I found a Scotts 20-inch Manual Walk Behind Reel Mower with Grass Catcher on Friday July 10th at my local Home Depot. This turf mower reminded me that both of my grandfathers had reel mowers.
The scissor-like cut of a reel mower is far superior to consumer-rotary mowers. No wonder golf courses use reel mowers. For instance I begin cutting my turfgrass during a very hot and dry summer day in almost dead silence. The cut quality was amazingly clean.
Hearing my neighbor’s various lawn tractors is a bit startling by contrast. Its amazing to stop for a moment and absorb how easy and lightweight this reel mower makes your weekend task somewhat effortless. In addition, pushing this lightweight mower becomes a rather enjoyable walk listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or music at a ‘normal volume level’ due to the reel mower’s near silent operating environment.
Yet on day nine, a small wheel (back left) broke loose. However, due to Scotts’ manufacturing assembly process, you cannot physically access the nut to tighten that wheel with any standard socket wrench. Clearly under warranty I packed it up on Tuesday after work. I drove back to Home Depot on Saturday July 24th to return the mower.
Customer Service fail:
To no surprise there were no 20 inch units in stock. Certainly, I can see why. That cut quality is amazing. However, my local Home Depot had plenty of Scotts’ 16 inch reel mowers. For accuracy, the Scotts 16 inch mower does not include a grass catcher and I have a really big yard.