Very powerful machine, Italian made, started on the first try. I tested it a little. I think it has quite a few vibrations.
Edit 15-5-2025
Excellent machine in the end.
The variable speed control is incredibly convenient, so you go slow on tall grass and fast on short grass, finishing in half the time.
Reliability will show over the years.

Good morning and have a good week. I am a professional gardener and I bought the Oleo-Mac G53VK machine purely for professional use. Where the tractor cannot go, the machine will go. I have had it for about 11 months, unfortunately it is not suitable for professional use. 1. It does not easily start and if it doesn't start on the first try, it won't start at all. 2. The rope does not center with the engine, so it has a lot of friction when pulled, resulting in the iron piece it has being worn out, as well as the plastic and the rope. I have already changed 7 ropes. Because I will never finish, I stop here because there are still many more issues. I do not recommend it

This is my first lawn mower and I have used it for about 5 hours in a week. Impressions:

- Simple to assemble but don’t expect to understand from the manual instructions. Most instructions in there refer to models different from the G53VK. There are photos, but it’s not always clear which model they correspond to, so you quickly realize it’s better to assemble it yourself than try to decipher the manual.
- Otherwise, the manual has enough detail about the operation and maintenance of both the device and the engine (which has a separate manual). Both can be easily found online in pdf format, and of course, they are included in printed form in the package (with Greek instructions).
- The fuel tank capacity is 1.5 liters, and the oil tank is half a liter (uses standard SAE 30 four-stroke or 10w-30 for winter use at low temperatures). The manual recommends changing the oil after the first 5 hours of use. For the oil change, I bought a manual pump-syringe which unfortunately didn’t work because it needs a very thin tube to fit through the opening and it doesn’t reach the bottom when the machine is in a horizontal position. One solution is to tilt the machine about 45 degrees and pump, otherwise, you remove the oil cap, tilt the machine almost 60-70 degrees, and drain the oil into a small basin. The latter process is very simple and easy, and if you’re careful, it doesn’t make a mess at all. However, it’s recommended to let the machine run for a few minutes before removing the oil, so that it warms up and becomes less viscous, leaving less residue inside the chamber.
- The machine is obviously self-propelled, and if you press the gray self-propulsion lever and try to pull it backwards (whether it’s running or off), after a few centimeters it locks and doesn’t allow backward movement to protect the mechanism.
- It starts very easily without much force on the recoil starter. On its first use, it started on the first try, even for a user like me with minimal experience in such starts.
- The variable speed lever (rabbit-turtle) is a bit stiff, and if I remember correctly, the manual says it’s recommended to move the lever only when the machine is moving. When starting, it’s recommended to have the lever in the slow position (turtle), but the spring is so stiff that the lever doesn’t stay there unless you hold it, and it moves back a few centimeters before settling. Not a big deal. In operation, the lever works fine. So far, I haven’t used the machine at higher speeds, but even the slowest (I think around 3km/h) makes mowing a breeze.
- Fuel consumption seems reasonable. I filled the tank about 3/4 (a bit more than 1 liter of gasoline), which lasted at least 3 hours, although for most of the time I was pushing by myself and didn’t use self-propulsion. I had no issues with exhaust smells.
- The package includes a spark plug wrench (about size 20) for removing the spark plug. Also included are the two mulching accessories. Practically, it’s a bulky "plug" that goes into the rear grass discharge slot instead of the bin (the 70-liter bin is removed in this case), while the other accessory is a plastic cover that fits on the right side to discharge the finely cut grass there. The manual recommends using this function only if the grass to be cut is up to 5-6 centimeters.
- The problem is that the "plug" is very difficult to fit because it seems to have a sizing issue and gets stuck halfway in. To fit it, I have to hit it hard with my hand like a punch. Similarly, to remove it, I have to turn the machine on its side and knock the "plug" out from the inside. I believe that over time it will wear down at the 2-3 points where it gets stuck and will be easier to fit and remove (as I’ve seen in YouTube videos), otherwise, I’ll spray a little WD40 to see if it slides in more easily.
- Be careful with this last part about how you tip the machine: while the manual recommends cleaning the machine from underneath after each use (so a 90-degree tilt), it doesn’t say from which side exactly this should be done. At first glance, it seems logical to tilt it 90 degrees (as seen in some official YouTube videos) from the side where the air filter is, because on the opposite side there’s the plastic cover for the mulching hole and there’s a risk of hitting it. BUT YOU SHOULD NOT do this! You must always tilt it so that the air filter is up and the mulching hole is on the ground. This way, oil from the relevant tank won’t spill into the carburetor, combustion chamber, air filter, etc. That’s how I messed up, as I had tipped it at least 3 times from the wrong side. The result was the air filter filled with oil (to the point it dripped on the floor), the spark plug got dirty with oil, and the machine wouldn’t start at all. To fix it, I had to do the following:
1) Wipe the oil off the air filter cover well and tap the filter itself to shake off any remaining oil. Don’t rub it, or dust will embed in the filter and make things worse.
2) As a precaution, I completely removed the oil and replaced it with fresh oil.
3) Removed the spark plug, cleaned it well of oil, and rinsed it with a little gasoline on the electrode side.
4) Poured a few grams of gasoline into the spark plug hole to rinse the system a bit.
5) With the spark plug disconnected, I pulled the recoil starter 5-10 times to expel as much oil mixture as possible from the spark plug hole.
6) Reinstalled the spark plug, and after about 20 tries, the engine managed to fire a couple of times and start.
The moral of the story is that you always tip the machine from the mulching hole side (i.e., the oil fill side) and never from the opposite. I had read this somewhere before buying the machine, but I didn’t pay attention, and here I messed up in the first week of use, mainly because I saw YouTube videos cleaning the machine from underneath by tilting it from the wrong side.

Otherwise, everything is fine so far, it seems to do a great job.

Update after 10 hours of use: unfortunately, the problem reappeared where for no apparent reason it wouldn’t start at all, even though the previous day it had worked for almost 2 hours without issue. This time, none of the above tricks helped. I tried for 2 days to start it, cleaned everything obvious as best as I could, drained a lot of fuel from the carburetor, and was ready to try a new spark plug and air filter (which is quite dirty, to be honest). However, today it started on the first try, so I can’t guess what exactly was wrong, nor do I know if or when it will happen again. Maybe the carburetor is dirty (or has oil due to the previous mistake), but when the machine runs, it doesn’t seem to have any loss of power, interruptions, or anything else. I also don’t think it’s an engine flooding issue. I’ll update if something new comes up.

Update after 1 year of use: all good. The machine didn’t run at all during the winter, but it started after 2-3 tries after so many months of inactivity, even with old gasoline. 99% of last year’s problems were caused because at first, I didn’t run the machine at full throttle and didn’t let it idle a bit before shutting it off. Since I started using it correctly, I haven’t seen any more starting problems. The only observation I have is that it leaks a little gasoline, probably from the cup under the carburetor, but only when the engine is off. With the engine running, I haven’t seen any leaks. Probably a gasket issue, since I opened the cup to fix last year’s problems (update: almost certainly an issue with the float under the carburetor. It can be fixed either by opening the carburetor completely to reinstall the float mechanism, or by adding a 2-3 euro fuel shut-off valve to the fuel line so I can close it when not using the machine). Until then, I just put as much gasoline as I need in the tank and run the machine until the fuel runs out. Also, there’s some rust on some spots inside the lower part (above the blade) and the paint is peeling, probably due to stuck wet grass that wasn’t cleaned for a while. I’ll clean it as best I can with WD40 to see if the wear is reduced.

update 2024: check out a YouTube video titled "Oleo-Mac G44TK Petrol Lawnmower Review" which gives a pretty good presentation of a similar model.

update 2025: everything’s fine, still works perfectly and starts on the first try. There’s quite a bit of squeaking from the wheels when the machine is off, but I believe it can be easily fixed with a little oil if you remove the plastic cover from each wheel.

update 28/3/2026: with last year’s gasoline and the last operation in September last year, it started on the first try. The wheel squeaking was fixed with lithium grease spray, after first removing the plastic covers from the wheels with a flat screwdriver (unfortunately, I didn’t have grease in a tube, which would have been ideal). New spark plug, new air filter, oil change, and we’re ready for this year’s mowing season. With less than 1 liter of gasoline, I mowed for at least 2 hours with the drive speed at 3/4 of maximum. This year I’m thinking of adding a fuel filter to the fuel lines, maybe sharpening the blades for the first time, but other than that, I’m not doing any major maintenance yet. I’ll update once I measure the RPM with a tachometer.