Best Hover Lawnmower UK 

In this article we review in detail the range of hover lawnmowers, that are currently available on the UK market. This particular type of mower are made by Flymo, Lawnmaster and Black &Decker. It is worth noting that Flymo truly dominate the UK market.

The most popular type of lawnmower in the UK is an electric rotary wheeled style mower. These are designed for medium to larger sized gardens, and because they have wheels, you have to mow your lawn in straight lines. Hover mowers, don't have wheels and that allows you to move the mower in any direction. That makes a hover mower a better choice for anyone with a small garden or an irregular shaped garden. The are also better if you just want to get the garden cut as quickly as possible.

Below we have reviewed, the top 5 hover style lawn mowers. However before we look at those, it is worth taking a few moments, to consider who this type of mower is best suited for.

The list below shows the top 12 hover mowers currently being sold in the UK. I have include a featured comparison list below which should help make your choice a little bit easier.

These hover mowers are really only suitable for small to medium sized gardens. If you have a big garden or a lot of grass to cut, then it would be better to go for something like an electric rotary mower, or even a petrol driven mower.

Now let's have a look at which one you should buy. Personally we would recommend that you stick with a Flymo brand. They have been making these for years and they have continued to improve them.

More importantly, they are almost maintenance free, and if you do need parts such as replacement blades, or cords, then these are easy to find, and relatively cheap as well.

This is probably the single biggest complaint with all hover mowers. They do not do a great job of collecting all of the grass. Over the years, we have used a lot of hover mowers, and all of them tend to spit some grass out of the side of the mower.

Most models will collect most of the grass, some will compact it and that will make mowing a great deal easier. Some of the models however do not collect the grass.

That means getting the rake out when you are finished and doing that. It will also mean getting the brush out for yards and paths.

In a small garden that is not a lot of work, but in my opinion still a task that we do not want to do. We would recommend buying one with grass collection included.

Although it will not collect all of the grass it will collect most of it.

The reason many hover mowers don't have grass collection is that if the grass is cut regularly, then the small clippings actually work as a mulch. In other words they help feed the existing grass and keep down the amount of weeds.

This is the width of grass that your mower can cut at any one time. These widths vary from as low as 29 cm and all the way up to 40 cm. The most popular width is either a 30 cm or a 33 cm.

The wider the cutting width that faster you will be able to cut your grass. In all honesty there is very little time saved. Although a bigger cutting width may seem like a good idea, have a little think about where the mower may have to cut.

If for example you have a narrow run of grass, or you need to get in between shrubs, then a smaller cutting width would be better.

One of the joys of owning a hover mower is that the handle folds down very easily. That means you do not need a lot of room for storage. These mowers are also typically light at around 8 Kg (20 lbs) so most people can manage that, and even lifting it up is not too tough.

This is a key consideration for many buyers and especially for those who are just not as strong and mobile as they used to be.

When the grass is getting cut, it is certainly convenient to be able to look and see that the grass box is not full. More importantly though this box should be easy to remove and then attach again.

On all of the Flymo, and even the Qualcast one, this is a basic enough feature and one that I believe is nice to have, though certainly not vital.

Most of these basic hover styles run off electricity. You plug them into a main's socket and you are good to go. The vast majority of these come with a 10 metre lead. (almost 33 feet) A few of them will come with a 12 metre lead (just over 39 feet)

For smaller gardens that is usually enough. If that is not long enough then you will need a good quality extension lead.

The Masterplug one shown below is very high quality, and will keep you safe when using any garden electric appliance.

These small safety devices make sure that the electric is cut off instantly, should something inadvertently happen.

In this section we answer the most frequently asked questions that people have about hover mowers.

Q, Why does my mower not Hover?

The key when starting up a hover mower is to tilt it slightly to the side. This tilting action allows the air to circulate under the main deck of your mower. Many people get a heavy feel if they don't do this action when starting the mower up.

Other reasons for not cutting might be if the lawn or grass feels like a sponge under your feet. This sponge effect actually pulls a hover mower down and makes it ineffective.

You can either wait for the grass to dry out, or scarify the grass which will improve it over time.

Finally check the mower to make sure that there is no build up of grass under the hood or grass stuck in the fins. If you clean your mower after each use this will eliminate this problem.

Q, Why does my mower not collect grass properly?

Most hover mowers have some form of grass collection usually a small box and typically 20 litres in size. The mower then vacuums grass clippings from the lawn through a small aperture in the base of the grass box.

Some very fine clippings are allowed back into the lawn as this acts as a natural feed for the lawn. Hovers use a cushion of air, and as a result there will always be a small amount of clippings that will be blown away from the mower.

To minimise the amount of clippings try and walk in a straight line for optimum collection.

Q, Why does my mower blow grass everywhere?

I explained the reason for this just above, the nature of the hover is to blow air, and with that grass does seem to blow everywhere. A great tip to minimise this is to mow the lawn in a clockwise direction, as that blows all of the grass clippings to the centre of the lawn.

Q, How do you adjust the height of the grass cut?

It will vary depending on the actual brand of hover mower that you own. On some brands it is a simple central height adjustment lever found on the side.

However with most Flymos, this can only be done by adding or removing spacers between the lawnmower's blade and cutting deck.

Always carefully read the instructions for guidance before attempting to adjust the height of cut on your lawnmower.