It's that time of year again when the grass is growing fast. I need to get a lawn mower before my lawn gets out of control, but I don't know what to buy.

I don't want to get a gas powered lawn mower for several reasons - don't want to store gas, it's bad for the environment, it spills/leaks, etc... I also do not want an electric that uses an extension cord - my lawn has too many areas where I cannot use a cord (trees, bushes, etc...).

I have .33 acres to cut and I think my only options are a cordless electric and those push mowers that don't use any power, but use the movement to cut the grass. I have never used either so I don't know what to pick. The cordless electrics are expensive and I don't know how quick they run out of energy or how long they take to charge. I'd like to get the push ones that cut as you move, but don't know if they cut well. Help!

Batman - to be honest with you I don't know if an electric mower or a hand mower is really the way you want to go.

While it may be a little better for the environment, it is going to make mowing your lawn a much tougher task than it needs to be. Electric mowers are not typically produced to handle any real size lawn, but instead used in small areas in city setting where someone had a little patch of grass.

As far as a manual lawn mower goes it will double the efforts of cutting the lawn, because not only will you need to push the mower around the yard - and these certainly will work to cut the lawn, but then you will also need to rake up the clippings and get rid of them.

I suggest thinking again about the possibility of getting a nice self-mulching lawn mower. Come mid-summer when the heat gets up there you will be very glad you did.

Good luck!

I do not know much about electric lawn mowers, as I use a gas myself - but I did come across this lawn mower that was recommended in a magazine article I recently read:

The Black and Decker CMM 1200
It is cordless and claims to cut 1/3 of an acre in one charge.

This link has a lot of information for you http://www.blackanddecker.com/CordlessMower/

These certainly seem to be more expensive, but you won't be paying gas costs.

Thank you everyone who responded - it really helped. I spent a long time looking over the previous posts, researching online, and talking to people in stores. Here is my experience:

I went to Home Depot to look at the manual push mowers. I spoke to the guy about the "Scotts 20 In. Green Classic Reel Mower" (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay? storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100019892& N=10000003+90401+527933+4294926306)
The guy at home depot said that he never used it, but lots of people are purchasing it and no one has returned one yet. So I thought that sounded good. I bought it on the spot, took it home, spent 30 minutes attaching the handle went onto my lawn. I was surprised how easy it cut my lawn. I was flying through the grass even though it was starting to get long. It was super quiet also! It was almost fun cutting the lawn. The lawn looked real neat as it cut.

Everything went well until I hit the tall weeds (around 12 inches).... This mower simply pushed it over and did not cut it. I was so disappointed!!! I looked around and saw a few other neighbors cutting their lawn with their gas guzzling machines - all loud with smoke blowing in their faces. I took a deep breath and then continued to cut everything except for the weeds.

I have .33 acres so it's a decent amount of grass. I also have lots of trees which I love, but this mower has a difficult time if it runs over twigs. These twigs cause the blade to jam if they are too think and you are not going at a steady pace. My back yard is not as level as the front and the grass was much longer so this mower had a hard time.

I got frustrated and I put it in the shed and then called a friend who let me borrow their gas mower. I used it and hated it because it was kicking up grass and pollen and smoke and this caused my allergies to go crazy. It was also loud and annoying, but I finished the lawn fairly quickly.

I was still convinced that I cannot get a gas mower. I looked online at the reviews for the electric mowers. I looked at this one because it was the least expensive and had decent ratings: Great States Corp. 20 In. Homelite Cordless Electric (http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay? storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100612273& N=10000003+90401+527106)

What I did not like about the reviews were that people said that it dies after 45 minutes and it takes at least 7 hours to charge! Plus, many people said that it did not cut their grass well. For $320, I would be upset if it did not cut grass.

So I called Home Depot and they said that if my manual mower (Scotts 20 In. Green Classic Reel Mower) did not cut well, I can return it. I decided to give it one more try and look at the reviews online. People seemed to love the mower except for the same experiences that I had. Then I read a review that said - for your first cut of the season, borrow someone's gas mower and cut the lawn since it will probably be tall and there will be weeds. After that, it will work great as long as you keep it up.

So I tried it and today was the first time that I cut the lawn since. The manual mower worked beautifully. I was so happy with it. I cruised through the lawn as I watched everyone else with the smoke and grass blowing in their faces with their loud mowers. Yeah it jammed on me a couple times, but it is so easy to wiggle it or pull the twigs out. I'm keeping it! For $120 it is really good.

I finally found my lawn mower!! Originally I purchased the push mower that does not utilize any power - the blades turn when you push it. It worked great on good grass, but there are many areas in my lawn where the grass gets long or there are a few patches of weeds. These areas are where the push mower fails.

Fortunately I found the Worx 24V Lawn Mower. This battery operated lawn mower rocks!!! I first found it when I went to Sears. The sales person told me that these lawn mowers were flying off the shelves. I ended up purchasing it through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/WG780-Discharge-Cordless-Electric-Removable/dp/ B0015GH5UG

This mower is awesome! It cuts my entire lawn on a single charge. It is quiet and it cuts as well as any mower I have ever had. Much better than the push mower. As corny as it sounds, it makes it fun to cut the lawn