A couple of weeks ago, I was literally seconds away from finishing mowing my front lawn when suddenly my lawnmower’s engine sort of… um… fell off. Apparently I had bent the crankshaft, which is bad. So the mower had been shaking, but I couldn’t tell why, so I just kept going, and eventually the bolts connecting the engine to the frame ripped free. Really, it’s hard to imagine a more catastrophic failure.
So, I pushed the mower’s pathetic remains (which I’m looking forward to taking apart!) into the garage…and finished mowing the front yard using my weed eater! (There wasn’t much left, but that part of the lawn looked like a bad haircut for a while 🙂
Last week I got this mower:
It’s awesome! It’s the Toro Recycler 20017. It’s self-propelled and optionally a bagger. It was the #4 Consumer Reports pick, I think.
I’ve only used it once, but one feature I liked was the speed sensor built into the handle. The mower moves faster depending on how hard you are pushing its handle, and it works perfectly! I think I mowed in about half the time it would normally take me — the self-propelled feature just worked wonderfully.
Anyway, it’s just my first time using it, but so far I’m really happy with the purchase, so I thought I’d share in case anyone else is looking for a mower. It was $400 with a 1-year warranty from Austin Outdoor Power.