Yard Force Reel Mower Cordless Hybrid 15-inch 20V Lithium-Ion, with 2 Batteries, Compact Storage, 12 Gallon Grass Collection Bag, Clean Cut for a Healthy Lawn (15 Inch Reel Mower)

I suddenly reached the age where I care about how my lawn looks. It happened without warning or explanation. To my wife’s chagrin, I have recently spent many hundreds of dollars on lawn equipment, chemicals, and supplies. I also discovered the existence of reel mowers. After finding a manual reel at a thrift store, I’ve been on the hunt for a used gas powered reel. Having been unsuccessful thus far, I stumbled upon this Yard Force. Pros: - Price - I paid $150 for the mower with 2 batteries. Replacement batteries themselves are $50 from Home Depot, so the mower itself is basically $50. - Ease of Assembly - the mower came almost completely assembled. Only the handlebars had to be attached and the grass catcher assembled. All in all, assembly took less than 5 minutes. - 2 batteries - Reviews online seem to indicate this mower was previously sold as Sam’s and/or Costco with only one battery. This one comes with 2, and the batteries came essentially fully charged so I was able to mow right away - Maneuverability - I had no trouble maneuvering the unit around my yard. It’s reasonably lightweight and very easy to push, pull, and turn. - Manual mode - if the battery dies, the mower will still cut manually as the reel is connected by a planetary gear to the wheel. Very handy if the battery dies just before you’ve finished mowing. - Noise - The mower is extremely quiet. I was able to hear my AirPods over its noise Cons: - Replacement batteries - I assumed replacement batteries would be plentiful. My research thus far seems to indicate that the only place to purchase batteries is Home Depot for $50 each. It would be nice to have options, and it concerns me that the batteries could be discontinued at any time. - No stripes - The downside of the lower weight of the mower is that it isn’t heavy enough to lay down stripes. It may be possible to modify it for striping, but I have no yet explored that option. - Safety switch - In order to run the mower, one must depress a side safety switch immediately prior to pulling on a bail with the same hand. The positioning of the switch is awkward, and I often have to push the button twice to make sure it registers a press. I would prefer to bypass that switch. - Battery life - unfortunately it seems the only batteries available are 2.0ah, so they don’t last all that long. - Cut Quality - I noticed that The mower would occasionally miss single strands. I suspect that I just need to adjust the reel-to-bed knife, but it’s an issue nevertheless. - Small Grass catcher - I found myself Having to empty, the grass catcher quite frequently as it would fill up quickly. Overall, I am willing to live with the cons. In the coming weeks and months, I will assess the durability of the mower and update my review accordingly.

I'd give this mower five stars, but let's keep it real... If you require the power of a gasoline or corded electric mower, this machine isn't for you and I understand why some folks might give it poor marks. That said, let me explain why I like this machine and recommend it if your needs are similar to mine. I have a dense TifTuf bermuda. I couldn't sustain the strength needed to push my manual reel mower through it. It would grab or scallop and it was too heavy to use on a slope. The Yard Force machine looks, feels and sounds like a toy. It is not self-propelled but light and easy to push and maneuver. It will only trim a few millimeters of dense lawn at a time but leaves a nice evenly manicured look. If it starts to bog down, I simply slow my forward progress. On my first mow, I left the cutting height at the default 38mm (1 1/2 inches). The 1.5Ah battery lasted 20 continuous minutes and got me through approximately 400 square feet of turf. Slow, but I never broke a sweat. If it bogged down, I just restarted it and slowed down. The RPMs noticeably drop as the battery nears exhaustion. The first battery was fairly hot when I swapped it for the included second. The machine did power through a small area of tall fescue with no problem at all. Because it can only crop a modest amount of bermuda height, I anticipate needing to mow at least twice a week. For me, that's a reasonable trade off for not having to wrestle with the push mower. BTW, the suggestion that the machine can operate as a manual mower without a battery is fantasy. This mower is the only game I found at this price point. I can no longer buy a gas mower in California and there aren't any heavy duty battery powered reel mowers on the market. Those on the horizon are predicted to cost four figures. According to the seller, spare batteries can be purchased. They don't correspond to any I have for my other cordless power tools. Do read the instructions carefully, paying particular attention to the starting procedure. (Tip the machine slightly and let it reach full RPMs before engaging with the lawn.) Pros Inexpensive Easy assembly Light and maneuverable Nice even trim Cons Underpowered Slow, thin shaves Durability unknown

I got the electric reel mower. I want to say that I see the purpose and benefits of reel mowing, but I cannot say the process is very adaptable for several reasons. It is time consuming. The deck width is not as wide as I'm used to with my ego mower so I ended up spending more time going over the same strip. Poor battery life. I have less than a 1/4 acre and I've mowed the whole yard twice. The mower came with 2x 20v batteries. Both times, I had to swap out the batteries 4 times. Ali had to either wait for the batteries to charge fully or use half charged batteries to finish mowing. Needless to say, I can. I longer cross mow. With the Ego, I was able to mow the whole yard and cross cut with 1 full battery. Not self propelled. I knew this getting it, I had hoped that since it is lighter than the Ego, I'd be able to go up and down my hill a bit easier, but that was not the case. I do feel a bit safer that I am not being pulled or am sliding down the hill with the heavier ego, but the Yard Force is still pretty tough to push up the hill. As the basket gets heavier with clippings (which collects half and spits out half), I had to stop and go too many times. The mower gets heavier to push with the collected clippings and I still end up with mounds of clippings left behind that was blown out of the mower. Which made the basket pretty pointless... Overall, these were only a few of my personal experiences. I think this was a good concept to have a powered reel mower, but Yard Force would certainly consider more improvements. In its current model, imthisnis best for condo owners or for those who own much smaller yard space. I imagine any improvements to make reel mowing more adaptable for most homeowners would drastically increase the price of the mower, e.g., widen the mower, add self propelled feature (or easier to push), better clipping collection, increase battery power/life, etc. but at a minimum this mower can cut pretty low for HOC reset or near scalping... at least low enough for me as a new reel mower user. Side note, my neighbornis an experienced reel mower. He tried cutting a few steips and he didn't really care for the unit for his own reasons...

So I tested this out on my backyard. A fairly thin Bermuda lawn. I keep it at about 1 inch since that's as low as my current rotary mower will go. It was at maybe an 1.25 to 1.5 inches during testing. I got about 601sq/ft done before the first battery died. Roughly the same amount on the second battery. The next day I worked the front yard. Most of it is as sparse as the backyard for now. But I do have one area I've managed to get thickened up rather nicely. The battery managed to make roughly 100 sq ft before it died in that area. Long story short. Its nice that it comes with 2 batteries. But 9 hours to mow approximately 2,300 sq ft of a 6,600 sq ft yard. The majority of that just waiting for the batteries to charge. In comparison, my rotary gas mower gets through my full yard in about 30 minutes or so. And as far as the "use without the battery as traditional reel mower" aspect goes. Yeah, no. Unless you pre-cut the grass and are just running around nailing stranglers. It's a struggle. In most instances I had to get a running start. And then I'd only make it a few inches before the wheels locked and I came to a dead stop. But hey, if you're interested in turning your lawn mowing into a frustrating and inefficient workout. Go for it. I'm not saying it's an awful product. But yard size. And the thickness of your lawn should definitely be a consideration when purchasing this. That or invest in a ton of batteries. And spend the week charging them all up. Either that, or if your dead set on electric. Get something with a cord. Conclusions... I'll probably use it for spring or fall scalping as required. But as far as regular mowing goes. Not a chance. So yeah, 2 stars. Because it's not total crap. It actually does cut. But yeah, batteries.

2kWh battery is inadequate for cutting lawns great than 2000sq.ft.