Review: Scotts 20-Inch Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower #2000-20

Time for some gushing over a gardening tool. I love my Scott's manual lawn mower. It is so so easy to use, it is amazing. I bought a manual mower thinking that I would save a ton of money by cutting the grass myself (I was paying a yard guy to do it), cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, and get a workout at the same time. Well, it turns out that I don't really get that much of a workout at all because the thing is so lightweight and so darn easy to use. And I am not the fittest, most buff girl out there. Far from it. I'm just an ordinary gal but I have no problem pushing this mower - it isn't like your grandpa's heavy old antique push mower.

I've got to say that it doesn't do as neat of a job as the gas-powered rotary mower that was being used - some types of skinny grass merely bend over when the mower goes over them, so they stick up straight. But, I guess part of the issue could also be that at the same time as switching mowers I stopped running the sprinklers unless absolutely necessary, so my yard is a bit more weedy than it used to be as some of the grass died off a bit. I also set the mower on a fairly high setting in order to allow the grass to root better and therefore more easily cope with having less water. So all of that probably factors in. Having said that, I really don't care. I have never needed to have a pristine lawn - as long as it's all green, that's all that matters to me. And I think the weeds give it character. What's so wrong with a little dollar weed, after all?

It's so quiet, and I love hearing that snicker-snicker sound of the blades turning. It also causes a few double-takes of people walking or driving past, and occasionally someone will come up and ask me about it when I'm mowing the front yard. So not only is it environmentally friendly, it's a conversation starter too!

Sadly, one of the back wheels has now fallen off (I've had this thing for about a year, maybe more). I should have realized that the nut was loose, but I didn't investigate the wobble that set in after a few months. However, it looks like an easy fix once I find a suitably sized nut. And the good thing is that the mower is still working just fine without the back wheel.

The mower is currently retailing for $113 at Amazon. I'm sure I paid about $90 for it (from the same place), so check around for pricing. It's very easy to maintain - just a squirt of WD40 every now and then. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be sharpening the blades at some point - I probably should, but they don't seem to need it yet.

I'm going with 4 stars for this. I was going to give it 5 stars, but what with the wheel falling off and the weedy yard, I'm not sure that I can. Of course, both of those things are probably due entirely to my own laziness and therefore 5 stars is probably more accurate. Let's split the difference and call it 4 and a half, then.