Rotary vs reel on Zoysia

[drsmitty74]

I am new to the Southeast. I am building ahouse and I am having Emerald Zoysia installed.

My question is about mower types. I have never used a power reel mower before. I have researched different brands and have decided to go with tru-cut....if I buy a reel mower.

This leads to my question.

HondaHRX 217 rotary......or Tru-Cut power reel?

Also, those of you that have used reels, do the catchers do a good job of picking up leaves as well as pine needles?

Thanks,

Dan

[Sandgroper]

The Reel mower gives the best finish because it cuts not slashes like a rotary mower, it will do a reasonable job picking up leaves but i am wondering about the pine needles ?? these may cause your cylinder and blade face (bottom bar) to blunt far more rapidly, it can be quite a bit involved in setting up a reel mower to cut properly,,,,,,,,,the Honda maybe not a bad idea, if its got two blades around here contractors put 4 on for a cleaner cut ,,,good luck.

[Scott]

a rotary type mower also creates a suction as it mows

[Sandgroper]

Yes Scott is right theres plenty of suction to pick up the debris, unless you wish to rake up all the leaves and pine needles first i would lean towards the honda.

[GrassMaster]

Do you want to do hard core lawn maintenance?

If you're looking for that putting green look & finish, only a reel mower can do that. The Tru-Cut power reel is a very good choice of reel mowers. In fact the only one I would consider. We average working on at least 200 or more reel mowers a year. We are only shop in the area that sharpens them.

I can ride by & tell if it's cut with a reel or rotary mower.

Most people that use reel mowers also have a High Vac bagger mower too.

When using a rotary type mower, the blade must stay extremely sharp, use a high vac mower & the grass cut low, in order for it to look good. If you use most any mower that's not a High Vac & don't use a extremely sharp blade, all you will do is knock down the grass & it will grow laying down sideways.

The high vac helps pull the grass straight up when cut. This is why they use the high vacs.

The people that I know that cut with Snapper High Vac's that have nice looking lawns cut about every 3 to 5 days & use a sharp blade only once, then sharpen again.

I also know some that use reel or rotary mowers that cut their grass every other day during growing season. Some people here have a hybrid Tift Bermuda that cut their grass at 5/32 of an inch & if we sharpen the reel & bed knife it better be at 5/32" or they pitch a fit.

Don't get me wrong, but I would rather have weeds & bare spots myself. I almost died maintaining 5 acres of centipede, not 1 weed on the grass. The lawn looked nice but one day I got over heated & had a real bad heat stroke.

I was maintaining grass with a $10,000 mower back in the late 80's. It took me between 6 to 8 hours a week to maintain during growing season, now that didn't include watering. Trimming & Edging, weeding beds & shaping very few bushes was included in that time. It would be nothing compared to an acre of Zoyzia.

It would be easier to maintain 5 acres of centipede than 3/4 to 1 acre of Zoyzia. The lower you cut it, the thicker it gets & here in the south it does require quite a bit of maintenance.

Make sure they take their time & level lawn as level as possible, because if you mow over a gigantic hole that's say 1/2" (.5) an inch deep or deeper you will see the marks for week? Probably want holes & dips less than 1/8" if possible. Trust me how ever far that reel drops down it's going to cut a gash in it. You'll be out there digging up grass & putting sand under it to bring it up, because after you throw that sand on top, running that reel through very much sand you need to adjust reel again. That sand will eat up those blades & bed knife.

It takes a lot of work maintaining Zoyzia & that reel mower requires quite a bit of maintenance. You can figure a minimum of one sharpening a year if you're very careful with it. You're looking at $85 to $100 per sharpening. Make sure you got someone locally that does the sharpening.

Oh, yes where I live at, if they get mad at me about their reel mower, it's over a 100 miles to the next place that sharpens them, I know a group of 4 guys doing it for years. 1 little nail, rock, stick or pine cone the wrong way & you'll be taking it to the shop to get the bed knife adjusted at a minimum. Why they don't learn how to adjust the bed knife is beyond me, if we do it it's $45 minimum.

Running a reel mower is a lot more work than running a rotary over the same amount of grass. You will get very dirty running one too.

LOL, I bet you know by now how much I dislike lawn maintenance, well I dislike the majority of reel mower owners even more! They always hurry me, they constantly complain & will tell me a lie in a heart beat. They constantly complain if it takes me over 48 hours to sharpen one. 48 hours for a sharpening or repair should be something to brag about but not them.

I had one guy that came to the shop waiting on us to open & wanted it done that day. I told him about 3 days, he said he would wait on it. He stayed there the first day in the shop. The second day he was there waiting on us to open & said he brought his lunch. The end of the second day I told him I would not touch it until he was gone. He left at quitting time, the next morning the phone was ringing when we unlocked the door to open. I told him we would get on it 4 hours after he quit calling, he called after lunch & my tech was finished sharpening, I told him if he doesn't call we'll adjust it in 4 hours. I specialize in customer service & he learned it the hard way, he gets charged an extra $20 every time we look at that mower. LOL, he now tells us to take our time & get it right!

I can't tell you how many times those idiots will get a new roof put on their house & not bother checking for nails in the grass. Then they come back by fussing that I didn't sharpen the reel & bed knife right or didn't adjust it right. I always say, how long ago did you get a new roof or who threw what in your yard. I can look at the reel & bed knife & tell you what happened?

Then you got the jealous neighbors that will throw a few rocks, nails or bolts in the yard, because they mad at you because for the last 5 years since you purchased your reel mower & the neighbors wife nags him about the lawn every time you cut with the reel mower.

It's just a mower, just a lawn. I paid a lot of extra 1,000's of dollars to not have neighbors here in town so I do not have to deal with that kind of crap. I have about 3,000 sq.ft. of weeds & onions that I'm very proud of. The rest of the 5 acres is woods & water. This year I'll spay more round up so I'll have less weeds & onions, with more pine straw & leaves! :laughing:

Again, I think the Tru-Cut reel is one of the best ones made. Mc Lane is OK, then you have the Peach Tree Trimmer Reel mower that's a good one too, it would be my second choice. The Tru-Cut C27 with at least a 7 or 10 blade if possible with the Honda engine is a very nice machine & would last many hard working years. Honda is a very good engine, the wider the cut & the more blades it has makes the job go faster & the time between sharpening last longer!

[Sandgroper]

Yes but what about all the leaves and pine needles ?? wont they blunt the bottom bar and cylinder plus leave half behind ?? or will he have to rake them up first it he uses the reel mower ?

[irritech]

Everbody seems to have missed the big question.

Yes, a reel mower will give you the best cut.

But the big question here is ......."how much money have you got"

I own 2 C-27 tru-cuts. I bought both from homeowners who tried it for a year or and said no thanks. Paid $500, and $700. Less than two years old.

That's alot of money chucked out the window if you don' t like it.