Fiskars Momentum Reel Lawn Mower Review

When I was a kid, I cut my grandmother’s lawn every week. She had an ancient reel mower, which was notorious for jamming. Just cutting her little strip lawn was a major chore and I grew to hate that reel mower.

Times have certainly changed. I was asked to review the new MOMENTUM Reel Mower from Fiskars, a company best known for any kind of high-quality tool that involves a blade (scissors, pruning saws, loppers, various other gardening tools, etc). The Fiskars MOMENTUM claims to be “The World’s Most Advanced Reel Mower”.

The upside of using a reel mower to cut your lawn is that it uses no gasoline, motor oil, air filters, oil filters, etc – it’s basically a sturdy handle connected to a set of rotating blades mounted on wheels. When the wheels move, a chain mechanism not unlike your bicycle’s rotates the blades. There is little to no maintenance outside of sharpening the blades and oiling the chain periodically. From an environmental standpoint, a reel mower is a beautiful thing – zero carbon output on the user end.

Easy assembly

The MOMENTUM lawn mower arrived in a surprisingly small box: 2’x2’x14″.  It only took about 20 minutes to assemble, which was simply putting the handle together and then attaching it to the blade and wheel housing, which was in one piece. The Owners Manual was clear and I was impressed with the efficient design and the ergonomic handle. The reel mower was relatively light without feeling cheap – Fiskars has used a combination of high impact plastic and metal in all the right places. They also placed a handle on the bottom of the wheel and blades housing which makes for easy pick-up. The handle moves forward to create a low profile if you want to hang it on the wall of your shed or garage.

How well does the Momentum reel mower cut grass?

My yard offers a range of grass heights: Only about 1″ needs to be cut in the high traffic areas and usually 3″ at the edges where no one walks. I cut in the evening on a cool night – the grass was slightly damp.

The MOMENTUM really had a challenge in front of it, as my lawn had grown very long after ten days. I set the cutting height to three inches (you can set the cutting height from 1 inch to 4 inches) and started cutting.

The Fiskars MOMENTUM reel mower did an admirable job – almost as good as my gas-powered push mower. I was impressed with how the MOMENTUM threw the grass out of the front of the blades housing – these babies were sharp. The mower did an excellent job on the shortest grass, but I had to roll over the tall grass a couple of times to cut it all. To be fair, the owner’s manual warns about cutting when the lawn is too long and says that you shouldn’t cut more than one-third of your lawn’s length, which they are quite right about. Two days later when the grass was the normal height and dry, I went back over the entire lawn and the MOMENTUM did a very fine job. After that second cut, the lawn actually looked better than after cutting it with my oil and gas-powered mulching blade Craftsman mower.

MOMENTUM’s edging was excellent for a reel mower – it cut just as close as my Craftsman gasoline-powered lawn mower. It was also very easy to push – I barely broke a sweat. The faster you walk, the more efficient the cut, as a fast pace makes the blades rotate faster.

CONCLUSION: For me, the best thing about the Fiskars MOMENTUM reel mower was no motor noise and no pull start. All you hear is the sound of the blades spinning, which is very quiet. I’ve spent so many years cutting my lawn with gasoline mowers that this was a welcome change. My dog also loved it and trotted along with me the entire way. You could cut your front lawn with this mower while a party was going on in the backyard and no one would be the wiser.

The only downside is that while the MOMENTUM’s blades are plenty sharp, my gas lawn mower with a mulching blade chops up the cuttings, whereas the MOMENTUM will leave un-mulched cut grass on top of your lawn. This is not a problem if you cut frequently and on a regular schedule.

My wife absolutely loved this lawn mower because it was quiet and easy for her to push and she felt really great about using zero fossil fuels to cut the lawn.