Garden Last updated · owner ratings verified July 2026
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Side by side
| Our pick Fiskars Fiskars StaySharp Max 18-Inch Reel Mower Better overall $220–290 Check price | Scotts Scotts 2000-20S 20-Inch 5-Blade Classic Better value $120–180 Check price | Fiskars Fiskars StaySharp Plus 17-Inch Reel Mower The Max without the flywheel $160–220 Check price | Scotts Scotts 415-16S 16-Inch Elite Push Reel Scotts, built up a level $130–190 Check price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What owners rate it | ||||
| Owner rating | 4 / 5 (1,488) | 4.1 / 5 (2,906) | 3.8 / 5 (99) | 3.9 / 5 (100) |
| Specifications | ||||
| Cutting width | 18 inches | 20 inches | 17 inches | 16 inches |
| Reel blades | 5-blade reel | 5-blade reel | 5-blade reel | 5-blade reel |
| Cutting height | 1 to 4 inches | 1 to 3 inches | 1 to 4 inches | 1 to 2.5 inches |
| Reel type | Non-contact StaySharp system | Contact reel, adjustable | Non-contact StaySharp system | Contact reel, adjustable |
| Weight | About 52 lb | About 34 lb | Lighter than the Max | Light |
| Clipping ejection | Forward throw | Rearward | Forward throw | Rearward |
| Warranty | Fiskars limited warranty — confirm on the listing | 2-year limited — confirm on the listing | Fiskars limited warranty — confirm on the listing | 2-year limited — confirm on the listing |
| Who it suits | ||||
| Best for | cool-season lawns cut at 3 to 4 inches, and anyone who refuses to sharpen anything | bermuda, zoysia and any lawn kept short, on a budget | a small, regularly cut lawn where the Max is more mower than you need | small lawns and tight gates where a 20-inch deck will not fit |
Ratings are aggregated Amazon owner ratings, not our own testing. Figures verified July 2026.
Pros and cons
Fiskars StaySharp Max 18-Inch Reel Mower
- StaySharp non-contact blades never touch the bed knife, so there is nothing to sharpen or backlap
- Cuts up to 4 inches — the only mower here that suits tall fescue and St. Augustine
- Heavy InertiaDrive reel carries momentum through a patch that would stall a lighter mower
- Throws clippings forward rather than at your shins, which is the complaint every classic reel earns
- Around 52 pounds — genuinely heavy to push uphill and awkward to hang in a garage
- Costs roughly double the Scotts for four fewer inches of cutting width
- Once the blades finally dull there is no simple backlapping fix
Scotts 2000-20S 20-Inch 5-Blade Classic
- 20 inches is the widest cut here — fewer passes across the same lawn
- Heat-treated alloy steel blades hold an edge and can be backlapped at home
- Around 34 pounds, so it turns and reverses far more easily than the Fiskars
- Roughly half the price of the StaySharp Max
- Contact reel needs periodic adjustment and backlapping to keep cutting cleanly
- Tops out around 3 inches, which rules it out for tall fescue
- Clippings eject rearward, which means at your legs
Fiskars StaySharp Plus 17-Inch Reel Mower
- Same non-contact StaySharp blade principle as the Max, no sharpening required
- Lighter chassis makes it easier to push and to store
- Same 1 to 4 inch height range as the Max
- Cheaper way into the Fiskars blade system
- Without the InertiaDrive flywheel it loses authority in thicker growth
- Small owner-review base compared with the Max
- Grass catcher is sold separately, as it is on all of these
Scotts 415-16S 16-Inch Elite Push Reel
- Narrower cut fits through standard gates and between beds
- Better bearings and finish than the base Scotts classic
- Light enough that anyone in the household can use it
- Same backlappable contact reel, so it can be brought back to sharp at home
- Smallest owner-review base of the four, and the rating reflects mixed experiences
- 16 inches means noticeably more passes on any lawn worth mowing
- Costs close to the far wider 20-inch model
Decision factors
What you actually pay
Scotts undercuts Fiskars substantially. The 20-inch 2000-20S runs $120 to $180 and the 16-inch Elite $130 to $190, while the Fiskars StaySharp Max sits at $220 to $290 and the StaySharp Plus at $160 to $220. That gap buys the non-contact blade system, the extra inch of cutting height, forward clipping ejection and the heavy InertiaDrive reel.
Where the premium goes. Into not maintaining the mower. Fiskars' argument is that you will never sharpen, adjust or backlap anything, and for a lot of buyers that is worth the money on its own. It does not buy a wider cut — the cheaper Scotts is two inches wider.
Running costs are almost nothing, which is the point of the category. No fuel, no oil, no filters, no spark plug, no battery to replace in year four. Over five years a reel mower of either brand costs less to run than one season of gas, which is why they still sell against far more convenient machines.
Budget two things. A grass catcher, which none of these include and all of them offer separately. And on the Scotts, a backlapping compound kit once a season — a few dollars that keeps a contact reel cutting cleanly for a decade. The Fiskars needs neither, and eventually needs a new mower instead.
Which one fits you
- Tall fescue, ryegrass or St. Augustine lawn Fiskars StaySharp Max Those grasses want 3 to 4 inches and only the Fiskars mowers reach that height — the Scotts physically cannot.
- Bermuda or zoysia kept short, wants the widest cut for the money Scotts 2000-20S Twenty inches at half the price, on grass types that want to be cut low anyway.
- Small lawn, narrow gate, lighter user Scotts 415-16S Elite A 16-inch mower fits where a 20-inch one does not, and weight matters more than width on a small plot.
- Never wants to sharpen or adjust anything Fiskars StaySharp Max Non-contact blades remove the one maintenance job that puts people off reel mowers entirely.
If neither is right
- American Lawn Mower 1204-14 14-Inch Push Reel The classic budget reel mower with a very large and consistently positive owner base. Fourteen inches is narrow and it only cuts low, but for a small bermuda lawn it does the job for a fraction of either brand here.
- Great States 415-16 16-Inch 5-Blade Reel The same mower Scotts sells under its own badge, from the manufacturer that actually builds it, usually for less. Worth knowing before you pay for the Scotts name.
Which one should you buy?
Buy the Fiskars StaySharp Max if your grass needs to be mowed above three inches — tall fescue, ryegrass, Kentucky bluegrass or St. Augustine — because the Scotts mowers physically cannot reach that height. Buy the Scotts 2000-20S if you have bermuda, zoysia or any lawn kept short, where its 20-inch width and roughly half the price beat everything the Fiskars blade system offers. Grass type decides this comparison more cleanly than any feature does.
The wider field, including the budget classics, is in our best reel mower roundup.
Why cutting height settles it
Reel mowers have a reputation for being fussy, and most of that reputation comes from people using one on a grass that wanted to be tall. Cool-season grasses — tall fescue, ryegrass, bluegrass — are healthiest cut at 3 to 4 inches, where the leaf area supports deep roots and shades out weed seed. Warm-season bermuda and zoysia are the opposite and thrive short, which is exactly the range a traditional reel mower is built for.
The Fiskars StaySharp mowers reach 4 inches. The Scotts classics stop around 3. That is not a marketing difference; it is whether the tool suits your lawn at all. Cutting fescue at 2 inches with a Scotts will produce a thin, stressed, weed-prone lawn no matter how sharp the reel is. Our mowing height by grass type guide has the numbers for every common US grass, and it is worth checking before you spend anything.
Contact or non-contact: which reel design is better?
A traditional reel mower works like scissors. A spinning helical reel shears grass against a fixed bed knife, and the two have to touch — or nearly touch — for the cut to be clean. That contact is what makes the cut so good, and it is also what dulls the blades and demands periodic backlapping and adjustment.
Fiskars removed the contact. The StaySharp reel spins with a small gap to the bed knife, so the blades never rub, never dull from friction and never need sharpening. Owners consistently report years of use without touching them, which is the single most persuasive thing about the design.
The trade-off is at the end of that life. A Scotts reel that has gone dull can be backlapped at home with a compound kit and brought back to sharp for years more; a StaySharp reel that has finally worn has no simple equivalent fix. So the choice is between a mower that needs twenty minutes of attention a season and can be renewed indefinitely, and one that needs nothing for years and then needs replacing.
Does the Fiskars weight help or hurt?
Both. The StaySharp Max weighs around 52 pounds against the Scotts 20-inch model's 34, and most of that extra mass sits in the InertiaDrive reel — a deliberately heavy reel that stores momentum. Push it into a thicker patch and the flywheel effect carries the cut through where a lighter mower would stall and need a run-up. On a lawn with any variation in growth, that is a genuine advantage owners notice.
It is also 52 pounds you push, turn, reverse and lift onto a garage hook. On a slope, on a small lawn with lots of turns, or for a lighter user, the Scotts is meaningfully easier to live with. The StaySharp Plus is Fiskars' answer to that objection: the same non-contact blades in a lighter chassis, minus the flywheel and minus some of the authority in thick grass.
Cutting width and clipping ejection
Scotts wins on width. Twenty inches against eighteen sounds marginal until you count passes: over a 3,000 square foot lawn the narrower mower adds noticeably to the walk. The 16-inch Elite is narrower again, and only makes sense if a gate or a tight side path forces it.
Fiskars wins on where the clippings go. The StaySharp mowers throw clippings forward, ahead of the mower; the Scotts models eject rearward, which in practice means onto your shins and shoes. It sounds trivial and it is the single most common complaint about classic reel mowers in the owner record. Either way, leave the clippings on the lawn — see is it ok to leave grass clippings — because a reel mower's fine clippings break down quickly and feed the turf.
What neither brand can do
Neither will cut grass that has grown well past its target height. A reel shears standing blades; grass that has flopped over gets pushed flat and springs back up behind you. Neither copes with wet grass, which mats and clogs the reel — see can you mow wet grass. Neither enjoys twigs, and both will jam on one.
The answer to all three is frequency. A reel mower is a tool for someone who mows every four to six days in the growing season, taking a small amount each time — which is better for the lawn anyway, since removing more than a third of the leaf blade at once stresses it. If your reality is mowing every other weekend, a rotary machine is the honest choice; our best electric lawn mower picks cover that.
Where each brand's line-up is strong and weak
Fiskars is strong on engineering: the non-contact reel, the forward ejection, the 4-inch height range, and the flywheel that makes an 18-inch mower behave like a wider one. Fiskars is weak on weight and price, and its cheaper StaySharp Plus has a thin owner record.
Scotts is strong on value and width. The 2000-20S gives you the widest cut in this comparison for around half the money, with blades you can restore at home indefinitely. Scotts is weak on cutting height, which excludes it from cool-season lawns entirely, and on the ejection direction. It is also worth knowing that these mowers are built by American Lawn Mower Company, which sells near-identical machines under its own Great States badge, often for less.
The call
Fiskars StaySharp Max for cool-season grass and for anyone who wants a mower that asks nothing of them. Scotts 2000-20S for bermuda or zoysia kept short, where it is the better value by a wide margin and the width saves real time. Buy the grass catcher separately either way — none of these include one — and mow often enough that the reel never meets grass it cannot stand up and cut.
Our lawn care calendar covers the mowing rhythm that makes a reel mower work, and every ranking here comes from aggregated owner ratings rather than first-hand trials — see how we rank.