I’m planning to get by with weeds for now ♪
“Weed cutting and lawn mowing are similar but different”
Like a haircut versus short hair?
Well, not quite…
Anyway
this is actually my second lawn mower
the progression from manual to electric
*I actually haven’t used the electric one yet
When you enter an unfamiliar field
there are lots of new “words” to learn.
Tools don’t always follow the rule
“bigger covers smaller.”
With anything
I’m always troubled by the sheer number of choices.
Lawn mower
First, what’s really important is
“cutting height” and “cutting width”
“Cutting height” = the finished height after cutting
“Cutting width” = the width you can cut
A model with as much flexibility as possible is best
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I bought a manual one first, by the way.
When I watched videos
of manual lawn mowers
That’s actually pretty good ♪
Smooth and quick. Totally sufficient
Once I used it, it really was good. Totally adequate.
*As long as the grass height is within acceptable limits
Lawn mower specs: “Cutting height”
Pretty important.
With a manual mower
cutting grass that’s more than twice the cutting height
is quite difficult.
*Which makes sense when you think about it
If the grass gets too long
it won’t cut smoothly at all.
*Pushing and pulling gets exhausting.
The grass wraps around and clogs up
Don’t assume a lawn mower can handle grass in any condition
Lawn mower specs: “Cutting width”
You naturally want to cut everything at once
so you want a wider model.
You can cut a lot in one pass.
But
the shape of your lawn isn’t necessarily
“straight”and“square.”There are trees and objects to avoid
you have to navigate around them.
It won’t fit through narrow spaces.
Big is big, small is small
You need a width that suits your actual use.
“Four items I found to be safe bets”
- Cutting height adjustment range: on the higher side
- Relatively light
- Cutting width around 300 mm
- Easy storage (stands upright)
Start with electric! Finishing with manual is an option too
①“Cutting height adjustment”is safer the higher it goes.
Even if you accidentally let the grass get too long
you can cut it along with the weeds!
Plus the benefit of being able to use it for weed cutting too
Truly a tool for both offense and defense
Manual mowers
typically have a set cutting heightaround 10–40 mm.
When grass grows to nearly 100 cm
more than twice the cutting height
manual mowing becomes really tough!
Drenched in sweat…
②“Light”
If it’s light, you can use it casually.
That said
even manual mowers weigh around 8 kg
they’re fairly heavy tools
*Manual ones are basically all metal
The advantage of electric is
you can use plastic parts
MLM330D weighs 11.4 kg
*(without battery)
The difference from manual is“plus 3.4 kg”
MLM330 is relatively light
③“Cutting width”
If the cutting width is wide
you can naturally cut a lot at once.
It gets heavier due to resistance, but
conversely
if the cutting width is narrow
“it’s more maneuverable”with moderate resistance
Your lawn has trees and objects
to navigate around.
You need to choose based on your actual space
The sweet spot is a moderate width
Basically
it should be designed so people can walk through
the body size should be
“no wider than a person’s shoulders”
or so I felt.
④“Storage convenience”
Most lawn mowers can be stored standing upright.
I don’t think you need to worry much.
But for the model you want
how does it store?
You should check carefully.
Reference
<Manual lawn mower>
Japan Mower “GSJ-2500”
- Price: ¥55,000 (tax included)
- Cutting height: 10/15/20/25/30 mm
- Cutting width: 250 mm
- Weight: 8.0 kg
- Width: 415 mm *Dimensions (in use): L1135 × W415 × J800 mm
- Price: ¥35,090 (tax included)
- Cutting height: 20–75 mm in 8 stages
- Cutting width: 330 mm
- Weight: 11.4 kg
- Width: 375 mm *Dimensions: 1,285–1,350 × 375 × 935–975
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By the way, it’s so popular that the MLM330DZ (body only) is currently on long-term backorder~
