What Is a Reel Mower?

The reel is a cylinder carrying several spiral steel blades on a horizontal axis. It sweeps past the bedknife, a stationary bar at the bottom of the reel housing, and the grass is trapped and sheared between the two. That is the scissor action, and it is why a reel leaves a clean edge rather than a torn tip.

On a manual reel mower the rear wheels drive the reel through gearing, or a chain on some designs, and the reel spins several times faster than the wheels turn. You are powering the cut, which is why pushing a reel mower takes more effort than rolling an empty cart across the same lawn. The reel's rotation also creates a slight updraft that lifts the grass so it is cut at the right height instead of being flattened first.

The front roller, and sometimes a rear roller, sets the height of cut by holding the bedknife at a fixed distance above the turf. Height is adjusted at the roller or rollers and measured to the bedknife, not to a blade tip. The reel and bedknife are a shear pair, set up and adjusted at the factory, so a new reel mower needs no sharpening.

Reels carry three to seven blades. More blades give a finer cut at lower heights, and fewer blades suit taller cuts.

A rotary mower spins a single horizontal blade on a vertical axis and cuts by impact, like a machete. A reel shears. That difference drives everything else.

The height crossover is a fact of the machines. Rotary mowers are the practical choice at roughly 1½ inches and above, and reel mowers below that. A reel loses effectiveness on grass left too tall, because it tends to lay the grass over instead of cutting it.

Cut quality is where the honest answer is less dramatic than the marketing. A sharp rotary cuts well, and a reel's advantage shows up mainly at low heights on fine turf. A dull rotary is the one that leaves a ragged lawn.

Two sub-types sit under the same definition, and they are very different machines to own.

Manual push reel mowers

No engine, no motor, no battery, no cord and no fuel. You push, and the wheels drive the reel. They are light, roughly 15 to 35 lb, with a cutting width typically between 12 and 20 inches and a height range of roughly ½ to 2½ inches depending on the model. This is the cheapest mower type on the market.

Gas self-propelled reel mowers

Walk-behind machines with an engine that drives both the wheels and the reel. They are much heavier, well over 100 lb, with a wider cut, and they are bought by homeowners chasing a golf-green look at low heights. This is a small, specialist slice of the market rather than the typical homeowner purchase.

"Reel mower" and "cylinder mower" are the same thing. Cylinder is the common British term.

When you are ready to buy, Amazon is a practical place to start: it carries a wide choice of manual and gas reel mowers from brands such as American Lawn Mower, Greenworks, Fiskars and Scotts, with fast delivery, buyer reviews you can compare and easy returns if the mower does not suit your lawn.

Run these checks against your own yard before you commit.

• Lawn size. A manual reel is a good fit for a flat lawn under about 1/8 acre. Beyond roughly a quarter acre, weekly mowing with a reel becomes exhausting. A small lawn takes on the order of 20 minutes; a large one can take several times longer than a rotary would.
• Flat and smooth. Bumps and uneven ground mean missed grass, because the wheels drive the reel. Expect to mow from two or three angles on imperfect ground.
• Few twigs and leaves. Clear debris first. A reel cannot mulch it, and twigs jam the reel.
• Willing to mow weekly. A reel works best on grass cut often and never left to get tall.
• Grass species and target height. This is the check that decides it. Most homeowner reel mowers top out around 2 inches, and some reach 2½ or more. Cool-season lawns such as tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass are usually kept at 2½ to 3½ inches, which is above what many reel mowers can reach. Warm-season fine turf such as Bermudagrass, zoysiagrass and bentgrass, kept at ½ to 1½ inches, is where a reel shines. If your target height is above the mower's maximum, the mower is the wrong tool, however good the cut.
• Edges. The reel sits inboard of the wheels, so a strip along fences and walls is left uncut and needs trimming.

A reel mower asks more of you than a powered one. Pushing takes real effort, and on bumpy ground you will miss grass and go back over it. The strip along fences and walls stays uncut until you trim it. Clippings are dropped, not mulched.

Sharpening is a lapping job, and eventually a shop job. Many areas have no reel-mower specialist nearby, so it is worth asking around before you buy a mower that will need one. And the cut-quality advantage is real but not dramatic against a well-sharpened rotary.

None of that is a reason to walk away. It is what you are getting.

1. Clear twigs, leaves and debris before mowing.
2. Set the cutting height at the roller to suit your grass.
3. Mow dry grass. A reel works poorly on wet, drooping grass.
4. Never remove more than about a third of the blade at once, and mow before the grass gets more than about an inch taller than the last cut.
5. Overlap your passes and change the pattern to avoid ruts.
6. Brush clippings off afterward, don't hose it down, and store it dry.

If the mower gets hard to push, look for grass wrapped around the reel and check the height setting before assuming it needs sharpening.

After each mow, brush off clippings and store the mower dry. Seasonally, wipe the blades with an oiled rag to prevent rust and check the reel-to-bedknife contact.

The paper check tells you whether that contact is right. A sheet of paper should be sliced cleanly and evenly along the reel's width. If it isn't, the contact needs adjusting.

Backlapping runs the reel backward against the bedknife with an abrasive lapping compound to restore the edge. Grinding machines the reel and bedknife when lapping no longer works. For most homeowners the routine job is a lap, not a grind.

Too much contact makes the mower hard to push and noisy, builds heat, and wears the reel unevenly. Too little contact pinches and tears grass. Most mowers that cut badly are out of adjustment, not dull.

A lightly used manual reel in good condition can go one to three years between proper sharpenings, with professional grinding every couple of years as the usual pattern. Some contact-free reel designs are specified as needing no sharpening for the life of the mower. Brown shredded tips, stragglers, streaks, a noisy reel, or a mower that is hard to push after adjustment all mean it is time.

What moves the price is the power source first: manual or gas self-propelled. Then cutting width, the number of reel blades, weight and build, the height-adjustment mechanism (levers versus unbolting), whether a grass catcher is available, and whether the maker offers a sharpening kit.

A basic manual reel sits at the bottom of the whole mower market. It is the cheapest way to cut grass, with no fuel or charging cost. Mid-tier manual reels add width, more blades, a wider height range and easier adjustment. Gas self-propelled reels sit in a specialist band far above the manual models.

Running costs are essentially nil for a manual. No fuel, no electricity, no battery. Upkeep is occasional lapping and a professional sharpening every couple of years.

The reel mower was invented by Edwin Beard Budding, who took out patent No. 5990 on 31 August 1830, inspired by the cross-cutting machine used to finish woolen cloth. It was manufactured by John Ferrabee at Thrupp Mill in Stroud, England. Budding's own patent text promised that "country gentlemen may find, in using my machine themselves, an amusing, useful, and healthy exercise."