Hayter 617 Spirit Petrol Mower

First of all if one of your main concerns in buying a new lawnmower is starting it up then the Hayter 617 Spirit mower is probably not for you. It’s not that it’s extremely hard to start but it’s nearly always a topic for debate with any decent petrol lawnmower – how hard is it to start? Out of the many petrol mowers I’ve tried this certainly isn’t the hardest to start, but it does require a little bit of effort. As with most petrol mowers you have to press a primer button a few times before pulling the starter cord. On the Hayter 617 you are told to press it five times before pulling the cord, in reality you’ll usually discover the right number yourself depending on the circumstances – varying between 3 and 10 in my experience!

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So if you want to turn your mower with no effort at all, start looking at electric mowers or some of the new Honda petrol mowers which seem to start with a little less effort. The reason people buy Hayter mowers though are because they have a deserved reputation for quality. If you have a large garden or rough area that you need to keep under control – you’ll have little problem with most Hayters and the Hayter 617 push mower is no exception.

It’s construction is fairly solid although for those used to older Hayter lawnmowers this one doesn’t feel quite as solid being constructed from mainly aluminium and composite plastic. This does have the advantage of being a lot more light weight though and it does make it easier to manage and manoeuver than older models.

As suggested by the name it’s cutting width is 41 cms which is just about right for most jobs in a reasonable side garden. The cutting lengths are from 13mm to 65mm although it can be a little difficult to estimate these you soon get used to the lengths each setting provides. The Hayter 617 has a large grass collection capacity of 55 liters in it’s strong canvas grass bag which saves lots of visits to empty the cuttings.

So How Does the Hayter 617 Spirit Cut?

This is where I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, the 617 cuts beautifully providing a fantastic finish making most decent lawns look like golf fairways. The obligatory stripes are clear and defined and really do make your lawn look good.

Some have reported problems with the way the Hayter 617 manages and collects when the grass is damp. I don’t really feel I can comment on this as I never usually mow damp grass. It doesn’t look like it would be a problem but if you’re gardener who needs to cut grass in situations that are not ideal it might be worth checking around – there’s quite a few reviews on the Amazon site which mention it.

So overall the Hayter 617 Spirit Push mower is a pretty decent mower, it’s pretty affordable compared to their normal models but perhaps that is slightly reflected in the build components of these cheaper models. It does cut the lawn extremely well and you won’t find many better finishes in mowers at this price range or below. If you decide that a petrol mower is for you then you could do a lot worse than the Hayter 617 Spirit.