Lawn Mower Recommendation

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#1465293 7-Jan-2016 17:53

I love the self propelled dedicated mulch mowers, hard to find now as not many companies make them any more but i have a Husqvarna mower and it is so easy to use, you just guide it around the lawn and you never have to empty a catcher. The wife will use it for that reason and she finds it easy to start. Would never go back to a catcher mower.

http://www.husqvarna.com/nz/products/lawn-mowers/lb-548s-e/

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davisg

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#1465472 7-Jan-2016 22:56

I agree with an earlier post from mattwnz.
If your budget will run to it, consider a robotic mower (Geekzone right??).
Twice the price of a top end petrol mower. Husquvarna and Robomow sell them in NZ.

I have had a Robomower for 8 years (on my second one due to an ant colony setting up shop on the motherboard and destroying it -another story).
Lead-acid battery pack, runs the mower for 2.5 hours (3 hours when new).
Mine is automatic (manual or timed start, autopark in the recharging docking station when finished).
Perimeter wire (easy to install) keeps it off the garden. 3 blades run at 5800rpm and pulverize the grass clippings into a powder that just seems to disappear.
Cuts our flat and sloped 230sqm lawn in 2 hours. Deals with long grass easily up to 10cm.
Replace the 3 blades every year or so (or sharpen them to get a few more months). Battery packs seem to last around 2-3 years (getting better in recent years).
Only a few dollars worth of electricity every year, no other running costs.

I love it!

GD (Hamilton)

psychrn

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#1465515 8-Jan-2016 00:28

blakamin: Do you guys get the Ryobi 190cc subaru petrol mower in NZ?? All about the torques!

http://www.bunnings.com.au/ryobi-190cc-4-stroke-lawn-mower_p3380820

Yes Bunnings stock these here in NZ too. Saw some today when I was looking for battery powered mower as I mention in another thread

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nakedmolerat

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#1465553 8-Jan-2016 07:15

networkn:
joker97:
scuwp: Masport aluminum body with a 4 stroke Briggs and Stratton engine. The kiwi go-to combination. Go to a real mower shop and forget the hardware variety stores.

Umm... He hates this engine and he wants it cheap.
Weedhacker is what he needs.

Who are you talking about? I don't have a 4 stroke engine and not ONCE have I mentioned Price.

If money is not an issue -

http://www.husqvarna.com/nz/products/robotic-mowers/compare-robotic-mowers-automower/?nid=676879,610863,610848,516222

Go for 330x

Batman

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#1465557 8-Jan-2016 07:51

Will it know not to mutilate anything or anyone?

driller2000

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#1465570 8-Jan-2016 08:18

Got one of these 2 years ago - after hears of buying cheaper mowers:

http://www.masport.co.nz/outdoor-garden-products/lawnmowers/silver-series/msv-3-n-1

Has not missed a beat - easy start - cuts real nice - handles really long grass when I leave it too long between mows - mulch function means i have only used the catcher 2 or 3 times since I purchased it, which is so much easier than the 20+ catcher loads I used to deal with on each mow previously - well pleased with the purchase and highly recommended based on my exp.

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Martynnz

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#1465577 8-Jan-2016 08:36

I would recomend anything with an OHV Honda engine. Talking to our local mower shop guy recently and he recomended them over anything else for any purpose (I was looking for a water blaster). I got an interesting tour of the workshop where he showed me a few self propelling mowers which are the work of the devil as the gears aren't strong enough and they suck power out of the engine for the drive. He also said Briggs was a shadow of its former glory with a lot of mass produced engines. He had some interesting thoughts on the chinese honda copies. The Longshun engines are warrantied for 10 years, mainly because they make so many so the percentage actually claiming is small. He seemed to think they were a reasonable copy for the price/warranty. I think they are on some of the Rover mowers.
Personally I bought a Honda Buffalo Bill 8 years ago. It is less frequently serviced than it should be but still hasn't missed a beat. Our lawn is about a 1000m2. It does have some trouble with throwing long wet lawn into the catcher (but I suspect anything would) but apart from that will chug through most stuff and is easy to start if it stalls. Nice and light weight with a good cut. Also have a powered reel mower which we inherited with house which comes out to mow a backyard pitch in the summer.

Wade

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#1466116 8-Jan-2016 17:50

networkn:
joker97: Anything with briggs and stratton motor. Cheapest is cobra from mitre 10. Or something comparable from Bunnings etc. Paid $299. Wife tried to kill it by attacking the trampoline which snapped ... Still works though something is vibrating a lot. No rust.

My EXISTING mower I hate has a 158CC BS motor, it's the most gutless engine I've seen on a mower.

I don't really get how a 190cc motor wouldn't be more powerful and able to cut grass better. Am I missing something?

I've got a cheapy Cobra Elite with BS 158cc motor and it works quite well and i'm shall we say a lazy lawnmower'er, I usually leave it way too long in between cuts :P , although if it is real long as in 8~12 inches I usually knock it over on the highest deck setting first then redo half a day or two later on a lower setting.

I too would question how much better a 190cc would be, its what 15% bigger so i doubt it would give even 15% extra power, have you taken the mower for a service at one of those old school mower sales/repair shops? Maybe its not hitting its potential, lawnmaster usually are a pretty dependable and decent brand

Jase2985

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#1466124 8-Jan-2016 18:03

its not power you want anyway its torque

Gordy7

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#1466136 8-Jan-2016 18:34

Jase2985: its not power you want anyway its torque

Most rotary mowers that I am familier with, are direct drive on the crank shaft to the blade(s).

Given a 190cc B&S motor, how can you (or the manufacturer) control torque in a lawn mower?

- More revs?
- Smaller blade diameter?
- Fuel used?

Factors that could affect mower performance:

- Sharp blades.
- 2 versus 4 blades.
- length of grass.
- type of grass and density.
- how wet the grass is.
- Speed of mower progress across the lawn.
- Grass clearing from the cutting zone.
and other factors I haven't thought of :-)

Gordy

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oxnsox

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#1466156 8-Jan-2016 19:18

Gordy7:
Jase2985: its not power you want anyway its torque

Most rotary mowers that I am familier with, are direct drive on the crank shaft to the blade(s).

Given a 190cc B&S motor, how can you (or the manufacturer) control torque in a lawn mower?

- More revs?
- Smaller blade diameter?
- Fuel used?

Factors that could affect mower performance:

- Sharp blades.
- 2 versus 4 blades.
- length of grass.
- type of grass and density.
- how wet the grass is.
- Speed of mower progress across the lawn.
- Grass clearing from the cutting zone.
and other factors I haven't thought of :-)

Lawn mower engines use governers to limit RPM so it sits somewhere near the middle of the power/torque curve.

With a blade on the shaft the engine is loaded (air resistance), albeit lightly, and you'll here the governer working (revs increase/decrease) every few seconds if it's just sitting or being used on short dry grass that doesn't present much of a challenge. Torque isn't a big issue when the load is light and the engine won't be using much fully but is probably running a bit rich.

When the load goes on, cutting longer/wet grass , it'll use more fuel as the load goes on. Revs will drop with load, and if load increases it may stall as there is insuffiecient torque (and fuel) to keep things going.

FWIW, it appears the 190cc B&S has about 60% more torque than the 150cc unit. It'll probably run at similar rpm but will be swinging a larger/heavier blade/disc and offer a wider cut.

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red_xsi

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#1466655 9-Jan-2016 18:40

Disregard CC ratings on Briggs Engines - pay attention to the engine series which is an indication of Gross Torque (rotational power)

For Example - a Briggs 675 Series 190cc engine is outputting 6.75 ft lbs of gross torque. To make matters confusing a Briggs 850 Series 190cc engine is outputting 8.5 ft lbs of gross torque. 500 Series = 5.0 ft lbs, 450 Series = 4.5 ft lbs etc etc

The kicker for the average punter here is that Briggs has recently shifted from manufacturing Side Valve engines to newer, more efficient Over Head Valve (OHV) engines - the new OHV engines carry a lower cc rating but are still outputting the same amount of torque (using less fuel etc). Example - the old side valve Briggs 450 Series engine was rated 148cc the new 450 Series engine is rated 125cc (but still putting out 4.5 ft lbs of gross torque). At the moment you will see a mixture of side valve and OHV engines in the retail channel - the big sellers (Masport) get through engines faster that the other guys do so there are still some of the old ones out there from the other manufacturers.

If you are interested have a watch here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-TmaEBCjXI

In terms of catching ability - compare the size of the tunnel and output area (lift the flap up) of a Masport to most other models and you will see why they can process grass more efficiently than most.

networkn

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#1474961 19-Jan-2016 22:18

Today I was at bunnings and was talking to the Ozito Rep who seemed to know everything about everything that Bunnings sold (I was in for drills and a line trimmer).

He pointed me to this:

http://ryobi.co.nz/products/power-garden/lawn-mowers/190cc-4-stroke-lawnmower

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/ryobi-rlm4619sme.html

He said the downsides were he thought it was only really good for 5-6 Years. He said it was very heavy (Our section is flat), but he said it was STUPID powerful. He said he thought it was pushing to say it was 11.2 NM of Torque but after using it he thought it wasn't impossible to be 9-10.

It's probably not as well thought out completely as say a Masport 700AL which is the leading contender or the MSV 3-1 (second choice), but at $499 instead of $929 for the Masports, he didn't think it would be that much of an issue.

Anyone care to share their opinions on that?

Batman

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#1474968 19-Jan-2016 22:22

They should know all the details and how to work all their products. But I wouldn't take any critical reviews from them ... he also probably has bought the Ryobi for his home hasn't he? (or if he doesn't have a lawn he probably bought a couple for each of his in-laws)

networkn

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#1474971 19-Jan-2016 22:26

joker97:

They should know all the details and how to work all their products. But I wouldn't take any critical reviews from them ... he also probably has bought the Ryobi for his home hasn't he?

This wasn't his product, he works for Ozito. I found his breadth of product knowledge quite astonishing across every product I asked about (He was surprisingly candid about issues in his own range of products and strengths of others).

I posted reviews from an independent source. They all rave about the engine. Some of it's other factors like weight are an issue for some, I can see for myself some of the other things, some of which may annoy me.

Ultimately though I am looking for a mower that will handle long grass, be dead reliable and it SEEMS to tick those boxes for $400+ less than other models I'd be considering.

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