My hover mower finally gave up working this week. There were
no warning signs, no coughing and spluttering, sparks, dramatic noises or
things flying off into the neighbour’s gardens. The motor just stopped.
As it happened quite soon after starting to cut the grass, I
thought I’d do a bit of diagnostic work to see what the issue was. Last year I
had to shorten the cable by a foot as the wires were showing just above the
handle. It’s a pretty common problem on wired appliances; take a look at your
iron and you’ll see how the constant movement frays the plastic. So that’s
where I started the diagnostics.
Wiggling
I spent a few minutes wiggling the wire, which I am assured
is a proper electricians method of testing things in much the same way you kick
tyres to make sure the car is in good condition. I then commenced the now
annual job of dismantling the mower. There’s very little to go wrong with the
machine really so after only a minute or two I come to the conclusion that it’s
ready for the recycling centre.
After assembling it I did give it another try as my magic
fingers could have fixed it without knowing.
They didn’t.
Cold wash
My reputation for fixing electrical things is at an all-time
low at the moment. I called in an electrician the other week to have a look at
our washing machine. For over four years we have had to put up with cold washes
(eco mode)as the heater didn’t seem to work and I thought it was about time we
moved up to the 60 degree wash once in a
while. The washing machine repair man came around and after fiddling and
testing a few things couldn’t find anything wrong, so very kindly and
respectfully showed me how the control knobs worked. Apparently I have been
using the machine wrong all of this time and failed to switch the heater control
button to ‘On’. The bloke didn’t even have the heart to charge me.
Research
In the evening I started doing a bit of research on
lawnmowers. I spent a few minutes on the buy and sell websites and decided not
to go down the second hand route as it could spell trouble. I thought I’ll buy
new, especially after my one time experience of buying a used phone. My advice
is don’t, you’ll be buying someone else’s trouble. The replacement for my hover
mower is about 80 euro but after looking at the picture I realised I wasn’t
really happy with it anyway. It always felt too fragile for the job and you’d
have to go over the same place ten times until the grass was cut. So I started
looking a bit more upmarket and was even looking at the automatic ones, which
would be a total waste of money and I don’t think they have designed one yet
that can weave around lumps of dog poo. I’m sure running over that would put a stripe on the grass.
Strimmer
I decided the best thing to do would be blowing the dust off
my petrol strimmer. It’s been lying in the shed for nearly five years so a bit
of a service was needed. The shaft was
greased, spark plug cleaned and new petrol/oil mix was added. She started first
time (do you hear that Mr washing machine repair man!) and seemed none the
worse for being unused for so long.
It’s a very powerful strimmer and cut the grass really
quickly with wide sweeping twists and got right underneath all of the thatch
and grass clumps that had formed over the years using the flymo, which only
shortens the grass to about two inches. It’s left the grass looking pretty
rough and patchy but it’s greening up quickly in the summer heat.
Clean Up
My only reservation is the big clean up afterwards. There’s
very little control where all of the cut grass flies to and can leave green
marks on the walls. The paths also need sweeping afterward but I can live with
that as it’s a small price to pay for getting the grass so short.
I probably won’t need to be cutting it twice a week like I
have been doing which will give me more time to hang up the super clean and
fresh clothing that’s coming out of our washing machine.
