American Lawn Mower Company 14-Inch 4-Blade Push Reel Mower, 1204-14

Love love love this mower! We have a “lawn” that is pretty wild with weeds and natural growth more than true grass. I wasn’t expecting much out of this, but thought it might help a bit with upkeep in the softer areas of the yard. Well it far outshined the expectations. It’s very easy to push and does a beautiful job! While it can’t handle especially tall weeds and such, and it does get caught up if there’s a stick in the way, it does a great job at maintaining the lawn. I actually find it easier to push than the gas mower and there’s no more wrenching on cords to get it started. No needing to store and mix fuel. No fuss, just great results!

Der Spindelmäher ist leicht zu montieren, eine Anleitung mit Bildern ist beigefügt. Das Modell ist stabil, meines Erachtens aber auch recht schwer.
Mein Modell blockierte zu Beginn sehr stark, das konnte mit etwas Öl im Getriebe und an den Klingen aber gut behoben werden.
Das Mähergebnis wird von Mal zu Mal noch besser, aber selbst Mini-Steinchen und Holzstückchen führen zur direkten Blockade.
Insgesamt 4/5 Sterne, würde ich wieder kaufen und weiter empfehlen.

I just moved into a rental duplex with a yard of about 3,000 square feet to take care of. Not huge, but not a postage stamp either. Being a rental unit, the “grass” in the yard is mostly dandelions, crabgrass, and broadleaf weeds, with the occasional patch of dense fast-growing grass. In other words, a whole lot of exactly what this mower supposedly can’t handle. But it is light enough and the cutting path is narrow enough that you can power it through, and if it stalls, back up a couple of feet and try again. It’s a very well-made mower, the blades are pre-sharpened, the reel turns easily and smoothly, and the mower cuts cleanly even through the heavy stuff with very little effort. It took me about 40 minutes, with plenty of overlap between passes, to complete the neglected and overgrown yard.

The only change I made was to set the reel to the highest mowing level, 1 3/4 inch, which is around what most gas mowers cut at by default. The lower preset level would probably cause the mower to constantly bog down in the thickest part of the broadleaf weeds. At the highest level, it just takes the tops off of them. For a rental yard, the results look fine, about on par with the neighbors’ gas-mowed yards.

I wouldn’t want to tackle a large yard with this little mower. It would be easy, but would take forever. For a smaller yard, it’s well-suited. The actual cutting width is about one foot. If you figure on 1/2 or 1/3 overlap between passes, you’re really only cutting 6 or 9 inches width per pass. So, even a smaller yard will take a while. But the mower is remarkably easy to push. Not much harder than a full-sized self-propelled gas mower, seriously.

Assembly is quick. You’ll need a pair of pliers or vise grips. Assemble the handle sections by attaching them with bolts and locknuts. The locknuts have plastic wings on them so you can tighten them by hand. Slide the foam grips onto the upper handle sections. The completed handle assembly then slides onto two inward-facing pegs at the top of the mower section. The outward pressure of the handle lower arms pretty much keeps them in place on the pegs, but there are C-clips to push onto grooves in the pegs to keep the handles in place. You’ll need the pliers to squeeze the C-clips into the grooves. That’s it, the mower is assembled.

Adjusting the height of the reel involves removing two bolts and locknuts that hold the back rollers in place. You’ll need a wrench to do that. There are holes in the vertical supports for the back rollers, and holes in the back of the mower. Remove the bolts from the preset holes, move them to other holes, replace the locknuts. It took me longer to move the reel to the highest setting than it did to assemble the mower.

As the instructions suggest, hit the blades and reel with plenty of WD-40 before and after each use to keep them rust-free and also to help keep the grass from sticking to the moving parts.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this little mower. It’s a small dog that thinks it’s a big dog, and it gets the job done. For the price, the quality is remarkable. It’s surprisingly easy to push and use. A great value. Recommended.

First of all, I love that this mower doesn’t require gas or electricity. No fumes, pretty quiet.

It was extremely easy to assemble. The manual was not all that useful / a little aggravating, but assembly manuals tend to be. There are three screws you use to assemble the handle — make sure to use the shortest one for the single hole (towards the top of handle assembly), not that it’s a big deal if you accidentally put it in the wrong place. I finger-tightened the plastic knobs… no tools required for that. I was a little confused by the e-clips so I looked at a very short video on Youtube to see how they might be put on. I used needlenose pliars for that. I was careful doing that because, as many people have pointed out, the blades are very sharp. You put the handle on the metal orange nibs (I also was a little unclear on where to attach the handle, though a glance at a different Youtube video helped me see that clearly).

Normally at this stage in my life, I’m not a big procrastinator. But I have to admit that I had been procrastinating doing anything about the back yard here, where I moved in late November (about four and a half months ago). I moved from a 99 year old house where we had landscaped our tiny yard to have no lawn, into a newer structure built on red clay. Never understimate what can grow in red clay! It might not be what you want, but plants will grow. Through late fall and winter, and really until fairly recently, the back yard was largely mud — It’s been another rainy year. Then things started growing, and I was curious to see what would emerge. Also, the pollen has been noxious, so I’ve not wanted to spend a lot of time out there (used a bandana over mouth and nose to reduce breathing pollen). I knew eventually I was going to have to figure out what to do back there. It isn’t a large yard but is at least twice the size of my previous yard. Still not sure what all I will do, but now I have a way to keep grass and weeds at bay.

I feel like it works pretty well on weeds. There are both weeds and grass in the back yard. I’m not looking for a manicured lawn back there, I just want to keep growth somewhat in check. There’s a quite small area that had gotten very dense and long, and the mower actually did a good job cutting that long grass and weeds, though after I raked it (for ‘fun’), I did notice I’ll need to go back over some of it again in a couple of days. With long stuff, it wraps around the axles (?), so I had to pull grass / weeds out a couple of times (it’s a good idea to wear work gloves for that, and even be careful wearing the work gloves… and I used the needle nose pliars again, to do that, before storing the mower in a shed that I now see is kind of damp and probably not the best place to store it).

Definitely keep pets and children away from it. My dog would have followed me around the yard with it but I made her stay in. Again, the blades are sharp.

If everyone would use mowers like this, we wouldn’t have such anal lawn maintenance to compete with 😉 Not that it doesn’t so a great job of mowing. It does. I’m just not very picky about things sticking up here and there. Also, we’d have less noise and fumes from mowers (though of course I realize there is environmental impact in its production).

I was so anxious before mowing … Had let things get a little beyond where I would have liked. Was actually excited about this mower when I ordered it, and I rarely allow myself to feel excited. Now that I’ve used it and gotten the back yard somewhat in check, I feel relief!

Strongly recommend!