Bosch Rotak 34 Ergoflex Review

Bosch Rotak 34 Ergoflex Review – Key Features

• Construction – Well…. it’s made from mainly plastics, as most electric lawn mowers are – so nothing really new there. You’ll be pleased to know that it is pretty solid though. The plastics which have been used seem pretty decent.
• Cutting Deck – This is the version with the 34cm cutting deck. This is a standard, middle of the range size for an electric mower making it suitable for small lawns and most medium sized lawns. Anything bigger and you should take a step up in deck size. I have to say the deck on a Bosch Rotak mower is very well laid out. You’ve got the inset front wheels and the grass combs which team up to allow you to get real close to the edges of the lawn – more on those bad boys later! On the left hand side of the deck you’ve got a handy one touch height adjustment lever. It’s tucked in there on the side and looks pretty neat.
• Motor -The heart of this mower is a meaty 1400 watt motor. These machines are installed with the Bosch “powerdrive” motors, which we really like. They really do give a good performance. When you need it the torque is there!
• Easy Starts – Once you’ve plugged the power cable in you’re ready to get started. It’s real simple – you just push the button in the centre and then squeeze any one of the four power buttons located on the handle. It starts up quickly and you’ll be surprised how quiet it is in doing so. Once it’s started up just keep your hand squeezed on one of the power buttons on the handle and away you go.
• Cutting Heights – With this mower you’ve got a HUGE selection. A whole 10 different cutting heights which range from 20mm all the way up to 70mm. This is probably the best height adjustment system on the market to be honest with you. We Love it! To adjust the height there’s really not much to it. To adjust it easiest, just tilt the mower on its side and then move the lever to the height setting of your choice. That’s it. No spanners, no spacers…nada! Be at one with this lever, it’s a real timesaver if ever I saw one!
• Ergonomic Handle – Now we get to the thing which has been developed by Bosch since the last series they brought out…. the handle! You’ve got a 2 piece handle that folds in the middle, which although is common, is a nice little touch as it allows the mower to store that much easier. It’s the controls part of the handle which is really of interest though. If you’re a Playstation lover you will like this as Bosch apparently designed this new handle around a games console controller. Versatility is the word I would probably use to describe this as it really does sum it up well. With this new handle you can operate the lawn mower with one hand, two hands, right handed, left handed, horizontally or vertically. In total there are 8 different positions you can control it from. The thing that’s great about this is that you can alter your hand position if you’re going to be mowing for a while. I don’t know about you, but if you keep your hand in the same position for a length of time, especially if it’s not too comfy, then my hand really starts to ache – sometimes to the point where I want to stop and rest it. This is Bosch’s answer to that kind of scenario.
• Rear Roller – Almost forgot to mention this one, but you’ve got a rear roller on there too which helps you achieve that striped effect.
• Power Cord – You get 12 metres of cable with the Bosch Rotak 34 ergoflex and its detachable which is an improvement on the previous series. This is a lot easier for storage in our opinion.
• Grass Box – Bosch’s grass boxes really do rock in terms of size. The one you get here has a 40 litre capacity which is massive for a small lawn (and this mower is aimed at small lawns). This is great because you won’t have to empty it nearly as often.

Bosch Rotak 34 Ergoflex Review – Assembly

Ok, so you’ve got your mower – it’s boxed up all nice and neat. Once you’ve unpacked it, you’ve got like a 20-30 minute job ahead of you and parts of it can be a little fiddly, I’ll warn you now. But look on the bright side, once it’s done its done! Another thing I will add here is that whilst it’s not essential, an extra pair of hands really helps – especially with the grass box assembly. First you connect the bottom part of the handle to the mower unit itself. You take the supplied screws and you’ll also need a Phillips screwdriver to fasten that on. Once that’s on you’ve got 2 removable nuts you need to use to fasten the top part of the handle on to the bottom part. That’s the easy part done! Now for the….GRASS BOX! Yes that’s right; the grass box assembly is a bit fiddly but it’s not that bad.. It’s shipped in two parts and basically all you need to do is clip these two parts together. Sounds simple but the clips aren’t always easy to line up if you’re going solo on this job! The best way to do it is to line up the clips at the side and then clip them in first. Once they are in, the back and front comes together a little easier. A hint though – when you clip them in, make sure you are clipping the correct ones together as they are a right devil to separate again if you clip the wrong ones together.

Bosch Rotak 34 Ergoflex Review – Performance

• Cutting Ability – In terms of the cut, you will really like this one. It leaves a really clean and even cut. You’ll be happy to hear that it also deals well with longer grass. So if you’re prone to leaving it a while between cuts or you go on holiday often then the motor on this mower really will be your saviour. It just powers through these kinds of scenarios. Doesn’t even blink!
• Grass Collection – WOW! The Bosch Rotak 34 ergoflex seriously has almost the best grass collection I have ever seen! It hardly misses a blade and it compacts them in real tight, which is good as you get more into each box, meaning you need to stop less frequently to empty it. Emptying this box is where this model is not so great. Inside the box there’s no end of grooves and the clippings (especially as they are compacted so well) tend to get stuck in these, so you find yourself pulling it out the box rather than just simply tipping it out.
• Manoeuvrability – The Bosch Rotak 34 ergoflex only weights 10.5KG’s and this is pretty light for an electric mower. Granted it’s not as light as a hover, but you’ve got a few extra features added on here which brings up the weight. Pretty much anyone should find this mower manageable though and it manoeuvres well, even in pretty confined spaces. In such situations the inset front wheels really help.
• Lawn Stripes – You’ve got the rear roller to leave a nice stripy finish. Granted the stripes aren’t the same as a cylinder mower would produce because you simply haven’t got the weight here, but it still produces a striped effect to a certain degree.