Peter Williams kindly reviews his new Ariens APEX 52 inch zero-turn mower after purchasing it in early spring. He’s been using it frequently since he purchased it from his local dealer, Hertfordshire Garden Machinery.

“It’s a fantastic mower, with a great cutting width. I have about an acre and a half of grassland and I purchased this machine with a view of maintaining my lawn and grounds as pain free and easy as possible. Its manoeuvrability is fantastic and goes right around trees, you hardly need to strim afterwards which is a big bonus.

The APEX comes with a Kawasaki FR691V engine – this is a great engine which starts every time with no problems. It has plenty of speed and power to it. If you’re just doing a quick trim, it gets really quickly and easily. It has nice big wheels at the back which goes up inclines really well. Perfect as our garden isn’t flat. The front wheels don’t actually push down on the grass too much surprisingly enough, so no big issues there.

I’ve got the mulching deck fitted as opposed to having a side discharge. It mulches it down to a finer amount of grass. There’s still some grass behind but that’s fine. The seat is fantastic. It is so comfortable. I can sit on there for a couple of hours and get off with no back pain whatsoever.

The machine is very smart to look at with a very solidly built deck. Am I impressed with the mower? 100%. I would definitely buy it again and really wish my dad had bought one when I was a kid as it would have saved me hours of time mowing the family lawn. Out of 10, I’d give it 9.9. Not much wrong with this machine, great value for money and I’d highly recommend it”.