Mountfield SP425 Power Driven Petrol Lawn Mower (Honda Engine)

Excellent Mower with Only a Few Niggles For many years I’d had a Hayter Harrier 41”, but it had recently become uneconomical to repair. My wife and I spent hours comparing options. We soon found that MowDirect had the most helpful and comprehensive website. Finally, a phone call to MowDirect enabled us to make a decision.

One factor which swung it for us was some of our slopes. I definitely wanted a power-driven mower, light as possible. This mower, at 28kg is much lighter than the Harrier. It is easy to push.

The drive is, quite simply, ‘all or nothing’. You bring the drive bar up to the handle and instantly the rear wheels are in full ‘go’ mode. This takes a little getting used to and simply pushing the mower is often easier and necessary in intricate areas. There is no throttle. The engine runs at one speed as soon as the starter cord is pulled. It starts easily every time. I do wish that it ran a little slower, I find myself walking unnecessarily fast.

The 60-litre grass catcher is superb. The smooth solid floor ensures that it fills full every time. The handle design for the box is good, it is easy to lift the full box out through the handles and replace it. A handle of some kind at the rear bottom of the box would be convenient when tipping it up to empty. The ‘Full’ indicator works well. I’ve not yet used the mower on wet grass, but expect it to still collect the grass well.

There are three levers to adjust the cutting height, one for the rear wheels and one each for the front wheels. This is a little fiddly.

We have a set of five concrete steps which connect front and back lawns. Two people were needed to lift the Hayter up these steps.

The engine sound level is standard, and seems to be quite frugal. I’ve used about a quarter of a tank in about an hour’s mowing. The flat, smooth design of the top of the engine is very welcome, permitting operation under low branches with no snagging. I’ve not yet used the ‘mulch’ facility.

The mower arrived the day after ordering and was very easy to assemble although some of the instructions apply to an earlier model It is very helpful that MowDirect include a bottle of oil. It is 0.66ml and the engine takes 0.5ml.

So far then, this mower has proved to be surprisingly good and easy to use, and MowDirect set a benchmark for a user-friendly and informative website and superb customer service.

An Excellent Mower, Very Easy to Use For many years I’d had a Hayter Harrier 41”, but it had recently become uneconomical to repair, so what next? My wife and I spent hours comparing options. We soon found that MowDirect had the most helpful and comprehensive website. Finally, a phone call to MowDirect enabled us to make a decision.

One factor which swung it for us was some of the slopes we have. I definitely wanted a power-driven mower, as light as possible, and with a roller. Unfortunately we had to give the roller up for a version with driven rear wheels. But this mower, at 28kg is much lighter than the Harrier. It is in fact, easy to push.

So that takes me onto the drive. It is, quite simply, ‘all or nothing’. You bring the drive bar up to the handle and instantly the rear wheels are scrabbling away in full ‘go’ mode. This takes a little getting used to and is why simply pushing the mower is often easier and is necessary in intricate areas. Also, there is no throttle. The engine runs at one speed as soon as the starter cord is pulled. It starts easily every time. I do wish that it ran a little slower though; I find myself walking unnecessarily fast.

Since I’d been without a mower for a couple of weeks, one lawn had grown to at least 9” of grass and weeds. This was absolutely no problem for the Mountfield, but it was necessary to only intermittently engage the drive or it soon choked as is to be expected.

The 60-litre grass catcher is superb. The solid floor helps ensure that it fills full every time. The handle design for the box is good too. It is easy to lift the full box out through the handles, and to replace it. However, a handle of some kind at the rear bottom of the box would be convenient when tipping it up to empty. It is easy to lift the lid at the rear of the mower to see how full the box is although the ‘Full’ indicator works well. I’ve not yet used the mower on wet grass, but expect it to still collect the grass well.

There are three levers to adjust the cutting height, one for the rear wheels and one each for the front wheels. This is a little fiddly, but then, I don’t need to change the height very often;

I was surprised to find that the blade isn’t actually “sharp”. This means that very often tall, individual grass stems are simply pushed over rather than cut off. I’ll sharpen it myself.

The engine sound level is standard, and it does seem to be quite frugal. I’ve used about a quarter of a tank in about an hour’s mowing. The flat, smooth design of the top of the engine is very welcome, permitting operation under low branches with no snagging. I’ve not yet used the ‘mulch’ facility.

The mower arrived the day after ordering and was very easy to assemble although some of the instructions apply to an earlier model (the grass box is simply a ‘clip-together’ design). It is very helpful that MowDirect include a bottle of oil. It is 0.66ml and the engine takes 0.5ml.

So far then, this mower has proved to be surprisingly good and easy to use, and MowDirect set a benchmark for a user-friendly and informative website, and superb customer service.

Great Machine After having electric flymos for years and the last one dying, I tried a newer larger flymo and took it back after cutting the grass once. It was constantly tipping up when pulling backwards, say away from a wall, and generally making a ham fist of cutting the grass. Time for a change. I looked at other electric mowers but wasn't impressed. I was unsure about a petrol mower; noise , didn't think lawn was big enough even though it took over an hour to cut !!!!!

Was I wrong?! I should have bought one years ago, so quick to do the lawns in half the time, picks up fantastically, better than a hover, no grass flinging everywhere, don't have to sweep up anymore as well - bonus - and only have to empty the basket once compared 3/4times previously.The noise is probably the same as a flymo so no issues there and the quality of being a Honda engine gives assurance and starts first time with ease and with the added bonus of five year warranty.

Easy start Starts easily and does its job. Poor quality instructions but that seems par for the course these days.