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I grew up in a row house that had a tiny flat lawn, so a reel mower was just perfect for keeping that nice (not that I remember my Dad enjoying mowing that much, lol.) Anyway, now I have a huge, double corner lot/uneven lawn with a drainage ditch on one side that has a grassy verge. If I mowed every day I could possibly parse it out into sections to do, but it would take me all week at my age and state of creakiness. And unlike the OP, if I mowed my lawn late at night, my neighbors would take exception big time - this area is so quiet you can hear someone simply walking down the street at night.
We have one and love it. Quiet, light, no exhaust smells, and perfectly good for our yard. We do use a battery-powered weed whacker for difficult bits in between shrubs, but that would still be the case if we had a gas mower.
No neighbor has said anything derogatory about it. Your neighbor must just hate the sight of someone doing things without benefit of a noisy, smelly device. Makes him look a bit wimpy, maybe.
If you want to push cut some our the houses we owned - be my guest. 2 1/2 acres in cozy humid GA, 2 acres in GA on a steep hill, 1/2 acre on Texas when it goes above 110f. We solved the problem with Robomow and now no gras in the back yard.
Have both... my Grandmother used her 7 real push mower into her 80's.
She would mow twice a week in summer so it would not be too hard.
I mow a lot of lawns and keep the equipment in a Landscape trailer... a push mower is harder to adjust for different heights.
15 years ago I bought mom a Honda Commercial mower... the kind that is suppose to start on one pull and keeps running when you empty the bad... she is also in her 80's and enjoys mowing...
15 years and still one pull start... two years on a mower indicates something isn't right.
I have a couple of Husqvarna walk behinds with Honda engines... these cost $200 when on sale so I bought a couple... each week in summer it spends about 6 hours mowing at multiple locations... no problems.
Heck... even my old 1980's craftsman mowers lasted 15 years... the wheels would wear out and then the steel deck rusted out...
My oldest daughter figured she'd save the environment and use a reel mower when she bought her house (1 acre or so of yard, flat). That lasted for one summer.
^^^It is something that only comes with experience.
Fire abatement is a hot topic here... the only way to comply is with weed killer... the slopes are steep and goats are used on some larger city owned land.
A new neighbor was abhored anyone used weed killer... I said what are you going to do?
The first season they spend every minute of free time hoe and weed eating... even getting poison oak which they had never had.
The next Spring she decided to get quotes from week abatement... to manually control was several thousand dollars without a promise should there be a late rain.
$800 for week killer, labor and material.
It makes it very difficult when new regulations leave little in the way of options.
I like my reel mower. It's probably harder to use than it needs to be, because I've never had it serviced, in the 14 years I've had it. (and, I don't know how long it went without service before it was given to me) If I had more than 1/8th acre to mow, I'm sure I'd get it serviced.
My oldest daughter figured she'd save the environment and use a reel mower when she bought her house (1 acre or so of yard, flat). That lasted for one summer.
She now has a very nice gas mower.
I'm quoting myself for a follow on.
In addition to a very nice power mower she also now has several large vegetable gardens and flower beds. Dad with his tiller got roped into that. She discovered that a 100 year old farm house with a large yard is nice in concept but not so much in implementation. Plus, she cans a lot of what she grows. And found out that she doesn't like to cut grass, even with a power mower.
I owned two push reel lawn mowers since we bought our home. Our grass is thick and that thing was hard to push. The first one the handle broke. It had cost me $99 to buy it at Home Depot. It lasted a year. The second one was an import I picked up at Walmart and it cost me $89. After about 18 months it had a part brake on it and that was it. We decided to get a power mower. Found one at Lowe's that someone had brought back after one use. I bought that one for $145 and it runs like a champ. I keep it clean, check the oil before I run it. I anticipate that it will last for many years to come. The OP mentioned that he owned them and they were hard to start after a few years. Something that I have found with any engine is to make sure it can breath. Air cleaners are either cleanable or replaceable. On a 2 cycle you just keep the oil full and let it run. Blades still need to be sharpened or replaced if need be.
The best part about the power mowers that the push mowers did not offer, is the use of my sons to mow the grass. They did not want to push the push mower. They don't have any problem with the power mower though.
When I was a kid my dad had a reel mower with a 2 cycle engine that was self propelled. It was cool to run as it had shift assembly that activated the drive. The drive turned the wheels and the reel. It had another shift lever that operated the fuel. I loved that.
You had 4 gas mowers in 16 years. Maybe the problem is you buy crap equipment to begin with or you have no clue how to take care of one. My HR214 Honda mower is a 1986 model I bought new. It runs fine and starts fine. My yard looks as good as any golf course when I cut the yard. I use either Tru-fuel or isobutanol gas for it and have zero issues like having to use Stab-il because of the ethanol. The blade is sharpened several times a year and the oil gets changed every spring. The control cables gets lubed every spring as well. About the only thing that has been replaced on it are the wheels that I've worn out. Sounds more like you need to hire lawn service.
Similarly, I have a 1991 "real" Troy Bilt self-propelled walk behind rotary mower, I have non-ethanol gas available and use it exclusively, change oil once a season (although I prefer to do it in the Fall, so it over-winters with relatively clean oil). This sprint's start-up found the spark plug a bit fouled, didn't want to start, so, mastering the obvious, pulled the plug and cleaned it up, put back in, away we go.
Troy, NY built Troy Bilt are, like Maytags, a thing of the past, (the brands are still on the market, but they are not built the same) only found used, but my mower has a Tecumseh engine, similar engines are still built. Although, Honda engines are damn good too.
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