Great States 16-Inch Hand Reel Mower #705-16

Cut your grass without the hassle of messy gasoline and noisy engines. Instead, use this environmentally-friendly 5-blade reel mower to get the job done! It's the perfect city mower.

I am still a bit taken aback at the price on reel mowers... but after using it, I understand.

This is no flimsy hunk of aluminum and plastic. This is a nice heavy chunk of metal. The blades will stay sharp for years. It made short work of my lawn and was NOT tedious to push around. The reel spins smoothly and is pleasant to listen to... compare it to the din of gas mowers.
I've already had a neighbor ask me where I got it.

I gave this mower only 4 stars instead of 5 because:
1. The T handle was difficult to attach to the reel. I had to whack at it with a hammer to get it into the correct position on the reel.
2. It does NOT work well on taller grass. Anything too tall just gets rolled over. (Incentive to keep the lawn in check.)
But these negatives do not outwiegh the positives.

Overall, I'm glad I got it!


Never return to stinky gas mowers again!   August 17, 2000
Jeffrey Jotz (Rahway, NJ USA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I purchased a similar 16" reel mower by Great States because I have a very small lawn and didn't want the hassle, cost, noise and environmental problems from the gas mowers I grew up with.

It took about 30 minutes to put together, with some detergent to slip the handlebars on and some elbow grease to get the nuts and bolts fastened.

When I started cutting with my mower for the first time, my neighbor saw what I was doing and rushed over saying, "you'll rip the blades of grass with that thing. You can borrow mine (big, gas-powered rear-bagger) until you can afford a REAL lawn mower."

I politely declined as he went into the house shaking his head, thinking I was nuts.

The mower cut pretty good - I had to do a few spots over again, because the cut was uneven, and it does a poor job of edging. I cut the tall grass around the tree in front of my house and edged around the sidewalk and my garden with a pair of hand shears. That took about 15 minutes.

When I was finished, I hung the mower up in my garage.

Using the reel mower was an adjustment after growing up with a big gas mower at my parents' 1960s suburban home, but my lawn is small, and I hate the hassle, noise and cost of the gas mowers (not to mention the environmental issues), I'm planning on keeping the reeel mower, but I would also recommend a good weed whacker and some grass shears.


This is a SWEET mower.   June 2, 2006
Jack R. Tallent (Ellicott City, MD USA)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

I have used conventional, gas-powered, walk-behind rotary mowers my whole life. Having just recently moved to a townhouse with a smallish lawn that is in relatively good condition, I decided to experiment with a reel-type mower.

I was not expecting much, but was EXTREMELY pleased with the results. I believe this type of mower can give you a BETTER cut than you can get with your common gas mower.

On my lawn, at the 2 1/2 inch height setting, pushing the mower takes little effort. The sound this machine makes is sweet and satisfying: a sharp, whispery, snickering sound. Cutting with this instrument feels more PRECISE than with the common gas mower. You are manicuring your grass, not just ripping it to a shorter height.

The other benefits are just gravy: it costs next to nothing, it hangs in your shed, it is very light, it is safer, it takes no gas, requires no starting, and you could mow at night were you so inclined.

There is a certain simple sophistication about this kind of mower. If you have the right kind of lawn situation, getting this machine is a no-brainer.


Unfortunately tried to buy at Home Depot   September 2, 2006
Anna Maki (Western Wisconsin)
2 out of 20 found this review helpful

I bought this mower from home depot. It was in a box and I didn't think I needed to pay the $25 assembly fee. Got home, my daughter opened the box and notified me that there was grass intertwined throughout the parts and the parts were out of the bag and just thrown in the box. We thought, oh well, someone must have returned it. She started putting it together and realized that parts were missing. I called Home Depot and the lawn and garden manager informed me it was the last one in the store. I asked him if he could exchange it for the display model and he said, "We don't sell display models." I replied,"Well you could clean this one up, find the missing parts you'll need in your store and put it up for display." He said in a louder voice, "WE DON'T SELL DISPLAY MODELS!!!".


Very reliable   September 26, 2007
Susan Maloney (Seattle, WA)
I actually bought this at my local hardware store, so I didn't have to assemble it. I've been very happy with it. This was my 5th summer using it and I find it easy to use, durable and reliable, quiet, and good for the environment. Raking up the clippings after mowing is more of a workout than pushing the mower. I've had the blades sharpened once in the 5 years. The only time it doesn't cut well is when the grass is too high. Then we might have to rake it to make it stand up before we mow and go over it a few times to get a successful cut.