Stenchless, well-designed mower

When we moved to our new (very old) house with a big lawn we knew that we wouldn't be able to maintain the yard with our reel-mower. But I cannot stand the noise and stench from two-stroke mowers terrorizing our neighborhood, so I looked for an electrical mower.

I ended up purchasing a re-furbished B&D for a bit more than 100$, plus some shipping, but the mower did not come with a cord so we had to buy one of those as well, for around 30$. It is a 100y cord rated for the amperage that the mower draws.

Setting-up the mower was a piece of cake. The only thing that bothered me a bit was plugging in the cord and securing it onto the handle, but that was mainly due to the odd design of the extension cord, with some sort of locking mechanism to prevent unplugging. It also took me a while before I found out that the opening through which the mulch is being catapulted into the bag is blocked by a black piece of plastic which needs to be in place when the bag is not being used. But that is typically me, first use, then read the manual.

This mower is very easy to use. A large, orange handle, not unlike the brake-handle of a bicycle, needs to be held against the handlebar, and to stop mowing just release it. It is nice that the machine stops instantly and doesn't idle when I absorb my well-deserved refrigerated fermented malt-extract between the two lawns. First, however, you need to design a strategy. Since the cable plugs into the mower from the right side, I decided to start mowing the right part of the lane, moving away from the outlet, making a left turn at the end, then moving back toward the plug and turn right. This way, I am sure not to chop the cord to pieces and get electrocuted. It works well in the backyard, but in the front we have some trees, and it can be somewhat tricky sometimes to get around those. But once you get used to it, it's no big deal, and after the third mowing or so it didn't bother me at all. Except that storing 100ft of cable without creating tangles is not my forte. I wish that B&D had some sort of flexible extension to the right handle into which the cord is plugged, as this would keep the cable even further away from the center of the mower and hence the path of the mower on the way back.

The blade really does a great job in chopping and mulching, but I noticed that the engine has some trouble when the mower is in the lowest position and the grass is moist and high. To be honest, I don't know the horsepower of the mower, but it is probably somewhat at the lower end compared to gas-powered mowers. It is incredibly easy to adjust the height of the mower, just squeeze one handle to the right of the B&D and push the mower down or pull it up. The mulch-bag does a great job in catching all clippings, if you wish, and is very easy to remove even though on our mower there is a small black strip holding the power-cable to the frame which gets in the way sometimes. Could be an issue with this mower being a refurbished one.

The nice thing about this mower is that it doesn't need refills, it doesn't stink, it is quiet, it mows and mulches really very well, it is lightweight and incredibly easy to adjust. The drawback is obvious: You need to plan your task and avoid cutting the cable or entangling it. If this were a cordless mower, I would have given it 5 stars, but since it has a cable, I give it 4. I should also mention that the bag is quite long, meaning that the mower tends to lean backwards when the bag is filling up.

highly recommended.