Allen XR44 Hover Trim

I was surprised to see a 1 star review for the Allen XR44 Hover mower - very harsh. As last year was very wet I only used my John Deere x304 for the main lawns and used a strimmer for the difficult to access areas, the cottage garden area and the slope to the streams. So today I got the XR44 out for the first time in over 12 months. One pull of the starter cord and it sprang to life. Warmed it up, changed the oil (10 minute job) and cut the grass with no problems.

I will comment on the points brought up in the 1 star review.

1.Length of cut. I set the platform on my John Deere at 2 1/4 inches. The Allen cuts much shorter than this. There are also 3 hight settings on the Allen and I use the middle one. Perhaps the cut needs lowering or the reviewer likes a very short lawn.

2. Size of petrol tank. Well I have just cut well over 200 square yards of grass on one tank full. So not bad for a mower which is only designed for small areas. Possibly excess consumption could be due to not closing the manual choke once it is warm.

3. Petrol spill. I have just cut a banking with a significant slope with no problems. There are two caps to the petrol filler. When I first got my mower I thought it spilled fuel as the cap has to be loose to allow fuel to flow. I then realised the main cap should be tight and there is a small secondary cap on top which you loosen.

My Hayter Allen XR44 Petrol Hovertrim has been a very disappointing purchase, having owned Flymo petrol hover mowers for over 30 years I decided this time I would try a different maker as in my experience Flymo have always been dodgy starters with their 2 stroke engines, Hayter have been around for many years so maybe time to give the XR44 a go.My first impression before using the machine looked very good with the renowned Honda 4 stroke engine and the nylon cutter blades. After using the XR44 for a couple of months with good engine starting compared to the Flymo L400 I found the usage of the XR44 to be very poor with long tufts of grass missed by the cutting action resulting in having to perform a second cut to eliminate them.The cutting height position lets the XR44 down, the nylon cutting blades are looped in place through one of a set of three predetermined pairs of holes in the fan plate that sets the height of the cut required. The lowest setting is nowhere near low enough compared to Flymo ' s metal blade and a different arrangement for this task.I have noticed that Hayter Allen offer an optional extra that increases the machines cutting height, we are going the wrong way here Hayter Allen unless the XR44 was designed for cutting an overgrown meadow!.I still own my old Flymo L400 and after a lawn cut with this machine it takes over ten days growth before a cut with the XR44 makes a contact with the grass, consequently the lawns need to be cut twice as often with the XR44 compared to the Flymo.Now the Honda 4 stroke engine is a very good starter, this maybe due to a choke system compared to the Flymo ' s poor primer system. The Honda engine does have it ' s faults, the fuel tank capacitance is far to small and this problem is enhanced because you must keep the fuel level well below the tanks neck to avoid fuel spillage through the fuel cap breather screw.On a plus point the XR44 skirted body has a ' Hand-Hole ' for carrying, however when you lift the XR44 from one lawn to another the fuel tap must be turned off and the breather cap screwed hard down to avoid fuel spilling everywhere, this never happens with the Flymo ' s.Finally, the XR44 ' s safety stop bar spring is far to strong, a tight grip is required with the handlebar throughout the time the engine is running, very uncomfortable, surely this is not necessary. My conclusions are that ' My time for a change ' to the XR44 was a bad move. I may appear to be a ' Flymo Fan ' but this is not the case as the Flymo ' s can be horrific for engine starting however if I had known what I know now about the Hayter Allen XR44 Hovertrim I would have stayed with Flymo, bad engine starting and all.