Great States 815-18 18-Inch 5-Blade Push Reel Lawn Mower, Grey

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, no pollution, and is nice and quiet, meaning I can mow any time without worrying about making much noise early or late. It is also much easier to move around from front yard to back yard. One time I even carried it through my house for a shortcut! Ha! Yes, it has a hard time 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. Also change the blade setting to higher if needed. It is not a heavy mower 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 you may want to use an edger or weedwacker, too, if you want a crisper edge. 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. Dah, it goes up! Drawing in manual was not good. Also, put the lower part of the handle on the wheel part first! Instructions say to do it last. It was still not easy, but it would have been harder if the rest of the handle was attached to that wheel 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 on the metal peg. I found that putting the wheel part on its side made it easier, so I could just push it into place, what was now at the top when the thing was on its side, so do the lower part first when it is on its side. 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 using 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 too much. It may dull the blades and makes it hard to push through. UPDATE: I love this mower so much that I bought a second one! I will keep the second one on another part of my property so I don’t have to move them around too much. But they are lightweight enough to carry if you need to. Keeping them closer by near where they will be used will probably encourage me to mow more, which means my lawns will look neater. Don’t hesitate. Get this mower! And I am not getting paid to say this, lol! I am just a housewife and a mother on a mission to make my lawns look better, and now they do! Trying to keep up with all my neighbors’ beautiful lawns without hiring a gardener! This mower is for sure a good investment!

I haven't mowed a lawn in over 7 - 8 years. I left that up to a lawn service. I started thinking of ways to get me out of the house and active again, not just for work. Then I remembered this family trip we made in the mid 90's to New York. My cousin(older) had a place with a very very small "yard". Guess what he had? A push reel mower. I'd never seen one of these before(except as a gag on Tom & Jerry), and was too willing to cut his 2 strips of turf with a side walk in the middle. All for a trip to White Castle, but that is another story......... So I'm thinking regular gas, maybe electric, and the underdog is the old school push reel. I tried not to over think it, but when have I ever done that? After reading reviews, researching make/model, watching YouTube videos of people cutting the grass, and assessing my own goals, the push reel won me over. I hate the noise of conventional mowers. Didn't want to buy gas. Didn't want another thing I had to remember to charge. The least amount of maintenance as possible. I also like the idea of being "green". Oh yeah, almost forgot......I'm practical(CHEAP). After assembling this mower and doing minor blade adjustments, it was time for a test run. Started in the back yard with a few lines. Felt good, ran pretty smooth, and the grass cut easily. Next thing you know, I was done with the entire back yard. And it looked good. Nice and even except for the dandelion stems. Weeds are the enemy. Nothing a quick pull didn't handle. Decided I was satisfied and went to put the mower away. But the front yard wanted it's turn, and I needed more input for this review. My test run turned into a completed job. Minimal grass clippings and my allergies were grateful for it. So despite my round about way of saying it, this mower is everything I expected it to be. I got a good enough workout and spent some time outside. Worth the $$. Many companies have improved on an old technology. Great States is one that got it right. Recommendations: Hand tightening will get it put together, but it won't feel right. Use the provided wrench to tighten the handle(screws) until it does not move. Remove twigs and other debris that may jam your blades. Don't mow according to your wheel tracks, overlap a few inches and you'll go back less. I hope this helps someone on the fence about going with a push reel power. It's easier than you think.

Our battery mower died last month. I was debating dropping $500 for a new gas or electric and I just couldn’t justify that cost for something that in today’s junk might last 4-5 years. Read all the reel mower reviews, watched videos, blah, blah, blah, settled on the 18” Great States reel mower. Since my electric died a month ago, the Kentucky bluegrass in my small 400sqft courtyard was about 7” tall and very thick. Challenge: accepted. I mowed early to take advantage of the low sun angle and low temps. Hopefully the photos illustrate the before/after as I made passes, and the clumps I hit with the string trimmer (around the tree) that the mower couldn’t get. Shipping: no issues, arrived in 3 days on time. Assembly: 10 minutes. If you’re not strong, get some help on the final step where you connect the handle to the mower. It helps to stand it on its side and pull down. Pros of this specific mower: - Makes a nice even cut. - Relatively simple height adjustment - Rolls smoothly in thick grass - Heavy enough to stay planted on the ground, light enough to carry with one hand using the center crossbar. - hangs easily on the wall of my garage saving me 10 square feet of floor space (see photo) Cons of this specific mower: - I don’t know if the aluminum handle will hold up. It has some flex. The lighter material helps keep the weight down. Tradeoffs, I guess. Pros of reel mowers in general: - quiet - no trips to gas station - no heavy battery that eventually wears out and now what do you do with that battery? - less storage space - mulches well, doesn’t turn your grass into wet spinach/thatch that clogs things up Cons of reel mowers in general - It’s a workout. Like vacuuming a thick pile rug with the vacuum on bare-floor setting until you get the grass short enough to make steady passes. - If you’re OCD about bunches of grass sticking up after, you’ll be doing multiple passes (I cross cut my grass, so no biggie for me). - Twigs and landscape bark can briefly slow you down to remove them. I ran the leaf blower before to clear the debris and during to blow away some of the cut grass. First time used was today, but probably the hardest possible scenario: tall thick grass. Very pleased. When I got to the garage and hung it on a wall hook…tears of joy. I have 2.5 acres but this thing is so easy to use, I’ll be able to trim around the perimeter of the house and use it to knock down small patches of noxious weeds in summer without cranking up the tractor of using sprays. (spot treating)

I’m happy with the results. It does take effort to push over thicker spots of grass. It does not get the weeds but i just go back with my weed eater. I like the matted finish when I'm done. My yard does have a golf course texture after using this. It’s not noisy so i can start cutting anytime i want. The next cut will be easier and I’ll probably do this weekly. Nice work out too!

We have a lot of lawn to mow, but are not fussy about it being mowed every week or "perfectly". Use the gas mower for some of the big areas, but wanted to try and become more environmentally friendly and LESS NOISY! First, the assembly. Let me say that even tho' I am a 61 year old female, I am VERY handy. I gave 3 stars to ease of assembly. This is the biggest negative about the mower. I am not saying it is difficult exactly, just annoying at times. One good tip I got from reading the reviews was this: ASSEMBLY is a bit of a.....pain. There are 3 bits: the handle, the middle, and the reel. The handle assembles easily. You will have issues if you follow the instructions by attaching that to the middle part and then putting the entire assembly on the reel. The trick is to attach the middle part to the reel as you will have to push on it (compress it) to get it on the posts. That will be impossible if you've fully assembled the handle as it doesn't flex to fit. Once it's on the reel, bolt the handle to the middle bit. THAT reviewer knew what they were talking about! ALSO, regarding assembly I agree with this reviewer: BUILD quality seem acceptable for a 100 dollar piece of equipment. However, it's engineered terribly. They basically send you two left sides to a handle. And this is actually an issue if you want to fasten the wing nuts/bolt in the same direction on both sides of the handle. Because the left handle is basically the right handle upside down, the bolt no longer fits inside of a dimple in the handle frame. So you're left with two choices: bolting one bolt and wing nut upside down and one right side up, or muscling one of the wing nuts so hard that you make your own dimple in the frame. THIS IS TRUE! I did the former. I also found that altho' it is true that ideally one doesn't want to set the reel too low and cut too much height off the grass at any one time, the mower works WAY better if you adjust the blades close to ground. I have not found that doing so causes the usual problem of grass too short and "burning". Oh, the method for adjust reel / blades is just awkward. But, not too hard. Regarding trying to cut longer grass. I have found that the blades are so sharp that even letting the grass get rather long (say 6-7 inches!) is perfectly fine. It is true that it does a much better job on soft grass. If you have a lot of "straw", you will get frustrated; it will not cut this sort of grass. People commented that it is better to walk fast and get the reel turning faster...yes, definitely makes cutting easier. Sometimes you benefit by giving a spot a second swipe. I think no matter the type of mower that overlapping your "lanes" of mowing and essentially double mowing is beneficial. I don't know why, but I like the "cut' produced by this mower much better than the gas mower. It is much greener and thicker looking. If you want a reel type mower, this one is highly recommended. Oh, yes it only goes forward. Not really an issue. Sticks? Well, if they are small and flat on ground, not an issue. If one gets in the blades...it stops SUDDENLY. Just pick the stick out. Hardly an issue for me; most small twigs get mowed right over. Lastly, the best thing is you can quickly grab it, no gassing up, do a small area only if need be...sometimes there are patches that grew faster than the rest. I am glad I bought it. Get the wider one for a few more dollars.

Easy to use, cuts perfectly without the worry of breaking any of our sprinkler heads.

I was shopping for a lawn mower but didn’t want to pay a lot so I chose this one . It’s absolutely fun and addictive to use!! I love it ! No worries on gas or oil or having to crank it ! My only problem is the blades are getting dull already and leaves a lot of single strands of grass sticking up all over my yard which I have to repeatedly go back over . Blades need to be sharper as I haven’t even barely had it a month

I received the mower several days ago and the grass can't grow fast enough for me. I love using this thing. My experiences have been similar to those of many other users. POSITIVES: 1) I instantly became the neighborhood oddity, but have had several people ask to try the mower. 2) I was more than happy to sell the power monster in the garage that has cost me hundreds of dollars in repairs and gasoline over the last few years. 3) I love the fact that I never have to empty grass clipping bags. The grass just spits out the back of the mower to simply mulch. Every time you go over the lawn again, stray clippings will get cut up a little more and you won't even know they are there. For longer grass you might want to run the mower over the clippings a few times just to chop them up a little more. It's cool that I have that much less waste to put out on garbage day. 4) The lawn has a very clean, even cut look which is really hard to describe, but definitely noticeable. 5) You don't reek of gas exhaust when you finish. 6) The entire process of cutting my lawn (a smallish, suburban thing, maybe 1100 sq. ft) takes significantly less time because I just pull the mower out, use it, then put it away. Done. 7) Hitting a hidden foreign object like a rock or a neighbor kid's baseball does not result in a gut wrenching crash of machinery leading to a probable blade replacement. This mower just stops moving forward until the offending object is removed. You will never have flying projectiles launched from it either. It is much safer for dogs, kids and shins. IMPORTANT: 1) It does take a little bit of effort, no more than a non-self propelled power mower, but you definitely have to push the thing. It is very light, but it's not like floating on air. It's good full body exercise! 2) As mentioned in other reviews any twig thicker than a chopstick will jam it. If you have a yard with lots of trees, it could get to be a hassle, but those yards with a few (or none) trees will discover you find most of the twigs the first time you use the mower and with subsequent mowings this is not a problem. 3) Although I've only had it for a short time, I can tell this will not be a tool that never needs maintenance, but an every two year blade sharpening and routine WD-40 treatment will allow this tool to work for more years than I will be alive. I am not a mechanically inclined person so this is great for me. 4) Uneven terrain proves to be a challenge and forget getting close to walls and buildings or power mowing through heavy growth. As others have mentioned a weed trimmer will be needed to get to hard to reach areas. As I get older I've developed a clear desire to start dumping complex machinery and systems for simpler, more self-sufficient tools. This mower (as I'm sure many other brands of reel mowers are) is a great affirmation of that desire. It inspires me to look for other areas in my life which can be boiled down to the "power mower vs. reel mower" analogy. If the other differences are as stark as this one, I'm definitely going to have some fun.

We are very satisfied with the lawnmower. After spending some time assembling it and understanding how it works, we have gotten very comfortable with it. Compared to the ones we have had previously, this one is definitely more effective and very easy to use.

Excelente desempeño, debo decir que el césped está limpio, es decir, no hay piedras ni ramas y eso ayuda mucho al desempeño de la podadora. Sin ningún problema, cuenta con 5 niveles de corte para regular el tamaño de corte deseado. La utilizo cada 5 días en promedio y lo único es que el hule espuma que está en el manubrio pues ya se rompió, las llantas son de un plástico duro y no de goma pero pues también considero el precio y me parece justo por lo que pagué, si la recomiendo! 👍🏻

This is well built sturdy mower. It does what I need it to do. I have a huge yard so at the start of the season or if I let it grow too long, I would cut it with my electric mower. Then ever few days I would maintain it with a push mower. This Great States mower was the perfect replacement manual mower. So first off the price is decent and what you get is a strong metal push mower. So the price range is pretty good for the build quality. Assembly was simple. Despite what the manual indicates, the mower is pretty much already assembled. You're basically just attaching the handles. To do this was simple and can be done in 5-10min. I was able to do it just by looking at picture on the exterior box. The cutting itself was pretty smooth, pushes easily and cuts about 95% of the grass at first pass. If you overlap the cutting, you get a pretty good cut. Blade itself is really sharp so you don't get anything that runs through the blade and doesn't get a full cut. For those that have never used a push mower, do not use when grass is damp as some of the grass may be lying so it would never get cut. Also for those that says it only pushes over anything too long. Yes, reel mowers are not great for tall grass or weeds. It's great for maintaining a certain height but if the blades of grass is taller then mower blades, it will get pushed over by the front and pass under the blades, thus not getting cut. Also, this does not have a bag attachment so if you're not just doing just a trim, you may need to rake up a bit.

Cumple con lo indicado por el fabricante, se recomienda limpieza después de su uso y aceitado del sistema de corte y filos para evitar corrosión.

I love the mower. I am cutting about 1000 square yards with this mower every second day. It takes about 45 minutes to cut my lawn. I love that I can cut even if the grass is wet. No dust or noise like a gas rotary mower. I am cutting at 1/2 inch setting which is really somewhat higher. Cutting is easy and fast and I find easier than a gas mower because the mower is so light and easy to push. Cleanup is also very easy I just use a garden hose to rinse off any grass or dirt. To sharpen I use a diamond hone to sharpen the bed kife. The mower has to be sharp to work well. I would not reccomend this mower if one only want to cut once a month. These mowers work well when cutting the lawn often. I cut my lawn every second day taking off about 1 inch of grass. Stones and twigs in the lawn can block the reel from spinning so the lawn needs to be fairly clean so that it can be cut easily with a reel mower. For my setting the mower works very well and I would buy it again. Actually I bought 2.