Hello I'm Austin Jarrett from Allett Mowers. Today I want to look at a frequently asked question;
What is the difference between a Kensington 20B and a Buckingham 20H?
On the surface of it these are just two lovely Allett mowers that mow 20 inches wide.
But there's quite a difference in price between these two machines
and in fact this machine is more than twice the price of the Kensington. So what are the
reasons for that and how are they justified and how can I help you in this short video to make
sure that you buy the right machine and spend the right amount of money. But as an overview this is
really a semi-professional machine it's heavy duty and before you go to our professional football
stadium machines this is the step between the Kensington and a professional product.
But if you just want to look at the weight this machine weighs in at 56.6 kilograms giving
a really great stripe on a 20-inch machine but the Buckingham is twice that weight at 103 kilos
so even if you just want to look at the amount of steel and engineering that's in
the Buckingham you're getting twice the amount. We recommend that the Kensington is for lawns
as a guide about 350 metres and we're looking at 450 metres or so for this machine. It is faster
and it's a more robust machine because some of that recommendation is about making sure that
the product lasts you a long time so the smaller the area of course the longer the machine lasts.
Both machines are cutting at about the same range. This one if you want to put a micrometer
on it is 6 millimetres minimum height of cut 32 maximum height of cut. This one minimum
height have cut slightly less at 5 millimetres and maximum height of cut 35 millimetres so
barely anything in it really. Neither of the machines are particularly low cut cut machines
but this might be if you do something about the cartridges that you decide to put into it.
Both machines have nice reliable engines there's quite a difference in horsepower you're looking at
about two and a half horsepower on this but this one's going up at six horsepower and we'll talk
about why we have that extra horsepower from the Honda engine on the Buckingham in a little while.
So let's start at the beginning with the grass boxes at the front both made of the same
polypropylene material both the same thickness both really robust i'm not going to stand on
them and do my normal trick but you get the idea. The capacity on the Buckingham slightly bigger 84
litres and the the Kensington one is 70 litres. I like the fact that there's slightly smaller lips
on the outside of this so that when I'm emptying the grass box out this one empties
just that little bit more easy but then this one has a nice handle on the top.
Both sit on extended hoops; this one folds away like so this one folds away like
so to give both actually very similar footprints but then once I fold the handlebars up
on this Kensington it becomes a smaller footprint altogether. The front rollers on the machine both
very similar I've got slightly heavier bearings as you'd expect in the Buckingham it's a slightly
bigger diameter roller too but they're both steel zinc plated and a pair of bearings. The height of
cut changes on both these machines actually on the Kensington it's more simple; a dial in the
window on the side and I can just screw this handle to wherever I need no tools required.
On the Buckingham I've got a more robust system all together and I just actually need a half inch
wrench or spanner to be able to back these off and then I can turn this handle. Look
at the Buckingham video and you'll see that in action but this is a much stronger system this
is a much easier system to use so you'll you'll see that that theme runs throughout
the two products. The cylinders both are six bladed cylinders and the clip rate
very similar although slightly lower on on the Buckingham but the cylinders themselves I've got
slightly thicker steel on the cylinder of the Buckingham again about durability and strength
but the Kensington gives it's absolutely typical beautiful clip. One of the big and
most significant things about the two machines is that the bottom blade on the Kensington is
just single special steel heat treated same with this not the same blade and it's also bolted to
a blade holder so the whole cutting mechanism on this ends up being more robust but the kensington
still gives years and years of service on a home law. The adjustment for cylinder to bottom blade
is much more straightforward on the Kensington and much more robust on the Buckingham machine.
There's a rake on both machines. The rake at the back here just adjusts in the slot and we have
a rake very similar rake in fact at the back here with with a much stronger system again in the way
that it's it's retained and adjusted on the mower. Both can be lifted completely out of work but the
rake's always nice just to be raking in front of the cutting cylinder. The clips per metre are ever
slightly different as I said I'm getting 73 clips per metre and 79 clips per metre but really that's
that is a very small difference indeed. If you need higher clip rates on the Kensington you go
for a 10 bladed cartridge and on this Buckingham machine actually your option would be to go to the
Westminster product so please look that up on our YouTube channel. Both heights of cut are stepless.
I can adjust them to exactly where I need them within that roughly 5 to 35 millimetre gap.
When we move on to the engine choices that we've made for these two products
we are using the Briggs and Stratton XR550 engine roughly two and a half to three horsepower,
unleaded fuel, 127 cc's. With the Buckingham machine we've gone for
the professional engine so we fit this engine on our professional products
and this one is theGX220 sorry it isn't it's the GX200 and that's 196 cc's again, unleaded fuel.
This engine is loved by professionals because time is money and you need these engines to start first
pull and not give any fuel issues at all they are of course a lot more expensive and they
are looking you know those engines as a comparison one is more than twice as much money as the other.
Both work on a recoil start and actually both are very reliable starters but quite a difference in
in the horsepower range there. Next it's about rear rollers and the rear roller on
the Buckingham machine is heavy steel and on top of that we've bonded rubber
and the bonded rubber is then ribbed as well which just gives amazing traction. So this machine
easily drives over gravel and with the trailing seat on with a heavy operator will
pull everything up a hill on a wet slope that really does make such a great difference.
Both rollers are split so that when we turn at the end of the the run that we don't scuff the turf
but you are possibly more likely to scuff the turf because of the traction grip that
there is on this. Let's move to the Kensington now and the Kensington is a steel roller no
rubber coating but it does have the differential drive and the differential drive in that machine
is a is a lighter system than is within the Buckingham but the Buckingham doesn't have
a differential it has a ratchet drive system so it's actually slightly less sophisticated. I hope
I've not confused you on the choices on this but this is a heavy duty system that can really pull
and transmit this larger engine horsepower to the traction and the Kensington system there doesn't
scuff when it turns because it's so smooth but doesn't need to pull anything and when it comes
over gravel you need to be a bit more careful about that. So the heavier handlebars on the
Buckingham again you can see the way that this handlebar is braced to the main chassis by two
rolled section tubes. Everything's much more heavy comfort grip and I can adjust the handlebars by
moving a little lever so that's quite an easy adjustment. I sometimes need to adjust that quite
quickly if I'm using this in pedestrian mode and then move to putting the trailing seat on.
On the Kensington very similar setup lighter gauge steel this easily folds up
which the Buckingham doesn't and again it's all part of its robustness and the duty level of
this is actually more aimed around comfort than anything else. I can adjust the height of this
I need to pull out this threaded bar and I have a series of holes where i can make that adjustment
but it's not something you're likely to do after first delivery. So in the overview this is about
a couple of things really this machine's much heavier if I've got a professional gardener
or I'm just before professional level products then certainly the Buckingham is the product
range that I would go to. This is going to last you years and it's really strong and robust.
In particular if I take the optional trailing seat behind this product or it's 24 inch
or 20 or 30 inch brother then you've really got a serious piece of grass cutting equipment that is
effectively ride on and highly maneuverable. The options on this are about the cartridges
cylinder mowing is not the the only thing that you need to do to create a really wonderful lawn
it's the cultivations and as you know the Kensington has a whole range of cartridges that
go in for finer cutting but also for cultivations and that's where this product really wins so not
only is it half the price but it's very much more versatile in giving you a homeowner's
complete product to maintain the lawn. This is a dedicated mower with huge capacity long life and
if you're walking behind this almost for a job then this is the machine that you would choose.
When the glass gets a little bit long I have a wheel kit that I can fit at the
front but please see the Kensington video about that and of course the Buckingham
does have its own product range video as well so please look that up too
but you do have optional wheel kit that will go on the front in place of the front roller in case
of long conditions long grass conditions. So I hope that gives you a rough overview and it's
helped you in your 20 inch decision. Thanks for watching visit our website at www.allett.co.uk