A lawnmower that mows, not sucks?

April 26, 2008 3:44 PM

Recommend a lawnmower, please.

We’re looking for a self-propelled, rear-wheel drive, walk-behind mower that doesn’t suck. We hope to pay $400 or less. It will mostly be used as a mulching mower, but we’d like the option of a bag to pull up leaves in the winter.

Our current mower needs to have the carburetor rebuilt every year or so, or it becomes impossible to start and randomly dumps gasoline all over the garage floor. From the research my husband has done, this is because it has a two-stroke engine, and the ethanol in our local gasoline is causing the seals to deteriorate. If this is true, our new mower will need to be a four-stroke.

posted by found dog one eye to home & garden (18 comments total)

What size lawn? Anything unique about it (e.g. hills)?
posted by winston at 3:52 PM on April 26, 2008

I highly recommend Snapper mowers. My family has always owned these mowers, and they last for years with minimal maintenance. I'm not sure about the engines and ethanol, but Snapper customer service is excellent and you should be able to find out easily whether this is a concern. I know brand loyalty is an anachronism in this day and age, but I will never buy another brand of mower.
posted by sonic meat machine at 3:56 PM on April 26, 2008

I've had good luck with Craftsman mowers. My first mower was the cheapest one Sears sold at the time (1991 ish) and it lasted about 8 years, even with the engine seizing several times when I ran it dry of oil. I replaced it with a 6 HP rear wheel direct drive mower than I've been using for 5 years now doing nothing more than changing the oil in the Spring before I use it for the fist time each year. It's never failed to start right up.

I know Sears doesn't actually make their mowers, but they must be specifying high quality parts or something. Or maybe I've just been lucky.
posted by COD at 4:04 PM on April 26, 2008

Electric.

If you go gas, four stroke. Two strokes are death to the environment. Honda makes the best gas mowers, and no one else even comes close. They are not cheap though. In the end they will save you money in maintenance and longevity. I wish I knew which electrics were this good. If your lot is less than 3/4 to 1/2 acre then the electric will perform fine. Lawn mowers are huge polluters of both greenhouse gasses and noise.
posted by caddis at 4:14 PM on April 26, 2008

If at all possible, go electric. An electric mower is quieter, cheaper to operate (no need for engine maintenance and you'll spend much less on electricity than you have been on gas), far less polluting (figures vary, but the pollutants released per hour from a lawnmower are generally many times more than are released per hour by a recent car).
posted by ssg at 4:27 PM on April 26, 2008

In April 2006 I bought a self propelled Lawn-Boy for around $350.00. Within the first hour I used it the gears in the self propulsion mechanism self destructed. I got an immediate replacement from the dealer.

On April 22 of this year, the self propulsion mechanism self destructed; several weeks out of warranty I might add.

I believe that Lawn-Boy and Toro use a similar, if not identical self propulsion mechanism.

I'm currently looking at replacing mine with an IH Cab Cadet, which uses a completely different mechanism.

What I liked a lot about the Lawn-Boy (and like about the Cub Cadet I'll probably buy tomorrow) is that all have three options for grass discharge; to the side, to a bag in the rear, or by mulching. I always mulch the grass.
posted by imjustsaying at 4:48 PM on April 26, 2008

Mowers should be 4-stroke. Nobody needs 2-stroke grief in a mower.

I have a 6.5hp Briggs&Stratton Deere push-mower (Human-propelled) because most (area) of the mowing is done by an (excellent, but pretty expensive) Snapper zero-radius riding mower, and the small mower (doing cleanup) has to turn so often that self-propelled is an annoyance.

I have used self-propelled mowers, and I think they are generally underpowered. The 6.5hp Deere will go through anything--self-propelleds of about the same hp always seemed to be choking on some deep grass or piece of a tree.

But all this depends on how much mowing is to be done. I have a few acres, so two mowers make some sense. If the cord will reach, an electric solution is probably reasonable (I use electric trimmers because the bushes are all near the house, but a 2-stroke weed-whacker)

I did the yuppie solution--I went to a local specialist business (not Lowes or those other big guys) and took their advice. I also have them do maintenance every year or so.

You can't imagine how depressing it is for me to turn out this much prose about lawn mowers. I used to think I was not Hank Hill.
posted by hexatron at 4:49 PM on April 26, 2008

And yet I must add:

Belts on a mower=misery for the owner.

Most mowers have belts. Limiting your search to direct-drive will save hours of greasy, burny, crouch-in-the-grass misery. This may be the main advantage of electric.

Neither of my current mowers has even a single belt.
posted by hexatron at 4:56 PM on April 26, 2008

If the cord will reach, an electric solution is probably reasonable

It is probably worthwhile to mention here that cordless, i.e. battery powered, mowers are available.
posted by ssg at 5:15 PM on April 26, 2008

What size lawn? Anything unique about it (e.g. hills)?

It's a 1/3 acre lot, about 80 x 200 feet, with a small house, so there's a lot to mow. It's completely flat. The lawn is St. Augustine and there are some naturalized parts of the yard that are need mowing just a couple of times a year, but are tough to mow. That's why I want a rear-wheel drive mower, so that I can lift the front wheels up in the air a few inches to get into the weeds. I'd love an electric mower, but not sure if it will be powerful enough.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!
posted by found dog one eye at 5:21 PM on April 26, 2008

A lot of people I know swear by Snappers as well, and they are a pretty cool company.
posted by TedW at 5:51 PM on April 26, 2008 [1 favorite]

Previous AskMe on electric lawnmowers.
posted by thomas j wise at 7:05 PM on April 26, 2008

Snapper does make good mowers, they utilize a steel "Hi-Vac" deck, made especially for bagging. if you go snapper, get the commercial briggs engine with the Ninja blade for mulching. If you have a lot of sand in your yard, the hi vac deck will pull it up and you will go through blades often

Toro makes a mulcher deck called "the recycler" which IMHO is one of the best mulching decks on the market. If they still offer the GTS engine ( Guarenteed To Start), go with that engine.

Honda makes good all around mowers, but I think their decks are better for bagging that for mulching.

whatever you buy, make sure you run it completely out of gas before you store it for the winter. Old gas gums up the carbs and causes all the problems you are having, this is the number one killer of mowers
posted by Mr_Chips at 9:10 PM on April 26, 2008

It won't be any good in this case, but let me take this opportunity to plug reel mowers. I've had a Scotts Classic for a decade and it's awesome. No gummed up carbuerators here! Plus the scissor cutting action promotes healthier grass.

The only problem with push-reel mowers is that they won't cut tall grass / weeds. They just push it over. So you have to stay on top of mowing and not ever let it get out of control.
posted by intermod at 9:35 PM on April 26, 2008

My parents just bought a neuton electric lawn mower a few months ago, and they LOVE it. The last time I visited them they couldn't shut up about it. I think the main thing my mom likes is how lightweight it is---at one point she loaded it in the car and took it over to her sister's house for her to borrow :) They don't have a huge lawn though---if you do, I could maybe see it not being big enough to get the job done efficiently.
posted by slenderloris at 7:23 AM on April 27, 2008

Nth-ing the Snapper. I've inheireted my Dad's with just a simple engine replacement (Briggs). The mower seems bullet-proof.
posted by fijiwriter at 8:10 AM on April 27, 2008

just as an fyi -
"California Air Resources Board's estimate that operating a gas-powered lawnmower for one hour emits as much air pollution as driving a car for 13 hours, and operating a weed-eater for an hour is the equivalent of driving for eight hours."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/18/MNGME34DPG1.DTL
posted by niloticus at 10:40 AM on April 27, 2008

I used to have a corded electric mower. When looking at mowers this time, my one and only rule was: not electric. They are horrible to deal with. Presumably the cordless ones are better, but the one I had, in addition to being easily and far away the most annoying piece of power equipment I have ever dealt with, did a terrible job. If we had been trying to have a decent looking yard instead of just getting the landlord off our back about it, it would have been unacceptable.

We have the cheapest mulching Sears with a Briggs and Stratton engine; it was I think <>
(1) Say "Fuck it"
(2) Put in shed

I just pulled it out after a Buffalo winter and it started on the first pull.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:15 PM on April 27, 2008