Qualcast Elan 32

...garden.

The Qualcast Elan 32 was down to £89.99 from £99.99. For what it did I thought it was a great bargain! However, u can probably get this for about £70 / £80 now on the internet.

I got my great bargain home and with the use of the great instructions, I put the lawnmower together.

The 32cm blade width is very good for the price. There is a flexible cutting range of 12-42 cm so apparently it easily ...
...to Homebase and bought a Qualcast Powertrack 34. A rotary mower down to £70 from £120! Thanks to the end of season sale. I bought another Qualcast as they are a very good brand, all thought it appears the Elan 32 ahs let them down.

I have used the Powertrak 32 once and its great but only time will tell. Once I have used it enough I will write another review on the Powertrack 34.
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If you don’t read the rest of the review, at least read this sentence…DO NOT BUY THIS LAWNMOWER ! It will do your grass more damage than good !

I bought this lawnmower at the beginning of summer. I went to Homebase and what great timing it was ! A sale on lawnmowers !

I was on the look out for a cylinder mower, as these tend to come with rear rollers that allow you to make stripes in your grass. I was also told it would be ideal for my medium sized garden.

The Qualcast Elan 32 was down to £89.99 from £99.99. For what it did I thought it was a great bargain! However, u can probably get this for about £70 / £80 now on the internet.

I got my great bargain home and with the use of the great instructions, I put the lawnmower together.

The 32cm blade width is very good for the price. There is a flexible cutting range of 12-42 cm so apparently it easily tackles long or short grass. There is a lever that allows you to adjust this.

Power 350W motor is adequate for a medium sized garden. There are folding handles for compact storage.

Full width rear roller is the best bit! It is mean tot make stripe in your grass and gives the mower that extra stability.

The length of the cable is 15metres, which is quite good in comparison to other lawnmowers in the same price range. The norm is about 12 meters. It comes with a fitted plug.

At the back of the mower is a 31 liter rear grass collector box, which allows mowing right up to walls and under bushes. It comes on and off quite easily.

All this and a Five year parts guarantee ! (brilliant plus point – as you normally get 3 on most garden equipment )

Doesn’t this lawnmower sound great?! I bet you are wondering why I said not to buy it then?

Note that I said it ‘apparently’ cut short or long grass. Well its not good at cutting very short grass (it just kind of flattens it ! ) and its not very good at tackling long grass either. It cuts it unevenly leaving random long strands all over the garden. This issue got worse and worse. I had to go back over patches numerous times.

The 350W motor is meant to be adequate but when it’s on, it really sounds like its struggling.

The rear roller flattened the grass rather than stripe it. It made my grass look awful!

As for the rear grass collector box, that comes on and off quite easily – it comes off a little bit too easily! Imagine how annoying it is when the box falls off and cut grass just goes everywhere!
Over time (ie, 6 usages over 4 months over the summer – hardly excessive usage! ) grass was getting stuck on the axle of the cylinder blades. This meant the dried grass heated up and melted the plastic outer casing. The axle was realigned and the blades were not cutting the grass properly. The consequences of using cheap material!

I thought it was time to test out this Five year parts guarantee!

I took it back to Homebase who said it would be cheaper to replace the mower rather than fix it. However, as it was coming to the end of summer, they had no Elan 32 lawnmowers in stock. Anyway, I decided I did not want this lawnmower again. I had seen it in action, and was definitely not impressed.

I was sent to the Qualcst warehouse in Bierton, where a very helpful man explained that many people who had bought the Elan 32 had the same problem. He also told me that rotary lawnmowers are a lot better.

So off I went with my credit note back to Homebase and bought a Qualcast Powertrack 34. A rotary mower down to £70 from £120! Thanks to the end of season sale. I bought another Qualcast as they are a very good brand, all thought it appears the Elan 32 ahs let them down.

I have used the Powertrak 32 once and its great but only time will tell. Once I have used it enough I will write another review on the Powertrack 34.
 

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