Trading in their gasoline engines for elbow grease

When Eric King moved from his apartment in Pittsburgh to a single-family home with a lawn, he bought a manual lawn mower instead of the usual gas-powered kind. He figures he's putting money in his pocket and saving trips to the filling station.

He's got plenty of company. Sales of manual, or push-reel, mowers with the cartwheeling blades are on the rise this year.

Officials attribute the surge to increased environmental concerns due to emissions from gas-powered mowers, the faltering economy that makes the generally less expensive push-reels more attractive, and $4-a-gallon gasoline.

"With the way gas prices are going through the roof and are going to stay there or increase even further, that was the main reason I considered one," said King, 29. "I don't consider myself an environmentalist; I consider myself an economist."

American Lawn Mower Co., Shelbyville, Ind., a manufacturer of manual and electric lawnmowers, says its sales are up 60 percent to 70 percent over last year.

The company's sales administrator, Teri McClain, estimated that about 300,000 push-reel mowers are sold annually in the United States. That's about the same number of electric mowers that are sold. Though growing, sales of both still are dwarfed by the roughly six million typical gas-powered, walk-behind mowers purchased every year.

Prices for push-reel mowers usually range from nearly $100 to $250. A sampling of Web sites show electric mowers selling for about $145 to $430. Walk-behind gasoline-powered mowers usually cost $150 to $400. The non-riding, self-propelled variety can go from $200 to $900.

Clean Air Gardening, a Dallas retailer that sells push-reel and electric lawn mowers, said sales were up 27 percent this year, while sales of electric mowers made by Towson, Md.-based Black & Decker Corp. have increased more than 20 percent.

"We're not keeping up with the demand," said Joseph Newland, group product manager for the company's outdoor division.

People Powered Machines, an Ipswich, Mass., Internet store, has seen a 25 percent rise in the sale of push-reel and electric lawn mowers so far this year.

"The increasing price of gasoline is one of the bigger factors," said spokesman David Temple.

Kris Kiser, spokesman for the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, said sales of gas-powered mowers were down slightly in May compared with a year earlier, but he attributed that to a decline in housing starts and last year's drought in the Southeast.

John Wright, a spokesman for lawnmower manufacturer Toro, said the faltering economy and the cool, wet spring that delayed lawn mowing in some parts of the country probably are having a bigger effect than high gas prices.

"For the average homeowner, putting a little gas in their mower is not going to be a big deal," Wright said.

Instead of trading in gasoline mowers, some people have opted to cut back on how often they cut their grass.

Randall Fullam now mows his lawn in Riverside, Ohio, once a week instead of twice, primarily as a symbolic gesture to protest U.S. dependence on foreign oil since he estimates it will save him only about $14 a year.