The Great Big Lawnmower Thread

Lidl 20V Lawnmower

Looks like the cordless lawnmower is back. €120 plus two batteries at €40 each plus charger €10 (I think)

Is it a good deal for €210??

Take out the spark plug or plugs if its a twin cylinder. Put a little oil in and turn it over. It should turn rapidly without compession. Sometimes cylinders will be slightly stuck lying up. Plug(s) back in and try again. Hopefully you battery wasn't completely discharged lying up, it might not take a full charge until its been cycled a few times.

I'm trying to figure out which to buy, a Honda 2625 or Stihl 6127? Honda is more expensive but which would be the better mower for large lawn. Anyone have either model?

I have the 6127zl in its original Viking brand and colours before Stihl bought the company. It's a big powerful mower, a couple of inches wider cut than the Honda, and a Kw more power in the engine. The Honda does have mulching on a built in lever. Both have similar syncro cutting decks, hydro drive, electric blade clutch, 3650l grass bag, electronic dashboards.

The Stihl has a rugged trailer hitch, it's optional on the Honda. Stihl also has cruise control, automatic blade disengage in reverse (when emptying), with an override to keep the blade engaged during tight manoeuvres. Steel deck on the 6127 is very heavy duty, a bi annual wire underneath wire brushing and coat of rustproof paint, and it will last a lifetime.

It's biggest asset IMO are the huge turf tyres, 20 x 10 inch on the rear, far less likely to skid, slip or damage soft ground, plus giving a more elevated view of the work area. Turning circle is also extremely tight.

Build quality is top notch, far superior to the rickety 20 yo Castelgarden it replaced in 2018. It was too big for its previous owner of 2 years, who had some narrow margins to cut, it eats the acre or more of grass on my coarse and bumpy 2.6 acre site.

Apart from breaking the timing belt catching a poplar root (twice!) I've had no major problems. New battery, drive/deck v belt. I replaced blade shaft bearings (really inexpensive), some v belt idler pulleys and the knives at 7 years old, this was really worthwhile to restore the deck to new condition, removed all rattles and hums from vibrational wear.

Either mower will last a long time, the Honda is sold as a premium machine, some of their economy manufactured ride on models got bad press for component quality, I can't remember which one offhand, but it was a 102cm cut I think.

Vats a bit lower up there, but technically you'd have to pay duty if the mower not manufactured there (though it's manufactured in the EU afaik), and of course the exchange rate, which is stiff enough. £4800 is €5750, adjust the vat from 20 to 23% and add 10% duty and its €6484, so cheaper here. I don't know of you're allowed just buy and come south, to save €500.

Yeah thats who i am looking at. I'd be saving 700-800e for a Stihl delivered versus local shops here.

Hi deezal - Im pulling this out off the archives as its time to get the mower up and running again. at the time you advised I did change the fuses but the engine didn't "turn" all lights tec are working. I ended up cutting lawn with push mower the last few cuts of 2023. do you know what other issues its could be - I see on the part list that there are two different microswitches and also a PC board (hoping its not that anyway)

Gave that €200 Lidl petrol mower its first spin today, cant fault it, the best pull starter Ive ever used on anything, one soft pull and away you go, 1/3 of a pull even. Lovely effortless height adjustment on it aswell. Bag is a bit small and its narrower than Im used to but Id say it only cost me one or two extra laps of my medium sized suburban lawn. I was done in 20 minutes which is all I want.

Do not like the two flimsy plastic hooks that are all that hold the bag to the mower though, it doesnt let a single blade of grass escape when fitted but Ill be looking for a way to reinforce those before they snap.

And I thought that it was all 'Stoney grey soil' in those parts. Or maybe that was Monaghan? Anyway, Patrick Kavanagh won't help you, but maybe there's something there or across the wee border that'll fit the bill. Wide cut electric start walk behind mowers are scarce enough, I've a Cobra 51cm with the B&S electric start Engine for steep banks. It's had its issues with starts, poor cable connections the main reason (I'm making up my own cable loom this year, I'm fed up with jiggling spade connectors). Stiga do a robust electric start 51cm that would work well on slopes

https://monaghanhire.com/products/stiga-combi-753se-st170-elec-start-self-drive-steel

Maybe you want a wider cut if you'd been thinking Ride-on, so the Toro time master 76cm electric start is an alternative to a small ride on. It has a twin blade cut, so it does have the complexity of a twin blade ride on, and costs as much as a small one, but it's an option.

There's no getting away from wet ground this minute, my ground is actual turf, as in bog turf. I could dig it and burn it if dry. It sits like a thick skin floating on the swampy morass underneath, (as does the house, on a pontoon of rock and concrete). Rain soaks through very quickly, and its never muddy as there's no clay in it. I can't allow heavy machines on it, but it'll support a car and trailer in dry summer, and my Viking turf tyred ride on any time. 20 years ago the chap across the road drove a tracked machine on his newly acquired site of similar composition, and it sank. I mean sank, almost disappeared. Now thats soft ground.

I'd be inclined to agree, reeds need a fair whack to cut, and a sharp blade. You can get quite large and powerful battery mowers (I presume by electric you meant cordless), but at a highish price. This would be the business.

https://www.toolfix.ie/p/milwaukee-m18f2lm53-122-m18-fuel-53cm-dual-battery-36v-self-propelled-lawn-mower-2x12ah/4933479822?taxdispinc=y

The corded ones tend to be small, 35cm cut for a suburban garden and not self propelled. Plenty of time and effort pushing and emptying on a half acre and making sure not to cut the cord. Budget electric start petrol would be generic or pattern brands, such as this 51cm Legacy,

or this affordable Woodies Pro Lawn large 53cm cut for a low €449

Some of these appear under other brands like Hyundai from time to time. I wouldn't be a fan of buying in Woodies, support out of warranty is poor, but you get bang for your buck for a few years at least.

I get the thing about prices viewed from the perspective of being old. I'm well retired at this stage, and I smile wryly at the news of all these monster semi state executive 'packages' that are coming to light. Pensions that you spent 45 years contributing to are only covering existing, with the huge inflation of recent years. I'm lucky to have a few assets that came good recently, but too late for me to go mad at this stage, as I struggle with health. I'm not awake at 5.30am reading this by choice. Like you, I'm horrified by the prices asked for everything from an overnight in a hotel to a fill of heating oil. A person on modest old age means could be in real trouble. On the other hand, it fuels my lifelong hobby of weaselling out a deal or a used bargain, and my habit of building/fixing up everything myself, which might be nearing an end. There's a lot of used value out there if you search and are patient. If I spot anything I'll post.

Maybe hire a modest mower and see how much work it is, that’ll give you an idea how long it takes. My first house was half acre site less the house, driveways shrubbery pond and patio, maybe ¼ acre or 1000m² of awkward shapes of grass. Took about half an hour with a 51cm petrol.

If you have sufficient hedging or shrubs, you can spread it at the base. Mulching is good if you have the right mower, mow frequently and cut a little higher, but thats not always possible with our weather. If you have a dedicated compost heap covered with a plastic sheet, you can add some of it in there and fork it through. I've a lot of tree cover with plenty of humus, leaves and twig mulch at their base, where I dump it, and some time later I will level it out and fork it through. This seems to rapidly absorb it. You need some informal areas for a proper biocycle, a large lawn surrounded by formal walls or fencing is unnatural, and thus creates the grass issue.

Depends? If its still the current model then maybe not. Now if there is a newer model I'd have expected a bit of a discount but not much. A lot of stock is taken on in the Autumn for sale the following spring - it used to be dealers took the stock but didn't have to pay for it until the spring. So a mower would often be at least 6 months old when you buy it. Add a summer to that as you bought in November you could easily end up with a mower thats a year old.

Anybody ever have much success with mulcher, have big lawn and the grass clippings are becoming an issue, some say dig a hole or get robot. Any mulchers out there which leave v light layer of grass on top?

A spade connector is a flat electrical pin connector, found on automotive parts like relays, microswitch, ignition and starter switches etc. The common size is ¼" wide, and about ½" long. The wires to these are crimped into a matching flat receptacle which pushes onto the flat pin. These are fairly reliable, but if the cable is not properly stripped when inserted and crimped into the spade, all sorts of poor connections can occur. This is compounded on the Cobras by the use of crimped round pin enclosed connectors which can end up with very poor contact inside the plastic enclosing shell. The battery holder, interlock microswitch, starter switch and starter motor are connected by a loom of spade terminated wires with a number of intervening 2 and three round pin junctions. I'm constantly getting click-click failed starts, where the starter ground from the start button should close the relay built into the battery, but the current surge as the motor draws power seems to diminish the starter ground and the relay let's go. Sometimes it's light clicks, sometimes the starter motor engages and the mower engines makes a feeble rotation of a few degrees. I end up pulling and twisting the wires while herself holds down the interlock lever and presse the starter button. The right twist and off it goes. I think all the spade connectors and the round pin ones were manufactured using a connector that pierced the cable to the conductor as it was crimped, notoriously suspect if carrying high current surges. I'm going to make up a complete new loom, rather than stripping and crimping very stiff cable which might easily be fractured internally. Maddening I know, a botched design from the start (or no start as the case may be).

That's the maddening thing, I can never Identify which of of the three from the battery, or which end, as it's so intermittent. Where the three go into a round pin coupler, I scrapped that, pulled the pins/sockets out of the plastic and pushed them together, discovering that they were ridiculously loose fitting, but hidden inside the square plastic receptacles. I soldered all three sets if pins together, cable a bit too short to cut off the connectors, but after a year of click free starting it returned. I have to assume the connection from the pins crimp to the wire conductor is rubbish, or the conducter is compromised close to the pin.

This started when the machine was brand new, the seller even sent me a new battery to try (which I kept), but eventually rang to say the spades pins on the interlock microswitch had been spraypainted black with the engine block, so the wired push on connectors were trying to conduct through a scratch in the paint. Sanding these solved it for two years, then it came back.

No surprise that the main sellers here dropped the brand, a lot of the small but important parts are very much cheap patterns mower quality. I replaced the clutch cable twice in one year, it was of such poor quality, speed cable the same. I eventually brought them to a bowden cable maker in Baldonnel who rethreaded them with quality wire. Wheel bearings the same, they just fell apart, I sourced some alternatives after a lot of searching. It's on its last season, herself is rightly sick of waving at me while I'm on the tractor. No start, no drive, wobbly wheel. It's a shame. The aluminium deck and decent electric start engine are let down by cheap fittings.

Interested in this too, have a robot mower but I think I'll need to rent something to get ahead this year, garden's like a bog and grass is ridiculous.

Afternoon folks.

The self-propelled function on the FloraBest mower I got when we first moved into the house (circa. 13 years ago) has packed up. The mower owes us nothing at this stage, and I'm thinking of using it as a reason to change.

She has a 50cm blade, with a 190cc Briggs & Stratton 675 series engine. She's been nothing but reliable over the years…think I've only serviced her once!

Anyways, has anyone come across anything similar for not outlandish money?

I came across this Pro Lawn one in Woodies for €600. There's 10% off for a first online order, which brings it down to €540.

I appreciate Pro Lawn is some sort of generic, own brand make. But surely a 202cc Honda engine with a 56cm blade won't be had for less?

Or am I better off getting a smaller, branded unit for the same money. Something like this…

Balls.

Guess my budget is €600 so!

That's some epic lurking. Been a member for over 11 years and only just posting now? Fair play.

As for your list of mowers, there's a huge variance in price, with some being literally twice the price as the others.

I posted just above yours with a similar query. Along with the list you made yourself, maybe have a look at the Honda engined one I linked to. Might be a good bet for ya.