COBRA HM381 Manual Garden Lawnmower, Hand Cylinder Mower, 38cm (15in) cutting width

My old electric mower packed up and I needed a replacement for a newly-sown area of lawn. I chose this as it cuts cleanly and won't rip up the new grass. It cuts the new area of lawn perfectly. The rest of the lawn is more hit-and-miss due to a lot of tough weed grasses that grow thick stalks diagonally and I have to go backwards and forwards a bit over these to trim them down. However, that's not a deal breaker and the fact is that the finish you get is always dependant on the quality and health of your lawn. A hover or rotary would probably trim the weed grasses shorter but scalping a lawn is never a good idea in warm weather. The grass collector works fine and collects enough for my liking. It's an excellent mower for a small to medium-size lawn - lightweight, stores easily and is a pleasure to use.

Wanted a push cylinder mower for a relatively new and flat lawn, to achieve a better cut than a rotary mower. The mower was easy to assemble and has a reasonable build quality for the price. The longer the grass the more effort you have to use, so it’s best to keep up a brisk pace to push through longer patches then it’s fine. The cut is excellent (I used the 13mm setting) far better than my rotary mower. My only complaint is the grass collection bag that isn’t that high on the sides so you lose some clippings over the side, but not enough to send you running for a rake!I also tried the mower on a patch of uneven grass without the bag and it performed very well there too.You get a bit of a work out with a push mower, it’s great not having a cable and the cut is superb

After writing the original review (below), I revisited this mower - because it made no sense to return it (for reasons explained below). It's really much better than I thought it was.The important points are: 1) not for wet OR DAMP grass; 2) not for long OR SHAGGY grass 3) really good for maintaining a lawn provided it hasn't already grown up too much. In this case it's effective, easy to manouevre, lightweight and perfectly functional.It doesn't work well on *shaggy grass* or *damp* grass. It was clear to me that using it on wet grass was a no-no but a little damp? I thought that should be fine. Similarly with shaggy grass which had grown long and then been roughly strimmed. It just jams the blades constantly. Under these circumstances it's really hard work and hardly useful.However, after tryng to use it under such circumstances, and writing the review below, following few further days without rain, I took the machine out again and struggled over the already-strimmed grass. After a while, I developed a technique - and learned how to quickly un-jam the blades with my feet (not while running the machine, and not with bare feet, obviously!). Since the worst of the longer grass was dealt with it's been really, really good!The grass cuttings bag is actually useless, I'd advise just removing it really. Gets in the way and very little of the grass actually goes into it. But... once your lawn is in fairly good shape, this machine is very good at keeping it well-maintained. Obviously it costs nothing to run, it's quiet, don't have to worry about running over a cord, or running out of fuel, and it's as eco-friendly as a lawnmower can be.Here's my original review:We bought this one specifically because of all the great reviews, several of which suggest it can handle longer grass. Sadly, it simply does not work - at least on our small lawn.The grass got a bit shaggy over the winter, so we strimmed it first, then assumed that this mower would be able to handle trimming what remained after strimming - not really that hardcore of a job. While it has never been perfectly manicured, you could not realistically describe the grass as "long". We put this machine together - that was straightforward enough - and for about three feet it operated wonderfully! Really easy to push, cutting very effectively, great! Then a grinding halt. The blades were stuck on the grass it had just cut and it would not move forward. We turned it over and cleared it out thinking this was a fluke - but no, about two more feet and stopped again. And again. And again. We tried making a few adjustments, but no good - the mower just cannot handle grass. Seems to need to be mowed already (but of course then what is the point!?).I contacted both the seller and the manufacturer, who asked me whether the grass was long or wet when I tried using it, and I sent photos to both - the grass was not wet, and it was not long (though it was shaggy). The reply from both of them was that the grass was too long (and, said one, too wet).So how is it that this is designed to cut grass, but can't cut grass unless it's already short? How does it get so many reviews that rave about its abilities? I genuinely thought we must have a defective one, but apparently not.To their credit, the sellers were willing to accept a return. Unfortunately the cost of posting it back makes it pointless. So, another useless piece of equipment added to the pile in our shed...This mower might be useful on tiny, perfectly manicured lawns that never actually grow out at all and are mown every three days. Of course this lawn might need to be mowed by another machine first, to begin with (so again, what's the point?). It might serve to maintain the grass in a sitiation like this. But it just doesn't work in our situatuon.What a shame - I was hoping to save fuel/electricity by using a manual mower!

I have a small front lawn that I have to keep tidy (if I had my way, it'd be a wildflower meadow, but I live in a flat and the lease says the front garden has to be lawn.) The chap who mowed it for me moved away recently and I tried to find someone else but they wanted silly money to mow it. I decided to do it myself instead and obviously needed a mower. I don't have the space in my small shed for even the smallest electric mower, so this manual one seemed to be an ideal option.It was easy to put together, and it's simple to use, I use a small bungee cord to hook the collecting bag to the bar of the mower at the correct angle to catch the maximum amount of cuttings. For a small push mower, it cuts very well, takes me about 20 minutes to do the lawn, and I use an ancient strimmer to tidy up the edges. It's not the most perfect lawn (too many ant hills round here for that!) but I'm very pleased with my purchase and it's more than paid for itself already.

Never needing a mower of any sort for a very long time I'm finding it hard to decide on stars. If you have a smooth square/rectangle small lawn without dips and gullies, this will probably do you fine. Mine is uneven and has little dips and gullies, therefore I do have to work physically hard to push this mower around. It will not cope with even slightly damp grass and is particularly hard work on grass over 3inches long even on the high setting. I find that I end up doing the 4ft push forward then pull back 2ft. This mower will not stripe your lawn and the cutting box needs empting frequently and certainly does not catch all the cuttings.Having said all of this I have to reiterate this is a push mower and no push mowers I know of will ever be as easy as powered ones. I have no wish for a pristine manicured lawn and consider pushing the mower around as the equivalent of a gym session, so this mower is ok so long as the grass is dry and not too long.