I'm in the market for a new mower.
What's your first choice?
• A big box store like Home Depot, Lowe's, Menards, etc
• A small family owned specialty lawn mower shop
• Your local Ace Hardware
• Wal-Mart
There are advantages and disadvantages of each. Selection, price, service
My first choice is for her lawn to be neatly mowed. Kind of like a putting green.
I pay $25 every other week to have a service do it.
Yes, most people mow lawns and the clippings just stay on the ground. This avoids soil depletion. I've always done it this way.
But I think to get it like a golf course putting green, then you probably do need to bag the clippings. For home lawn I think this is impractical.
Then if you bag the clippings you probably have to keep using fertilizers.
SJG
shadow,
I've paid the last 2 years. But thinking of getting a rider and doing it myself. I like the small lawn mower shop but he's expensive.
Probably the Honda mowers are lighter than the ones with the old flat head Briggs-Stratton motors.
I've used old fashioned hand push reel mowers. Easier to handle. So long as you don't have acres and acres, it's just fine. I like them.
SJG
Four Horseman, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED youtube.com
The cooler the better. Here's Clubbers......
:)
SJG
Nothing runs better than a Deere, but I would rather keep my lawn service I'm too fucking lazy to mow it every week.
Law mowing, with a hand push mower, is great exercise. But there are other more ecologically sound types of landscaping.
SJG
The EGO 56V electric mowers are pretty darn nice and available in walk-behind and self propelled versions. No gasoline to store and no oil to check or mix. Instant on and off. No emissions and easily changed batteries.
If you're wedded to s rider, ID go with a Poulan zero-radius turn or, if you want a tractor capable of carrying accessories like mowing decks, snowblowers and carts, I'd go with a Deere.
Motor, how big are the lawns you need to mow, and how much stuff do you have to work around?
SJG
Get a Binford!
Only only need a walk behind mower, so I consider those to be disposible items. I buy a refurb one from Sears (big box store).
Riding mower, would depend on how much lawn I have and what I need to mow around. If it's small and not many obstacles - then steering wheel mower from big box store. If it's large and/or lots of obstacles, I would get one of the handlebar ones I've seen my redneck friends have (John Deere or Cub Cadet). I think Cub Cadet is made by MTD, so Ariens or Troy Built would also work.
I vote you buy some goats. I hear they eat grass. They do it automatically. So it has the lazy factor.
Toro Personal Pace.
Go to a dealer, NOT a big box. The service makes the price you pay cheap.
^^^^^^ That is good info!
Finding a way to avoid big boxes
SJG
I'll buy a 2 cycle chain saw from the specialty store. Partly because of the danger, and party because of the service factor in case I have problems with winter storage / maintenance / help with the carb. I'll pay extra for that, because 2 cycle from big box stores pisses me off.
Now for the electric chain saw (trimmer) or the electric weed trimmer, I'll buy those from (you guessed it) Sears refurb / re-manufactured, since I consider it disposable.
The takeaway I think, is the specialty store makes sense when either the products or the service from the Big Box Store pisses you off. Then you pay the extra $$ to get over that hurdle. IMO and IME.
Agree with SJG RE: Walmart.
to Dominic-I wouldn't buy electric chain saws because I only would need one in case of a hurricane, and we probably will not have power for 3-5 days afterwards.
If you buy from a big box, you toss it away when it breaks. From a local store/dealerthey fix it, and even for free many times. I buy all my power equipment from my local dealer and when shit happens, they take care of you. YMMV.
up north, I use the electric ones for quick, light pruning tasks. They have their drawbacks, sure, I don't doubt that. But, yeah, one should have a gas one too, for the reason you cite. I find I need and use both types.
Agree with rockstar666 RE: local dealer service.
I bought my Worx (cordless) electric mower about 5 years ago, online of all places. The price was great and get-this: FREE SHIPPING. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imaged anyone offering free shipping on a 30 lb mower. Anyhow the mower is awesome and is still going strong. Battery life is really good as well.
I've used walmart generic ones, my dad swears by sears craftsman riding mowers, I currently have a husqvarna riding mower that I bought at lowes and have used it for 4 years now. It's only had 1 issue which was fixed under warranty at a local huqvarna auth repair dealer here. I would've preferred to go through a local dealer but the price was a LOT more than what i paid at lowes. My father-in-law has a couple JD's. Regular riding mower, zero turn and a tractor. The freakin' "regular" riding mower has power steering which blew my mind. The zero turn goes 9mph and doesn't miss a single blade of grass at full speed. I love the tractor but i want one with the mid-pto so I can have the mower deck.
We have 13 acres and 3 acres of that is actual yard. Takes me 3 hours to cut the whole yard with mine. With the JD zero turn I can do it in 90 minutes. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't do it multiple times with the same results. He gets all his through the local JD dealer. I wouldn't get a JD at a big box store. It's like buying a high end tv at walmart.
Every brand can have issues but it just comes down to yearly maintenance and hoping no major failure happens.
Luckily, mrs sea has decided the last couple of years to cut the yard so I can spend 2 hours doing all the weed eating. At least now she won't have a neighborhood voyeur watching her do it anymore.
I bought one from maybe Lowes or kmart or walmart for about 130 lasted maybe 5 to 10 years before needing major maintenance. Sold it and let someone else do most of the maintenance. Bought a new one fom Lowes 2 years ago. Stupid ethanol in the gas means it's best to get all the gas out before winter. wondering if I want to do mantenance on current mower. It was more expensive. My yard only takes about 20 minutes to mow so I need only about 2 to 4 gallons of gas for a whole season.
Nothing runs like a Deere.
One thing I don't like is that someone made it harder to back up with the push mower and it doesn't cut as low or as good in reverse. for a tiny yard, I am not going to keep going around in tiny circles to cut grass some designer thinks I should. I have a bagger on it.
Zero turns are awesome.
I'd look on Craigslist first to see what you can get used before buying new.
JD Zero Turn deere.com
Toro Personal Pace homedepot.com
Worx Cordless Electric i.walmartimages.com
This would suit me just fine: i03.hsncdn.com
So long as the lawn is not too big, this would be fine for me.
I learned how to use these sorts of mower before I was big enough to push them continually through long grass, when I wasn't even as high as the handles.
SJG
The Worx cordless electric is a sexy little beast.
Never bought anything at Wal-Mart, never will. I don't like Target at all. The other big boxes are so so, but they are still big boxes. I like Ace. But small family owned specialty is best. Maybe one you would anticipate doing other sorts of business with in the future?
As far as law mowers the pros have for a long time now used only those over head valve Honda's, higher RPM. Don't know about costs though.
SJG
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