Finding the Perfect Lawn Mower

I can't cut this grass with this lawnmower anymore. I need something better, bigger ... Hey Jack, there are better options, come in and I'll show ....


I've been trying to cut the lawn and that lawn mower I have isn't getting the job done. Well, it all boils down to the size of your lawn and the terrain.

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If you have half an acre or less, one of these basic push mowers - they're low-cost - they can work, but there are other choices. Let's go see. If you have half an acre to an acre you want to step up to a self-propelled model.

Self-propelled mowers take some power and they power the wheels to the front, rear or both and in our testing we found real wheels give a little better traction.

It's a little more expensive, but with that cost you get more options. One of the options is a blade brake clutch. What does that do? Basically it sounds weird but if you're bagging clippings or you need to stop and collect the kid's toy, you don't have to shut off the engine, it just stops the blades.

Well, a lot of people don't like pulling that starter cord. Many mowers today have an electric start. You simply turn a key and it starts right up. Every mole has to be able to lift the blade in the cutting death because in the spring the grass grows faster.

You want to cut it maybe a little a little lower in the summer when it dries up. This mower has individual levers. You have to go around to each wheel and adjust the cutting height with the mower like this.

That has a single lever. You just basically move all four wheels at once and that makes it a little easier now. This one looks like a spaceship - it's a very modern mower and if you have a smaller lawn say about 1/3 of an acre, which means it'll take you about a half hour to cut.

This is a good option. You don't want to use it on a big lawn because the batteries only run for about 30 to 60 minutes tops. You don't to be worried about running out of battery.

They have a push button start, so they're really easy to start. It really is the good thing about this is that you really don't have to wear hearing protection and you want to get out there early on a Saturday morning.

You're not going to annoy the neighbors. I want to show you the batteries on this thing - There are two very large batteries, very high-tech. These are really powerful batteries that give you a good runtime.

The other thing is this: the mower folds up making it really easy for storage. Now we're going to lift it. Oh, how cool, you know these mowers don't have gas or oil so there's nothing to spill out making it really easy to maintain. You should never touch this unless you take the batteries out where you take the spark plug wire off on gas models because it's dangerous.

This is the blade - every mole we talked about has a blade. Now. What about cleaning it? Do you have to clean it? You should clean the deck after each use because if grass builds up on it it diminishes air flow and it won't cut so well.

The other thing is you should sharpen the blade usually twice a year. If you have sandy or rocky soil, you may want to do it a little more often.

This looks like a mini tractor and if you have an acre of grass or more, you're really going to want to ride.

Some of the features on a conventional tractor are the comfortable seat. You may be on this thing for an hour or more so you want to have a high back comfortable seat.

See how it engages the blade on some models. You have to use a level like this, where you just engage it and on some models you just pull a switch. You want to also look for how easy it is to raise and lower the cutting depth.

I'm assuming something this size needs gasoline and with gasoline you don't want to run out if you're all on the other side of your property at a point. So it'S good to have a gauge that you can see right from the sitting position so that you know when you need to go back and refill the gas.

This is a zero turn radius like a regular lawn tractor. You only use this if you have an acre or more. It has levers that actually make it run. Okay, it takes a little learning curve to get used to, but once you learn, it's pretty easy. The benefits of these models is that you can cut faster than a lawn tractor.

You also want good hearing protection, just like with all gas mowers, but with this one, especially because your ears are right above the engine.