Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they save -
are they any good and what is the best make?

Cheers


fj

Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they save -
are they any good and what is the best make?

Cheers


fj

It depends what sort of a lawn you want and how often you want to cut your
lawn, and how fast it grows. If you have a fast growing lawn, you'll discover
that the mulched grass dries up on the surface of the lawn and doesn't look
that great. If the grass is long, there's just a whole lot more of it to
detract from the visual impact of the lawn. If the grass is anything less than
absolutely dry it will stick together in clumps no matter how well it's mulched
by the mower. FWIW I'd use a good mower and collect the clippings and compost
them, though it rather depends on your circumstances.

Dave.

fj wrote:
Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they
save - are they any good and what is the best make?


I love my mulcher.
But, ........ it will only work satisfactorily if you are prepared to
mow regularly.
If the grass gets too long, unless you crawl round the lawn at slow
speed, you will be left with clippings on the lawn surface. That in
itself is not a disaster if you are prepared to go over the whole lawn
again - but it begins to get tiresome. You can also adjust height of
cut to achieve the same result.

You do have to keep the cutting deck pan clean otherwise the build up
of clippings will prevent the multi-clipping action.

Despite what many dismal jimmies will tell you I have not experienced
any build up of lawn 'thatch' due to the multi-clipped clippings, and
I have been mulching now for seven years.

Mine is a 'Bolens' 12.5HP mulcher but, without experience of any other
brand, I can't make any claims about how it rates in its class. It has
started first time since the day I got it.

--
ned

DaveDay34 wrote:
Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they
save - are they any good and what is the best make?

Cheers


fj

It depends what sort of a lawn you want and how often you want to
cut
your lawn, and how fast it grows. If you have a fast growing lawn,
you'll discover that the mulched grass dries up on the surface of
the
lawn and doesn't look that great.

:-)
Only if you take too much off at one go.

If the grass is long, there's just
a whole lot more of it to detract from the visual impact of the
lawn.

:-)
True. So raise the cutting height.

If the grass is anything less than absolutely dry it will stick
together in clumps no matter how well it's mulched by the mower.

:-)
Not my experience.
Or my neighbour's.
'Seems you either love them or hate them.
:-)

--
ned

Okay, just a bit more info, i live in Cornwall, 200metres from the sea on
the North Coast, lawn is about 100metres x 30 metres and is easy enough to
mow on a regular basis i.e. its basically sqauare with no fancy borders etc.

my local dealer has a Stiga 46 S at £305 and is willing to come and
demonstrate, its a family business serving farmers in my area so i don't
think they are ripping me off. They even said i must ring after 5 hours use
for them to come around and change the oil and check the Stiga out all as
part of the after sales service i.e FOC.

cheers
fj


"fj" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they save -
are they any good and what is the best make?

Cheers


fj

fj wrote:
Okay, just a bit more info, i live in Cornwall, 200metres from the
sea on the North Coast, lawn is about 100metres x 30 metres and is
easy enough to mow on a regular basis i.e. its basically sqauare
with
no fancy borders etc.

my local dealer has a Stiga 46 S at £305 and is willing to come and
demonstrate, its a family business serving farmers in my area so i
don't think they are ripping me off. They even said i must ring
after
5 hours use for them to come around and change the oil and check the
Stiga out all as part of the after sales service i.e FOC.


Sorry, never heard of the Stiga - until I Googled for it. It would
seem to be Scandinavian and for the area you mentioned, I would have
thought it to be a bit on the small side. It only has an 18 inch cut -
which means that you would be walking your 100m strip some 60+ times.
I suppose it would double as a fitness machine. ;-) But that is for
you to come to terms with.

£305 seems a bargain. The recommended price is £395 incl VAT.

If you are going to get a demo, you can't lose.
Be sure to ask about all the negatives that have been suggested.
100m x 30m is big, about 2/3 acre. You would soon have a mountain of
clippings to dispose of doing it normally.

Good luck.

--
ned

Cheers, and thanks for your input - I am arrangong a demo next week, and yes
I knew stiga was Scandinavian and quality seems excellent. Apparently (may
be sales talk) councils use this make and they use the pro version which
gets lost of abuse.

Size of garden may be an overestimate, it's in two halves so I get a
breather between doing each bit and the reason I'm getting this mower is
because the man who does it is ripping me off - £30 a time every 10 days or
so, so its costing me £100/month!

Also I do need the exercise - I will post my findings/experince to the
group when I have it.

"fj" wrote in message
...
Cheers, and thanks for your input - I am arrangong a demo next week, and
yes
I knew stiga was Scandinavian and quality seems excellent

Stiga is part of GGP (Global Garden Products) and machines can be made any
where within the group and are not necessarily made in Sweden. Also to use
an 18" machine to cut 2/3 on an acre is not in anyway remotely suitable. Yes
Stiga make professional machines but they are ride-ons with out front cutter
decks, what you are buying will be a domestic machine.

For the size area you are cutting you will need a ride-on - which Stiga do
(28" about £1,500) and will mulch or collect. If you purchase the walk
behind machine you will spend a good part of your life cutting grass, until
that is the machine reaches a premature end

Alastair

I love my mulcher.
But, ........ it will only work satisfactorily if you are prepared to
mow regularly.
If the grass gets too long, unless you crawl round the lawn at slow
speed, you will be left with clippings on the lawn surface. That in
itself is not a disaster if you are prepared to go over the whole lawn
again - but it begins to get tiresome. You can also adjust height of
cut to achieve the same result.

You do have to keep the cutting deck pan clean otherwise the build up
of clippings will prevent the multi-clipping action.

Despite what many dismal jimmies will tell you I have not experienced
any build up of lawn 'thatch' due to the multi-clipped clippings, and
I have been mulching now for seven years.

Mine is a 'Bolens' 12.5HP mulcher but, without experience of any other
brand, I can't make any claims about how it rates in its class. It has
started first time since the day I got it.

--
ned


Ned,

I don't want to start an arguement, but I think you disagreed with what I said
in reply to the original mail, and yet here you seem to be agreeing with most,
if not all of what I said (?).

Dave.

DaveDay34 wrote:
big snip

Ned,

I don't want to start an arguement, but I think you disagreed with
what I said in reply to the original mail, and yet here you seem to
be agreeing with most, if not all of what I said (?).

Dave.

;-)
'Perfectly logical explanation. .... I think.
Your first post was timed at 22.10.
When that was posted, I was composing my first response to fj (which
was not a retort to your post which I had yet to see) timed at 22.16.
My response to your first post was timed at 22.41 and my posts appear
out of order due to the threading.

But for what it is worth,
- my mulched grass does not dry on the surface of the lawn.

If the grass is long,
- yes, the mulching action will not not complete and will leave a
residue, so don't let it get long or raise the cutting height or do it
at slow speed or if you are obsessed with it, do it twice. Much the
same technique as one would use with a conventional mower. ;-)

If the grass is anything less than absolutely dry it will stick
together in clumps no matter how well it's mulched,
- (question of degree here, I think) sure it will clump *if the grass
is wet* as I have found when it has started to rain while I'm mowing
and the mulching tray gets clogged up. Under 'normal' grass cutting
conditions my mulcher does not 'clump'.

FWIW I'd use a good mower and collect the clippings and
compost them,
- from a 3,000sq m lawn? How big a compost heap would that be? And
where is the roughage coming from to mix with that amount of grass?

I don't think I have changed my tune. Mulching works fine (in my
experience).
:-)

--
ned

The dealer brought his demo Stiga 46S today, and all I can say it does the
job! You cannot see the clippings and we had the mower set to the 2nd
closest cut. I may have overestimated my garden size however I did about
1/6th of the garden in about 5-6 minutes. Where you save time is in emptying
the grassbox. And another point about the Stiga is that it has no throttle -
it adjusts to an optimum speed automatically and Stiga fit an over powerful
engine so it doesnt have to be at full throttle! It seemed to be almost
idling! So this means its quiet 92db according to the manual. This means I
can listen to my walkman while mowing! And one more final point its a front
wheel drive so to turn at the end of length you just lift the front wheels,
swivel smartly through 180 degrees and you're off!

Further reports next week when I take delivery - now how do I get rid of a
mole that has decided to move in recently?

Cheers

fj

"fj" wrote in message
...
Okay, just a bit more info, i live in Cornwall, 200metres from the sea on
the North Coast, lawn is about 100metres x 30 metres and is easy enough to
mow on a regular basis i.e. its basically sqauare with no fancy borders
etc.

my local dealer has a Stiga 46 S at £305 and is willing to come and
demonstrate, its a family business serving farmers in my area so i don't
think they are ripping me off. They even said i must ring after 5 hours
use
for them to come around and change the oil and check the Stiga out all as
part of the after sales service i.e FOC.

cheers
fj


"fj" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they
save -
are they any good and what is the best make?

Cheers


fj

The dealer brought his demo Stiga 46S today, and all I can say it does the
job! You cannot see the clippings and we had the mower set to the 2nd
closest cut. I may have overestimated my garden size however I did about
1/6th of the garden in about 5-6 minutes. Where you save time is in emptying
the grassbox. And another point about the Stiga is that it has no throttle -
it adjusts to an optimum speed automatically and Stiga fit an over powerful
engine so it doesnt have to be at full throttle! It seemed to be almost
idling! So this means its quiet 92db according to the manual. This means I
can listen to my walkman while mowing! And one more final point its a front
wheel drive so to turn at the end of length you just lift the front wheels,
swivel smartly through 180 degrees and you're off!

Further reports next week when I take delivery - now how do I get rid of a
mole that has decided to move in recently?

Cheers

fj

"fj" wrote in message
...
Okay, just a bit more info, i live in Cornwall, 200metres from the sea on
the North Coast, lawn is about 100metres x 30 metres and is easy enough to
mow on a regular basis i.e. its basically sqauare with no fancy borders
etc.

my local dealer has a Stiga 46 S at £305 and is willing to come and
demonstrate, its a family business serving farmers in my area so i don't
think they are ripping me off. They even said i must ring after 5 hours
use
for them to come around and change the oil and check the Stiga out all as
part of the after sales service i.e FOC.

cheers
fj


"fj" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I have heard of mulching or multiclip mowers and how much time they
save -
are they any good and what is the best make?

Cheers


fj