using a lawnmower. I have allergies, am very sensitive to the sun, etc. etc. Well, I recently moved from my condo into a house with small yard and couldn't see paying a service to mow such a small space. A friend raved about her manual mower and when I couldn't find her model, I decided to try this one. Wow! Is all I can say. I am super impressed - especially for the price. The quality is solid. It was easy to put together (just look closely at the diagram) and once I got it together I was ready to mow. I still had my doubts - until my first pass at the front yard. It cut my overgrown lawn down to size on the first try and I mowed both my front and back yards in about an hour. It did an amazing job, and I love that it's environmentally friendly! My only complaint is that any sort of obstacle in the lawn - twig, large leaf, clump of dirt, rock, jams it. If you have a lot of debris in your yard, you'll save time by raking it up first - I'll do that next time. I am so glad I bought this and will be even happier every time I mow and think of how much money I'm saving!

First of all, I love that this mower doesn't require gas or electricity. No fumes, pretty quiet. It was extremely easy to assemble. The manual was not all that useful / a little aggravating, but assembly manuals tend to be. There are three screws you use to assemble the handle -- make sure to use the shortest one for the single hole (towards the top of handle assembly), not that it's a big deal if you accidentally put it in the wrong place. I finger-tightened the plastic knobs... no tools required for that. I was a little confused by the e-clips so I looked at a very short video on Youtube to see how they might be put on. I used needlenose pliars for that. I was careful doing that because, as many people have pointed out, the blades are very sharp. You put the handle on the metal orange nibs (I also was a little unclear on where to attach the handle, though a glance at a different Youtube video helped me see that clearly). Normally at this stage in my life, I'm not a big procrastinator. But I have to admit that I had been procrastinating doing anything about the back yard here, where I moved in late November (about four and a half months ago). I moved from a 99 year old house where we had landscaped our tiny yard to have no lawn, into a newer structure built on red clay. Never understimate what can grow in red clay! It might not be what you want, but plants will grow. Through late fall and winter, and really until fairly recently, the back yard was largely mud -- It's been another rainy year. Then things started growing, and I was curious to see what would emerge. Also, the pollen has been noxious, so I've not wanted to spend a lot of time out there (used a bandana over mouth and nose to reduce breathing pollen). I knew eventually I was going to have to figure out what to do back there. It isn't a large yard but is at least twice the size of my previous yard. Still not sure what all I will do, but now I have a way to keep grass and weeds at bay. I feel like it works pretty well on weeds. There are both weeds and grass in the back yard. I'm not looking for a manicured lawn back there, I just want to keep growth somewhat in check. There's a quite small area that had gotten very dense and long, and the mower actually did a good job cutting that long grass and weeds, though after I raked it (for 'fun'), I did notice I'll need to go back over some of it again in a couple of days. With long stuff, it wraps around the axles (?), so I had to pull grass / weeds out a couple of times (it's a good idea to wear work gloves for that, and even be careful wearing the work gloves... and I used the needle nose pliars again, to do that, before storing the mower in a shed that I now see is kind of damp and probably not the best place to store it). Definitely keep pets and children away from it. My dog would have followed me around the yard with it but I made her stay in. Again, the blades are sharp. If everyone would use mowers like this, we wouldn't have such anal lawn maintenance to compete with ;) Not that it doesn't so a great job of mowing. It does. I'm just not very picky about things sticking up here and there. Also, we'd have less noise and fumes from mowers (though of course I realize there is environmental impact in its production). I was so anxious before mowing ... Had let things get a little beyond where I would have liked. Was actually excited about this mower when I ordered it, and I rarely allow myself to feel excited. Now that I've used it and gotten the back yard somewhat in check, I feel relief! Strongly recommend!

I just moved into a rental duplex with a yard of about 3,000 square feet to take care of. Not huge, but not a postage stamp either. Being a rental unit, the "grass" in the yard is mostly dandelions, crabgrass, and broadleaf weeds, with the occasional patch of dense fast-growing grass. In other words, a whole lot of exactly what this mower supposedly can't handle. But it is light enough and the cutting path is narrow enough that you can power it through, and if it stalls, back up a couple of feet and try again. It's a very well-made mower, the blades are pre-sharpened, the reel turns easily and smoothly, and the mower cuts cleanly even through the heavy stuff with very little effort. It took me about 40 minutes, with plenty of overlap between passes, to complete the neglected and overgrown yard. The only change I made was to set the reel to the highest mowing level, 1 3/4 inch, which is around what most gas mowers cut at by default. The lower preset level would probably cause the mower to constantly bog down in the thickest part of the broadleaf weeds. At the highest level, it just takes the tops off of them. For a rental yard, the results look fine, about on par with the neighbors' gas-mowed yards. I wouldn't want to tackle a large yard with this little mower. It would be easy, but would take forever. For a smaller yard, it's well-suited. The actual cutting width is about one foot. If you figure on 1/2 or 1/3 overlap between passes, you're really only cutting 6 or 9 inches width per pass. So, even a smaller yard will take a while. But the mower is remarkably easy to push. Not much harder than a full-sized self-propelled gas mower, seriously. Assembly is quick. You'll need a pair of pliers or vise grips. Assemble the handle sections by attaching them with bolts and locknuts. The locknuts have plastic wings on them so you can tighten them by hand. Slide the foam grips onto the upper handle sections. The completed handle assembly then slides onto two inward-facing pegs at the top of the mower section. The outward pressure of the handle lower arms pretty much keeps them in place on the pegs, but there are C-clips to push onto grooves in the pegs to keep the handles in place. You'll need the pliers to squeeze the C-clips into the grooves. That's it, the mower is assembled. Adjusting the height of the reel involves removing two bolts and locknuts that hold the back rollers in place. You'll need a wrench to do that. There are holes in the vertical supports for the back rollers, and holes in the back of the mower. Remove the bolts from the preset holes, move them to other holes, replace the locknuts. It took me longer to move the reel to the highest setting than it did to assemble the mower. As the instructions suggest, hit the blades and reel with plenty of WD-40 before and after each use to keep them rust-free and also to help keep the grass from sticking to the moving parts. Overall, I'm very pleased with this little mower. It's a small dog that thinks it's a big dog, and it gets the job done. For the price, the quality is remarkable. It's surprisingly easy to push and use. A great value. Recommended.

Pros: Inexpensive Easy Assembly Does cut grass Lightweight Low Profile Cons: Easily jammed Not very sturdy This hand reel mower does what it claims but with some limitations. The good: Its one of the cheapest options out there. I put it together in less than 5 minutes. It does cut grass under a certain length effectively and its relatively small size makes it easy to store if you don't have a large garage or shed. The bad: The blades will cut grass pretty effectively as long as its not too thick or there's any "debris" like small twigs or pieces of mulch around. If the grass is too thick the reel will lock up but I was able to get around this by backing up and just pushing the mower harder, which greatly increases the amount of effort as I would have to do this over and over every step in the areas with thick grass. But if anything a bit harder than grass like a piece of mulch or a twig is caught in the reel forget it. You'll need to remove the blockage (as it will often stick to the blade) and try again. This can become unmanageable depending on your yard. I quickly lost patience trying to cut near an area that had mulch as it would lock up every few steps. I literally thought I had a defective unit at first as the pieces of mulch and twigs that would prevent the blades from spinning were so small many times that I didn't even notice them. You can probably minimize this issue by raking before mowing but that's something I never had to worry about with gas mowers. Another thing to consider is that after the grass gets past a certain length, this mower becomes ineffective as it relies on the grass being able to get caught between the blades as they are spinning. If the grass is too long, it will cause the grass or weeds to lay down and roll over them instead of cutting them. This appears to be a limitation of all hand reel mowers though and not just this particular one. Overall I'd say get this is perfect if you're looking for a cheap and small to cut a small lawn and don't have to cut around mulch or a tree that drops lots of twigs or anything denser than grass. If this isn't the case I'd probably recommend spending another $30+ and getting an electric or extra $100 to get a gasoline mower.

Oh gosh!!! What can I say about this awesome lawn mower!!! I finally tried it out today to cut my knee high grass/weed. First I weed whacked the edges, then it was lawn mower to do its job… I was surprised how light it was and very easy to push it smoothly. The mower is well made!! Again not heavy, me being an older lady I was able to control and handle the mower. I had a lot to cut, but I was actually enjoying myself cutting the grass. I cut the back lawn, the side and front. Now my lawn is beautiful! But now I have to rake it up. Ugh. I’ll probably mow the lawn in a couple days to cut it really short. Again … I love my new lawn mower !! Thank you American Lawn mower for a light weight easy to handle mower!!!

Love this thing. It has been used for weeks on the dangerous parts of a very large yard and works great at evening up the parts where the large deck mower has a hard time due to the shape of the ground. It is super easy to assemble, fairly easy to push (I often use one hand due to a wrist injury), easy to clean, easy to store and does a really nice short cut. Doesn't like really tall grass or sticks of any diameter. Would be nice if it had a mechanism to unlock the blade height for when debris jams in the blade housing so I don't have to stick whatever tool is handy in there.