Flymo Power Compact 330

Poor hover & loose bolt from mechanism came out and hit the blade, damaging blade and deck carcase of machine on very first use. Also as others have mentioned cuttings fly out everywhere rather than being sucked up. Overall very poor.

Inherited a Flymo compact 330 when my uncle passed away (was in his garden shed so I "rescued" it before the house clearance people did!) Lasted 2 summers but the motor burned out today.... Just after I'd splashed out on a new replacement blade too. Now replaced with a cheap (sub-£200) petrol mower which is 100% better in every way! So nice not to keep having to watch where the cord is or getting the cord wrapped round the garden walls. Not that impressed but again, not sure how old the 330 was before I got it, or how much use it had with my uncle. Didn't look that old though!

Brought a Flymo because lawn is a odd shape, big mistake. leaves more grass on the lawn than the box, but its biggest fault is the how often the area around the blade blocks up, it then throws out big lumps of grass onto the lawn, so frustrating. Cutting the grass now takes twice the time it did with my old smaller mower. Only a year old but will be replacing soon.

When the 330 mower grinds to a halt in a cloud of smoke, spitting out bits of white plastic, it's time to remove the motor and turn it through 180 degrees.

Rotating the motor body offsets the body distortion, caused by the belt tension.(as mentioned by 'guest- 7th August 2009, below). It works for me. I have done this twice with my 2006 mower.

Mark the motor position before removing. Tighten the belt well when re-assembling. Job takes about 30 mins with the right tools.

Take all of the necessary care when working on electrical/rotating equipment.

Basically a poor design. Not tested for long enough before it was put into productuion. Apart from this problem the mower seems to work okay.

Steve G.

I can only endorse much of what has been said by previous reviewers. The materials of construction are poor and the performance on anything other than presumably the most pristine of lawn surfaces is awful.The machine failed within a short period of time and really after only a small amount of use on a medium sized lawn.I replaced with a budget petrol rotary from a DIY store and this simply put the flymo to shame ( and continues to do so). This flymo as has been said here before is simply not fit for purpose.

The Flymo Compact 330... terrible.

I've owned 2 of these now and both have only lasted around 18 months before the motors have packed up. They aren't challenged with a huge lawn or used that often but still they have both failed with white smoke pouring out of the foam "air intake" at the front of the machine.

Plastics are flimsy, especially around the lid, the grass box doesn't always seat effectively and the pick-up poor. I have no idea why I bought a second one to be honest, I should have stopped after the first.

What's most annoying is when your machine packs up and then you notice a neighbour happily mowing away with their 1980's Flymo that's still going strong. Build quality isn't what it used to be, these machines are disposible, especially given the cost of new parts when something does go wrong. I hate being a consumer and throwing items away but this seems to be what they want, hopefully the plastics can be recycled.

My mower has just failed afer just two years, the drive pulley has sheared off from the motor, the reason for this is the rotor blade bearing has seized so the load on the motor spindle became excessive. Conclusion-cheap parts, poor build quality,poor technical knowhow. This machine is a throwaway consumer item, you get what you pay for, my dad use to say 'buy cheap and you buy twice' wise words.

I am about to buy a second one of these mowers, as I was so impressed with the first.

My son cuts the grass, he is a very lazy gardener so the mower has undoubtedly missed cleaning etc on several occassions, but has still lasted 7 years. Our garden is not neat lawns etc but all humps, bumps & mounds but the mower has kept it all neat & tidy.

My model was bought on the strngth of my previous Flymo which lasted for approx 16 years. This model was a real disappointment ~ it lasted 2 seasons then ust as I took it out for this season it got half of the first lawn cut then went up in smoke. I don't think I'll be looking at Flymo in the future, they are obviously using cheap foreign production (shame)

I purchased this as a graded item, so it was propably a catalogue return. Worked OK for 4 years, now it has failed, motor has seized up, like may others. Previous mowers have lasted much longer, not impressed.