To mow or not to mow...??? that is the question..??? (Flymo Vision Compact 380)

Member Name: blissman70

Product:	Flymo Vision Compact 380
Date:	26/09/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: orange colour

Disadvantages: Difficult to manoeuvre, hates to hurt the grass and as much power as a gnats bottom burp..

A while back the antique Lawn Mower I had finally decided to roll over and die... it was well on its way out at the time, in fact I think Fred Flintstone built it with his mate Barny...and because my grass was beginning to resemble a scene out of a Vietnam war film I was in need of getting my hands on a new one.
So when I saw a Flymo compact on offer I had to grab it, basically because of the name and the very low offer price really as a compact mower wasn't what I was after.
Anyway, I was beaming with pride, and a little smugness if I'm honest, as I had just bought what I thought was the bargain of the season... a Flymo vision compact for just short of thirty quid...

** SOME TECHNICAL BITS FIRST...

* It has a 38mm metal blade
* 1500 watts of power with a belt driven system for tougher areas.
* 4 adjustable cutting heights
* A 40 litre grass collection box
* Weighs approximately 13kg.
* 'Easi-Reel' system with 15 metre cable


** IN CONCLUSION...

Well, as I said I really thought I had bagged a bargain with this Flymo compact but when I got it home and gave it a test run I quickly realised why this orange mini grass chopper was being sold at such a low price.
I initially thought I had pieced it together wrong, or maybe I had missed a block or something under the blades, but when I went over the whole thing again I was getting the same terrible results. It just didn't seem to be able to cut the grass as easy as it should have done, in fact, it seemed to be pushing the blades of grass over rather than trimming the tops. Had I somehow put the cutting blades on back to front? NO, they were going in the right direction, which is more than I could say for the mower itself.

It claims to be light and easy to manoeuvre although this only applies if you have a garden that is so flat that Andy Murrey would be happy to play on a few games on it,. For some reason this mower has trouble going over the slightest of bumps and has major difficulties with any patches of thicker grass, I am not the weakest of people but I found tying to get this thing to manoeuvre round the garden sometimes took the strength of donkey with a steroid addiction.

It also claims to have a 380mm cutting width for quicker mowing, but as the blades don't seem to stay sharp enough to actually cut the grass, seeming more to hit it like a hammer trying to whack a screw off a wall, the chances of getting a 'quicker' cut are as likely as an honest opinion from a Politician.

As for collecting what grass you actually manage to cut, well, it does try to collect and compact the grass into the easy to empty basket, but the air created as the blades spin round and whack those solid bits of green grass protruding from the ground seem to blow the cut grass away from the mower instead of sucking it into the basket, which is a little stupid really as you then have to spend time raking the grass up from around your patchily cut lawn.
But even so, the grass collection basket does seem to think it has become full quite fast, well, when I say become full I mean it holds a bit of grass which is somehow enough to confuse the mower into thinking it can hold no more grass, ending up blocking the entire system, causing you to have to stop and clear away all the churned and battered grass from the underside of the mower. So the quick cut theory is right out of the window before you even start really.

As I said I thought I had got my hands on a bargain when I saw this mower going for under thirty quid, instead of the usual £80 which it does sell at, but I now feel that I could have spent that thirty quid on something more useful, like an ashtray for my mountain bike, or that chocolate fireguard I've always wanted.
I'm just glad I didn't pay the full price for this rather terribly designed and even more shockingly constructed sorry excuse for a Lawn Mower.

But don't write off Flymo for this terrible idea, maybe it was the day after the designers stag party or something, as I still trust the majority of the goods from them and have in fact bought other products since this disastrous and rather disappointing shopping trip and as I have always said..."everyone is entitled to a bad day", and this is Flymos...

For the record I no longer use this mower as I have now purchased a new one which is a lot better at doing what it is supposed to do, cut the grass, and the new one I have is from the people at Flymo.
In fact, I did find that the little motor from the Flymo vision compact 380 was put to better use for a little project that my daughter and her friend had been given from their school

In all, this compact mower is about as useful as a stair carpet in a bungalow with about as much power as a hand held fan. In fact, in my opinion, a goat would cut your grass quicker than this rather lightweight mower.

**Stop press...
There is one good thing about this mower and that is the cracking 'Easi-Reel' which allows you to store the wire away without any tangles, although this does seem to be appearing on many other mowers.

Summary: Short back and sides..??? not with this one you won't