Electric lawnrakers - worth buying or not ?
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Happymouse
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Is it worth buying an electric lawnraker ? If anyone has one how often do you use it ?
Hello Happymouse
I had a B&D electric raker for quite a few years until it gave up the ghost. I used to use it twice a year, early spring and late autumn and it made a huge improvement to the lawn - removing a lot of moss and clearing out the underlying thatch. It produced masses of material for composting. You don't say how much lawn you have. These machines are usually only 12 - 14in wide so they're not really up to the job of tackling large lawns. To do a proper job you'll have to do two rakes - the second at right angles to the first and then mow even if your machine collects so its all quite a bit of work plus all the trailing cable everywhere. I've got quite a bit of grass and eventually managed to burn out the motor on my machine.
I've now got a Honda mini-tiller for the veg. patch and I bought the grass rake attachment for it as well. This is really powerfull and will keep going all day and does an excellent job but it doesn't collect.
John
I had a B&D electric raker for quite a few years until it gave up the ghost. I used to use it twice a year, early spring and late autumn and it made a huge improvement to the lawn - removing a lot of moss and clearing out the underlying thatch. It produced masses of material for composting. You don't say how much lawn you have. These machines are usually only 12 - 14in wide so they're not really up to the job of tackling large lawns. To do a proper job you'll have to do two rakes - the second at right angles to the first and then mow even if your machine collects so its all quite a bit of work plus all the trailing cable everywhere. I've got quite a bit of grass and eventually managed to burn out the motor on my machine.
I've now got a Honda mini-tiller for the veg. patch and I bought the grass rake attachment for it as well. This is really powerfull and will keep going all day and does an excellent job but it doesn't collect.
John
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Happymouse
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Many thanks John. I have a Honda Rotavator so I will look in the booklet to see if I can buy the attachment.
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Hello again Happy(Honda)mouse
I seem to remember that you got a Honda mini-tiller a few months ago. I also got the lawncare kit that goes with this machine when I bought mine. It includes a de-thatcher (like a lawn raker), a set of scarifier tines (like the digging tines but straight), lawn edger and a set of wheels. Both the scarifier and the dethatcher do an excellent job but neither collects so you'll have to mow after use to collect the grassy stuff. The scarifier is particularly easy to use as the rear wheels are fitted as well. They all fit in place of the normal tines. Never found much use for the edger though but it was part of the kit.
John
PS You can't use the rakings as a mulch in the same way as grass cuttings though as it will quickly root back into the soil. It has to be composted but does make excellent compost eventually.
I seem to remember that you got a Honda mini-tiller a few months ago. I also got the lawncare kit that goes with this machine when I bought mine. It includes a de-thatcher (like a lawn raker), a set of scarifier tines (like the digging tines but straight), lawn edger and a set of wheels. Both the scarifier and the dethatcher do an excellent job but neither collects so you'll have to mow after use to collect the grassy stuff. The scarifier is particularly easy to use as the rear wheels are fitted as well. They all fit in place of the normal tines. Never found much use for the edger though but it was part of the kit.
John
PS You can't use the rakings as a mulch in the same way as grass cuttings though as it will quickly root back into the soil. It has to be composted but does make excellent compost eventually.
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Happymouse
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The extra kit for my Tilly is £147. I guess it would have been cheaper as a package deal. Rethinking the electric cheaper option.
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Clive.
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Hello,
At home here we use an Atco 14" electric scarifier..it must be approaching 20 years old....it was badged Atco but was based on the Qualcast RE35DL electric cylinder mower.
It has a rotating drum of lightweight spring tines and has done an excellent job used in the Spring every year....going over the lawn in 4 or 5 directions bringing out an amazing amount of scarifyings...more on the subsequent passes than on the first.!!
It throws the rubbish out the back and soon fills the collector box. In fact sometimes I have not used the box and then collected up afterwards using a rotary mower with collector box...and anyway always go over the lawn with the rotary mower with box afterwards to vacuum up the last few remnants. Our lawn is irregular shaped within an area of 10m x 17m
I follow scarifying with a top dress of Growmore rather than a purpose made lawn fertilser..might not be by the book but it seems to give a steady green effect rather than a blast of quick green.
I have no experience of the current range of Qualcast/Atco electric scarifiers.
At work we use a purpose made scarifier bar that takes 2 spring tines and fits in place of the regular mower blade on a petrol rotary mower. These scarifier bars are available via some garden machinery stockists. I have seen these on e-auctions..but sometimes at big prices.!!
Also note that we use it on an old 5hp engined Hayterette Prof' mower and it works it very hard..so fitted to anything lesser would not be advisable. It does a devastatingly good job.
We tend to use it early September time.
When I worked in the machinery trade we in fact did not stock these scarifier bars on the basis that if used on a new machine it would certainly invalidate warranty..!!..but have changed my attitude towards the device...being a gardener now and not a mower fixer...??!!
Our next door neighbour has a current Qualcast Punch 17S..It and other machines in the Qualcast/Atco range can take a scarifier cassette in lieu of the regular cutting cylinder. He has used it only a few times as a scarifier but it would seem to be working ok...although personally I am not a fan of multi purpose machines.
A few more thoughts...
Clive.
At home here we use an Atco 14" electric scarifier..it must be approaching 20 years old....it was badged Atco but was based on the Qualcast RE35DL electric cylinder mower.
It has a rotating drum of lightweight spring tines and has done an excellent job used in the Spring every year....going over the lawn in 4 or 5 directions bringing out an amazing amount of scarifyings...more on the subsequent passes than on the first.!!
It throws the rubbish out the back and soon fills the collector box. In fact sometimes I have not used the box and then collected up afterwards using a rotary mower with collector box...and anyway always go over the lawn with the rotary mower with box afterwards to vacuum up the last few remnants. Our lawn is irregular shaped within an area of 10m x 17m
I follow scarifying with a top dress of Growmore rather than a purpose made lawn fertilser..might not be by the book but it seems to give a steady green effect rather than a blast of quick green.
I have no experience of the current range of Qualcast/Atco electric scarifiers.
At work we use a purpose made scarifier bar that takes 2 spring tines and fits in place of the regular mower blade on a petrol rotary mower. These scarifier bars are available via some garden machinery stockists. I have seen these on e-auctions..but sometimes at big prices.!!
Also note that we use it on an old 5hp engined Hayterette Prof' mower and it works it very hard..so fitted to anything lesser would not be advisable. It does a devastatingly good job.
We tend to use it early September time.
When I worked in the machinery trade we in fact did not stock these scarifier bars on the basis that if used on a new machine it would certainly invalidate warranty..!!..but have changed my attitude towards the device...being a gardener now and not a mower fixer...??!!
Our next door neighbour has a current Qualcast Punch 17S..It and other machines in the Qualcast/Atco range can take a scarifier cassette in lieu of the regular cutting cylinder. He has used it only a few times as a scarifier but it would seem to be working ok...although personally I am not a fan of multi purpose machines.
A few more thoughts...
Clive.
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Happymouse
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Thanks Clive. You have given me a few more ideas. I have an ancient Hayter petrol mower that I never use as it is so hard to start. I will look into possible raking attachments for it. I will look into ATCO and Qualcast too. Many many thanks
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Clive.
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Hello,
I should add, now I've remembered,
that our Hayterette mower was fitted at new with the inverted saucer shaped blade mounting and single blade bar option as used on some other older Hayter models..I specified it thus so it could take the scarifier bar...
The standard Hayterette has a blade disc with 4 swinging blades and would not take the scarifier blade.
I also add that it is of course imperative that the scarifier bar is mounted in exactly the same secure way as the original mower blade....better ones come with a series of sized washers to enable correct fitting
Do take advice on this from a local garden machinery agent to ensure achieving a correct fitting.
As mentioned previously the scarifying effect can be quite devastating...with the depth of the scarify adjusted by the mowers original height adjustment.
The electric purpose made scarifier models will give a much lighter effect...but one that can be usefully applied more often in a gentle scarify to lift the flatter blades of grass which can then be mowed off to give clean upright growth.
All the best,
Clive.
I should add, now I've remembered,
that our Hayterette mower was fitted at new with the inverted saucer shaped blade mounting and single blade bar option as used on some other older Hayter models..I specified it thus so it could take the scarifier bar...
The standard Hayterette has a blade disc with 4 swinging blades and would not take the scarifier blade.
I also add that it is of course imperative that the scarifier bar is mounted in exactly the same secure way as the original mower blade....better ones come with a series of sized washers to enable correct fitting
Do take advice on this from a local garden machinery agent to ensure achieving a correct fitting.
As mentioned previously the scarifying effect can be quite devastating...with the depth of the scarify adjusted by the mowers original height adjustment.
The electric purpose made scarifier models will give a much lighter effect...but one that can be usefully applied more often in a gentle scarify to lift the flatter blades of grass which can then be mowed off to give clean upright growth.
All the best,
Clive.
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Happymouse
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- Location: Sussex
Sticking with my trusty spring tine rake after all. It took me an hour and a half to rake only the front lawn tonight but it was good exercise. Two passers by said "You can do mine next!"
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Hello Happymouse
Thought I'd bump this old topic up to the top.
You mentioned the high cost of lawn attachments for your Honda mini-tiller. I've just noticed that there is set of brand new ones for sale on ebay at a buy now price of £60, which seems pretty good value to me (or you could make an offer). If you search ebay for Honda fg201 you should find it. I'm pretty sure they will fit the fg200 model.
Hope this helps.
John
Thought I'd bump this old topic up to the top.
You mentioned the high cost of lawn attachments for your Honda mini-tiller. I've just noticed that there is set of brand new ones for sale on ebay at a buy now price of £60, which seems pretty good value to me (or you could make an offer). If you search ebay for Honda fg201 you should find it. I'm pretty sure they will fit the fg200 model.
Hope this helps.
John
Last edited by John on Sat Apr 05, 2008 11:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning Werner Heisenberg
I am a man and the world is my urinal
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Happymouse
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Thanks John I will have a look. I have been raking the lawn tonight so you must be psychic. Our son is getting married in June and the lawns at the back and front are a mess. My husband is a handyman and empties his dustsheets on them so I never know what I will find on them !
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