Reel Lawn Mowers Making a Comeback

According the the Associated Press roughly 350,000 manual reel mowers are sold annually in the US, compared to 6 million gas powered.

However, retailers are noticing increased sales in manual reel lawn mowers across the country.  Buyers and sellers alike say the resurgence of these mowers is due most notably to growing environmental concerns and an increasing number of women who do the mowing.  The skyrocketing cost of gasoline in the U.S. is also helping drive sales of the classic eco-friendly mowers.

"We noticed very quickly that two out of three people buying manual mowers were female," said Terry Jarvis, president of Sunlawn Inc., a Fort Collins, Colorado based company that's been selling the mowers for 10 years and making its own for two.

Another interesting sales trend related to manual lawn mowers is many consumers are buying them online because they aren't often easy to find in stores.  Retailers are catching on to this growing trend as the mowers are now starting to appear again in hardware stores across the country.

Buying a manual lawn mower online is easy.  A quick search on Amazon.com yields a number of models available for around $100 including several American Lawn Mower company products like the American Lawn Mower Company 18 or 16 inch Reel Mower. Several customers mentioned Amazon has the best selection.  "You can't buy directly from Great States/American Lawn Mower and Amazon has the best selection," said J.M. Cranford

Some reel mower choices we liked in the $100 or less price range are:

American Lawn Mower Company 18-Inch Reel Mower

American Lawn Mower Company 16-Inch Bent Reel Mower

Scotts 20-Inch Push Reel Mower

Gilmour 20-Inch Reel Mower With Grass Catcher ($120 w/grass catcher)