Flymo XL500 Petrol Hover Mower

MONDAY 15th May Most people with grass to cut will at least have heard of Flymo - I'm not entirely sure they INVENTED the hover mower, but their name always springs to mind, for fairly obvious reasons. I've got quite a long thin garden, largely given over to grass, or 'nature' as it's sometimes known. For various reasons, I'd left the first cut of the year too late this time (away all weekend, still raining etc - you name it, I had an excuse for it). In fact up to one week ago, I was considering buying a scythe. Then three things happened. a) My next door neighbour lent me his wheeled rotary ... more

The good news is the simplicity and manoeverability of hover, and the Honda four stroke motor On the other hand the XL500 seems rather expensive, around £300, for what it is, being just a big tough plastic/?fibreglass bowl with a powerful engine on top Good for the rough While it does a good job within its limitations and is great for rough areas, several features could be improved Design '' The method of attachment for the handle and the means of retaining it vertically for starting is crude. There is a fair bit of play and the arrangement appears a bit flimsy The machine should be designed ... more

I recently shopped around for a petrol hover mower and came to the conclusion I liked the look of the XL500. Having never owned a Flymo before , I took some convincing that it was a quality machine as opposed to their naff plastic smaller machines, but I was assured by people i trusted that it was the best petrol rotary mower out there for the price - (around £370)! I now own a Flymo XL500 and it does the job brilliantly - its easy to use, versatile and powerful so I'm happy. As an aside, I might have been less happy to pay £370 or even the £390 people seem to paying in their droves on ebay ... more