Scotts 2000-20S 20-Inch 5-Blade Push Reel Lawn Mower, Green

As much as I love gardening, I hate mowing the lawn. I hate lugging my power mower out of the garage and maneuvering it around our cars and all my husband's junk. I hate the noise it makes. It's heavy to push and hard to get it into tight spaces. I thought I was at least avoiding the hassle and environmental issues of gasoline by buying an electric rechargeable one. But after a few years the battery stopped holding a charge and they discontinued the replacement batteries, so the whole thing is a giant piece of e-waste now. I didn't want to buy another one, so I decided to try an old-fashioned reel mower instead. Some of the reviews on this product had me worried. Some people found them hard to push, some said they get caught up on every little tough weed and twig, etc. After using my new Scotts reel mower for the first time, I really don't understand what those people were talking about. Maybe they were using it on super-high grass, or on wet grass. But the first time I used mine, I found it WAY easier to use than a power mower. It takes up much less space in the garage, and I can just pick it up with one arm and carry it outside. You walk up and down the yard with it, you're done in a few minutes, and that's it. I like that this particular model allows you to adjust the height to a maximum of 3 inches. (That's the height that's supposed to be healthier for your lawn and better for water conservation, but most reel mowers don't adjust that high.) There are a few caveats. If you look at my picture where I've used the 3" setting, you'll see that it doesn't chop every single blade of grass to a uniform height, like a carpet. Any grass or weeds that grow sideways, or that are tall and flimsy, don't get trimmed. I did have to bend down to pick a few dandelions it didn't get. But overall, considering it took me all of 10 minutes to cut it, and without breaking a sweat, I'm pretty thrilled with it. The other thing is that it does not eliminate the need for an edger/trimmer. You can see I had to leave some taller grass at the base of the trees. The one tree has a ring of rocks around it, and I was afraid of damaging the blades. I got closer to the other tree, but I'll still have to go back and use the weedeater around the base. But then, you'd have the same issue with any other mower as well. Some people complained it gets stuck on sticks and rocks. We had a wind storm the day before I mowed, and I did take a couple of minutes to go out and pick up any sticks that were big enough to stick up out of the lawn. But I certainly didn't pick up every little twig and seedpod. You can see quite a few of them still in the grass, and the mower didn't get stuck on any of them. I did have to bend down to pluck up a few dandelions by hand, though, as the mower just bent them over and didn't cut them. And there were a couple of little spots where I had to go over them a second time, because a few random blades were still sticking up. When I cut my lawn, it had only been about a week since the last trim, so I didn't have to cut off a lot of length. But if you let your grass get high, the mower is going to be harder to push. And if your grass is REALLY high, the mower might just sort of push it all over instead of cutting it. But that was also true with my old power mower. If you let the grass get really long, you need to go over it with a weedeater, then mow at the highest setting, and then lower it and go over it again. Obviously, it's better not to let your grass get that long in the first place. But the great thing about the reel mower is that it's so much easier to use than my power mower, I won't be nearly as lazy about pulling it out of the garage to use it more often. In fact, as much as cutting the grass can be fun, it was sort of fun. If you're wondering whether the grass catcher attachment is worthwhile... not really. The trimmings just sort of fly up in the air, and the open-topped bag picks up whatever happens to land in it, but a lot of trimmings still end up in the grass. The trimmings will help mulch your lawn and keep it healthy anyway. I only bought the grass catcher because I was hoping I wouldn't have to sweep the sidewalk. There was less to sweep up, but I still had to make a quick pass with a broom. I probably won't return the grass catcher, but if I had it to do over I probably wouldn't bother with it. Reel mowers are available in a lot of different widths, with this 20" one being one of the widest available. If you're wondering what width you should get, the wider they are, the more grass you can cut at once, which means they're also harder to push because there's more resistance. That said, I didn't find the 20" to be remotely hard to push. (The claims about it being a "good workout" are a bit overblown.) The only reason I could see for getting a narrower one is if you have a lot of really tight spaces in your yard that require some tricky maneuvering. The mower also works better if you are walking quickly, because that makes the blades turn faster. So you have strength or mobility issues that might make it harder for you to push it quickly, that might also be a reason to get one of the narrower models.

I have a small lot (~ 50' X 100') that I have been mowing using a battery powered electric mower. I have a long history of problems with gas powered yard tools, so I switched to electric 10 years ago with OK results. Well, my electric mower died (motor was shorting out) and I didn't want to put money into a 6 year old machine and a new mower would cost quite a bit. I had thought about a manual reel mower in the past, but dudn't know how it would work out. I decided to take a chance and ordered this one. Delivery was as promised. Assembly was straight forward, assemble the handle with thumb screws and attach it to the mower. Instructions are not clear in the orientation of the slighly offset handle. I tried it both ways and picked the one that fit my height best. The mower came adjusted from the factory so that the blades and the cutter bar were aligned correctly. I took it right out to the yard and gave it a push. Unfortunately I had recently mowed so the grass was to short to test the cutting. But pushing was easy and the reduction in sound, even compared to an electric mower was very noticeable. I waited for the grass to grow and have now cut the yard twice with this mower. My observations: 1) Cuts grass blades nicely. If the grass has sprouted tall seed stalks, the just bend under and pop back up. 2) It is more important to cut in different patterns each time (back and forth, up and down, diagonal) than with a powered rotary mower. How the grain of the grass lays affects the cutting. Changing the pattern over time approaches clumps of grass from different directions. 3) I actually finish the yard quicker than with a powered motor. 40 minutes vs 50. I attribute this to the mower being much lighter so I walk faster. 4) This is not an exercise program. You walk the same distance whether the mower is powered or not. With this mower being lighter, you may get less exercise. 5) You need to overlap rows a little more. The cutting blades start about four inches from the wheel. If you run the wheel in the prior passes wheel marks, you miss a strip. It just takes some getting used to. 6) The blade geometry also means you can't cut as close to the house or other objects as my old mower. I means a little more string trimming (nattery powered also). 7) I really enjoy the mowing experience. Walk in the garage, grab the mower and go. Relatively quiet. There is some sound, but I find it soothing. I can mow at 5 AM Sunday morning without worrying about disturbing the neighbors. 8) Cuts the grass and leaves individual blades behind, not the big clumps that sometimes fell out of my mulching mower. 9) The construction seems solid. Time will tell if this unit holds together but I am optimistic. 10) All my neighbors want to try it. Find somebody who has one and borrow it to see if it works for you. The instructions say I should be good for a couple of years until it needs sharpening. There are instructions for changing the gearing to run backwords to sharpen the blades against the cutting bar when it is needed. All in all, I am very stisfied. I don't have a golf couse quality lawn and don't want one. I just want to keep it neat. This does the trick with no gasoline or battery charging. I highly recommend this product.

I've had this mower for over a year now, and it is a fun device to own and operate. On the positive side, it is affordable compared to a powered mower, it is quiet, it is simple to own and operate, and it requires only infrequent maintenance to keep the blades sharp. Regularly, it needs only a little bit of light oil on the blades before your start mowing. The biggest difference is how genuinely silent the job of lawn mowing is now. This mower thankfully doesn't sound like you are standing at the exhaust end of a supercharged big-block V-8 engine. The only noise it produces is the "swishing" noise as the reel blades pass the cutting bar. Unlike a powered mower, there is blessedly one less extra motor in the garage to maintain: no spark plugs to replace, no oil to change regularly, no fuel tank to refill constantly, no filters to swap. Yet another advantage is this mower takes much less effort to push, move around, maneuver and lift, so you won't throw your back out doing so. Also, the design is such that there are "caps" that fit over the gearing on the wheels that in turn drive the reel as you advance. This is important because grass or weed stalks tend to get wound up in the gears of the cheaper reel mowers I've used in the past. I've even noticed that the grass blades themselves get a nice, clean shear, as opposed to the sort of "tearing" or shredded ends that are indicative of powered mowers. This point is important because shredded grass stalks place the grass at an increased disposition to disease. Best of all is the cost. Most other reel mowers either cost about as much as this one while delivering less features, or they cost so much as to not be worth the money (like the Brill mowers). This mower won't burn a hole in your pocket buying it, nor does it require any additional investment except the cost of oil to lube up the blade reel. The large 20" cutting swath makes short work of your lawn anyway, and this is one of the largest reel mowers I have seen on the market. (You can buy a powered reel mower, but these kinds of mowers are more expensive than conventional powered mowers, and they are really only for use on putting greens and yuppie golf courses.) As a bonus, I can even cut the grass when it is wet. The downside of this kind of mower is that it does indeed tend to miss spots, and requires going over the same area more than once since the mower folds them over. Dandelions and other thick-stemmed weeds also get missed. This is kind of a hassle, and I am not sure if I need to hone the blades and/or adjust the screws to remedy this. Because this model features a kind of "sheath" or "bumper" that protects the reel in case you ram into a tree or post, this feature causes some of the taller or thicker grass stalks to fold over, instead of cutting them. This necessitates going over a patch twice to get a good mow, but I don't mind this much as it is good exercise for me. My thoughts on this are that removing the bumper may improve this, but I won't bother to try this myself. Moreover, I wish that the reel was larger in size and/or had more blades, and had the gearing ratio decreased so the reel would spin faster, but it does a decent enough job as it is now. Someone else here mentioned that the handle is somewhat chintzy, and it is. The handle is composed of three separate pieces of small-gage tubing that you bolt together when you assemble it, and it tends to flex a bit much for my tastes. If the tubing was thicker and/or larger this wouldn't be that much of a problem. In addition, the foam you place over the handle has developed a few small nicks in it that have evolved into larger tears and holes, but this but a minor annoyance. The grass catcher will kick-off of the mower, so you might want to invest in some sort of spring-loaded clips (you'll need about 3) at the hardware store to secure it to the mower itself. You must also pick up any small sticks or tree limbs out of your yard before you start mowing; you could get away with grinding up this kind of tree debris beforehand with your gas mower, but you can't do so with this one. Bear in mind this is not a mulching mower and I cannot guarantee how well it picks up the leaves in your yard come autumn. Additionally, you would do well to purchase the honing compound to keep the blades sharp when you go to adjust them, and I'm not sure if you can even order a replacement reel from Scotts when it comes time to replace it. By and large, owning this mower actually makes lawn maintenance an enjoyable event, instead of the hassle it used to be. It won't quite give you the pretty cut you get from a powered mower, but what it looses in aesthetic results it more than makes up for in hassle saved. It is at once fun and amusing to watch the grass clippings fly in the air as I mow along, and now I find myself actually making up excuses to get out of the house and mow the lawn. Overall, this is a great deal for the money, and I've found it cheapest here at Amazon.

I an unsure as to what some are complaining about with this little mower. It IS a reel mower after all, and powered up by me, not oil and gasoline. I LOVE this little mower! I just got it last week, did nothing but pull it out of the box, put it together, which was a breeze, and starting cutting grass! My yard is 1/2 acre in size, with half of that being fairly flat, with a slight grade to it, and then my front and back yards both have slopes in them, with a constant upgrade in the backyard. Going up that hill was tough, only because I have allowed myself to get so out of shape. The mower itself was fine, and cut the grass great! It was me needing to stop and catch my breath every few "laps" on that backyard, and parts of the front, but that was not the mower's fault. That's me, getting myself back into better physical shape for using this little mower. I found it to be a breeze to use. Yes, I did have a few areas where it would miss some weeds or an onion or two, but I found that if I lined it up with the actual center of the mower reel it would then cut right through those onion weeds with a second, or third swipe. Remember that it cuts like a pair of scissors and its best area for cutting thick grass or onion weeds is in the center of the blade, or reel. And if it did not cut through it after centering it up, and giving it another couple of quick swipes, then I would just reach down and pull the onion weed out myself. But this was rare. Overall it did a great job! I am very, very happy with it and would recommend it to those who have smaller yards like myself, and decently flat yards. Like I said, I do have a long grade and hill in my backyard especially, and my front has slopes in it, but it cut through them just fine. I just had to take several water breaks and catching-my-breath breaks. But as the spring moves into summer I am sure that this little mower will get me in better and better physical shape, too, as I use it. We're talking couch potato here, so those of you who already run or walk on a regular basis, this will be a piece of cake for you. I will consider sharpening the blades down the road, but it did just fine right out of the box. The only downsides are, it is going to take a little more physical umph, push and strength to move it up those slopes in my yard, but overall that is better for me. And I will do what others suggested and use WD40 or Synthetic Oil on it to keep it in good running order. I do think the handle is a little too flimsy, but it's okay and tolerable. Overall I am very, very happy with it, and no, I am not a reel mower salesperson, I am a woman, whom happens to be a little bit overweight, am 5'2", and 49 years old, and I LOVE this little mower! Good luck, to those of you who are considering purchasing one of these little models for yourselves!

Summary: Great product with a wide deck and easy to push. Handle design is awful and actually broke after several weeks of use! Pro's: - 20 inch deck is great and still extremely lightweight. Good because some overalap is required with push mower - "Blades" are safe and very effective. I have a 4 year old and 9 year old and no worries about them - Very quiet and smooth performance - Small amount of "give" in handle helps with cornering Flaws: - Small diverter behind blades can collect grass and slow you down, especially when wet - Handle design is CHEAP!!!!! Connects at the middle with two flimsy rods and some screws. This makes the performance rickety and actually broke on me after a few weeks of mowing. I had to duct tape them together to finish the job and now am figuring out how to get it fixed. My neighbor has the same issue and he is thinking about putting hose clamps on them to make them sturdier. It seems ridiculous that you would have to buy additional hardware to reinforce a poor design! A couple of notes about reel mowing that don't have to do with this product. - Be realistic in your expectations. If you start mowing in the Spring when the grass is thickest and you are out of shape, you may be setting yourself up to quit before you give it a chance. - Doesn't pick up leaves! Mows right over them in most cases. So you may want to keep the gas mower for the fall and spring or invest in a lawn sweeper. - Some annual bluegrass and other weeds can literally bring you to a halt! I've found myself almost chopping through this stuff. Again, you may want to keep your power mower around just to get through the spring. My summary on this is you should see it almost like a bicycle at first. It is a perfect supplement to powered transport and can really get you in shape, have fun, and reduce pollution. But there are times when you really, really, need the car and so shouldn't get rid of it right away.

I love the nostalgic feel of using this reel mower, and the lack of pollution and noise is great. Read some of the five star reviews if you are interested in reading about the virtues of this mower, and I am not saying they aren't telling the truth, I'm just telling you that depending on your kind of yard, this mower may be awful for you. All of the advantages of this reel mower are thoroughly covered in other reviews, but what I don't see much of are the negatives. So here they are: 1) This mower will come to a complete and bone crunching halt if you get so much as a moderately sized twig caught in the blades. I am 6'2" and fairly strong, and this mower stops me dead in my tracks when it hits a twig or branch. As I have numerous trees in and around my yard, it makes using this mower a massive pain as I have to first clear all of the twigs. If I don't, BAM, the reel locks up and your wrists and body get jerked around. It is very annoying and could potentially cause some injuries to lighter weaker individuals. If your yard routinely gets small tree branches and twigs in it, consider yourself warned. 2) If you have really nice grass without any weeds or different types of grass mixed in, this mower is again perfect. If you don't, and you have different types of grass and or some weeds, the mower is a lot less effective. I have found it works great on thick lush yards with one type of grass and no weeds. If you have varying types of grass and your yard doesn't look like it belongs on a bag of Scott fertilizer, you WILL have problems. My wife constantly complained about how our yard would look after I used this mower. 3)Finally, this mower is very ineffective in and around corners. The blades require speed to work, and so it is almost impossible to use in a corner where your speed is reduced. I found myself revving the mower up by shoving forward and picking it up and shoving it forward over and over or else it wouldn't cut. If you have a lot of edging and corners on your property you will be forced to do a lot more weed eating on your grass to make up for the missed spots with this mower. If you have a picture perfect yard this mower should work great. But for everyone with lots of corners, a mix of stuff growing, and any kind of twigs in your yard, stay away! After trying to use this mower for an entire summer, I finally caved and bought another gas mower....and I couldn't have been happier. Back to chopping up and spitting out chunks of wood and neat corners on one pass and one level of cutting. Loved the retro feel and idea behind this mower, it's just not for everyone.

***WARRANTY INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM*** I bought this mower and with "Prime" it was at my door in two days. It's a snap to put together and I mowed the lawn that weekend. The first mow is a bit of a back and shoulder killer. This is because it takes a lot to push. Until you get used to it, it will keep killing you shoulders and back. Also at the beginning of each mowing season you will have to recondition your body to the mower. I have not had any problems with the mower in the year I have had it. I originally bought it because I was tired of smelling like gas and I was growing a little concerned with the pollution of a gas mower (noise and air...I have poor hearing already and a typical mower was too loud). This mower is great for those reasons. Plus, since the grass is cut and not beat, I have not problems with my grass allergies. I would normally have a running nose when I finished with a grass mower. Now I have a dry nose, I don't smell like grass, and I don't smell like gas. The mower will cut as fast as you travel. I have been able to cut through some pretty big branches because I move pretty fast. I have noticed the grass looks better with this mower. This could be due to the fact that I cut the grass pretty long (leaving about 3 inches in length). As some have said it does take the grass a little time to get used to a reel mower...about 2-3 mows. PRO vs CON PRO -Better on my allergies -Don't smell like grass -Don't smell like gas -NO pollution -Grass will look better -Less upkeep -No winterizing the mower CON -Little slower...but not much -Have to keep lawn clear-er -Sometimes you have to go over a spot 2-3 times to make sure it's been cut -Have to keep the grass mowed: if the grass is too long the mowing will take longer because you will have to go over spots several times to make sure it's all been cut. Overall, it's a great purchase...buy it. ***UPDATE*** After another season (almost full season) I still love this mower. I have begun to experience lots of squeaking. I now have to oil before mowing, but still this mower has much less upkeep than a traditional mower. ***UPDATE 2*** WARRANTY INFO *** Shortly after the previous update, I had the handle break at the bend. I was able to tape it so I could keep using the mower while I looked online for warranty info (I looked in the manual but found no help there). I looked on Scott's website, but no luck. I looked for hours. Then I called AMAZON and they helped me find the warranty info. The mower was not made BY Scott's but FOR Scott's. This means Scott's does not cover the warranty it is covered by American Mower Company; do a simple Google search for the company and you will be able to find the company's website (reelin dot com). This company was VERY helpful! They sent out all the parts to replace the whole handle, with no cost or hassle. They are very willing to help their customers. So easy to deal with. They are not open over the weekend, but I left a message Saturday; they called back Monday morning. If you have a problem with your mower contact this company and they will help.

When my old gas powered mower finally gave out this summer, I started shopping around for a new mower. My brother had just bought a fancy new Honda HRX with all the bells & whistles. It looked like the ultimate in walk-behind mowers and the only thing keeping me from rushing out for the same mower was the high price tag. Fortunately, before I managed to shell out the ridiculous amount of money for the gas powered mower, I stumbled across a gardening site advocating push reel mowers. I must admit, I was somewhat surprised. I didn't know that anyone still used these things. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by the purported advantages. Reel mowers, with their scissor like action are better for your grass. Push reel mowers are light, easy to maneuver, and require relatively little maintenance. Push reel mowers use no gasoline, which means no more fumes and emissions to harm you and the environment. Best of all, since they don't use petroleum fuels, push reel mowers do not require American military intervention in the Middle East. After reading a number of postive reviews I decided to give the push reel mower a try. I looked at a number of different models and ultimately chose the Scotts Classic because of its wide cutting swath and wide range of cutting heights. I purchased the mower from Amazon because with the free shipping and an additional promotion they were running at the time, it was the most affordable. The mower was delivered sooner than expected and took minutes to assemble using only a crescent wrench. The mower is everything I hoped it would be. I have about a quarter of an acre of grass to mow with its fair share of hills, trees, bushes, and other obstacles. It is easy to push and cuts my grass beautifully. It is alot easier to get in and out of difficult spaces than any bulky gas mower I have ever used. It is quiet and I can hear the birds and neighbor children while I mow. I mowed the lawn in shorts and flipflops the other day with no fear of rocks or hard objects flying out at me. It has an amazingly small footprint in the garage. I also am very pleased with the fact that I avoided my brother's mistake of spending upwards of a thousand dollars for a gas mower. I also purchased the grass catcher for this mower. It works fine, but I have found that I only need to use it when the grass gets inordinately long. My only wish is that I had done this sooner. I have been so pleased with this mower, I can't help but wonder why people ever stopped using these. I reccomend this product with no reservations.

This is the Porsche of reel mowers: easy to push, lightweight, easy to sharpen (with an auxiliary sharpening kit, $25.00), well-engineered and nicely painted. It can be set to five different cutting levels in three ranges, moving from very low (1") to high (2.5"). Out of the box it comes adjusted to the highest range, but this can be changed to one of the two lower ranges fairly easily by removing the wheels. There are several youTube videos that explain how to do this. It is important to know that push mowers don't handle very long grass or weeds very well. On the other hand, they do a great job of manicuring lawns to a uniform height. Unlike power movers, they actually cut the leaves rather than ripping off the tops. And (of course) the Scott's 2000 is good on gas and good for the environment, and it's not going to wake up the baby.

It's exactly as expected... it can be used slowly or you can go fast if you want. It will stop (jam) with sticks, but just turn it to the side and shake and it falls out. It's great for maintaining... if your grass is too tall or has tall dandelions... it won't cut those, it just leaves them standing tall. Lol. Overall, it's what I wanted to just do a quick maintenance of the lawn... bigger job, I use my lawnmower or tractor. ;)

I honestly didn't really expect this to be up to the job I had in mind for it...but it has proved me completely wrong I'm happy to say! We have a croft (smallholding) that has no power and I'm rubbish at starting petrol mowers, but we needed a solution to keep the long, rough grass under control now that the growing season is under way. The width of this cutting blade seemed great, so for the price it had to be worth a try. It has done a fabulous job! I gave everything a first cut on the middle setting to clear tussocks, but subsequent cuts can now be on the lowest setting. Downhill, it's a breeze. Uphill requires a bit of a running start and some welly, but someone stronger than me, (a skinny 56 Yr old woman) might even manage a standing start! It's very sharp and I bought the blade sharpener too to keep it that way. I love it and can't recommend it highly enough. It doesn't cut the shortest I've ever seen but for my purposes that's ideal.

Excelente para cortar el cesped

Réellement GENIALE. Très belle avec ses couleurs et un fini remarquable. On apprécie "aucun outil nécessaire" pour le montage et...C'EST EXACT. Tout s'enclenche en quelques minutes. Très maniable, elle très rassurante.et la qualité est au rendez-vous. L'herbe était un peu haute, mais en croisant on arrive a faire un travail absolument parfait. Après quatre heures non stop, elle a fait un travail impressionnant mais surtout je ne ressens pas de fatigue. Il n'y a aucune comparaison avec les autres tondeuses, ou les débroussailleuses, on ne ressent aucune tension, on va à son rythme, attentif mais "zen". Depuis des années nettoyer mon grand terrain -qui de plus n'est pas très plat- était un grand souci, mais ce soir je sais que c'est avec une grande légèreté que je reprendrai cette "aventure", de plus aucun souci de charge, aucun souci de la peur d'une pierre projetée, aucun souci de fil... Très sincèrement je recommande absolument quel que soit votre force ou votre âge, on peut aller à son rythme, elle vous suit tout simplement, et elle est très stable avec ses deux roues arrières. Juste un dernier mot : un très grand "merci".