Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Hover Mower

*Intro*

After a few years of being in my new house and decorating it from top to bottom; it was time to start on the outside. The outside looked great when we moved in, but the sparkling new lawn soon turned into a giant brown stain as the grass the builders left me with, started to disintegrate. Why do builders like to brush all their rubbish in a pile and then proceed to lay turf on it? The cliché “sweeping it under the carpet” springs to mind.

After paying a lot of money for it landscaping and brand new sexy, velvety turf laid down; it was time to invest in a new toy to keep the lawn looking lush. I was pretty excited about finally having grass to mow and thought it would be great to have a cup of tea and watch my boyfriend cutting the lawn through the kitchen window. I imagined him steadily moving the mower up and down, perfecting the pin stripe look, while the neighbours watched in envy.

Alas it was all a dream and as with most jobs around the house; it seemed to fall in my domain. If I was going to be the chief lawn mower of the house, I wanted an easy to use, light machine than gave good results without too much effort.

I selected the Flymo Turbo Lite 330.

*Price and availability*

I paid £59.99 from my local garden centre for the Flymo Turbo Lite 330. Amazon currently have it on offer for £54.99. I think this is a reasonable price.

*Description*

When you purchase the lawn mower and open the box, you would think you have bought it from Ikea as it does need a bit of assembly! Also in the box, however is the trusty instruction manual has really easy to follow step by step instructions. If I can do it; then so can you!

The machine is orange weighs 6.4kg so it is light enough to push around. This is such a good advantage because the last thing I want to do is to work up a sweat!

The machine has a long handle that sits comfortably just above the waist so you can push it round. This handle is collapsible for easy storage and makes the mower fit perfectly in my shed.

It has a double lever trigger on the top of the handle with the rubber button 'on' switch located in the centre. This means you need both hands to start the mower. This is a great safety feature, especially when you are as accident prone as I am.

Underneath the mower is the rotating drum which two plastic blades attached to it at opposite ends. I was a bit surprised to see plastic blades underneath, however they work just fine and the advantages are that i) they are cheaper to replace ii) they are much safer if you run over the lead. These are must less likely to puncture the lead's insulation, and potentially get you killed. However I would advise being very careful around the lead as a novice mower I did find it got in my way quite a lot and have yet to perfect the over the shoulder throw!

Talking of the lead, there is plenty of it and at 12M long it is ample to reach through the backdoor and into a socket without any extension leads needed. Hurray no spaghetti junction style leads to contend with!
The lawn mower uses a 1150W motor which is powerful enough for my small lawn.

*My experience*

My first experience was a bit of a letdown as I pushed the lawn mower across the grass and eagerly looked behind myself to see what “grade” I’d given it. Disappointingly it was a number three and I wanted a trimmed number one all over! Alas I then realised there are different settings for the grass height (hence the razor analogy!) Its default height when you buy it is the higher one.
You can have it set for 10mm and 30mm. 10mm is perfect if you don’t want to have to do it every weekend.
To change the setting you need to flip it over and turn the rotating dome drum over. This is really simple to do and takes seconds.

Obviously after much use the blades will become blunt or damaged, but luckily the mower comes with several spare ones. These are also really reasonably priced and widely available. To change the the blade, you need
to push out the broken one easing them backwards out of their mountings and sliding in the new ones. Again, a really simple thing to do.

As the blades are plastic, they could snap easily if they met any object on the lawn that wasn’t grass, such as twigs or alike. I always do a scout round before mowing to remove any potential hazards.

*Noise*

The machine is quiet and makes hardly any noise; leaving my boyfriend to slumber to late morning while I get to work in the garden bright and early.

*Storage*

It is a compact mower and because the handle folds in half you can store it away easily.

*Cleaning*

Obviously after time the blades need replacing as already discussed but to keep your machine healthy you can wipe it over with a cloth and make sure any wet grass cuttings are not stuck to the blades.

*Overall*

This machine is really light and makes hardly any sound, unlike the previous model that sounded like it was about to take off. It seamlessly glides over the garden with ease and takes hardly any manoeuvring. The lead is nice and long so there is plenty to work with and I love it that it stores away so easily. I’m really happy with it and find it really reliable. If you care for the blades, they should last for a long time and shouldn’t need replacing very often. I would fully recommend this beast, although I’m unable to get a lawn like Wembley; it does a really good job for the money.