New box

Following the DIY noticed at reference 1, we took the strategic decision yesterday afternoon that the time had come to go cordless.

First stop, a bit of shopping around on the Internet. The choice seemed to be garden machinery salesrooms serving the larger house, that is to say houses much larger than ours; independents making most of their money out of service, repairs & second hand; and, chains such as B&Q and Homebase. We supposed that online shopping had made a bit of a dent in the business case for specialised showrooms - but we were keen to touch before we bought.

Second stop, one the first of these, Dobbes of Great Bookham. Where we found a good collection of petrol mowers and a very helpful chap behind the counter who actually seemed quite knowledgeable. Petrol still ruled the world of larger gardens, which was the business he concentrated on, but he could get a cordless in for us. He presented us with a glossy Mountfield catalogue for our perusal - which he said was a step up from the Bosch that we had spotted while shopping around.

Third stop, the Leatherhead B&Q, whose branding seems to have got mixed up with DIY. They had a much better collection, out of their boxes and assembled, than we had thought likely, complete with a pleasant and helpful young man, although a bit of a beginner compared with the chap at Dobbes. And he did have a Bosch Rotak 36 LI, more or less identical, apart from the cord, to the Bosch we are taking out of service, a new but familiar Bosch which we could touch, could poke around a bit. Try it for size and all that kind of thing.

We suspected that this line had been discontinued in favour of the newer Rotak 37 LI, but it had been discounted a bit and so we bought it. Job done.

We were tempted by the tea, bacon and burger caravan in the car park outside for a celebration sandwich, but decided against on the grounds that it was still a little early for lunch.

The new lawnmower has now been assembled and the battery awaits its first charge. With the only small hitch being pushing the two halves of the clippings bin together, which was a bit fiddly and took a bit more force than I was expecting. But all done, and no clips snapped in the process. The all important battery, with its red stripes, is sat in its black charger unit middle foreground in the snap above.

Perhaps equally important, we are now the proud possessors of a large new cardboard box and we know someone who will very probably make very good use of it.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/08/diy-again.html.

Reference 2: http://www.dobbes.co.uk/. The Dobbes site.

Reference 3: https://www.diy.com/. The B&Q site.

Reference 4: https://www.bosch.com/. The horse's mouth, as it were. Slightly tricky to find one's way around.