Flymo XL500 Petrol Hover Mower > Reviews (4)

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
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While it does a good job within its limitations and is great for rough areas, several features could be improved

Design
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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 so it can be hung flat on a wall, but it can't because the oil would run out. Nor can it be carried around in the easiest way with the platform vertically in line with the handle, and it takes up too much floorspace. (The previous version was actually better because it had a two stroke engine which solved these problems)

The engine starts literally first pull, but it took a while to discover that the fuel tap has a mark on it which seems to show the petrol off when it is on!

Also, as delivered, the starter-string ratchet thingummy was attached at a peculiar angle so that the pulling action was impossibly awkward. Turning it through 90 degrees put this right so perhaps ours was assembled on a Friday night

Height of cut adjustment
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Height adjustment is by using both/one/none of two spacer rings on top of the blade. The finest cut, with both rings, is too fine for the average lawn, and the next, with one ring, is too high. They are moulded aluminium with protruding studs so cannot easily be modified

In use
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The gap normally left near walls or fences is perhaps a bit worse than it needs to be, and the front skirt overhang is even greater so there is no help there

Worse is the performance cutting round flower beds. I suppose because the air is forced out of the cutting chamber to make it hover, the grass along these edges of is cut poorly, being blown away from the blade. Things can be significantly tidier with a grass collecting rotary

It cannot collect the mowings and the 'blowing' action spreads some of the clippings and debris quite a long way, together with dust in dry weather, which is messy near the house, patio, or pavement

Conclusion
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A basic, and essentially sound and durable machine which is just a bit too crude to be a pleasure to use. Good to get the mowing over and done with quickly though!

We let ours go in favour of a rear-roller rotary mower, which is more suitable for a suburban type of garden when we moved, but would get one again if we ever have rough grass areas, or an orchard

tranx @ June 2006