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Qualcast Easi Trak 32
by Danscomp
Short back and sides please
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My garden does not have rolling hills. There are no statues, no summer houses, no ho-ho and very little ha-ha. It is what many people have. A thirty-five foot by twenty foot strip of grassy goodness. And lord, how the grass in my garden does ... grow.
I've had hover mowers before. They are light, but collect no grass which means raking, shovelling and a fair amount of swearing. My last one decided that it had had enough of being sworn at, and told repeatedly what a piece of ....ah...mechanical faultitide....it was, with weedly little cutting blades that faint at the prospect of more than a blade of grass at a time.
Retreating from the smoke and smell of burning plastic, I decided to head down the local homebase and see what they could offer. A short while later, I emerged £60 poorer, but with a Qualcast RM32 (the successor to this one) in tow.
Take that, Festuca rubra subspecia commutata!
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Ah, to have wheels once more. It may not float on a cushion of air, but this lawnmower is like the mars rover. It just keeps going with arguably less affort. The noise it generates from its 1000w motor is about the same, but the heavy duty blade beneath hungers for anything you can feed it.
For the price, this really represents great value for money. The flex is long enough that I can do the entire garden. Altering the height to one of three possible settings is a bit of a pain, moving the axles between the three groves on each of the four sides, but it is simple enough. The main body is reassuringly solid, and feels well engineered.
The main weakness in this package is the plastic grass collector. It frequently chokes on what the blade is trying to feed it, needing you to lift the back and manually force the cut grass to the back of the box. Having a bucket or two handy if you need to make trips through the house to the green recycling bin is advisable to avoid racking up some serious mileage. 30 liters sounds like a lot. It's not.
At 8 kilograms, it is easy to carry. Just don't tell the wife. As far as she's concerned, it's almost as heavy as her car, earning you many relaxation points afterwards. Storage is simple enough. It hangs from a nail in the garage happily enough, waiting to be used next time. All in all, I am impressed with my purchase.
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Qualcast Elan 32
by Hammis
I bought this Qualcast on a whim. When I was out looking for a new lawnmower this one caught my eye and I don't know why. It isn't the most appealing looking lawnmower in the world and the price is quite steep but it just looked reliable and like it could take a good throttling before it would pack up.
Unsurprisingly, like I ... first thought it has been reliable. Always starting up and no mechanical or electrical problems as of yet. I must say it is quite an easy lawnmower to use.
Weighting in at 11kg, it is surprisingly light and nimble to move around the garden requiring little to no effort at all. The handles fold down after use which makes it really easy to store if you haven't got much space around to store it.
The grass box fills an impressive 31 litres which I found was more than enough to mow the whole garden and still have room left to add more grass clippings.
I am impressed with the 400 watt motor and cutting cylinder. It cuts down long grass into a really close cut and you couldn't get much more off even if you used scissors.
The only downside I found is that it much louder and noisy compared with lawnmowers that I have previously used in the past. It nearly enough sounds like one of those 50cc mopeds or a hairdryer on medium to high settings.
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Qualcast Concorde 35 Mower
by BRoyJenkins
I'm not an expert on lawnmowers so I wasn't entirely sure what overall star rating to give this one. I have to say though, this is a very frustratig device to use, and I can't imagine that all lawnmowers perform so average with quite so many issues.
For the record, our model of this is quite old now, so that could maybe ... account for all the problems with it, but those problems are numerous nonetheless. Firstly, the mower has been poorly put together; the handle for the mower is very awkward and lacks manoeuvrability, making it very frustrating when turning corners. You basically have to double back on yourself and yank the thing off the ground in order to move it. The plug attachment is very annoying too. There are times when the lawnmower will simply cut out before I look down and realise that the plug has detached itself. Whether this is for safety - so you don't damage the mower's socket by pulling it too far or too hard - I don't know, but it can be very irritating.
The blades aren't perfect, either. A few year's useage have rendered them blunt, which was inevitable, but the mower never cut the grass that effectively when it was first bought. It has always, to this day, cut short grass fine but misses out longer strands. The blades have always been so ineffective that they often flatten the grass without actually trimming it.
Worst of all, though, is the grass collector at the front, easily accounting for the most annoyance. As the collector is detachable, it does allow you to empty the grass out quicker. However, this wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that the collector's grips, designed to attach to the mower, have been so shoddily done. One slight nudge, and the collector will detach itself from the mower, tumbling onto the ground. I cannot tell you how many times I've had to re-attach the thing while cutting simply because a slight indentation in the ground or a slight movement of the mower encouraged the collector to fall off.
I can't say I'm any kind of pro on lawnmowers, but I can tell you that this one probably isn't one of the best models out there.
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