Garden Glider (Flymo Vision Compact 330)

Member Name: wigglylittleworm

Product:	Flymo Vision Compact 330
Date:	28/06/09 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, reliable, easy to store

Disadvantages: The knob to adjust the handle broke

One day I was mowing my lawn with my old Black and Decker rotary mower and really getting frustrated with it. My kindly neighbour lent me his Flymo and after speeding through the rest of the job with ease I decided I had to go and buy myself one.

Flymo produce many models of lawnmower and the one I decided on was the Vision Compact 330 which is currently selling for £97.95 in Argos but I made a saving of £40 by buying it from a business seller on Ebay who sells catalogue returns and I still got a years warranty. The Vision Compact 330 features a 33cm cutting blade, integral grass collection box, a vision window to allow you to see when the box needs emptying, adjustable cutting heights and the Easi-Reel system to store the power cord.

When you first get your lawnmower home you need to build it up, I remember it being fairly fiddly to do but if someone as impractical as me can do it then anyone can!

Hover mowers are light and easy to manoeuvre and are great if you have uneven surfaces to cut and using this lawnmower to cut my grass has made the task a lot less of a chore than it was before. To use the mower is simple, just press the button and depress the handle to start the motor and start cutting the grass. When you start the mower up you feel it start to rise up on a cushion of air making it feel a lot lighter than its 11.7 kg as it glides across your garden. The fact that you need only hold one side of the handle to keep the mower operating means that you can cut the grass one handed which makes things like swivelling round corners very easy. Although the mower is light and easy to use mowing the lawn still seems like hard work to me, I make it a little bit easier by telling myself it is good exercise and my arms certainly feel like they have had a good workout after I've finished in the garden!

The quality of the cut using the metal blade is really good although it does not get into corners very well so you will need a strimmer too. The blade height is easy to adjust using the supplied tool to insert spacers so it sits between 12 and 32 mm, replacement blades are also readily available should you need them. I have had the best results using the mower on reasonably short grass which it gobbles through with ease and efficiently picks up all of the cuttings. I have successfully used the mower on longer grass too, although the mower cuts through longer grass easily it really struggles to pick it up leaving the lawn look a bit messy.


The vision window is not much use as it quickly turns green as grass cuttings fly up and stain it. The fact that you cant see when the mower needs emptied is no problem though as the mower feels heavier to push and stops picking up the grass so efficiently when it needs emptying. One of the tasks I hated the most with my old rotary mower was having to detach and reattach the grass box every time it needed emptying so the fact that all you need to do to empty this mower is flip the lid open and pull the grass box out to empty it is a huge bonus. I live in a corner house and have three lawns to cut and have to empty the grass box several times so this makes the task a lot easier.

Since lawnmowers spend most of their lives tucked away in a shed then a mower that is easy to store comes in very handy. The Easi-Reel system means that the 15 meter orange cable is wound up neatly into the lid of the mower so is stowed away safely. It also means that pulling the flex out for use is really easy and there are never any kinks in the cable. The handles fold down on top of the mower and as the grass box is integrated then you have a neat shape which sits on its side in the corner of a shed taking up hardly any room.

There's a couple of niggly little things which annoy me about my mower; the screws to adjust the handle broke and I now have to use pliers for this task. The inside of the mower can also accumulate grass due to the design and I need to tip it up to empty it out however the downsides are really minor.

Flymo are one of the most popular brands when it comes to choosing garden tools and after using my Vision Compact 330 for over a year I can see why. It is an affordable mower which is easy to use, reliable, gives a quality cut and stores away easily when not in use. My only regret is that I wish I had bought a slightly bigger model as I have a lot of grass to cut but this model would be brilliant with someone with a medium sized garden.

Summary: Great for medium sized gardens