Healthy Living Books

Rating: - CHEAP AND CHEERFUL
This thing really is a blast from the past, it's absolutely fabulous. It takes you back to a time of lazy Sunday mornings, roast dinners, Billy Cotten on the "wireless" and your Dad working his B......s off in the garden. It even makes the sound that a lolly stick used to make in your bike spokes! Dream over, it isn't perfect but it does the job when you can't be bothered with setting up the big mower. I was lucky, I bought mine at an X-Catalogue shop for £16 brand new still in it's box. Of course, it's made in China but then what isn't these days.

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Rating: - A great little mower - brilliant for the environment!
I borrowed one of these from my Grandmother when my petrol mower decided to die on me and I was very surprised so I bought my own & didn't bother getting my petrol mower fixed. I have a very large garden & this actually cuts the grass quicker than my petrol mower & it's very light so easy to manoevure.

Advantages:

Excellent for the environment, your electric bill & petrol consumption!

Keeps you fitter!

Cuts just as well (if not better) than an electric mower

Lightweight

Easy to clean & maintain

Cheap to buy!

Don't have to worry about trailing cables or running out of petrol

Disadvantages:

Hard to cut right to the edge

Not wonderful on very long grass

Grass box falls off too often (I tend not to bother with it)

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Rating: - Traditional is best
Fed up with owning unreliable electric Flymo mowers I decided to purchase the Qualcast Panther 30, after all for less than £40 how could I lose.
The Panther is simplicity itself, easy to assemble and extremely satisfying to use, reminiscent of mowers from a bygone age with that soothing cutting sound as you push it along. I was sceptical thinking that my garden would be too uneven for a cylinder mower but this is absolutely fantastic, so easy to use no messing around tripping over wires, just get it out and away you go, absolutely superb product.

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Rating: - Great performance, top value, fun!
I actually got an upgrade from Argos in the end to the 38cm version which is, you guessed it, 38cm wide not 30 but otherwise identical mechanically. For the money, it is superb. Take away the price it is still an excellent product. My lawn had got in a state because my flymo was to pathetic to cut it (it's a little bit bumpy) so after a strim I set about it with the Panther. Yes it did struggle on the longer blades of grass and slipped quite a bit but with perseverance it made a good job of it. One tip, don't mess about with the blade setting unless you are sure this is the problem - it should make a loud noise as the blades rotate and meet and cut a newspaper cleanly if put between the blades. Two days later having let the grass recover I returned and lowered the blade. The result is the best looking lawn I have had. Yes, the bucket might fall off a bit and you have to scoop the cuttings into it sometimes (it cuts grass very well and lots of it!) but that doesn't matter. It's easier than the flymo, you can pull it out of the shed and go and it makes a satisfying engine like noise as you power it along. Great Fun too!

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Rating: - Qualcast Panther 30
For my 100 foot x 12 foot lawn, this hand mower is actually quicker than the hover mower it replaced. No fiddling with cables.

It's also no extra effort than the hover, which I wasn't expecting.

PROS
o Cheap compared with electrical and petrol alternatives
o Time saving
o Cuts well
o You can get a rudimentary stripe effect

CONS
o Not all grass ends up in the grass box
o Grass box frequently falls off
o Sometimes jams in long grass