You little beauty! – After extensive research and trials, I have found this is currently the only manual push mower worth buying in Australia. It can and should replace push rotary mowers for the home yard of any size on well maintained lawns.

I think this is very similar to the Brill mowers marketed in USA. AL-KO has purchased Brill. Brills are not necessarily recommended for bent grasses in USA web sites. But AL-KO specifically states theirs is okfor couch. Other manual cylinder mower options for bent grasses (couch etc) are practically unobtainable here in Australia.

I tried to get a six bladed Mascot Silent Cut [Amish mower] non contact mower but the delivery alone from the States is $300. Sears in the USA has $50 dollar delivery for American Lawnmower Company seven blade machines, but these use a contact mechanism [reel blades touching the base plate] and will not hold their sharpness as long as non contact types. Fiskars, though non contact, are heavy [from personal experience] and not recommended for bent grasses. No other direct contact type mowers currently marketed in Australia such as Flymo, Ozito, and other Chinese products are worth considering as their mechanisms, design and construction make them dysfunctional in my experience.

My new AL-KO Soft Touch 38HM Comfort Push Mower for $99 on line seems to work with no adjustments out of the box so far very well on my Bermuda couch. It costs $118 with catcher, which I did not want.

I did scalp the lawn prior to use to get rid of the heavy thatch, the result of high mowing with my poorly designed old Flymo H40 [Husqvarna] manual push cylinder mower. I borrowed my neighbour's 5.5 horsepower Briggs and Stratton CO2 spewer for the job, However, though very light, the AL-KO feels like a nice tight "German engineered" product. The wheels do not wobble. Though I did not disassemble the mechanism yet, there is a reassuring metallic ratcheting noise on rolling backwards. The five blade reel has a significantly smaller radius compared to the old Flymo. This may be why it is touted to cut couch. The inter blade distance is smaller, so there is a greater cutting blade strike frequency per grass blade perhaps. It uses a non contact mechanism with the cutting blade on the reel unlike the "self sharpening" Flymo which relies on an ill conceived sharp static base blade and a reel full of dull sharpeners. The momentum of the AL-KO reel is unimpaired by any contact with the base plate. The AL-KO continues to cope with the couch grass very well after this recent summer rain after one month of regular use cutting at its lowest 14mm level. It is light weight[easy to move] encouraging frequent use. It"just works" with no reel adjustments required as delivered out of the box. It has a no contact cutting system for long blade edge life and good reel momentum. It comes with a clear instruction booklet. It is easily assembled out of the package. Apart from the no contact feature, it is a traditionally but excellently designed and engineered manual push cylinder mower. It cuts Bermuda couch easily and thoroughly with only a 5 blade reel. It is inexpensive at $99 delivered without the catcher. It has all the lawn health advantages of cylinder mowing as opposed to rotary mowing. The fact that no fueling required is a major convenience. It can and should reasonably replace a push power rotary mower on a well maintained lawn of any size. It is easily and by far the best manual push reel [cylinder] mower readily available in Australia at time of reviewing. Being light weight, it may not hold down a thick lawn as would a heavier reel mower, like the Mascot Silent Cut which is not reasonably obtainable in Australia. The low cutting limit, a rather high 14mm, limits short cutting of bent lawn greens. The high cutting limit is a bit low 35 mm for those wanting to cut cool climate grasses. As with all hand push cylinder mowers, an even clean lawn is required to avoid reel jams [which are easily fixed]. It will not cut outside the wheel width for close edges, such as in the Fiskars Momentum, not reasonably obtainable in Australia. There is no lapping paste sharpening kit system marketed or suggested by the manufacturer. Currently as far as I am aware after extensive searching, it is the only effective hand push cylinder mower currently readily available in Australia.