Flymo gets dismissed too often as a budget brand for people who do not take their lawn seriously. The reality is more interesting. On the kind of awkward garden that wheeled mowers physically cannot handle well, a hover mower is the most practical machine you can buy, and Flymo has dominated this category for decades because nobody else makes hover mowers at the price and quality they do.
The question is not whether a Flymo will outperform a Honda HRX on a flat 200 square metre rectangle. It will not. The question is what to do about banks, slopes, long narrow strips, lawns broken up by trees and shrubs, or grass edges that need clean trimming around features. For those jobs a hover mower has genuine mechanical advantages that wheeled mowers cannot replicate at any price.
Why a Hover Mower Beats a Wheeled Mower on the Wrong-Shaped Lawn
A wheeled rotary mower needs four points of contact and forward momentum to cut cleanly. On a slope steeper than about 15 degrees, the front wheels start to lift, the deck tilts, and you end up scalping high spots while missing the dips. On a strip narrower than the wheelbase, you cannot turn without leaving an uncut margin. Around mature trees with surface roots, the wheels bump and the blade pitches up and down, producing a hacked finish.
A hover mower floats on a cushion of air generated by the spinning blade and its housing acts as a fan. There are no wheels. The deck sits a fixed distance above the ground regardless of underlying contours, and the operator can swing it side to side like a pendulum, push it up a steep bank without bracing against gravity, or feather it around a fence post without lifting and replacing. On a 30 to 45 degree slope where a petrol mower is genuinely dangerous, a hover mower is the only sensible answer short of a strimmer.
That alone is reason enough for hundreds of thousands of gardeners to own one. Add the fact that the entire mower weighs between 6.5 and 11kg (14 to 24 pounds), needs no maintenance beyond a blade swap, and stores hanging on two hooks in a shed, and the appeal becomes obvious for any garden with terrain that fights back.
The Flymo Range and Which One Actually Suits Your Garden
Flymo currently sells four main hover mowers, and the differences between them come down to cutting width, motor power, and whether the mower collects clippings or simply mulches them back into the lawn.
The Flymo Hover Vac 250 is the smallest in the range, with a 25cm (10 inch) cutting width and a 1400W motor. It weighs just 6.5kg (14 pounds), which is light enough to lift one-handed onto a hook. It includes a small clippings collector, useful if your lawn is too tidy to leave cuttings on. Price sits around £70 to £80 (about $90 to $100), making it the cheapest serious hover mower on the market. It suits a lawn under 100 square metres, particularly a small front garden, a long thin side strip, or a slope behind a wall.
The Hover Vac 270 steps up to 27cm (10.5 inches) cutting width on a similar lightweight chassis and sells for around £85 to £95 (roughly $110 to $120). The upgrade is marginal but worth it if your lawn pushes the upper edge of the Hover Vac 250’s comfortable range.
The EasiGlide Plus 330V is where the range starts to feel like a serious tool. It has a 33cm (13 inch) cutting width, a 1700W motor, and a folding handle for storage. Crucially it has a rear roller, which lays the grass over before cutting and leaves a faint stripe finish on the lawn. Price is around £100 to £130 (about $130 to $165) and it suits gardens up to roughly 250 square metres, including those with slopes, banks, and irregular shapes.
The UltraGlide 380 is the largest, with a 38cm (15 inch) cutting width and a 1800W motor. It will cut a small lawn quickly or handle a larger one comfortably, and at around £150 to £180 (roughly $190 to $225) it offers genuine value for a 300 to 400 square metre garden where the terrain rules out a wheeled mower.
For most buyers facing the choice, the EasiGlide Plus 330V is the sweet spot. It is heavy enough to feel substantial, light enough for slope work, has the rear roller for a tidier finish than the smaller models, and sits at a price where buyers can replace it after 8 to 10 seasons without flinching.
What Hover Mowers Cannot Do
It is fair to be clear about the limits. A hover mower will not produce a Wimbledon stripe finish on a flat lawn. The rear roller on the EasiGlide and UltraGlide produces a soft cosmetic stripe but nothing like the deep contrast a cylinder mower achieves. If a fine ornamental finish is your target, a hover mower is not the right tool.
Hover mowers also struggle with very long grass. The air cushion that lifts the deck depends on clear airflow underneath, and if the grass is thick enough to choke the underside, the mower bogs down and clogs. The practical maximum grass height for cutting is around 8 to 10cm (3 to 4 inches). If your lawn has grown to 15cm (6 inches) after a holiday, you will need to strim it first, then mow.
The cutting height adjustment on most Flymo hover mowers is also less precise than on wheeled rivals. The Hover Vac models use spacer washers under the blade, which means changing height requires a spanner and a few minutes’ work. The EasiGlide Plus has a step-adjusted lever offering five heights from 12 to 32mm (0.5 to 1.25 inches), which is more practical but still less convenient than a single-lever wheeled mower.
And like all hover mowers, Flymo machines are corded electric. You need an outdoor socket, a long extension lead, and the discipline to keep the cable behind you. For lawns over 400 square metres the cable management becomes irritating enough that a cordless wheeled mower starts to look more sensible.
The Real Reason Flymo Has Owned This Category Since 1964
The brand was founded in 1964 by Karl Dahlman after he saw the original Flymo prototype at the Chelsea Flower Show, and the basic engineering principle has not needed to change. The deck is a moulded plastic dome shaped to act as an axial fan. The blade is a flat steel disc bolted to the motor spindle. There are no drive belts, no transmission, no differential, no wheels, and almost no parts to break. A cheap hover mower with sensible care will last 10 years, and the only consumable apart from electricity is the steel blade itself, replacement cost around £8 to £12 (about $10 to $15) every two to three seasons depending on use.
Compare that with a petrol rotary, which needs annual oil changes, spark plug replacement, air filter cleaning, and either an annual service or a careful DIY routine, and the running cost difference over a decade is substantial. A Flymo Hover Vac 250 used weekly for ten years costs around £15 in blades and £25 in electricity. The same period of ownership on a £400 petrol mower could easily eat another £400 in servicing, fuel, and consumables.
Where Flymo loses out to brands like Honda, Hayter, or Stihl is in the heavy professional segment, where ground crews need machines that run all day and survive years of commercial abuse. Flymo does not compete there and never has. The brand sits firmly in the consumer segment, and within that segment the hover format is unmatched for awkward gardens.
If your lawn is a flat well-shaped rectangle, buy something else. If your garden has a steep bank, a long thin strip running down the side of the house, a sloped front lawn behind a low wall, a patchwork of beds and trees that breaks the grass into odd shapes, or any combination of those features, a Flymo hover mower is almost certainly the right answer at a price that no wheeled mower can come close to matching.
