After some good recommendations from readers about the Neuton mower I was excited to give it a try. Then about that same time I was contacted by a representative of Neuton who is a reader of my blog, and offered to let me do a “test drive” of one of their mowers. I was more than excited to give the machine a go, and see how it performed in a real life setting. He also informed me that this wasn’t really something out of the ordinary for Neuton, as they offer a 6 Month Risk-FreeTrial period on the Neuton mower.

On Friday the mower arrived and our first impression was good. I expected that the mower would come in a million pieces but that was not the case. Everything arrived in one box (although it looked like it had been dragged behind the truck on its way to our house) we just unfolded the handle and it was ready to be charged.

Aethetically the machine is fresh and playful-looking with simple, solid, functional and friendly elements making up its form. The top hood was a semi-transparent plastic material that easily opened with the touch of fairly obvious orange release button. My only concern with this was that plastic piece seemed like it might be subject to breaking if something were dropped on it, but that is only the suspicion of someone with two small boys, and it had made it this far without any damage despite the condition of the box. Under the hood I found a pleasantly simple set of elements, a set of tools (wrenches etc.), the battery, a port for the safety key and height adjustment knob. The beautiful fresh green color and hot orange isn’t only for looks either. Every item on the machine that is a piece you will need to adjust, move or interact with has been color code in orange to make it easy to identify. The handles features, like that of the rest of the machine, are clearly marked (again in orange) and appear quite easy to operate—this is just simply good industrial design.

The battery is probably the heaviest item on the Neuton mower, but it comes out quite easily so you can charge it (it can also be charged with the battery in place). I plugged the battery in on Friday night and wanted to give it a good 24 hrs. of charge time before the first run early on Sunday morning. It says that it most often needs 8-12 hours of charge time after the initial charge for the battery to reach it’s full capacity so this means there isn’t a lot planning needed between each mowing.

For the first test run of the mower I decided that I would try the use the mulching feature. Our grass was extremely long and thick and I knew that this would probably be the biggest challenge for any mower (gas or electric). I set the height adjustment to it’s highest level (4″) and was ready to go. My first observation was that once I put the key in and turned the mower to the on position, there was no noise. Additionally, I didn’t have to wear out my shoulder using a pull start, like the gas mowers I have used in the past. Once I squeezed the handle the mower gave off a whirling sound (a bit louder than I had expected based on reviews I had read) similar to that of a small barn fan (yes I’m from farm country), but nowhere near as loud as traditional gas mower. The first pass through the grass left a perfectly crisp cut path of grass behind me, and the mulcher appeared to be working well. I did notice that as I moved into the really long grass, I had to mow a little slower and that occasionally it left a trail of grass clumps behind me, that the mulcher couldn’t devour. I would most likely say that in the areas where the grass was it’s thickest (almost 12″) that this would have been the result for most push mowers gas or electric. I also had to go back over a couple of areas where the wheels hand trampled down the grass but this wasn’t really an issue if I made sure to overlap my paths and alternate the direction I mowed. If there is one area where the mower may be a draw back to users its that it is not self-propelled. This doesn’t bother me, but for a smaller person with a hilly yard, this may mean a little bit more effort with their legs and arms than they’re use to.

Using the Neuton mower I completed our back lawn in 1 hour 10 minutes, about 1/2 the time that I would with our push style, rotary mower. I would guess that this would be less next time, as I don’t plan to let the grass grow to 12″ again anytime soon. The marketing materials say 1 hour of charge time for the battery and I got all of that and a little more by letting off the handle as I made my turns and when I moved between areas of the lawn.

My over-all review so far: the Neuton mower is simple and easy to use with well designed functional features. The mower cut through the tallest grass in our yard with acceptable performance and was excellent in the areas where the grass was at a more normal height. It was a bit louder than I had imagined but still much quieter than any gas mower I’ve heard. It exceeded my expected 1 hour window of run time on the battery, but probably would require two charges for an area larger than my 500 square feet of grass or to do my entire yard. My only real area of concern were the mowers weight, especially for people with hilly yards. Overall, I’d say the Neuton lives up to what all of it’s fans have told me, and really proves itself as a rival to the traditional gas mower.

Easy to operate handle features are clearly marked, including battery level.

The hood material felt a bit suspect to me for durability,
but I liked the easy access, almost elementary buttons.

I love the simple and straight forward nature of the industrial design.

The mower cut nice clean strips of grass with relative ease.

A side profile of the Neuton mower shows its streamlined design.

The 19″ model I tested came with a mulching plug, bagger and side discharge adapter.

I was most impressed with the Neuton’s ability to cut through the thick long grass without any real issues.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 5:47 pm and is filed under Green, Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.