<p>I am interested in buying a non-powered lawn mower but I am worried about how hard it might be to push. I would be grateful if those having experience with this type of lawn mower would be willing to tell the pros and cons.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>That’s what I used when I was growing up to mow the lawn. I’m pretty sure that it’s still at my mother’s house and I think that one of my nephews used it this past spring when he was visiting. You have to get the blades sharpened every once in a while and you have to pull the weeds out of the hubs from time to time. It definitely takes effort to push but you can lean your body weight into it for heavier grass or you can just slow down or take a running start.</p>
<p>It’s definitely a good workout. I used it at 9 or 10 years old so an adult with reasonable fitness and health shouldn’t have any problems using it.</p>
<p>If you only have maybe a 10’ X 10’ patch of grass in front of your house, you can get by with the push mower. If you have to mow more…get a power mower unless you’re a masochist.</p>
<p>We have one for the 10x12 patch at our beach house, which takes me all of 5 minutes each week. (I spend more time with the manual edger). It really depends on the size of your yard. </p>
<p>The one con is that is it not very effective on weeds, esp crabgrass & plantains. Power mowers create an upward suction that draws the vegetation up, so they are cut evenly with regular grass. You don’t get that with the push mower. </p>
<p>A good compromise might be an electric mower. Not as loud as a gas mower, but will do the job much faster & cleaner than a rotary one.</p>
<p>I just finished mowing our yard with one. It’s a smallish yard, but far more than 10X10. Property is 60X125, minus house, driveway, garage and garden. Took me about 45 minutes. Great exercise! And so much quieter! 
The one I used is old and sometimes cranky…thinking of replacing it, which will make it even easier.</p>
<p>My mother’s place has a pretty big lawn, both front and back.</p>
<p>One other benefit is that the push-mower generally won’t launch rocks into your windows. One downside is that the blades are typically exposed so you want to keep it out of reach of small kids.</p>
<p>They are not too hard to push, but they do not cut long grass well. You may have to mow 2x/week during growing season. It’s tough if you have hills. They are also much harder to keep sharp. </p>
<p>I grew up on a 7500 sq. ft. lot using a push mower since about 10 years old. Our current house is on .5 acres. I used a push mower when it was about 25% grass covered, but switched to power when we cleared the jungle and made it 75% grass.</p>
<p>I have all too much experience with one as a kid. I hated it and was mighty glad when my father finally bought a powered mower for me to use.</p>
<p>If you have a level grass area that you’ll mow very frequently so the grass never gets very tall, and if you don’t have many weeds to mow, then using one of these wouldn’t be that bad, but if you need to mow tall or wet grass or weeds, you probably won’t be very happy.</p>
<p>We had one in FL. Although our lot was flat and I expected the reel mower to be easy to use, I didn’t account for the fact that the grass there grew so fast that it seemed to need mowing about every 3 or 4 days. Since I refused to mow more than once a week, it was too difficult to push through the jungle surrounding our home. I donated the reel mower and bought an electric one. It was quiet and easy to use. Since then, every house we’ve owned has been on a sloping lot and the first thing I do upon moving is to hire a yard service.</p>
<p>Interesting to me that my reply that you needed to be Arnold Schwartznegger to push one of the things got deleted. I hardly considered that political!</p>
<p>^ I saw your post earlier. It was harmless and it didn’t seem political to me.</p>
<p>Chuck Norris uses a nonpowered reel mower to cut his 160 acre lawn, and after mowing he shaves with the reel mower!</p>
<p>Really, I think non-powered mowers is the reason parents kept teenagers around…and the teenagers left home…</p>
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<p>It was Skynet.</p>
<p>Silly! There are the old reel type lawnmowers, and then there are the newer ones. I mow my yard with one, get it sharpened yearly, and it works just fine. No superhuman effort, and I certainly need the exercise, so why not? I supplement it with an electric weed eater. Sticks do need to be picked up prior to use. </p>
<p>It does not produce quite as finished a result as gas powered mowers, but for my neighborhood, where lawn perfection is not an imperative, it is just fine. </p>
<p>My brand is Great Lakes. Bought at the local Ace Hardware.</p>
<p>I’ve used them, both the old ones in my youth and newer ones from Ace. I think they are a workout for anything more than a smallish yard. My biggest complaint was sticks get caught in the blades and require one to stop and remove them. Annoying. That happened to me both with the old and newer models.</p>
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A Great Lakes mom AND a Great Lakes mower!</p>
<p>Was going to say no endorsement intended! However, a slip of the mind occurred. The brand is Great States. I do see there is a Fiskars product these days. Their tools tend to be some of the best.</p>
<p>I have used a push mower quite happily for our small (20x40 and level) yard. I bought it for $89 on Amazon, and when a small plastic part broke (after two mowing seasons), I was unable to replace the part. Therefore, I recommend buying a good push mower locally. </p>
<p>Right now, because it’s been a wild and hectic spring (of much rain) and because I’m trying to have a perfect lawn for my daughter’s wedding here the end of this month, I’m paying someone to mow the lawn, and fertilize, and weed, and so on. Having a perfect lawn is a lot of trouble and money and I look forward to going back to mowing it myself. </p>
<p>Mowing my 20x40 lawn myself with my 16" cut push mower takes me about 20 minutes, and that includes the time to get the mower out of the shed and put it back. However, it does have to be done before it gets too long.</p>