We’ve been using a Scotts reel mower since we bought the house almost 6 years ago. I don’t remember how we came to the decision to buy a reel mower instead of a gas one (something about being green?). Anyhow, when Tony took the mower out for the first time, the neighbor across the street was surprised and offered to lend us his gas mower. Tony declined the offer and started pushing. And pushing he went for all these years. I’ve never touched that thing until this spring as he got too busy with Search and Rescue. I pushed it through the back yard and I was spent. It took so much out of me that I gave up on mowing the front yard (or the irregular L-shape thing of our corner lot).

Fiskars Momentum Reel MowerThen, I read about the Fiskars Momentum Reel Mower in a magazine. It is promoted to be “30% Easier to Push”. I read the reviews from actual use posted on Lowes website and they were mostly good. Lowes is selling it for $199.00, probably similar to what we paid for the Scotts. I thought we should give a go. I first went to Lowes by myself to get it. The mowers were stocked on a shelf above the floor level. I pushed one box a little bit and it barely moved. I figured it’s too heavy for me so I waited until Tony was home in another weekend to buy it.

We assembled and adjusted the blades one evening. Everything seemed to be okay at that point. It was getting too dark to mow the lawn so we put it away for the night. A few days later, I was walking home from the bus stop after work and saw Tony adjusting the mower in the driveway. He finished mowing the back yard at that point. He said he pushed the mower across the lawn over to the concrete driveway and he heard a loud bang. When he checked the mower, he found a straight dent on one of the cutting reel blades. It looked like the stationery blade on the mower housing bumped into the reel blade.

The owner’s manual said repair any dings as quickly as possible with a file. Tony did that but the big problem was that the positions of the stationary and the reel blades got out of whack. He followed the instructions to adjust things. This mower is designed to have those blades to be slightly apart from each other. They are not supposed to touch. When they are adjusted close enough, the mower would cut perfectly. Our mower can no longer get to that perfect position. Tony tried to bring the blades close together. They came into contact in the middle area and they were too far apart for cutting at one end. The other end remains to cut fine. He adjusted the blades so no parts of them touched and finished the front yard as is.

Banged up Fiskars Momentum reel mower

Straight dent in the middle of the reel blade

Tony called the Fiskars help line and they told him to send in a photo through their warranty request page. He submitted the request online late May and we heard nothing since. He also called and left a message in late June. Still nothing. He just tried replying to the warranty request received email last night. I doubt we will hear anything. This is such a bummer. I used it twice since then. It is definitely easier to push (but it is still a work out).

The Scotts is like a fixed gear bike. You have to keep pushing to move the blades. The Fiskars is a single speed. When I push it real fast and then stop, the cutting reel spins for a while. I think that’s pretty cool. It’s a great idea to add a chain to the reel mower. The next step is adding some suspension to the front wheels. The little plastic front wheels on the Fiskars can’t handle any bumps. I pretty much lifted up the front wheels when I was about to reach the concrete edge of the lawn (and we have quite a bit of those edges). Aside from that, only 2/3 of the 18″ blades cut the grass. The Scotts is a 20″. The Fiskars is smaller as it is so the partial cutting forces us to do more passes to mow the whole lawn.

All in all, if your lawn is surrounded by hard scape like concrete, this is NOT the mower for you. I really want to avoid going with gas or electric. But do we have a choice?

Advertisement