I bought a lemon (Flymo Power Compact 400)

Member Name: michael riggs

Product:	Flymo Power Compact 400
Date:	28/07/05 (860 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, easy to use

Disadvantages: It lasted only a dozen mowings. Nobody local will mend it.

I bought my mower for £79.48 from B&Q on 19 April 04. It packed up on 26 July 05 with a bang at the age of 17 months. I expected it to serve longer than about a dozen outings. I bought it to use on the few times when the chap we employ to bring his own petrol mower is unavailable, so my electric 400 has had only a dozen or so outings on lawns that take me a total of about 30 minutes to cut.

The drive belt appears to have broken and wound itself round the shaft of the fan. The fan and blade are now very stiff and can barely be rotated by hand. The motor whirrs but the fan and blade are stuck. I guess the main bearing has partly seized.

Since our lawns are level I can see no reason why the mower should have failed. B&Q have fobbed me off with the address of a "service engineer". In fact he won't touch electric mowers. The other firms I have tried have also given up dealing with broken Flymos and all have bad-mouthed Flymo for producing kit that is not up to the job.

My mower looks like the 400 in the picture- it has 4 wheels, though it says "Flymo 330" on the lid. Wrong parts, I guess.

Summary: Not a durable purchase - it lasted only a dozen mowings.