Much as its name suggests, the hover mower creates a cushion of air between lawn and mower. As such, hover mowers use no wheels, and they often have a circular shape instead of the rectangular one favoured by other mowers of similar size.
If you're thinking of buying a new mower, you might want to take the pros and cons of hover mowers into account to see if one will meet your requirements.
The Benefits of Using a Hover Mower
The most compelling advantage that comes along with using a hover mower is that they are extremely manoeuvrable. Since they hover instead of sitting on wheels, you can move them in any direction that you choose without backing up. This is particularly useful if you have quite an oddly-shaped lawn, or a lawn that contains lots of things that need to be manoeuvred around. When you use a normal wheeled mower, you'll need to keep moving backwards and forwards to get into hard-to-reach areas. This will significantly increase your mowing time. Additionally, it can create odd lines across the lawn.
Hover mowers will also represent a good investment for anyone who needs to mow sections of slopping lawn since they are much easier to handle along inclines. If you regularly need to mow grass that has grown very thick and dense, it can be much easier to push a hover mower across it than a wheeled mower.
The Drawbacks of Hover Mowers
Hover mowers certainly come with some attractive advantages, but they aren't without their drawbacks. For one thing, a hover mower can be quite heavy compared to a wheeled mower; that weight will normally be well distributed, but they can feel heavy when they need to be moved from side to side. That's okay for most people, but any older individuals, or those with back issues, might find such a mower hard to cope with.
Additionally, hover mowers don't create the attractive stripes that some people like on their lawns, and they will cost more than standard mowers. If the lawn that you're working with isn't particularly difficult to mow, you might as well go with a standard wheeled mower instead of a hover model. If you're dealing with a larger section of lawn, you would normally be advised to pick up a ride-on mower.
Hover mowers might be pretty cool, but you should ensure that you'll really benefit from their advantages before you make the purchase.
Share5 April 2017
Winter is coming, at least to my garden. I am working on how to make sure that I protect my garden from heavy frosts this year because last year some of my bulbs and fruit trees suffered frost shock. Often the best way to avoid frost shock and make sure that you have a beautiful garden year round is to do some sensible prep work in winter including prune, mulching, and building shade clothes. This blog has tips for gardeners in cooler climates who like to have beautiful flowers and fruits all year round, no matter what the weather is like.
