While choosing a lawn mower, before deciding between a rotary and a cylinder lawnmower, we recommend that you check up on some points to pick the right one. How short you want the grass; how often you want to cut it; how green you want your lawn to be, most importantly, how much do you want to spend on it. Learn a thing or two about the advantages and disadvantages of owning a cylinder lawnmower from this article and come to a conclusion.
What’s a Cylinder Lawnmower?
Now that you have those points let’s learn what even is a cylinder lawnmower. A cylinder lawnmower has three or preferably more cylindrical blades that rotate in the front of the mower and cut against a stationary bed-knife in the bottom of the lawnmower. The mower cuts like scissors and has a much higher quality end result.
How a Cylinder Lawnmower is Different from Rotary mower?
Before we start talking about the advantages and disadvantages of owning a cylinder lawnmower, first we will look at how these are different from rotary mowers.
For starters, a cylinder lawnmower cuts the grass between a vertically rotating blade and a stationary bed-knife like a pair of scissors. By Contrast, the rotary lawnmower has a horizontally rotating blade under the mower giving the grass a machete-style cut. A cylinder mower also has a front and a rear roller to achieve that lovely stripe look for your lawn. That is not to say you can’t get the same effect with a rotary mower, but it lacks the elegant look that the cylinder type offers. Also, a cylinder mower will cost you higher than a rotary mower would.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Owning a Cylinder Lawnmower
Still at it? Good, because we will now be shedding light on why you will or won’t be getting a cylinder lawnmower.
Superior Cutting Quality
The cut quality is the superiority that the cylinder mower is much adored for. Again, thanks to the scissor-like cut of the blade of grass giving off an elegant vibe to your lawn. It is a less destructive way to cut the grass with less bleeding. This means the individual grass is treated the same and have the same healthy green throughout the lawn. The plant is less traumatized and has a healthy recovery after you cut it every time.
Precise Cutting Heights
How long you are willing to cut the grass is really important to keep within the one-third rule. And precise cut size is easily achievable with a narrow range of height. The height adjustment is generally on a screw thread (with almost infinite positions) or on a pulling lever. Cylinder mowers offer height adjustment from five levels up to seven degrees. The ride on one is even brilliant with up to ten height levels. You have beautiful control on much you are cutting.
Contrasty Striping
Ever see your neighbor’s lawn and go like, “How in the world does Greg get these lovely stripes!”? Yes, you do. Greg’s secret is that cylinder lawnmower hidden in his shed. Cylinder mowers are the best way to get those contrasty stripes. All cylinder types have built-in front and back rollers to make the polished stripes we all love and desire. It’s great if you want to present your lawn like an ornamental luxury and show Greg that he’s not the gardening guru he acts like. (Sorry Greg)
Zero Tyer-marks
And the polished look keeps on coming as these don’t leave nasty tire marks like those four-wheeled rotary mowers. With two full-width cylinders and no tyers, the stripes you create have a clean contrast amongst them. The pressure is even is every point of contact. The front rollers do an excellent job of laying the grass down genteelly before cutting it. The back rollers (usually rolled by the engine) apply pressure to set the stripe in place.
Burns Lower Fuel
Fuel consumption is lesser on cylinder lawnmower than its rotary counterpart as the cutting motion is not dependent on the engine. The inherent design of the cylinder type mower cuts grass by slicing the blade of grass by two separate sharp blades. The engine just has to concentrate only on moving the lawnmower further. By contrast, the rotary mower consumes more fuel to ‘chop’ through the grass. As the grass is drier, the fuel consumption goes higher. Which is a non-issue for cylinder type lawnmower.
Less Time Mowing
Speaking of consuming less, it takes less time to give your lawn a professional look. Unlike the rotary ones, a cylinder mower doesn’t have to move slower to cut the grass evenly. You just move the mower quicker, and the cylinder in front turns even faster to save you time on days when you want just to stay away from the sun.
Adaptive to Needs
Another convenience you have is that you don’t need to bring your leaf blower or other cleaning tools after cutting the grass. There are 3rd party upgrades you can find that collect leaves, small sticks, or other light debris. You can find some models with interchangeable cutting cartridges and replace them with interchangeable cartridges to do additional turf maintenance and keep an overall healthy surface.
Longer Shelf Life
Remember your grandpa’s old pushing lawnmower? Those are cylinder lawnmowers as well. They have been making these for 180 years now. Why? You might ask. The cylinder lawnmowers are famous for their praiseworthy shelf life. The push mechanism has been upgraded by newer engines, yet the fundamentals of cutting grass are the same as before. You are spending more, yet it’s an investment that might pay off over decades to come. Change up the blades every other year, and you are cutting grass like butter with a heated knife.
Perfect for Professionals
Cylinder lawnmowers are widely used for sports-field or prestige large lawns. If you are buying a lawnmower for professional use, you have to pick a cylinder type. They come in wider cylinders for ease of use. And, perfect for golf fields. Because those fields need daily maintenance every other day during the playing sessions, healthy greens, and stylized looks. You can avoid having to deal with diseases and the brown ends of the grass.
Disadvantages of Owning a Cylinder Lawnmower
you may not want to know why you shouldn’t buy a cylinder lawnmower after all the good things I mentioned. But hear me out. They cost more than you typically need to spend if you are just wanting to mow your backyard. Cylinder mowers can’t evenly mow if rocks fell on your lawn. These types also require regular maintenance.
Bottom Line
Overall, there are both advantages and disadvantages of owning a cylinder lawnmower. But the features are somewhat justifying for its high prices over counterpart. But you are like me and deciding to buy a lawn tractor, knowing the benefits of owning a twin-cylinder engine lawn tractor may help. Or if you have a lot of mid-sized trees on your lawn, check out, advantages of a front-deck mower. Hope you spend responsibly.