The push reel mower is a consummate tool of lawn care, powered solely by your body. In comparison to the average gas-powered mower, the reel mower is a satisfying experience, one without excessive noise, danger and pollutants. After you first use the push reel mower and see your perfectly groomed lawn, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever use an engine-powered rotary mower again.
Healthy & Green
The barber-shear cuts of a push mower are a far cry from the violent chop and tear action of a boisterous gas-powered mower. Clean, parallel cuts help the grass to retain moisture and resist vascular disease, according to American-Lawns.com. The difference will become apparent upon inspection of the jagged, discolored edges resulting from a motorized mower and the parallel perfection of grass blades from that of the superior reel mower.
A Frugal Choice
An internal combustion engine, gasoline, oil, throttle controls–all of these necessary parts for a gas-powered mower add up monetarily. The push reel mower has none of these; it’s hardly more than a handle and fixed cutting blade on two wheels. Its bare minimum assembly is reflected in its attractively low price. Another point worth mentioning is the frequency of sharpening mower blades. You can expect the blades of traditional gas-guzzling mowers every month or so depending on use, whereas with the best quality push reel mowers blades can go for a year without sharpening.
Environmentally-Friendly
Push reel mowers are 100 percent green. Its only emissions are the grass it softly emits back into your lawn as mulch. Some motorized lawn mowers cough out enough noxious miasma into the atmosphere to compete with car pollution.
Safety
A single wrong step and your mower will no longer be a lawn care tool but a deadly flesh grinder. Lawn mower incidents are more common than you might think. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported that more than 200,000 Americans were injured in lawn mower accidents in 2010, according to the AAP.org. When a push mower rolls over rocks, it merely gets jammed, whereas with motorized mowers, the rock is sent on a potentially fatal trajectory.
Tranquility
We’ve all had the experience of waking up on the weekend to a lawn mower’s combustion engine roaring to life, filling the neighborhood with an atrocious clamor. Comparatively, reel mowers move across lawns producing nary a whisper. It’s a meditative experience where you’ll be treated to sonically soothing snips.
Exceptions
It’s true that push reel mowers offer a multitude of advantages, but when matched with certain folks and certain lawns, these mowers just don’t cut it. If using a reel mower on a lawn greater than 2,000 square feet in size, for example, you’ve really got your work cut out for you. Tall grass is like traversing Mt. Everest for reel mowers. One must mow often to prevent grass from growing too high. You’ll also have to thoroughly rake before mowing–a single twig could stop the reel mower in its tracks.
