I've had Qualcast mowers before, but am horrified at the quality and reliability of this model. It is terrible. I bought it in December 2006 and, being winter, never used it until spring. It is cheaply made, low grade plastic, most of the main components like the hadle hinges and the height adjuster are plastic. When I started to use it I thought, this will never last. I was right. Now, in July 2007 after 3 months use it's useless. It will not cut, and you cannot align the blades to cut properly. Too close to the basplate and it makes a terrible noise, open the gap and it does not cut. Worse thing though is that I find that Amazon will not take it back, even though it has a 12 month guarantee, and 5 years on parts. I'd like to see one of these pieces of junk lasting 2 years, let alone 5.