Initial Review;

Based on about 20 – 30 hours use from new & out of the box.

Racing 5114F Comfort-Turn 4-in-1 Self-Propelled Petrol Lawnmower

I bought this machine a few weeks ago and it has been running over and around my allotment plots since then.

I’ve previously worked as a professional Grass cutter and used a fair amount of mowers and larger machines for grass cutting. I also own and run my own Gardening company providing bespoke gardening services.

This mower caught my eye for the Zero turn function @ A price point for a machine that provides 4 in 1 for £270.

A week later the price jumped £230 nearly…

Now selling for £500 give or take???


 

The bad:

Shame they didn’t use a bigger version of the front wheel for the rear wheels really.

The large plastic wheels at the rear are not built to last; and are made of very flimsy and cheap feeling plastic which you usually see on Kids toys and prams.

The rear height adjustment bar rubs on the Right wheel so I am guessing will eventually shred the inside of that rear Right wheel.

They need to upgrade the quality and durability of those rear wheels as the lower quality plastic doesn’t grip on a slight incline.

These slippy rear wheels are however great for “Drifting” the mower about using the Zero turn ability. Flicking the back end out to get some smooth lines and flow going while you mow. Though when you want some grip on the rear and where the power is coming from to drive the machine forward; you might struggle.

The pull cord frayed and was close to snapping within a few days only, I had Paracord on hand so re-strung the pull cord with a fresh string. The bars the cord stretch across are probably the reason it failed though it didn’t look like a quality pull cord. As there is no speed control on this machine I fail to see why they still mounted the pull cord across the machine to the left hand side of the hand bars?????? Making the pull cord cross the bars and run over them when you pull the start cord? 0-o

For £300 this would be a decent mower if you don’t use it often.
It is meant to cover 1500m2 and if you did use it for that I don’t think it would be long before your wheels failed and you spent time and money replacing cheaper parts made of low end plastic or plastic parts that should be made of metal.

Even for the Zero turn ability; £500 for these is way too much when you look at the other bigger brand/named makers machines you can get for £500. Is the £200 extra now worth Zero Turn? Only you can answer that question. I like it but it won’t be a reason to keep a machine that has serious design flaws and in mobility? For a lawn mower that is shocking.

Instructions in French with a couple of sheets with limited info on in other languages; this is really not on if it is being sold in the UK. I know my way around lawn mowers and other garden machinery; not everyone does though. From a Health and safety point; it’s dangerous and potentially fatal for the machine given little details to care or prepare the machine are in foreign languages.


 

The Good:

Cuts well and has plenty of power.

Lots of cutting heights and cross settings with front AND rear wheel height adjustment, so you can slope the cut front to rear/rear to front if you wished.

Once fuelled and Primed, pulled to life from new out of the box in 2 pulls (First pull was a test to see how much play was in the line). Once fired up rarely stops unless clogged with grass.

Really good size fuel tank capacity; cuts for ages without constantly filling it.

For some the “one pace self drive” might be annoying. It does however allow the machine to cut at the pace it needs and it actually works well as the cut is good. It does also mean less working parts to go wrong and more often than not people try and cut faster and get poor results.

The bag takes a decent amount of grass clippings if you mulch twice and collect once; though you can chuck a 500 litre bag on a lawn mower and still wish it was bigger. The grass collector is adequate for this sized machine and while it will fill quickly, all others do too.
The grass box has a little plastic flap on it to indicate how full/empty it is.

The machine has 4 in 1 cutting options and they all do their job very well.

It’s not the lightest of machines; but for the deck size and engine power it’s not bad at all. Made lighter due to plastic parts though; those are then weak spots…

The machine handles well but traction as mentioned above is an issue when you need it. When you don’t; power sliding/drifting this about once you got the hang of Zero turn (If you’ve never used it before) is brilliant and great fun. Looks cool too if someone sees you sliding out the rear end and keeping your lines and flow going without pausing. (Get it wrong though and it makes a horrible line.) 😉


 

Not tried/tested yet:

Machine deck wash port.
Not got to try this as of yet; will do soon though and have little doubt it will make cleaning inside the deck easier.


 

My bottom line thoughts on this Lawn Mower:

I doubt this machine will last 6 months without having to have parts or warranty issues cropping up. I just hope the support and spare parts are available when not if; this starts to fall to pieces as the plastic parts will fail.

It is great to see Zero turn making it into the domestic cutting kit range in the UK and initially at a reasonable price before they got greedy and threw the price up over £200…


Thanks to:

Delivery from www.mowdirect.co.uk was very good and the mower arrived on the day it was stated. The delivery driver called me 30 minutes before he delivered.  Which for me was great as I was out working when he called so he kindly delivered it to a neighbour.  Great when that happens and they don’t leave expensive items outside your house all day!  Or don’t deliver or attempt to contact you if they cannot.

Top marks for www.mowdirect.co.uk for service and delivery. Thanks very much! 🙂

I shall return and shop here again!