Scotts Outdoor Power Tools 2000-20S 20-Inch 5-Blade Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower, Green

As much as I love gardening, I hate mowing the lawn. I hate lugging my power mower out of the garage and maneuvering it around our cars and all my husband's junk. I hate the noise it makes. It's heavy to push and hard to get it into tight spaces. I thought I was at least avoiding the hassle and environmental issues of gasoline by buying an electric rechargeable one. But after a few years the battery stopped holding a charge and they discontinued the replacement batteries, so the whole thing is a giant piece of e-waste now. I didn't want to buy another one, so I decided to try an old-fashioned reel mower instead. Some of the reviews on this product had me worried. Some people found them hard to push, some said they get caught up on every little tough weed and twig, etc. After using my new Scotts reel mower for the first time, I really don't understand what those people were talking about. Maybe they were using it on super-high grass, or on wet grass. But the first time I used mine, I found it WAY easier to use than a power mower. It takes up much less space in the garage, and I can just pick it up with one arm and carry it outside. You walk up and down the yard with it, you're done in a few minutes, and that's it. I like that this particular model allows you to adjust the height to a maximum of 3 inches. (That's the height that's supposed to be healthier for your lawn and better for water conservation, but most reel mowers don't adjust that high.) There are a few caveats. If you look at my picture where I've used the 3" setting, you'll see that it doesn't chop every single blade of grass to a uniform height, like a carpet. Any grass or weeds that grow sideways, or that are tall and flimsy, don't get trimmed. I did have to bend down to pick a few dandelions it didn't get. But overall, considering it took me all of 10 minutes to cut it, and without breaking a sweat, I'm pretty thrilled with it. The other thing is that it does not eliminate the need for an edger/trimmer. You can see I had to leave some taller grass at the base of the trees. The one tree has a ring of rocks around it, and I was afraid of damaging the blades. I got closer to the other tree, but I'll still have to go back and use the weedeater around the base. But then, you'd have the same issue with any other mower as well. Some people complained it gets stuck on sticks and rocks. We had a wind storm the day before I mowed, and I did take a couple of minutes to go out and pick up any sticks that were big enough to stick up out of the lawn. But I certainly didn't pick up every little twig and seedpod. You can see quite a few of them still in the grass, and the mower didn't get stuck on any of them. I did have to bend down to pluck up a few dandelions by hand, though, as the mower just bent them over and didn't cut them. And there were a couple of little spots where I had to go over them a second time, because a few random blades were still sticking up. When I cut my lawn, it had only been about a week since the last trim, so I didn't have to cut off a lot of length. But if you let your grass get high, the mower is going to be harder to push. And if your grass is REALLY high, the mower might just sort of push it all over instead of cutting it. But that was also true with my old power mower. If you let the grass get really long, you need to go over it with a weedeater, then mow at the highest setting, and then lower it and go over it again. Obviously, it's better not to let your grass get that long in the first place. But the great thing about the reel mower is that it's so much easier to use than my power mower, I won't be nearly as lazy about pulling it out of the garage to use it more often. In fact, as much as cutting the grass can be fun, it was sort of fun. If you're wondering whether the grass catcher attachment is worthwhile... not really. The trimmings just sort of fly up in the air, and the open-topped bag picks up whatever happens to land in it, but a lot of trimmings still end up in the grass. The trimmings will help mulch your lawn and keep it healthy anyway. I only bought the grass catcher because I was hoping I wouldn't have to sweep the sidewalk. There was less to sweep up, but I still had to make a quick pass with a broom. I probably won't return the grass catcher, but if I had it to do over I probably wouldn't bother with it. Reel mowers are available in a lot of different widths, with this 20" one being one of the widest available. If you're wondering what width you should get, the wider they are, the more grass you can cut at once, which means they're also harder to push because there's more resistance. That said, I didn't find the 20" to be remotely hard to push. (The claims about it being a "good workout" are a bit overblown.) The only reason I could see for getting a narrower one is if you have a lot of really tight spaces in your yard that require some tricky maneuvering. The mower also works better if you are walking quickly, because that makes the blades turn faster. So you have strength or mobility issues that might make it harder for you to push it quickly, that might also be a reason to get one of the narrower models.

After cutting my lawn with a gas-powered mower last summer, I wanted to simplify things. I really don't want to stress over spark plugs and oil and gasoline, and hoping that my engine will start when I pull the cord. All the maintenance. We already have a car for that. I wanted something I could understand, that worked well. This does the trick. I honestly look forward to cutting the lawn now. It's a fun experience. I like the 20-in width because you tend to overlap as you travel back and forth across your lawn anyway, so it's great that you don't have to do as many passes as you would with a narrower mower. I like not having to make sure I have enough gasoline to cut my lawn, especially as gas has increased in recent months. The only fuel I need is in my body. Our lawn is mostly level, yet this does give me a bit of good exercise, though nothing too extreme at all. What I lose in machine-propelled front-wheel drive I make up for in a healthier heart. I'll take it. This is much quieter than an electric or gas-powered mower, so I am able to cut grass at 7:00 a.m. before it gets very hot or the day gets busy, and not bother anyone. The first time I used it, my wife didn't even know I was outside her window cutting grass. I'd been reading up before my purchase, and I learned that a reel mower is better for your grass due to its cutting method, working much more like scissors rather than a rotating horizontal blade that tends to leave the tips of grass brown and leaves behind a trail of “hay” unless you use a bagger on your mower. With several blade height settings that are as easy as popping a little handle out of a notch and then back in around the wheel, it's also possible to cut the grass much shorter like golf course style than other styles of mowers, if that suits your needs. I share an unfenced lawn with my neighbors, so personally I use a higher blade height in order to match what they've cut already with their electric and gas mowers. Many people have said that you need to use a reel mower much more often than a gas-powered mower, but that hasn't been my experience. If I cut any sooner than weekly (~30 minutes), I find that there's very little that's ready to be cut. I'm guessing amount of rain and sunshine and grass type are factors in this, though. All in all, I'm really digging this retro mower lifestyle. Stress-free. Yes, please!

This is the Porsche of reel mowers: easy to push, lightweight, easy to sharpen (with an auxiliary sharpening kit, $25.00), well-engineered and nicely painted. It can be set to five different cutting levels in three ranges, moving from very low (1") to high (2.5"). Out of the box it comes adjusted to the highest range, but this can be changed to one of the two lower ranges fairly easily by removing the wheels. There are several youTube videos that explain how to do this. It is important to know that push mowers don't handle very long grass or weeds very well. On the other hand, they do a great job of manicuring lawns to a uniform height. Unlike power movers, they actually cut the leaves rather than ripping off the tops. And (of course) the Scott's 2000 is good on gas and good for the environment, and it's not going to wake up the baby.

I honestly didn't really expect this to be up to the job I had in mind for it...but it has proved me completely wrong I'm happy to say! We have a croft (smallholding) that has no power and I'm rubbish at starting petrol mowers, but we needed a solution to keep the long, rough grass under control now that the growing season is under way. The width of this cutting blade seemed great, so for the price it had to be worth a try. It has done a fabulous job! I gave everything a first cut on the middle setting to clear tussocks, but subsequent cuts can now be on the lowest setting. Downhill, it's a breeze. Uphill requires a bit of a running start and some welly, but someone stronger than me, (a skinny 56 Yr old woman) might even manage a standing start! It's very sharp and I bought the blade sharpener too to keep it that way. I love it and can't recommend it highly enough. It doesn't cut the shortest I've ever seen but for my purposes that's ideal.

Excelente para cortar el cesped

Réellement GENIALE. Très belle avec ses couleurs et un fini remarquable. On apprécie "aucun outil nécessaire" pour le montage et...C'EST EXACT. Tout s'enclenche en quelques minutes. Très maniable, elle très rassurante.et la qualité est au rendez-vous. L'herbe était un peu haute, mais en croisant on arrive a faire un travail absolument parfait. Après quatre heures non stop, elle a fait un travail impressionnant mais surtout je ne ressens pas de fatigue. Il n'y a aucune comparaison avec les autres tondeuses, ou les débroussailleuses, on ne ressent aucune tension, on va à son rythme, attentif mais "zen". Depuis des années nettoyer mon grand terrain -qui de plus n'est pas très plat- était un grand souci, mais ce soir je sais que c'est avec une grande légèreté que je reprendrai cette "aventure", de plus aucun souci de charge, aucun souci de la peur d'une pierre projetée, aucun souci de fil... Très sincèrement je recommande absolument quel que soit votre force ou votre âge, on peut aller à son rythme, elle vous suit tout simplement, et elle est très stable avec ses deux roues arrières. Juste un dernier mot : un très grand "merci".

I used this mower all of last mowing season and it never let me down. I have quite a large lawn (my house is on half an acre) and this is quicker and way, way quieter than a petrol mower. It's really nice to avoid buying petrol and not have a noisy mower or breathing in fumes. I will need to sharpen the blades soon, but it's well worth the effort. Yes, it's a bit more of a workout, but I would not go back.