New Hyundai mower

The old walk-behind mower finally died the death the other day, after an encounter with an indigestible stone.  I used it for areas that are crowded with trees and where the sit-on is difficult to manoeuvre, and also as a backup for when the sit-on is awaiting a part.  There were so many things wrong with it that I decided to replace it, and I have given it to Mick who had an old mower like it whose engine blew up.  The motor on mine works well so hopefully he can combine the two to make a working one.  

 Here are some photos of the new one.   I used it for a short while yesterday to check it out.

When I took it from the box, there was a faint smell of petrol, and there was a small amount of blackish oil (as indicated by the dipstick) inside the motor.   I got the impression that it had been fired up to to confirm that it works.   Good.   It was easy to attach the handle, but fixing the front wheel was fiddly, and I put the washers in the wrong place.   I supplied two of my own in the right place rather than take the wheel off again, but why do the pictograms have to be so small?  Is paper that expensive?

I added the oil to the right level, turned the engine over a few times, then added petrol and primed it, and it started right away.

The height of the handle can be changed.  Since I'm short, the low position works for me, but I'd have preferred a slightly higher position; the next one up is too high.   The front wheel can be fixed in the straight ahead position, but I will mostly use it moveable, and it is easy to change between the two settings.  The height of the rear wheels is easy to adjust  but the front one takes a minute or so since it has to be disconnected and replaced at its new height.

I probably won't use the grass collection box much, for two reasons: I don't like heaps of festering grass, and when the box nears full, the cuttings start to accumulate around the blade and the engine stalls.  Lateral ejection works fine.

It has a hose connection at the top of the blue skirt, for cleaning.  That seems to work fine too.

I registered the product on the maintenance website without difficulty, though I had to provide a photo of it as well as the receipt and (separately) the serial number (that was also on the required photo).   One of the things that attracted me to this brand was the reviews on Amazon.  Not so much the positive reviews, but the one negative review I saw was for a machine that clearly had a manufacturing defect.  There was a response from Hyundai explaining how to sort it out.  Cool.

PS:  I've had some helpful comments regarding protective footwear.  I have some tough gardening boots, but nothing with  steel reinforcement.  Perhaps I should get some.   It's not strictly relevant to this situation, but a neighbour of mine recently rolled his sit-on mower and lost two fingers in the process.   That would certainly screw my flute and piano playing.  Perhaps I should pay more attention to safety considerations.