Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Review

Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Review – Key Features

• Construction – Ok so first things first. What materials is this made from? Is this a sturdy mower? Will it last? These are questions we hear all the time so that’s where we’ll start. Ok so we’re not going to lie to you, this mower is pretty plasticky! But that’s not necessarily a bad or an unusual thing with an electric hover mower. In fact virtually all electrically powered hover movers are made from plastic. Why? Because they need to remain lightweight so they can hover and glide around your lawn. If they were made from anything heavier they would have to have one hell of a motor on them (and therefore would be uber expensive!). So you do get a lot of plastic for your money with the Flymo Turbo Lite 330 but it’s not flimsy and pathetic. It’s not the sturdiest mower we’ve ever come across, but it’s not the weakest either. As long as you treat it with a bit of respect it should last a few years – which would be a decent return on your initial investment.
• Motor – Ok, so you get an 1150 watt motor on the Flymo Turbo Lite 330, which is actually a pretty good spec for a mower of this size. What this means is you will get good hover on this mower and also a good cut. It has that extra bit of oomph stored away for when you come to that slightly longer grass. Its ready and relishing those battles!
• Cutting Deck – You’ve got a 33cm cutting width here which is easily adequate for any small to medium sized lawn. The cutting width for a hover is not as essential as with a wheeled mower as you’ve obviously got that greater freedom of movement. Having said that, it is pretty sweet that you’ve got a decent cutting width here.
• Metal Blade – The fact that you get a metal blade is reallllly good. A lot of mowers now come with plastic blades, which as well as being hopelessly ineffective, are weak and fairly brittle so they break very frequently. The metal blade you get on this mower not only ensures that you get a decent standard of cut, but it’s also a lot more durable! Trust me; this will save you a lot of stress!
• Cutting Heights – The blade is adjustable to four different cutting heights, ranging from 10mm up to 30mm. This is not a massive selection, but it’s enough to do the job. To change these heights you’ve got the standard Flymo method – putting spacers under the blade to bring the blade lower to the ground. This isn’t the best, quickest or most effective height adjustment system out there, but hey…. it works. And you know what they say about something that works!
• Handle – There is a little bit to say about the handle on this model (which is a bit odd as usually a handle is just a handle, right?!). OK, so as you can see from the picture you’ve got the standard screw caps in the middle of the handle which you can loosen and then fold the handle over. Anyway that’s not the interesting part. The handle kind of “clicks” into an upright position and you need to manually move it at the bottom so it’ll drop into the position for cutting. It’s not a massive deal, I mean on the face of it, it just requires you to bend over for a second, release it and get back up. But it’s not that practical which is the real point!
• Starter Lever – At the top of the handle you’ve got the starter mechanism. On this one you’ve got the twin handles with the starter button in the middle. You only need to pull back one of the triggers in order to start the lawn mower but you could also go for the double handed position which is nice as it allows you to vary your grip. The two “triggers” do feel a bit flimsy and aren’t the most comfortable thing to hold in the world – especially if you are mowing for an extended period of time – but hey they do the job they are intended for.
• Power Cable – Last but not least you have that cable. There’s 12 metres included with theFlymo Turbo Lite 330 which isn’t going to be enough if you’re looking at this for a medium to large sized lawn, or if you have a lot of obstacles to get round. But that’s why they invented extension cables, right? It’s detachable too.

Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Review – Assembly

As we frequently write in this section, this model is easy to assemble. To be honest with you, these days most mowers like this come virtually pre-assembled by the manufacturer. All you actually need to do is fix the bottom half of the handle to the mower and once that’s done, attach the top half of the handle to the bottom half with the screws which you are supplied with. That’s pretty much it – your Flymo Turbo Lite 330 is all set up!

Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Review – Performance

• Cutting Ability – The cut you get is perfectly fine using this mower, as long as you are not expecting those lush Wembley stripes. This mower is at the lower end of the market in terms of price, and the finish you get is reflective of that. It does what it’s supposed to basically. It’s got a fair sized motor relative to its cutting width and it will cut fairly well, even on slightly overgrown grass. However we wouldn’t recommend you let the lawn get out of control as this mower really isn’t designed for those kinds of conditions. So you should probably mow at LEAST once a week and twice a week in summer to get a satisfactory performance out of the mower. Cutting right up to the edges of your lawn is not easy with this one as the blades cutting path doesn’t extend right out to edge of the mower’s shell. So if you want to get a cut around the edges you’re going to have to push it past the end of your lawn which isn’t ideal. You can either do that or you can just leave the edges and whip out the strimmer quickly after you’ve done mowing.
• Grass Clippings – If you let the grass too long between cuts the clippings will be fairly long and you will need to rake after, which obviously means it’s going to take you longer to get the job done. Stay on top of it however (as we just suggested) and the clippings will be short enough to just leave on the lawn. One thing we did notice is that if you cut damp grass you do tend to get a bit of a build up of clippings on the base of the mower. If you let this build up over a period of time it will hinder performance. Firstly the mower will get heavier and then not float as well and secondly the clippings will start to clog underneath the mower and you’ll get lumps of clippings over your lawn.It’s real easy to clean so we would suggest after mowing, you just flip it over, get a brush and just give it a wipe out whilst the clippings are still soft. Trust me, getting the clippings off when they have dried and hardened is a right pain!
• Manoeuvrability – This mower is really light weight and extremely manoeuvrable, that’s a fact. If you’ve had problems in the past when turning the lawn mower, this could be the answer for you. Seriously, you could turn this with one hand, it’s that easy. The good thing about hover mowers is that you’ll be able to do a “sweep” along your lawn. What I mean by this is that you don’t need to walk up and down, up and down in a straight line(like you have to with mowers that have wheels).

Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Review – Pros

• Really easy to assemble, a few minutes and you’re ready to get on with the job at hand!
• Extremely manoeuvrable – you can keep this under your control with just one hand, it’s that easy
• Lightweight – helps make the mower manoeuvrable (point above) but also makes it really easy to carry to and from the lawn
• Hovers really well on a cushion of air
• Simplistic design means it’s real easy to use
• Does the job – cuts the grass (handles wet grass well too = bonus!)
• Different cutting heights available and easily adjustable
• Metal cutting blade – this is more of a bonus than many people realise as they are so much better than the more common plastic blades which you find on electric mowers these days
• Easy to clean – all you really need is a small brush to do this

Flymo Turbo Lite 330 Review – Cons

• The handle – there is a bit of an issue with this. It doesn’t stay in the upright position, you need to actually go to the bottom of the handle and clip it in position in order for it to stay there. It’s not a massive deal, it’s just inconvenient to be honest.I used some of the older models Flymo produced and they never had this, so I don’t really know why they have implemented it into the design here, as it doesn’t make use any easier. In fact, it just makes it slightly harder. Strange Flymo, strange!
• The Blade’s cutting path – it doesn’t extend right up to the edge of the mower’s “shell”, meaning unless you actually go over the edges, you get a bit of uncut grass left at the edges. Obviously you can just push the mower further over the edge to get this strip of grass done, or you can do some edging after you’ve finished mowing.
• Noise – This is one thing I did notice, the Flymo Turbo Lite 330 is certainly not the quietest mower I’ve ever used (especially in the electric mower category), although this doesn’t affect performance it is pretty useful to know.
• Cable length – this is an issue and I know a few people have complained about it. It could definitely do with being a bit longer.
• If you let your grass grow long in between cuts, the performance of this mower won’t be so effective and you’ll need to spend additional time raking afterwards as the clippings won’t be small enough to just leave on the lawn.