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How To Choose The Best Lawn Mower – Buying Guide
Are your lawn grasses growing rapidly? This means that your little lawn is going to need some extra attention. If you are not sure of what kind of lawn mower you should get or you’re only looking to validate the price for upgrading, we suggest you read on.
Budget and personal preference play a very important role for most people when things come to mowing the lawn. There are people who see the task as just a therapeutic workout for the body and would not mind pushing a lawn mower for a couple hours, while some others would believe it to be a boring chore to be done with as fast as possible.
Nevertheless, the kind of lawn mower that you should have would mostly be determined by 3 factors: the dimensions of the lawn, the height of its terrain (hilly or flat) and the number of obstacles (such as flower beds, trees etc.).
How To Choose The Best Lawn Mower
Push Lawn Mowers
These types are great for the small lawns that require more care. A little patch of grass, usually under 500 sq. feet, could be mowed easily by using a manually operated reel mower. Just try and move a little bit faster than usual in order to trigger the blades correctly, but it has no engine, which means it is eco-friendly and low maintenance.
You can store this model of push mower vertically propped against the wall. The push/reel lawn mower is the regular 16 inches in width, but you could go as much as to 20 inches or as less as to 14 inches wide.
You can cover a much wider path using the 20″ width but that would need more attempt to make use of and steer than the tinier versions. These kinds of lawn mowers would cost around 80 dollars to 110 dollars.
Walk Behind Lawn Mowers
The walk-behind lawn mowers have established their reputation of being the American favorite for a long time. With good care, the two-stroke powered lawn mowers would run for a long time and cut on miles of green lawn.
These walk-behind mowers come in sizes in 20 inches to 22 inches. You must make sure that you do measure up the width of the shed door and yard gate so that you get enough room to maneuver the mower through.
There are some other key features to remember while picking walk-behind mowers:
- Electric or Gas Lawn Mower:
Gas mowers tend to have a more extended running time and present much more strength than electric mowers, but those can be really messy and also need more maintaining than the electric counterparts. Gas lawn mowers come with a price tag of $100-$400, maybe a bit more on some good quality gas mower as well.
The electric lawn mowers could be cordless or corded. They are easier to operate and cleaner too, but if you don’t have two batteries with you for the cordless models, the mower can run out of charge at any time if you’re not careful. Well, the corded model could limit you with the length cord, which could be a bother to mow around with.
GreenWorks would be introducing their 80V cordless mower this spring that presents 45 minutes of running time. However, most cordless lawn mowers are 40V and would be best fitted for a quarter acre or less. The corded mowers cost at least 200 dollars and more, as cordless mowers could range somewhere between the $300-$400 price array.
- Self-propelled or push system:
If it is self-propelled, would it be a two or an all wheel drive? The all-wheel drive would provide much more help if you go up inclines. However, they are bulkier and can prove harder to maneuver.
The Poulan Pro PR500N21SH mower is a solid push lawn mower which only weighs about 51 pounds. It is perfect for small and flat yards; you can cut around flower beds too. For bigger yards having inclines, self-propelled lawn mowers like Lawn Boy 17734 would do the job faster and without much effort.
Riding Lawn Mower
Riding mower types are for lawns which are large. If you take more than a couple hours to finish mowing your yard, it is probably time for you to upgrade. The riding mowers possess a rear-mounting motor and just provide basics in ease. They’ve been built for taking on smaller yards and getting it done fast. Those are worth ranging from $600-$1000.
The riding mower or lawn tractor is a step up and present stronger engines and a wider cutting deck range. Some have PTO or power takeoff capabilities that let you hook up various attachments like aerators, spreaders, or snow throwers onto the lawn tractor.
Advanced attributes to search for comprise headlights, four-wheel steering, high-back seats, and cruise control and 12 volt outlets. They start at 1,000 dollars and upto 4,000 dollars or more.
The zero-turn models have been quite popular with their golf course maintenance and landscapers for years. They give faster mowing and precision turns, but their lap bar steers could be hard to learn. These are suited for big, flat lawns having large obstacles like ponds or trees to mow on.
Cutting Types
The walk-behind mower types deal with the grass clippings by one of 3 ways: mulching- cutting the clippings in finer pieces that break down to release all nutrients back within the soil; side discharge- it distributes the grass clippings right back on the lawn; bagging- it collects the clippings in a bag that is disposed of along with yard wastes. Mowers such as the Husqvarna R120S have all the three options.
Before purchasing a best lawn mower, you should try to find what you need. It would save you regret. Nobody would ever get a car without test driving, so do that with the mower too.
