Great States 204-14 Hand Reel 14 Inch Push Lawn Mower

OK let’s get a few things straight.This is ‘PUSH’ mower … you have to physically push the mower to get the blade to cut ‘GRASS’ … not twigs and branches!!If you need it cut something other than grass … buy a powered mower rather than leaving a 1 star review for this.Secondly do not assemble it incorrectly and then leave a 1 star review. I see some people are trying to attach the handle bar to the height adjustment screw position. Read the instructions!Lastly! I love it! I have about ¾ acre lawn, mostly I use an electric ride on tractor mower … but I have a few areas that need a more refined cut. This does a great job … plus I always have a smile on my face … takes me back 50 years when as a kid, I would visit Grandma’s house and would help my Great-Grandad cut the lawn with a push mower … he went on to live till he was 104!! I just hope that I will be pushing this thing till something close to this age 😊

Awesome lawn mower! I am thrilled to go back to basics and get rid of the loud gas mower that is hard to start! This one runs on my calories and is nice and quiet, meaning I can mow any time without worrying about making noise early or late. It is also much easier to move round from front yard to back yard. One time I even carried it through my house for a shortcut! Ha! Yes, it has a hard cutting tall grass but I find that going more slowly, and maybe doing half the blade part on the tall grass and half on the cut grass makes it more doable. It is not heavy but in thick grass going uphill it is a little bit of an effort. It also does not like any form of twigs or clusters of thick grass, and it can't get close to the edges, so you may want to use an edger or weedwacker. I have a small handheld electric trimmer I use for edges. My lawns look so good now, and it will be easier to mow next time as long as I don't let the grass grow too tall again. Assembly of the mower was a little confusing. I could not tell if the handle part was to slant down or up. Drawing in manual was not good. Also, put the lower part of the handle on the wheel part first! That was not easy, but it would have been harder if the rest of the handle was attached to that part. The tricky thing is to get the bottom part of the handle squeezed into place between the wheels. I have arthritis and it was hard to use enough strength to squeeze it so it would snap into place. No screws required there. A few other screws to secure the handle parts, but that was easy. I am super pleased with this mower. It reminds me of my dad mowing with a manual mower like this back in the 70s. Yeah, maybe a little harder but it has so many advantages, too. Sometimes we need to go back to basics. Big, loud,heavy, polluting lawnmowers are gross when you think about it. I see more and more neighbors use these old school mowers. Love it. And you can buy a blade sharpener for this mower, which I plan to do, so we can use it for a loooong time. I think it will last. Great quality. Just avoid running the blades into rocks and branches.

I'll give it a 3.8 because a 4 equals "I like it". There are a couple of issues. OK, from the beginning....Assembly: After removing all items out of the protective plastic bags, it took 20 minutes to assemble and worked fine as is. It could have been 10 minutes but a few minor things that make me pause or go get a long handle pliers. First, the lower handle snaps into the welded stud on the frame. A cir-clip keeps the handle from falling out. Not necessary. The handle is bent wider than the frames studs on either side. I had to squeeze the bent tube to clear the studs. I depended on the spring quality of the metal bent tube to keep itself in place. The studs have a groove for the cir-clip so I pop in the clips. One side goes in easy. The other side had paint in the groove so the clip did not go in easy. Then the upper handle and the upper-upper handle goes on the lower handle. Plastic wing nuts and screws and washers are easy enough. All 6 sets of screw, washer, and wing nut are the same. The user manual picture list item number for the upper 2 screws different than the lower 4 screws. Why? They are same screws? Another pause to scratch my head. Being an engineer, I nit-pick on these issues.Adjustment: The height rollers are attache to the mower frame that has 3 holes for different heights. The rollers sub=assembly frame has 3 holes on each side. Are the 3 holes on the main frame and 3 holes on the roller frame the same spacing to achieve more than 3 height selections? I will report back later. I did not look that close. Update: The wheel axle can be mounted to one of 3 holes to achieve different cut height. I did not check to see how it was delivered. The mid hole is 2" and highest hole is 2.5" cut. The rollers are for fine adjustments. Update: Delivered set to the highest cut height.Performance: More difficult to push, as expected. More difficult than a motor mower with no driven wheels. It is not TOO bad. My problem is that I am out of shape. This thing will either get me into shape or it will kill me. It cuts nice. Path width is narrower than my old mower. I wish there is a comparable 20 inch wide model. It is more difficult to see the transition between the cut and the uncut grass. I am also accustom to run the wheel over the previous wheel track. Not good, I have to re-learn this because the cut ting blade is inside the 2 wheels. My powered mower has blade cut width as wide as the wheels. The power mower bit the dust in mid job last week. 20% of the lawn was left uncut. This mower arrived a week later. So the uncut 20% is now 12 days worth of growth from what started out as a well trimmed lawn. A few days of rain in the 12 days.BIG COMPLAINT: The handle pivot design force me to spent a large percentage of my push force to maintain the handle alignment. Push too far upward or downward, the whole mower lift slightly upward at the back or the front. I end up standing with the handle against my chest (at the solar plexus height) to anchor the height of the handle. If I stand too far back, with my arms straight, I tend to push the handle upward. I cannot lower the handle to align the arm axis to the handle axis because the handle has a "stop" on the frame to prevent it rotating further downward. I can get a grinder or dremal tool to take off a bit of metal so the handle can come down a bit. I have to think it through first. Even if it works for me, I don't want to make it difficult for another user.What I like: It is quiet. No ear plugs. I am nut under pressure to get the job done within a time window so it won't bother the neighbors. I can mow the lawn as long as I can see the grass. I don't have to deal with keeping the old engine working. If this reel mower start to fall apart, I will immediately buy another because it is low cost. Then, proceed to try to repair the current broken reel mower. I cannot do that with high cost engine mowers. Parts for power mowers are usually not made by the same manufacturer. They are lower quality. They are priced relatively high in relation to a new mower. I always feel cheated whenever I buy replacement parts to keep the old engine mower alive. I pretty much replaced most parts 2X on my old mower. The main parts are original but all the wear and tear parts are after market parts and they don't last as long as OEM parts. I got my money's worth out of the 20 years old power mower.Durability: I will report back later. So far, it looks solid. I am guessing the the inner gears inside the wheel is plastic. I am sure replacement parts will not be cheap. Like most business models, the initial investment cost is lowered and make the money back later with high cost parts. Looking to see what I can use to keep the gears lube to maximize the durability. Update: The foam wrap for the handle tears easily when I scrap it against a wall stud. Bicycle handle bar warp next. Inner gear inside the wheel is plastic, well lubed, need to maintain the lube. Plastic pinion gear is approx $1.80 each online. Wheel is $12.10. Not bad.