Summer Vocation
There's nothing like the smell of freshly cut grass in the spring. And a healthy, deep green lawn is one of life's simple pleasures. But cutting the lawn may or may not be a pleasant experience. A mower can leave a ragged edge, bog down in tall grass, or be stubbornly difficult to start. A machine like that removes the pleasure from the work, and the experience becomes something you dread.
Knowing that you have a summer's worth of mowing ahead of you, we decided to give you a hand, at least as far as mower shopping is concerned. We looked at 11 self-propelled mowers. All of them can be converted to handle clippings in one of three ways--discharged out of the deck, discharged into a bag, or mulched into fine particles and discharged below the deck. We matched the mowers as closely as we could in terms of horsepower and features. And then we let the clippings fall where they may. Read on before you shop for a lawnmower this spring. Your choice of product could affect just how long summer feels to you.
| LAWNMOWER SPECIFICATIONS | |||||||||
| MANUFACTURER & MODEL | ENGINE/ HORSEPOWER | CUT DIAMETER | SPEEDS | BAG DISCHARGE | WEIGHT | SOUND LEVEL (dBA)* | PRIMER BULB | DECK HEIGHT ADJUSTMENT | PRICE** |
| ARIENS LM21 91152500 |
Briggs & Stratton/6.75 | 21 in. | Variable | Rear | 105 lb. | 95 | Yes | Two levers/cotter pins | $550 |
| CRAFTSMAN 917.37700 |
Honda/5.5 | 21 in. | Variable | Rear | 108 lb. | 96.4 | No | One lever | $430 |
| CUB CADET SR 621 |
Kawasaki/6.75 | 21 in. | Six | Side chute to rear | 101 lb. | 91.6 | Yes | One lever | $460 |
| JOHN DEERE JS63 |
Briggs & Stratton/6.75 | 21 in. | Three | Side chute to rear | 85 lb. | 93.5 | Yes | Two levers | $475 |
| HONDA HRB21TDA |
Honda/5.5 | 21 in. | Three | Side chute to rear | 91.5 lb. | 96.8 | No | Four levers | $620 |
| HUSQVARNA 6521RS |
Briggs & Stratton/6.5 | 21 in. | Six | Rear | 98 lb. | 98.5 | Yes | One lever | $450 |
| LAWN-BOY 10362 |
Tecumseh/6.5 | 21 in. | Variable | Side chute to rear | 74 lb. | 93.7 | Yes | Four levers | $320 |
| SNAPPER FRP2167517BV |
Briggs & Stratton/6.5 | 21 in. | Six | Side chute to rear | 86 lb. | 94.8 | Yes | Four levers | $600 |
| TORO 20017 |
Tecumseh/6.5 | 22 in. | Variable | Rear | 81 lb. | 94.5 | Yes | Four levers | $360 |
| TROY-BILT Pro Cut 310 |
Briggs & Stratton/6.5 | 21 in. | Six | Side chute to rear | 96 lb. | 90 | Yes | One lever | $430 |
| YARD-MAN 978 Q |
Briggs & Stratton/6.5 | 21 in. | Six | Side chute to rear | 101 lb. | 92.6 | Yes | One lever | $380 |
| * Decibel rating take at operator's position. **Estimated street prices. | |||||||||
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Toro
Toro calls its mower the Personal Pace because it's equipped with a push-bar-activated drive system. The faster you walk behind the mower, the faster it goes. The mower delivers on its promise, matching its ground speed precisely to your walking speed. Aside from that, the mower is well-balanced and easy to maneuver. It comes with an easy-starting Tecumseh engine that's guaranteed for two years to start on the second pull, or Toro repairs it for free. The mower's rear-mounted bag and side-discharge deflector are a snap to use.
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Honda
The Honda mower produced a very nice quality of cut, owing to a unique twin-blade design, and it bagged as perfectly as anything we've ever seen. Its engine started easily but was not especially powerful. The testers were divided whether its three speeds were enough. Some felt that another two speeds would help make the product a bit more comfortable to walk behind. An unusual feature on the Honda is its rear-mounted, side-discharge chute. It fits into the same hole that the mulching plug uses. The rear mounting position gives the mower slightly more side clearance compared to other designs.
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John Deere
Weighing just 85 pounds, the Deere proved to be a nimble and effective mower. It's a powerful machine that received high marks in cutting performance, and it was comfortable to operate. The blade-control lever has a flattened handgrip, and the mower's handle height is easily adjusted with two knobs. The Deere was the only mower with a 2-lever deck height adjustment that was easy to use. This design also saves weight because it eliminates the heavy linkage associated with a single-lever design.
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Craftsman
The Craftsman is equipped with a smooth-running and powerful 5.5-hp Honda engine. The mower got high marks for comfortable control levers and a bag that was easily removed, installed and emptied. Likewise, the side-discharge deflector quickly slid into position below the spring-mounted mulching hatch. The only substantial complaint with the machine is with the responsiveness of its drive system. The mower's variable speed did not seem to allow the testers to find the mower's optimal ground speed. It either was a bit too fast or too slow. This may be reduced as the drive system wears, or by adjusting the tension on the mower's drive cable.
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Troy-Bilt
The Troy-Bilt was the only machine in our test that came with the recently developed Touch-N-Mow starter system (an option on MTD products). This is a spring-loaded starter mechanism. The first time you use the mower, you pull start it as you would normally. When you let go of the engine-control lever, the engine uses its remaining revolutions to wind the spring-loaded mechanism. The next time, you just press a button to start the mower (a removable safety key prevents children from starting the mower). The starter was universally well received, as was just about everything else on this product--except its bag design. We felt that the side-discharge chute leading to a rear bag was cumbersome. A bag that attaches directly to the rear of the deck is simpler and proves to be just as effective.
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Cub Cadet
The Cub Cadet was one of three mowers in the test equipped with a 6.75-hp engine. The Cub's Kawasaki engine proved to be the second quietest, and we found that it provided more than enough power for anything you would mow. That feature moved the Cub closer to the commercial end of the spectrum. Another heavy-duty feature that we like on the Cub is a transmission that uses a rugged belt-and-chain drive (also found on the Troy-Bilt and Yard-Man). A drawback to this is that it has increased rolling resistance when the transmission is disengaged (when you back up to mow around a shrub, for example).
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Yard-Man
The Yard-Man mower is a competent grass-cutting machine that's nearly identical to the Cub, except with a slightly smaller engine. There's no question that it is an easy-starting, smooth-running mower with sufficient power. It has comfortable, well-placed controls, and the six speeds available provide an adequate range to suit cutting conditions and the operator's pace. But its bag design (a side chute leading to a rear-hung bag) received low marks from the testers.
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Husqvarna
This mower was a good, all-around performer. The testers had minor complaints about the comfort and location of its control levers, but found the mower to be smooth starting, light and maneuverable, as well as an effective bagger and side-discharge machine. The Husqvarna was easy to convert among its various functions. No major complaints were made regarding the mower. Its engine, however, tested the loudest of the 11.
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Snapper
The Snapper has the widest speed range of any of the mowers, a comfortable drive control lever, and it bagged clippings as cleanly as the Honda. Furthermore, its large gate-mouth bag was easy to empty. The mower had low rolling resistance when the drive system was disengaged. All of these things made for a very effective mower. We gave it low marks on converting between functions (switching from mulching to bagging, for example). We don't think a wrench should be required to install a side-discharge chute, a mulching plate or the side chute that leads to the bag. We think that the mower is an ideal machine for cutting tough, Southern-species grasses under conditions in which you set the mower up then leave it like that for the entire season.
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Ariens
The Ariens was the most commercial-like mower that we tested. Its workmanship is excellent and it ranked with the Honda and Snapper as an outstanding bagger. Its results in side-discharge mode were similarly impressive. The Ariens has a deck configuration, blade and discharge port shaped to produce a nearly fluid stream of clippings out the side. If this is important to you, this may be your product. It was the only mower equipped with front caster wheels, which is just as well. A mower this size shouldn't need casters, but when it weighs 105 pounds, casters make sense. A locking lever prevents the casters from swiveling in side-hill mowing. The Ariens has a wide speed range and, as with the Snapper, you have to trot to keep up with it in top speed. The mower's speed control is a rod with a ball handle. Grip the ball and move the rod forward or back. The testers agreed that this design, though rugged, was also awkward.
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Lawn-Boy
All testers agreed that this product is out-of-date. It was the least capable with moist grass, and clogged easily when the grass was damp with dew. In an ideal world, you wouldn't cut damp grass, but we all know that sometimes it's unavoidable. The Lawn-Boy's side-discharge chute and mulching plate can be described only as ridiculous. Two testers burned their knuckles on the muffler and on the head fins when converting the mower between functions because the mounting hardware is too close to these hot surfaces. Any saving graces on this mower? Well, it has a quiet, easy-starting Tecumseh engine.
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