There are several reasons that people decide to but a manual lawn mower over an electric or petrol one:

• They require much less maintenance and are less likely to go wrong
• Push mowers are environmentally friendly because they require no fuel to run
• Size wise they are usually smaller so lighter and easier to store
• The noise from a push mower is almost silent

As you can see, there are some very good reasons to take the plunge with a manual mower so it’s certainly something worth considering. Having said that there are some important points that you need to consider before purchasing one.

1. Size of Lawn

The size of lawn that you need to cut will greatly determine what type of mower you get. As you can probably guess, a manual lawn mower is most suited to small lawns, nothing more than 1/4 of an acre which is around 1,00m² (a garden of 20m by 50m, for example. You have to push a manual lawn mower so it can be quite tiresome if you have a very large area to do.

2. Type of Lawn

If you have an unwieldy garden with weeds, tall stubborn grass and debris lying around all over the place you will not be able to use a manual lawn mower. Ideally, the push mower is suited to well kept lawns that are relatively flat and have short grass to start with. If you are not out cutting the grass at least once a week during the growing season you may find you have difficulties using one of these mowers on your grass. Oftentimes people have to use a strimmer before cutting their grass in order to make it a manageable height for the manual mower.

3. Weight and Manoeuverability

Although usually not as heavy as a petrol mower, push mowers can be quite heavy. For example, the Fiskars mower we have recommended weighs in at 24kg which is heavier than a lot of electric and petrol mowers. Compare that to the Einhell, also recommended in the manual lawn mowers category, which is very lightweight.

The increased weight will give you more stability, but will not make it harder to push when on a flat lawn. However, moving it around off the lawn and on occasion when manoeuvering it on the grass you will notice the difference. The lightweight push mowers will be easy to move but can become stuck more easily on tough areas of grass and slide around which makes them feel flimsy.

So, when thinking about a push mower remember that you have to push it so need more strength and endurance than you need for most other self propelled mowers. For nearly all manual mowers, the speed of the blade which cut the grass are determined by how fast and smoothly you push it so it’s important that it’s comfortable for you to move it along efficiently.

Here are our top picks of manual lawn mowers available to buy now…