AL-KO Soft Touch 380 HM Premium 38cm Hand Lawnmower

I unpacked the box with high hopes. I had previously spent a couple of hours researching manual push mowers, and was drawn to the space-saving foldable handle. But I quickly came unstuck when I attempted to adjust the cutting height from the brutal default setting (there are 4 heights to choose from). What you have to bear in mind if you buy this, is that there aren't really any instructions included. This may be a problem if, like me, you are a gardening rather than a power tool enthusiast. The thick booklet that is provided just gives generic operating advice like "don't mow the grass in sandals", and "don't mow wet grass" in 20 different languages.It was pretty easy to figure out how to assemble the mower (it came in 3 pieces), just by looking at what should logically slot in where. Figuring out how to adjust the cutting height was a different matter. This is where some basic instructions would have been useful. Unfortunately the relevant page in the 'instructions' manual is extremely confusing. It consists of a series of strange diagrams. They may as well have transcribed ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics for all the sense it made to me. They certainly sent me off on a wild goose chase, mistakenly believing that I needed to unscrew 2 bolts using a star-shaped 5mm allen key (nope, I don't have one of those in my tool box either). When my other half came home, we managed to figure out that it's actually a really simple operation, that just involves pulling out some bits at the side and slotting them back into a higher / lower hole. But I would not have figured this out by myself. In fact, by this point I had requested a refund, believing that the mower was defective because it wasn't doing what the diagram suggested it should.It cuts the grass fine. Whether I can get over my initial rage-fuelled hatred toward it, and enjoy cutting the grass, remains to be seen.

I was fed up with cleaning the grass cuttings off the patio with my electric mower so I thought I will give a hand mower a go. Their other products are highly recommended by Which and Amazon readers so I thought this was a good guide. And it certainly was! The machine was delivered from Germany and I received full tracking information and a delivery date and time period. Assembling the machine was a little fiddly and the instructions could be clearer. However, once assembled time to test it out. Very easy to push with the large wheels, good even cut. I left it on the first height but it is easy to adjust to the other two heights. Good exercise for me and lawn looks better after being cut with this than my electric mower. It does not come with a grass collector and really needs one, I purchased one separately from a garden supplier. The product details make it clear a collector is not included so no criticism here. Very good buy, excellent value, good build quality and will last for many years. The major challenge is whether I can get the rest of the family to use it whilst I concentrate on the Pimms.

Received this the other day, took about 20mins to attach the handle to the mower as it was a bit difficult to get both ends slotted into the holes, the cutting blades are very sharp so be careful when handling, am just disappointed in 2 areas of this mower, 1st being the plastic part of the mower which felt like cheap plastic especially for something that was not cheap to buy, another disappointing point was the quick lock handle mechanism, in the video alko has on its website it shows it being easy to pull the handles up and locking it quickly with no problem, well in my case it was a big problem the quick lock refused to lock into place no matter what I did, I tried unscrewing/repositioning the locking device to see if that would help but to no avail and after a while I gave up and called Amazon to request a return, it would have been a lovely mower but as Amazon doesn't have any more in stock am unable to find that out, if you want to buy this mower but don't want to encounter what I did then get the alko 38hm comfort instead.

It cuts really well and I am so pleased with it.I bought this in favour of my old electric because of the size and storage footprint and it takes up much less space.Cutting the grass is also more satisfying and it cuts a lot better than I though it would.The down side:- Raking up the grass is harder than I thought. You have to let it dry a bit but then if you walk over it you cary it around with you- Very long grass is difficult. It work much better on regular cut grass- Stones stop it in its tracks so you need to clear them off in advance.Overall I love it.

We have an uneven lawn so was a bit sceptical this would work completely but it handled the lawn amazingly well, gave a nice and clean, even cut. Easy to clean fold away. Very happy so far. Only one thing is if you need to adjust the blade ( not the cutting height as that's is super easy actually) then you need a 5mm hex key/ tool which is not supplied.A good idea to purchase the optional grass collector tray as it saves extra work and keeps the finish nice and clean.It's pricier than some rival products, but I'm very pleased thus far with purchase.

Instructions woefully inadequate. Figured out attaching the handle and, once having purchased a suitable allan key, was able to adjust the cutting height. What took time was in working out how to stop the handle from bending in half - again, requiring more allan key work, a spanner and 15 mins of faffing by 2 intelligent blokes - as no guidance whatsoever in the instructions.Now that it is up and running, seems to cut OK although would like to be able to adjust the height more easily. Am pretty sure we could have arrived at the same results for half the price with two thirds less hassle. Wouldn't recommend to my friends.

have not used the mower yet but did not find easy to set up out of the box. The instructions are really poor and unless you are adept at putting things together without instructions I would not recommend to anyone

Nice looking mower, but adjustments are not straight forward and need care with the sharp blades.