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Honda HRG 415PD
by MagdaDH
This is an entry level lawnmower from Honda's Izy range. The range is, apparently, designed to be '' easy to start, easy to use and easy to look after''. I am not going to say much about the looking after part (frankly, I expect my appliances to kind of self-service, and anyway there is a man around to deal with anything that is powered ... by an internal combustion engine) , but comment on this machine as a user of about three years.
This is the first petrol lawnmower I have ever owned, and thus I am unable to make comparisons with others. Before buying this one, we had a sequence of electric ones, both hover types (aka flymos) and wheeled. My first impression on using the Honda for the first time was a simple ''wow''. While I still understand the advantages of a hover mower (better on rougher ground, essentially, though I think this feature is overrated), as far as wheeled ones go, I am now convinced that petrol is the way to go unless you really, really can't afford one or you have a lawn the size of a handkerchief.
The main reason for that is that petrol mowers are simply bigger: the biggest of the electric ones are two-three inches smaller than the smallest petrol ones, and in this case the size definitely matters.
The 415PD has a 41cm (16 inch) cutting width (there is also a next-one up with a 46cm blade) which I find is perhaps just a little too small for our medium sized garden, but it's still not a huge task. Still, a 46cm one would be handier.
The ''easy'' (or izy, as Honda would have it and I would shudder) designation is certainly true as far as my experience is concerned. I always had a had a vague idea of petrol mowers as temperamental and difficult devices that have to coaxed into obedience by proficient gardening people. Well, this mower is nothing of the sort. It starts first time, every time, and apart from one time when my other half turned it over the wrong way which resulted in flooded filter which took a while to dry, so far it never failed, even after a year's long break.
The whole machine has a solid, sturdy feel. The dome under which the blade moves (I think it's technically called a deck) is solid steel, and all the parts of the machine appear to have a lot of life in them, unlike many electric mowers that are built mostly of plastic and tend to have bits that break off in many non-critical areas.
The cutting height can be adjusted using two levers, and although it's not a one-finger task, it's not too difficult with a bit of a push. The levels available are sufficient for our purposes, though
I cannot comment on the aesthetics of the cut much as we never had an immaculate lawn for which it was an issue. Essentially, it cuts the grass to a desired level, though I feel that if you had a really level, thick, short carpet of grass, the lowest cutting hight would be a little too long. At the other end of the spectrum (the rough and overgrown one, with sticks and stones, essentially) it copes really, really well. Long grass, wet grass and weeds of all sorts don't scare this machine at all. Its maximum cutting level is about three inches (75mm).
It doesn't have a roller, so the resulting lawn doesn't have those stripy stripes. I like it, because it means that my erratic tracks are not too visible, and I can easily go back to do the bits I missed without spoiling the pattern.
The grass bag is pretty capacious, and easy to put on as well as unhook. It partially collapses for storage too.
It is a push mower rather than a self-propelled one, but it really moves quite easily on its four sturdy wheels. I was always under an impression that wheeled mowers are particularly hard to push around, but this one isn't. It is fairly heavy though at 30kg, and if your garden has two levels separated by a steep bank or steps, this Honda might need two people to carry it across the bit that it can't be wheeled across. It's not so heavy as to make it impossible lifting one set of wheels to put it into a shed or another single step, though.
The handle is fairly comfortable to use, although you can't adjust the height. Both my other half and I find it an OK level, but if you are a short woman or a very tall man you might want to check if it suits you before buying.
At around £300-£350 it is a fairly expensive piece of machinery (though still in a lower range for petrol lawnmowers), but if you are contemplating buying one, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Honda Izy, either this one or the 46cm one.
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