Mountfield SP164 Petrol Lawnmower

Mostly Okay but on the lowest height setting it scrapes the ground and is difficult to move, on the next setting is hardly removes any grass.

I’ve owned this lawn mower for around three years now and, to be fair, it’s only just in need of replacement. The cutting width is ideal for a medium-sized lawn and, for a petrol lawn mower, is fairly light and easy to manoeuvre.

However, the finish it leaves is nowhere near as good as similarly-priced models; it doesn’t have a roller to produce a ‘striped’ finish and, if the grass is anything less than bone dry, you’ll be left with uncollected cuttings in its tracks, spoiling the result of your hard work. On long, damp, or thicker lawns (for instance, for your first cut of the Spring, or after a holiday) the engine will cut-out under the strain, even on higher cutting heights, and will sometimes will misfire upon restarting with the unburnt petrol, resulting in a lot of blue smoke and an unpleasant odour. It is not uncommon for the blades and chute to become blocked with grass under these circumstances. In terms of cutting the edges of your lawn, the blades appear to ‘dig themselves in’ with lower cutting heights and slight inclines.

To lower or raise the cutting height, you alter a lever attached to each wheel assembly and clip it into one of several detents. I found that going over uneven ground can ‘shock’ the lever out of these notches, meaning that some wheels are set to different cutting heights altogether, leaving an uneven finish.

The lawnmower is also quite noisy and and produces a lot of smoke at times, even with regular cleaning and maintenance of the fuel, oil and air filter, as recommended in the manuals.

In summary, this is a fairly lightweight petrol lawnmower with a decent cutting width and good reliability. It will suit well on medium, family lawns, at least for its first 2 years of ownership. Be sure to keep the cutting bed clean and lubricated after each use; particularly in Spring and Autumn when the grass can be damp. Keep an eye on the sharpness of the blades, too - blunt blades can chop at the grass, as opposed to neatly slicing it, which will stress your lawn and reduce its resilience to cold, dry spells and hot weather. The plastic construction makes it light and easy to manoeuvre and the cutting height is very adaptable to your lawn size and type. However, the underwhelming petrol engine and the fact that it struggles to cut and collect on thicker, slightly damp, or uneven grass has been the reason for me exchanging it for a different product.

It may be good value, but there are better products out there for the price.

This lawnmower is self driven,but controlless with the speed i used 1 today and it has shattered me even on the lower slower setting. This needs to be looked into. I am no teenager that could keep up with it,and i was looking forward to mowing a very large garden this morning. I had to leave it because this lawnmower just raced me around the garden. Not a happy chappy.

I've had the Mountfield SP164 a few weeks now (he's called Lenny the Lawnmower...) and we're getting along just fine. Had a brief issue where I managed to get oil on the air filter (my fault) which led to Lenny cutting out and refusing to start. Divorce was on the cards, but a new air filter (£4.50) sorted the problem immediately and now we're the best of friends again. I've had hover mowers for years but this is my first petrol and I'm glad I made the switch - it's so much easier

My last mountfield served me well for 25yrs so I decided to replace it with a similar make. This model starts first time and cut well. The main fault which can only come to light when you use it is that the speed of the mower is fast which makes it difficult to cut around bends and other similar situations. For this reason I would not recommend this mower for anyone who is expecting a leisurely lawn cutting experience.