Question
I am getting ready to buy a self-propelled lawn mower and wondered what a good brand was.  I have heard that Craftsman is a good brand, what about John Deere or Troy bilt?  Are there any brands to watch out for?  Thanks!

Answer
Julie, Your timing was just amazing.  Consumer Reports just did their Lawnmowers issue last month, May 2006.

What they say about this year's models:

"Even after decades in the business, some mower makers still botch the basics. One Craftsman self-propelled model has nine cutting-height positions for its front wheels and only six in back (you won抰 get any benefit by using the 搃n between?front settings, the maker says). One John Deere model requires three hands to attach its bag, while an otherwise stellar Honda won抰 cut higher than 3 inches, which may not be enough if you need to mow higher."

CU recommends self-propelled mowers if you have "hilly lawns" or more than a half acre to mow.

They warn against picking a model by Horsepower (a complaint I have also heard over the years about Vacuum Cleaners).  Or being impressed by things like having a Honda engine (I am guessing that the psychological link to the motorcycle is a mere marketing gimmick).

Among self-propelled models, the $700 Honda HRX217HXA was top rated, just short of Excellent.  

2nd place went to the Toro Super Recycler 20055, which retails for $520 and scored lower in the Mulching category.  Not far behind was Toro's smaller $400 Recycler 20070 and $370 20017, both fo which carry a 2-year warranty and were "Best Buy" models for this category.

But...

When I mow the lawn -- which I used to pay someone else to do but did not like the results -- I care about things CU does not consider.

We have 2 lawnmowers.

I am a serious environmentalist.  So gas powered anything does not get my $ if there's an intelligent alternative.  

I don't like to breathe the fumes.  

I don't like to worry about the added task of gassing up a mower.  

I don't like the noise one bit.  Even CU reminds you to buy earplugs with these units.

And while everyone is boasting about how much more powerful their gas mowers are, I have never, never, NEVER had a problem mowing high grass with our first mower, a Black and Decker electric.  

Sure we have mowed over the cord.  Twice (my father was the second person to do this).  And that involved getting a new cord.  It was a careless error.  I have had it for 11 years and the only thing I don't like is that it is heavy.  Yet, it is still lighter than any gas mower on the block.

When I started getting serious about the lawn, I studied all the details.  And I learned that grass experts -- not the "experts" who come to your house and drive trucks with fertilizer and weedkiller around, day workers in the back, but people with PhD's in the subject of Grass -- prefer reel blades to rotary.  

Reel blades cut down and make a clean, healthy cut.  

Rotaries swipe like a machete, sideways, chop chop chop.  

For a very clear explanation of this go to Clean Air Gardening (cleanairgardening.com).  

And so I purchased a second lawnmower.  It is quiet, I can mow on a Sunday morning, and no one even knows I'm out there,

We have only perhaps a total 1/2 acre of grass here.  Because I have so many things growing all over the place, there's less grass than when the house was built 100 years ago.  I would not switch lawnmowers if I had more grass because I take grass very seriously.  I like having the best lawn in the neighborhood.  Because I like telling people that this is a purely organic lawn.  I like making that kind of impression.  

Most people still don't have any idea that you don't have to compromise your standards to grow anything.  

So I try to educate them.  And raise their standards.  

Here on the internet and at home when they are passing and ask for advice.  Every little bit counts.  

So although Consumer Reports acts like this pro-environment system doesn't exist, which I fault them for, it is ALL I care about.

Why do we have 2 mowers now?

I was sold on electric from the day I bought the house.  Black & Decker had a mulching electric lawnmower that was highly rated by CU.  It was not as noisy as the gas powered mower and was not as "powerful".   But let's be serious here.  We're cutting grass.  We're not breaking holes in cement.  We don't need THAT much power!  

People "warned" me we would need self-propelled.  

It's not THAT much work to push a lawnmower.  And unlike those smelly, caustic diesel machines, there are no fumes to breathe as you're walking behind an electric B&D.

There are times that we need to mow very, very low.  To get rid of certain weeds, to make our bentgrass area healthy.  The front of the house is mowed 2-4 times a week.  It's a crescent in front of a circular driveway, the showcase of the house.  

It has to be beautiful.  

There's a velvety carpet of bentgrass and it is mowed to the happy height of under 1 inch.  That's a little too low for Bluegrass, which is in the back and gets mowed just under 2 inches.  So we needed a mower that adjusted easily and could get to the low, low level we need as well.  We got a Brill hand mower.

Once in a while, something goes wrong.  My father was hospitalized last autumn with a serious injury that required my constant attention for months, and the lawn was neglected.  In the fall, when the grass was out of control, I finally mowed and I needed the electric Black and Decker for that.

So if I had to go out and buy a mower today, I would buy 2 mowers.  

First, I would buy the manual reel.  Scott's Classic #16334 is on sale right now at Outside Pride (www.outsidepride.com), for $130 including the catcher (which is good to have but I don't use) and the sharpener.  

Clean Air Gardening (cleanairgardening.com) has a whole line of different mowers including the Scott's.  I bought my Brill Lexus 38 from them.  I like the fact that it is a German-engineered machine that weighs 17 pounds and mows down to .7 inches.  We use the 1.8 inches for the Bluegrass.  And although the Scott's model comes with a sharpener that they say you might use every 2 years, the Brill doesn't need sharpening for 5-10 years.  Have you ever heard of that?  

I mow all summer, and we have been doing this for 5 years and it is still cutting smooth and quiet.  I have never sharpened it.  Hard to believe.  It is such a beautiful precision instrument, I love it.  People walking to church on Sundays often remark about it.  One man recently said, "I haven't seen one of those in 40 years!"  And was wowed mostly by the idea of not sharpening the blade and the German engineering.  Buying this little mower was a good idea.  And the noise it makes, like a scissors cutting.  Very smooth.

The electric Black and Decker, we sharpen every 3 years.  It is used infrequently, but mulches beautifully.  

No, they are not self-propelled.  Most people would not buy them, especially the manual mower. But we are not most people.

And Julie, that's why the grass is NEVER greener on the other side of my fence.  

Thanks for writing, Julie!  Let me know if you have any questions.