A scissor cut, on a lawn small enough to deserve it
A cylinder mower cuts the way scissors do: a helical blade passes across a fixed bottom knife and shears the leaf instead of tearing it. Every other mower on this site is a rotary one, which spins a bar fast enough to cut by impact, and the difference shows on the lawn a week later — a sheared blade of grass seals, a torn one browns at the tip. That is the whole argument for this shelf, and it is a real one on a fine, level, regularly cut lawn. It is also why the numbers here are small. The cutting width runs 30 to 40 cm, the stated area that goes with it is 150 to 200 m², and neither figure is being modest: a push cylinder has no engine, so the area it covers is the area a person will actually walk. The cutting heights are set in four or five steps and the useful range is short — a cylinder will not cut long grass at all, and a lawn left for three weeks has to be topped with something else first. Two details separate the models. The catcher volume, where several of these are sold with a grass box that doubles as a scoop and one is sold with none at all, and the roller at the back, which is what leaves the striped finish people buy these for and what lets the machine overhang a lawn edge without scalping it. One battery-driven cylinder model appears on this shelf; everything else here is pushed, silent and maintenance-free apart from the cylinder itself. We compare cutting width, blades, cutting heights, stated area, catcher volume, roller and weight.
30 cm, 5 steel blades, 15–35 mm in 4 steps, 15.2 L
Five steel blades on a ball-bearing cylinder, four heights from 15 to 35 mm, and a 15.2-litre box — the cheapest way to cut grass with scissors.
Best for: A small, level, already-maintained lawn cut every few days at a short height
38 cm, non-contact cut, 4 heights, 7.7 kg, 250 m²
The widest cylinder mower here at 38 cm and the only published weight — 7.7 kg — with non-contact cutting and 22 cm wheels.
Best for: A larger small lawn — up to a couple of hundred square metres — kept genuinely short
30 cm, 5 steel blades, 13–37 mm in 4 steps, 16 L, roller
A 13 to 37 mm range on five steel blades, with a plastic roller behind the cylinder and a park position for storage.
Best for: A small lawn kept short, where a light stripe and a steady cut are the point
33 cm, hardened steel, non-contact cut, non-stick cylinder
A hardened steel cylinder and bottom blade with a non-stick coating, folding handle, and non-contact cutting — the most expensive on a four-machine shelf.
Best for: A small, level lawn cut short and often, where the machine will sometimes meet damp grass
