Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 Exactly what I was looking for October 21, 2007
Mark (Seattle, WA)
65 out of 68 found this review helpful
My yard is shrinking (<4000 sf grass) and I didn't want to have to deal with the hassles of a gas mower anymore. That, and a strong desire to go "green" convinced me to try this mower. Never having tried a reel mower before, I didn't know what to expect. I purposed waited until I had had an entire summer of mowing with this unit before I submitted this evaluation, just to be fair. The first time I used this unit, I thoroughly enjoyed mowing the yard!! The novelty has worn off after approximately 8 uses, but the unit still does a beautiful job on our lawn and I intend to use it forevermore and rid ourselves of our gas mower for good.
I have nothing but high praises for this mower. I do miss the "vacuum" effect of my gas mower in terms of collecting leaves, pine needles, and anything else that may be lying around. I've heard people complain that you have to cut your yard practically every-other-day with a reel mower to keep it from getting bogged down by heavy grass. The worst case that I've found is that I have to go over 1-2 select areas twice to completely cut every blade....and that's after not mowing for 3+ weeks!
Anyways....if you are thinking about switching to a hand powered reel mower, do it! This is a fantastic unit that will do a great job of cutting your lawn and help reduce your carbon footprint as well.
 Easy and green! February 13, 2008
M. Saldivar (San Antonio, TX)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
With the included grass catcher the Gilmour was a great deal and after one try over the weekend it worked pretty smoothly. It took maybe a half an hour or less to put together and we were out the door to our average sized back yard (<4000 sq. ft.) I'm 5'2" and I found it easier to manuever than our old plug in electric push mower. We hated moving around the extension cord. We also didn't want to bother with charging batteries or the mess, smell and sound of a gas mower. We move often and didn't want the stress of having our mower be moving ready each time as well. As a great bonus the mower is good for the environment! So for us, this was the best choice and we recommend it!
GO Green March 14, 2008
G. Foster
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
I have had my Gilmore for about a week now. I tried it out in my weedy back yard. I was shocked at how well it cuts, and how little effort it takes to push. I snapped on the grass catcher and away I went. Other name brand models don't come with the grass catcher, but the Gilmore has it's own fitted catcher. The height adjustment works just like a powered mower. With gasoline becoming very costly, I decided to go green. The only drawback to reel mowers are that they don't like sticks. So pick up the bigs sticks and then push away. I was very leary about getting a reel mower, but I am soooooo glad I got this one. Get it and try it, you won't go back to noisy,smelly,money wasting power mowers again.
Great product, environmentally friendly! April 24, 2008
travisn000 (OR)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
I have used this mower 5-6 times to mow my 4000 square foot lawn since purchasing it. The first time I used it my grass was about 5 inches tall and wet. I set it at its tallest height and it cut the grass with no problems.
A few things I have noticed:
* Unlike the competing brands, it included the grass catcher.
* Unlike the competing brands, it is self-sharpening.
* It requires no batteries, cords, gas, or oil, It just works!
* The grass catcher works better than I expected. Since it is an open design and I live in a fairly windy area not all of the grass stays in it. Grass also slides to the front when mowing downhill making it so that you have to empty it very frequently (or mow only up hill) if you have a sloping lawn. Despite these inefficiencies it leaves less cut grass on my lawn than my old gas mower did.
* The grass catcher is smaller that those on gas mowers, so you will have to empty it more frequently.
* Because it is powered by you, it does take a little effort to push it. However, it really isn't any harder than pushing the mid weight gas mower I use to use.
* I have much more room in my garage and it no longer stinks like gas! This has a footprint of only about 2 foot by 1 foot, and it could probably be hung on the wall. My gas mower took up about 10-15 square feet of garage space, and I no longer have to store smelly fuel in my garage!
* My grass looks healthier now than it did when I was using a gas mower. The reel mower does not leave the tips of the grass torn, and as a result the tips don't brown after a couple of days like they would with my gas mower.
Overall I am very happy with this product and would recommend it any one that has physical capacity to push a non self-propelled gas mower. It is easier to start, requires less maintenance, is cheaper to buy and cheaper to operate, and it is healthier for you, your lawn, and your environment! What more could you want in a mower?
Fit of Handles and Illustration in Illustructions are Poor BUT Operation of Mower is Adequate for the Intended Task April 23, 2008
Vulture Investor (Tulsa)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Gilmour 20-Inch Reel Mower With Grass Catcher #RM30
First, I will pass along my thoughts on assembly and the parts as provided. This portion of the review is only for the assembly aspect and the apparent quality of the parts. The fit of the handle parts is poor and the instructions for attaching the handle to the mower frame are not sufficently clear.
The following tools are needed: (1) a medium-headed phillips screwdriver; (2) 10mm Wrench; (3) 13mm Wrench. The medium-headed phillips screwdriver is used in conjunction with the 10mm Wrench to tighten 6 "bolts" (provided in the box) in the assembly of the handle. The 13mm Wrench is used to loosen and tighten the carriage headed bolts on the mower assembly on which the handle fits. In this application, a socket set would probably work better than a wrench set. However, I used wrenches.
The 10mm Wrench is also used to adjust a coil spring loaded bolt that adjusts the distance between the movable blades on the reel and the fixed blade. Most probably, the box should not be opened until these tools are available.
The instructions are not well illustrated. The precise location where the handles fit onto the mower frame is not indicated. Three sets of bolts are possible locations, but attaching the handle to the lower of the three will not work as the handle does not fit properly to that set of bolts (ask me why I know). Be advised that the carriage headed bolt located already installed on the mower frame is apparently the desired bolt for attaching the handle to the mower.
The handle is a four piece assembly: (1) the one piece upper section with a rubber piece that the person grips; (2) a left and right middle section that slip fits together with and then is bolted onto the upper section; and (3) the lower section that bolts onto the mower frame and is also bolted onto the two left and right pieces previously described. The handle pieces do not fit well together. Lots of slop exists where the upper and middle handle tubes slip fit together. The assembled handle feels wobbly even after bolting is completed. The handle portion (lower section) that fits onto the frame does not match well with the middle section.
If the tools are available, if the parts fit together as well as they should, and if the instructions were as clear as they should be, assembly should have only taken a few minutes.
The second portion of the review addresses the actual performance of the push reel mower, which performed adequately during the cutting of our duplex lawn. As some reviewers have indicated, mowers of this type do not cut down the tall spindly weeds very well. Generally, this statement did apply to the performance of the Gilmour Push Reel Mower. However, my 16 year old son found that he could entice the mower to cut even these weeds most of the time if he quickly pushed the mower in such a way to cause the blades to spin rapidly and then mowed the weeds.
Starting with the blade height near the highest position, the mower was easy to push. Push effort on our lawn was not significantly increased even though we reduced the blade height to the second shortest level. We did note that the lawn looked better with a shorter cut.
Regarding the handle assembly and instruction issues, the mower is rated poorly. The mower deserves a rating much better in the actual performance of its task. The indicated overall rating of the mower is weighted heavily toward the performance aspect. My 16 year old son wanted a power mower but actually seemed to get a kick out of using this push mower. He became sufficiently interested to experiment with the effect of blade height on lawn appearance.
Given our limited experience, I would buy it again. I intend to post additional information as experience gained with the use of the mower is obtained.
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