AL-KO Silver 470B

Great design, however – My family bought me a new AL-KO 470B Premium as my ancient and grossly overworked Masport was starting to show the signs of age. Now with a new home and new, flat lawn, I believed the AL-KO a good lawnmower and was prepared to give it five stars right from initial use. Comes the "but": Not everything in the garden is rosy! At the end my report,… Read more

I have answered "No", I would not recommend this to a friend although, with some minor and relatively inexpensive changes to design, I most certainly would. Design concept is great. Unfortunately, in practice, it leaves a bit to be desired. German design, Austrian manufacture? Should be OK. From the viewpoint of its ease of use, its quiet operation and the accuracy of its cut, I was more than happy with the gift. The grasscatcher is highly efficient in that it fills better than any I've ever before owned (although more on that anon, too!) Cutting height adjustment is easy. Handle adjustment is fine and overall comfort of operation good. The handle is too long and flexes, with a lot of movement also in the height adjusters, spoiling what is otherwise a good setup. The bolt and nut on the cutting height adjuster loosen off with every use. The nut is one of those crimped on three of its six faces and is insufficient unto the cause. I have now replaced it with a "nyloc" nut; end of problem. Screws consistently loosen on the body and I now spend five minutes with spanner and screwdrivers before I start to mow. With the Masport, in over eight years I had only one screw loosen, the one that holds up the front of the fuel tank. The efficiency of the grasscatcher is perhaps due to its thorough airflow. This is a problem as it allows a great amount of dust and fine clippings to pass through, not good for a chronic hayfever sufferer!

Good mower but hard to push – The 470B is very hard to push, initially I regretted not buying the self propelled model. After some investigation I discovered that the 12mm bar which joins the back wheels together was 15mm below the cutting level of the blades, which of course means that this bar drags 15mm into the lawn and ground, when cutting fairly low. Proved by the… Read more

significant marks cut into the lower side of this bar.

The fix: Drill another 12mm hole just above the existing bar and weld in another bar, then cut off the existing bar and part of the associated side plate.

This operation leaves the bar 3mm below the cutting level of the blades, results in vastly improved ability to push the mower, however still not as easy as my old Victor. The next step is to take the blade off and the alloy sleeve, don't lose the key piece, and place two steal washers in side this sleeve, then replace everything. This lowers the blade about 4mm. Now the 12mm bar is 1mm higher that the cutting surface of the blades.

I can now push the mower as easily as my old Victor. All I have to do now is to figure out a method of taking out the slack in the plastic devices which allow you to adjust the height of the pushing handle, hopefully reducing the vertical wobble when pushing the mower from the existing 75mm to something less.

I contacted the Australian head office and was told that they had never received a single complaint until I rang. This has only two possible explanations. 1: I am the only person in Australia which has purchased this model. 2: There are lots of people out there wishing they had never purchased this mower, albeit very fit people by now. Big grass catcher Faulty design, too hard to push