Full Overview

Very good product to buy.

Technical Details

- 18-inch cutting width
- 10-inch ball bearing wheels
- Easy height adjust from 1/2-inch to 2-3/4-inch
- Powder coated finished handle lasts longer and prevents rust
- Heat treated blades stay sharp longer, making a quality cut

Apr 2010 Update: Still works great. Used it for the first time this season last weekend. Didn't have to tune anything or even sharpen anything. Just pulled it out and started walking. YAY! Everything (wheels, blades, handle - is there anything else?) does their job just fine. My ten year old still doesn't have enough height to do an easy cut with this mower. The angle of the handle when he pushes causes the wheels to slide sometimes when the grass gets tall. To him the mower is really tough so the angle of the handle is important. I wonder if I shortened the handle if it would be easier for him? I can on the other hand mow without much effort. The handle is as near to flat as the mower allows when he tries to push it. For me the handle is at a 45 degree angle to the ground.

Last weekend being one of the first warm weeeknds greeted us with a cacophony of gas trimmers, lawnmower engines, gas powered pressure washers, gas chippers, a two-stroke chainsaw, a four wheeler, and a go cart. Ahhh the sounds of spring!!!! GRIN! Apparently the real peace comes during the week when retirees are at home alone - while the rest of us are working or schooling... GRIN!

Original review from 2008:

I recently borrowed a friend's Great States Mower to try on my yard. He bragged on it and told me I should give it a try.

What a joy it was to use. Lightweight, no real noise, no vibrations, no debris being flung out from under the mower at -900 mph- towards my children, and no fumes. I could stop and start without stopping and starting an engine. I could walk and listen to music on my Nokia N810 without ear muffs or ear plugs. The kids could get close or ask questions. I declared that day I would buy one.

If only the whole neighborhood would use these mowers. Some weekends are a filled with the roar of a half-dozen gasoline powered lawnmowers chomping away at the grass followed by gas leaf blowers and gas weed-wackers. No relaxing outside with a cold glass of sweet tea on those days. Are all of these gas powered tools really progress? If it is, I'll take a few steps backwards thanks...

I spent $40 this spring on my 10 year old gas mower to get it back on it's feet. I bought a new blade b/c the old one was bent, new gaskets and seals for the carburetor, an oil change, and a new fuel line. Would have been much more but I am able to to do all my own work. It's been a good machine and has alot of life left in it but I'm tired of it though. Such complexity and roaring noise to do something simple like cut grass. Every year it has cost me $20 or so to get the gas mower ready. I can only imagine what it would cost to use a repair service.

I looked at electric mowers - the type with a motor and battery on board. Nice machines but still more than I need week to week. Still a certain amount of noise. Still a complex device. Then I used this Great States Mower. What a perfect tool for the job. This isn't your grandfather's reel mower. I remember using one of those when I was a kid. It weighed about as much as I did at the time and a real bear to push. Maybe it was weight or maybe it was out of adjustment. Maybe it was that I was eight years old. Tough to say.

I, like most folks these days, could use a little more exercise. This manual mower helps there. It's not hard to push and it weighs less than my gasoline mower. I feel really good when I get done mowing! I think it is because I was exercising without inhaling all of those exhaust fumes for 45 minutes.

These mowers have limitations as you may read in other reviews. Without a blade spinning at 3,000 rpm+ it does not suck the grass and debris upward to be chopped by the blades. That means grass blades that don't stand straight enough to get cut won't get cut. It also means that debris like leaves won't get mulched. Surprisingly having mowed my yard with a reel mower a few times now - it just looks better to me. It's not a perfect cut. I can find a few stray blades that got pushed over instead of being cut and stand back up between mows. I'll get them next time. No sweat. The blades get scissored by the reel mower rather than torn or chopped by the gas mower blade. Looks greener to me.

You'll need to mow a little more often. If you let the grass get out of control you'll hate mowing with this mower. Get an electric mower from Great States Mower. With this reel mower and a little extra mowing the finished yard looks great and the effort is minimal. Your body will be better for it too. Save your old gasoline mower for leaf control or mulching. I'm likely going to ditch mine in favor of a leaf rake.

The mower needs little TLC to keep it in top form. Its easy with just a little practice.

The cutter bar has to be adjusted so that the reel blades slide against it evenly. There are two screws on each side of the cutter bar that adjust this. Basically they tilt the cutter bar against or away from the blades. Too close and the mower is hard to push, and too far away and the mower won't scissor the blades of grass. It takes about 10 mins to get it just right the first time and that adjustment should be good for a long, long time.

There is this perfect cutting sound that the mower makes when it is just right. Learn to hear this sound and you'll know all is right with your mower. To sharpen your mower you simply tighten this cutter bar against the blades a little closer than normal and smear valve grinding paste on the reel blades and cutter bar. Push it around the driveway to spin the blades. When the blade edges are uniformly shiny across their length then you are ready to clean the paste off and readjust the cutter bar. You can buy this valve lapping paste from any FLAPS (friendly local auto parts store) and mechanics use this paste when replacing cylinder head valves in a car or truck engine.

The reel mower sharpening kits provide a handle so you can spin the blades while the mower is on your workbench and the grinding compound is the same as the FLAPS paste. My 1/2" Milwaukee drill spins the blades very well too...

The last time I mowed I did it without earplugs. I did not smell like exhaust. I did not feel run down after 45 mins of carbon monoxide laden exhaust and who knows what else in my lungs. I could listen to my Nokia N810 music player streaming radio to me via Wi-Fi (GO LINUX!) My kids could walk over to me and I could stop or start with no cranky mower engines to start or stop. No flying debris being flung at my children or our animals.

I bought a 10 year old American Mower last night locally. I wanted a Great States Mower from Amazon (still the best new retail price I've found) but this deal was too good to pass up at $45. Owner bought it and used it a couple of times before putting it away for a decade. Was one of the Made in the USA versions. Tires for example are basically new so I know it did not get used too many times. The interesting thing is that mine is an American Lawn Mower Company 18-Inch Reel Mower #1815-18 and it is exactly like my buddy's Great States #815-18 18" Deluxe Reel Mower. I am wondering if the companies are the one and the same...

This is my first reel mower and I must say I've been converted.

The grass flew off the rear of the mower as if it were a cartoon- literally a waterfall of grass shooting into the air. You can go back over a section easily enough to hit any blades you might have missed (I missed only because I couldn't see the 'walk lines' since the mower is so light).

I'm able to navigate around tightly planted edging with no trouble, but you will need a weed whacker to finish up since these don't cut the width of the tire + 1 inch.

My front lawn took about 5 more minutes to cut than with the gas powered 'push' mower- and that was mostly due to me learning how to cut with this beautiful piece of equipment.

My back lawn is a nightmare of twigs, leaves, holes and hills. A twig can and will stop the blades if it's too large but that only happened once.

The only gripe I have with the great states 18" reel mower is that the handles aren't long enough- I'm 6'2" tall and my arms had to hold them at an awkward angle. I'll see if that improves and update as time goes on. Until then, this is a great investment.

While not as wide as the Scotts 20" mower this is significantly cheaper on the per - inch basis.

This product works really well for my small lawn. I used to use a competitor's 16" and this is a major improvement. Lighter weight, more accurate cutting. Adjusts from 1/2" to 2 3/4" with two hand tightened wingnuts. I switched to manual when I heard that a power lawnmower had the same exhaust as eleven cars. (Even if the stats are exaggerated - and they're pretty hard to fathom - it's still substantial.) Manual is no big deal really. And they're a lot quieter! Um, I guess that's obvious. Assembly is about ten minutes and not too challenging for those who can eat cereal with a spoon. I added the grass catcher which is kind of a POS, but works passably. There is a sharpener which you may want to get, too. Mow your lawn while saving the world - how can you lose?

I purchased the reel mower after researching all the comments on reel mowers. What convinced me most was the review by a customer from NY who had to deal with his steep and uneven lawn. I have similar conditions on a 0.5 acre. The reel mower works very well and is easy to push. There was only little installation (the handle) and that was straight forward and easy. I find the height adjustment easy to adjust. Even longer grass is cut fairly easily, it takes more effort and strength to push though. I love the quietness of the reel mower. There is some minor disadvantage: using the reel mower requires a 35% overlap to make sure that the grass is cut evenly. Hence, it takes a little more time and effort to cut the grass. However, there are more pluses than minuses. Overall, I am very happy with the reel mower and recommend it.

Everyone and their mother will tell you that you can't cut tall grass with one of these things, but they don't know what they're talking about. What they really mean to say is that you can't cut tall grass easily or quickly, but you can do it if you raise the bar to its highest setting and adopt a mowing style similar to vacuuming. You'll probably be worn out before you're even halfway done, but it'll work.

The instructions are terrible and so are the little thumb screws they give you to assemble the handle, but I love everything else about this mower. It's heavy enough to plow over the thick spots without jumping off the ground too often and its blades make a very satisfying sound. I have some concerns regarding the longevity of the plastic roller bars, but they let you order replacements, so I'm not too worried. The satisfaction of getting to fire my landlord's gardener and keep the money I was paying him to do absolutely nothing every month makes it all worth it.

Do yourself a favor and pitch the little plastic wing nuts they give you to secure the carriage bolts in place--they hurt your hands and work loose with vibration all the time. Pick up some 6mm locking nuts and impact drive them on instead.

I decided to buy a reel mower for a few reasons. I like that I don't have to worry about an engine and all that comes with that. No fuel, no additive for winter storage. No worrying if it will start. No oil or grease to get on my clothes and no fumes which means no emissions. Most importantly for me though is no worrying when I mow when my children are outside. I have an infant and a 2 1/2 year old. I can be outside mowing while the baby is outside in a stroller and I am not blowing dust dirt debris and rocks around nor am I subjecting her to the noise or exhaust fumes. My toddler can play (a safe distance away) and can even be running around and as long as she is not too close to the mower I can continue. I can also hear what is going on around me. I do not have to shut the windows in the house as I am not blowing around all the dust a regular mower does. This also means I have to wash the outside of the windows less.
Performance is better than I had expected. The reel mowers I had used as a kid were much less impressive. I will say that tall thick grass needs a few pass overs. The tall thin weeds don't seem to cut very well at all. I would not recommend letting the grass and weeds get tall before mowing.
This mower is not hard for me to push at 5'4" and my husband at 6' also has no problem. Assembly was easy and took a few minutes. My only gripe is the handle has a twisting type of wiggle. Maybe it would benefit from having another cross brace? It does take longer to push mow than to use a big riding mower but I think the trade off is worth it. Counts for a cardio workout too I think!

So first for the reasons why this Great States mower is a great push reel mower, and is probably the best $100 I've spent in a long time:

1) It's the perfect weight - it's not so heavy that you tire easily using it, and it's not so light that it bounces around and doesn't cut the grass.

2) It's a solid piece of equipment. From what I've read of the Scott's reel mower, the handle is flimsy.

3) It was easy to assemble. Took about twenty minutes altogether, and I'm not especially mechanically inclined.

Now for the reasons why I love having a push reel mower in general:

1) The kids can be outside while I'm mowing. No worries about rocks, etc. being thrown around.

2) Extremely quiet compared to mowers with engines (pretty obvious I suppose).

3) No need to deal with slopping gas around or to smell exhaust from the mower. I really enjoy being able to mow the lawn without feeling like I immediately need to take a shower after doing it.

4) I had some trepidations about how effective a tool this would be, but it cuts right through the grass with ease. I haven't had to mow when the grass is extremely long, but because this mower is so much fun (yes, fun) to use, I don't anticipate the grass getting too long, because I'll be using it so frequently.

We have a yard that is a little over 1/3 of an acre - for anyone who has a lawn that size or up to 1/2 an acre, I would definitely recommend this mower. Anything bigger than that, and personally I'd want a riding lawn mower. Five stars, only because I can't rate it higher than that.

If you have a small enough lawn, consider this mower. I have had mine for about 10 years and have it sharpened every 2. Very low or no other maintenance required. This mower actually cuts the grass (as opposed to most power mowers that "beat" the grass) so it is ok to leave the clippings to mulch. I also purchased a catch bag that attaches behind the blade if I let the grass get too long. Your lawn will love this mower, mine is better than golf course quality...., very even cuts. Blade height is also adjustable. Highly recommended.

An OK Chinese-made push reel mower. Upon assembling, however, the instructions aren't entirely accurate, but this only had to do with assembling one portion of the handle. It functions much as you would expect a push reel mower to function....it will miss some high, thinner grasses, and you may have to go over some sections a number of times from different angles to get the job done, but no fuel required and VERY low maintenance.

I purchased the Great States Mower after reading a lot of reviews of other mowers and also wanted a great price. The mower was easy to assemble. After adjusting the height of the roller I really wasn't impressed with the mower and though I would probably sell it at my next yard sale. A week or so later I decided to adjust the mower by changing the wheel setting. It was a lot easier than I though, just pop off the plastic cap and remove 1 nut and bolt. I recommend to put the mower on it's side and do one side at a time. I changed the setting to the center hole of the three and it seemed to change the cutting angle a little. Well, this was all it needed and now I just love it. I originally bought a reel mower for a little exercise.