American Lawn Mower Company 1204-14 14-Inch 4-Blade Push Reel Lawn Mower, Red

I'm very pleased with this mower, and feel like I got really good value on this purchase. Assembled by myself in about 10 minutes. And it's very sharp right out of the box, and easy to clean, so it should stay sharp for a good long while. Cuts grass that's too tall for a motorized mower to get through, and a second pass mulched it well enough that there was no dead dried-out grass lying around the next day. When we keep up with mowing, our (admittedly quite small) yards only take ~20 minutes each, and because there's no motor I can easily listen to podcasts/audiobooks/music while mowing. It's quite lightweight and easy to maneuver, too, so it honestly barely feels like work to do the lawn. Which is good, because we are NOT lawn people. But this little mower makes our lawn look nice enough to fit into our neighborhood of people who are lawn people with minimal effort - what more can you ask for?P.S. I've had 2 people comment on how well this mower works in the couple months we've been using it. On two separate occasions, a dog walker and a UPS delivery person stopped to tell me how surprising it was to see someone using a reel mower with grass clippings flying up around them as they mowed, and how much better it seems to work than any other reel mower they've seen. I agree, it does work very well, and it's very satisfying to use.

For areas where there are smaller lawns, for renters with zero storage, or if you want a shorter cut, this manual mower is perfect! It took about five minutes to assemble and the blades are very sharp. Using this for a smaller side yard the larger mower will not fit into comfortably. Gives a decent workout! Easy to adjust for height of grass cut you are looking for. Instructions were easy to follow. Highly recommended for the cost, quality, and ease of use.

**Update three months later**After using the mower throughout the spring and into the summer, I'm knocking off a star. Don't get me wrong - I still think this is a phenomenal mower for the price and am very glad I bought it. It's definitely a conversation piece when neighbors see me outside using it, it's great exercise, and has saved me a ton of money. But it's got some downsides that I didn't immediately understand. First - the jamming I mentioned initially is out of control. Any twig, small rock, piece of mulch, sometimes even a large leaf causes it to freeze up. I swear sometimes I spend more time clearing it than actually mowing. Second - if your lawn has gotten long (it happens) or is the slightest bit damp, whether from humidity or sprinklers, it tends to skid over the grass instead of mowing it. So you'll have to go over those spots 2-3x each to get them short enough. This last one isn't a criticism, but I've found that in my yard it performs better if I mow in a small patches vs in long rows. It has been a great first mower, but I'll likely be looking for a battery-powered one during the end-of-summer sales.*************This is an important thing to know: until I got this mower, I had never in my life used a lawnmower. Or had any interest in using a lawnmower. I have allergies, am very sensitive to the sun, etc. etc. Well, I recently moved from my condo into a house with small yard and couldn't see paying a service to mow such a small space. A friend raved about her manual mower and when I couldn't find her model, I decided to try this one. Wow! Is all I can say. I am super impressed - especially for the price. The quality is solid. It was easy to put together (just look closely at the diagram) and once I got it together I was ready to mow. I still had my doubts - until my first pass at the front yard. It cut my overgrown lawn down to size on the first try and I mowed both my front and back yards in about an hour. It did an amazing job, and I love that it's environmentally friendly! My only complaint is that any sort of obstacle in the lawn - twig, large leaf, clump of dirt, rock, jams it. If you have a lot of debris in your yard, you'll save time by raking it up first - I'll do that next time. I am so glad I bought this and will be even happier every time I mow and think of how much money I'm saving!