I ordered a Brill Luxus 38 online last weekend and it showed up today. I took the afternoon off to set it up and do my lawn for the first time this year.

Initially I was very surprised by the small box until I remembered the cutting width is only 38cm. The instructions for putting it together were not completely clear. It was very easy to figure out anyway and it only took me about 10 minutes to get it ready to cut.

I thought it might be a pain to have a human powered and environmentally friendly lawn mower, but it's actually quite fun. It's also so quiet that I could mow at 1am and my neighbours won't think anything of it -- unless they saw me.

Very light and easy to push. In some ways it felt like I was vacuuming my yard. Finishing all the grass took a lot less time than I would have guessed.

On the downside, it does not like any stray branches, wood chips or other foreign objects at all, not even little ones. Next time I just have to rake beforehand. It also does not stand up by itself unless you take the time to make it balanced and hope a wind gust doesn't blow through.

My initial cut I did at 45mm because as my roommate described, it was "shaggy." Next time I think I will bring it down to 30mm.