Cylinder Lawn Mowers
The classic luxury grade lawns are on the whole cut with cylinder
mowers as they can potentially give an excellent even cut. Cylinder
mowers have a cylinder that has a number of blades that spiral around
it. As the cylinder rotates the grass blades are forced between
the spinning cylinder blades and fixed straight cutting blade. This
gives a 'scissor like' cutting action and provided that your mower
blades are in good condition and aligned correctly the cut will
be of very good quality.
The number of blades that spiral around the cylinder determine
the quality of the mowing finish. The more blades the better the
cut. Some cylinder mowers come with about 5-6 blades and these are
suited to a utility grade lawn. Cylinder mowers with around 10-12
blades are used on ornamental luxury lawns and provide the best
finish.
The width of the cylinder can vary, a wider cylinder will mean
less trips back and forth when mowing but this must be balanced
against how easy the lawn mower is to manouvre. A wider cylinder
will make the machine bulkier and heavier and so turning corners
will be more difficult.
Some cylinder mowers are entirely hand driven whereas others may
have the blades driven by a power sources such as petrol or electricity.
Self propelled cylinder mowers use a power source to propel themselves
forward as well as to turn the blades. This can save the operator
a lot of energy as little effort is required to manouvre the mower
around the lawn. Therefore self-propelled mowers are definitely
worth worth considering for medium to large lawns.
A cylinder mower with a rear roller will give the best 'striped
effect'. Cylinder mowers usually come with a grass box that attaches
to the machine and collects the grass clippings as you mow which
can save the job of raking up the clippings.
Disadvantages of cylinder mowers
Cylinder lawn mowers are suited to flat uniform lawns. If your
lawn is quite bumpy or contains rough, long grass types then you
should avoid a cylinder mower as they will not handle these types
of lawn very well.
Maintaining a cylinder mower in good working order is generally
harder than maintaining a rotary mower.