Which mower for hobby use

[Rb21679]

Hi all

 

Thinking of new mower for next season

 

It's between the mountfiel sp53 and cobra rm46spc

 

I like the sp53 has honda engine and mulch but really like that cobra has roller for stripes

 

What would you recommend

 

Best

 

Ryan

[pleasant]

The two are like chalk and cheese. Do you want a rear roller or a wheeled machine? Once you have decided that, then you have made your choice out of the two you have mentioned.

 

Aside from stripes (which is actually a by product of having a rear roller btw) having a roller will allow you to cut right up to the edge of your lawn if you have a dropped border lessening the chances of scalping, it will cut lower than a mower without a roller, as the roller can act as a foot guard if you use it without the grassbox fitted, lessening the chances of your foot entering the rear of the deck. Mowers without a roller have to have the blade height raised slightly to try to avoid this. And a roller prevents tram lines in your lawn when cutting in early and late season when the ground is damp and spongy.

 

Up to you.

 

The Moutfield does have the Honda fitted, which is a good engine (providing you never leave fuel in the carb for extended periods as they easily gum up) but it is a wheeled mower, and the gearboxes aren't great and wear quickly. The metal chassis can also rot out quickly...certainly quicker than a lot of others I see. You are fine if you clean underneath after every cut and don't let it build up. There's less chance of clogging as by not having a roller the discharge chute will be wider, but you won't have the advantages of having a roller listed above.

 

Cobra products are a Chinese brand, generally using Lonchin branded engines.....they are OK (ish) but parts can be difficult to obtain as are dealers if you have a warranty issue.

 

Neither would be my first choice, but it all comes down to your budget...as always.

 

Personally, if I am not using a machine for commercial use, I would always have a rear roller mower in my own garden.

[Muddy42]

Personally its about getting the job done quickly, so I care about engine size and deck width, the bigger the better!

[Rb21679]

Thanks both for the food for thought definitely given me a lot of good points to consider

 

Good to know strong and weakness of both too as I'm not in the field so don't k ow this stuff

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, pleasant said:

(providing you never leave fuel in the carb for extended periods as they easily gum up)

Yes and this seems to be worse with E10.

 

I have this problem with my Honda hydraulic power pack which someone left the fuel tap on. Apparently it will only run on part choke, trouble is he is 35 miles away and won't tell me when he is there for me to fix it.

 

I also had a similar problem with my chonda powered stump grinder, not used for 2 years; the fuel tap had not been left on but it would only run with half throttle and above. This is unsafe as the centrifugal clutch engages the cutting wheel. I need it to start on idle.

 

Luckily the jets on these engines are readily accessible without removing the carb, and I wore myself out grinding a 2' cherry stump and suckering laterals as well as chasing fig roots once I cleaned it.

 

[pleasant]

24 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

Yes and this seems to be worse with E10.

 

I have this problem with my Honda hydraulic power pack which someone left the fuel tap on. Apparently it will only run on part choke, trouble is he is 35 miles away and won't tell me when he is there for me to fix it.

E10 has a recommended use by...or shelf life of only 30 days in small engines. It deteriorates very quickly with 10% ethanol and absorbs moisture a lot quicker in the atmosphere. Manufacturers now recommend to avoid E10 at all costs and if you can't stretch to something like Aspen etc, then use the premium unleaded which is E5......or better still find an Esso station as most of their stations petrol has zero Ethanol added (with exception to certain stations in the West country...for some reason?)

 

If you use the machine regularly in a pro environment, whereby you can easily use up your E10 fuel within 30 days, then you generally won't have any issues. I see it causing problems all the time with domestic users who occasionally use machinery such as chainsaws, blowers etc, and mowers when they've been laid up over winter.

 

Fuel taps on Hondas left on or off won't make any difference if the fuel left in the tank or left inside the carb is old. You can turn a Honda fuel tap off, but if you just leave fuel in the tank, all you will do is fill up the carb with crap fuel when you turn it back on.....and that's assuming, that once you originally turned the fuel tap off, you actually re-started the engine and run it 'dry' until it stopped.

 

Fuel taps on Hondas are now only there to prevent spillage through the vent hole in the top of the carb for transportation purposes- so if fitted to machines that are mainly designed to be transported from A to B...like cement mixers, generators etc, they won't leak whilst being bumped around in the back of a van. Same engine but loads of different applications....Honda just leave it on, but it's not there so you can turn it off to store it with petrol in any more...used to be years ago before the introduction of ethanol, and good old full fat leaded red coded pump fuel

Edited Monday at 16:12 by pleasant

[Muddy42]

48 minutes ago, pleasant said:

E10 has a recommended use by...or shelf life of only 30 days in small engines. It deteriorates very quickly with 10% ethanol and absorbs moisture a lot quicker in the atmosphere. Manufacturers now recommend to avoid E10 at all costs and if you can't stretch to something like Aspen etc, then use the premium unleaded which is E5......or better still find an Esso station as most of their stations petrol has zero Ethanol added (with exception to certain stations in the West country...for some reason?)

 

If you use the machine regularly in a pro environment, whereby you can easily use up your E10 fuel within 30 days, then you generally won't have any issues. I see it causing problems all the time with domestic users who occasionally use machinery such as chainsaws, blowers etc, and mowers when they've been laid up over winter.

 

Fuel taps on Hondas left on or off won't make any difference if the fuel left in the tank or left inside the carb is old. You can turn a Honda fuel tap off, but if you just leave fuel in the tank, all you will do is fill up the carb with crap fuel when you turn it back on.....and that's assuming, that once you originally turned the fuel tap off, you actually re-started the engine and run it 'dry' until it stopped.

 

Fuel taps on Hondas are now only there to prevent spillage through the vent hole in the top of the carb for transportation purposes- so if fitted to machines that are mainly designed to be transported from A to B...like cement mixers, generators etc, they won't leak whilst being bumped around in the back of a van. Same engine but loads of different applications....Honda just leave it on, but it's not there so you can turn it off to store it with petrol in any more...used to be years ago before the introduction of ethanol, and good old full fat leaded red coded pump fuel

 

Annoyingly for the last 12 months even the esso premium has ethanol in it now.  They made an announcement and changed their website.

[pleasant]

58 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

nnoyingly for the last 12 months even the esso premium has ethanol in it now.  They made an announcement and changed their website.

Ahhh...thanks for the update. I will amend my advice to my customers..

[Muddy42]

1 hour ago, pleasant said:

Ahhh...thanks for the update. I will amend my advice to my customers..

I think the change happened from September 2023.  However i bet it took longer to implement, so i bought it for a few months afterwards.

[Stere]

I have the sp53h  its ok-ish engine seems not as good as the  honda izy 160gvx I had before though deck is wider

 

Always  felt like it could do with more power maybe the 200gvc engine would suit a  51cm cut better....

 

Never use the mulch feature as thats woud only works if you cut the lawn, say twice a week...

 

Self drive is abit  rubbish and it doesn't & bag very well ...

 

No idea if you can get anything good or better in that price bracket....?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Monday at 20:58 by Stere