Lawn mowers and back pain

[Chrissy Boy]

After cutting the lawn with a hover mower my back is really painful. Which are the best mowers for back pain. I believe the hover type encourage side to side movement, so is a type with wheels better? Any help would gratefully recieved as there are so many mowers out there when you study it.

[mullein2]

the ones with wheels are normally better for large flat lawns..it depends on how big your lawn is really..i have a hover and i dont swing it to much side to side..i also have an old push along that i prefer as it cuts lower..thats on wheels and they have good deals at argos on them..hope your back eases soon..their is nothing worse than back ache..

[derekpara]

H have a smallish rotary petrol mower for my medium sized back garden and an electric hover mower for the small one at the front. The trouble with hovers is that they quickly come down off the hover as they pick up grass or the air inlets get covered. This means a lot of hard work and side to side movement is encouraged - not good for bad backs. The petrol mower is great but as mullein2 says, its depends on the size of your garden. My advice is to go for a wheeled mower every time -and there are some very good electric ones of all sizes on the market, but petrol mowers would be my first choice - and the prices are coming down, especially as we near the end of the season. Good luck.

[Chrissy Boy]

Thanks for that - wheels it is, but should it be cylinder or rotary?

[derekpara]

Cylinder mowers give a better cut ( and stripes) than rotary mowers because they slice rather than hack and serious gardeners will always use a cylinder mower. Maintenance is more expensive because  sharpening the blades is a professional job, whereas a rotary blade can be sharpened reasonably well with a file or you can just chuck it away and fit another at the end of the season. I sharpen my rotary blades on a grinding wheel but you have to be careful to maintain equality of balance otherwise you get vibration. problems. 

[dothawkes]

II am not too well up on mowers Chrissy boy, but I think argos is your best bet, they have a 16 day money back guarantee, so i think you should try as many out as possible and if they don't suit you, you can get a full refund.