Flymo XL500 Petrol Hover Lawn Mower Honda 160 cc Engine

Being a bit dim a struggled installing the lower handle correctly, finding it difficult to get the hook assembly in place. After a bit of trial and error managed it. The rest of the assembly was a doddle, although great care is required for the oil level. It took quite a lot of cranking to get it started first time, but subsequently started easily.I didn’t install any spacers under the blade as my grass was very long. What can I say. This mower romped through the long grass without faltering. My old mower would stall as soon as it saw some long grass. This thing just takes it in its stride.The only downside is that if your lawn is on a slope it can be quite hard work to direct it where you want. But this will be the case for any hover mower. It’s quite a heavy beast and lifting it up steps etc is challenging but not really any more than my old wheeled petrol mower.Quality of cut is good but due to the skirt around the deck you won’t reach grass that’s up against walls or fences so will need to use a strimmer.So far though I’m impressed. Doesn’t stall in long wet grass and gives a good cut.

.... and I still have the first.We have a very big garden with many banks and shrubs so we need a hover mower for a large portion of it. The first of these is now five years old and has been well hammered. Unfortunately it needed an overhaul right in the middle of the summer at the peak of grass growing season and after buying a second hand two-stroke as a standby, which turned out to be a complete waste of money, I decided that it's mad not to buy what you know works well so we got a another one of these and kept the old one as the standby. Ok, it's daft, I now have two perfectly serviceable mowers but with a big garden you can't let it get away from you, especially in a wet summer.This is a powerful, quiet, four-stroke (which makes for easy strating) and if it's got a fault it might be that it's a bit on the heavy side so maybe less well suited to a lady but perfect for the large, wilder sort of garden. The other benefit of buying a mainstream brand is that there will be a Flymo service agent near you.

When I looked to purchase one of these Husqvarna-made Flymos, the reviews seemed confusing. There were a number of good reports, as well as those that hated it. Well, my much-used-and-abused, 13-year old wheeled Husqvarna "mulcher" had finally given up the ghost, the grass kept on growing, and a little research revealed it wouldn't be much cheaper to replace its (Briggs and Stratton) engine than to get another mower, so I'd have to get something, and fancied a change.Assembly was not TOO difficult; the only hard bit is working out WHICH way to thread the handle through (tip, it's the other way to what seems intuitive). Get this wrong, and you'll be struggling to free it for another go. Took me around an hour to sort it out and carefully fill the motor to the required level with 10/40 (mower) oil from Halfords.The excellent Honda motor starts fine (once I've worked out which way is "petrol on"). Warm it up, choke off and off we go ... no issues with hover power, glides over my long grass without fuss and cuts quite well if a little messily -- you'll definitely want a broom to clean up after.Doesn't mind long wet grass -- compared to the old wheeled mulcher, there's no clumping and jamming. And far easier to clean under the smooth shallow plastic deck, though do make sure to turn it right way or you'll fill the air filter with petrol (I did this!).Excellent under bushes/hedges, good around shrubs and manholes. The deck glides in any direction, gentle slopes are no obstacle to progress, and mine appears to cut equally smoothly whether pushed or pulled.But here's the rub: despite its weight, the machine hovers SO well that the machine simply can't be guided straight across any kind of slope no matter how gentle -- the machine constantly slides away downhill, leaving a wavy wake like the Dublin Swift on rough day!So you have to go up and down; which may suit the layout of you lawn; or not, as the case may be -- we, for instance, have a conifer hedge along our downhill boundary and so require a substantial "land" cutting to turn around.And we have TWO lawns, divided by a driveway ... so fold the handle, turn and lift. I said LIFT! And here's my second gripe; jeez is this thing HEAVY!!Cutting the first lawn made my back sore; doing both and carrying between them made it hurt like hell. Buy the wheel kit? Well, it's expensive, looks complicated and of poor quality. And if I'd wanted a WHEELED mower why did I buy a Flymo?Conclusion: HALF the job, it does well. As for the rest, I've now ordered a McCulloch (also made by Husqvarna), with power drive to the rear wheels; could have managed with that and a decent strimmer, and saved myself a lot of dosh ...............If you have a complex layout with lots of shrubs, other obstacles and slopes (and don't like strimmers), the four-stroke Flymo may be just what you're looking for. And if you have a perfectly flat, rectangular lawn, it might also perform quite well ....For everyone else, it's a conceit, an expensive way of doing quickly what a strimmer will do (a little more slowly) for a good deal less.Would I buy another? That all depends . . .

I Purchased this Flymo from the UK for use on a hillside lawn in the USA. Hover mowers are not sold in the US, previously I used a strimmer which was tedious. This mower, uses a Honda 4 stroke engine and undertakes the task effortlessly. Reports that the mower is heavy to move round without the wheel kit is probably true. However, I mount the mower on a old TV base which has four casters and it can be pushed or pulled up my drive with ease. I would recomend anyone purchasing this machine to make their own trolley, four wheels and a platform is all that is required. The only downsides are it needs to run on gasoline with a minimum octane of 91 this means I have to purchase super premium here as the octane regular and premium isn't rated to the required octane. Not a major problem as petrol is cheaper in the US. The only other minor fault is that It would be better if the grass could be cut slightly higher leaving it longer. Whilst ok with English lawn grasses American grasses tend to be left longer due to the higher Summer temperatures. If still living in the UK I would have given it a five star rating. Finally, should any Americans wish to purchase this machine I would recommend buying through Amazon, On standard international shipping dispatch and delivery only took 7 days,