How to know what lawn mower to buy
How To Choose The Right Lawn Mower for Your Yard | Lawn Mower Buying Guide 2020
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hey what's up y'all now in this video
let me start by saying I am NOT gonna
tell you which brand to buy I of course
have my favorites but all in all if
there's a company making quality
machines for us di wires then I like
them all now some guys they collect cars
motorcycles ATVs jet skis boats me I
collect lawn mowers and in today's video
I'm gonna take you through some of the
features that I recommend if you're
looking to purchase a lawn mower things
to consider based on what I've seen in
my own lawns both cool season and warm
season as well as what I've seen in our
community of thousands of lawn care nuts
now I've gone ahead and placed
convenient time stamps in the
description below for those of you that
like to skip ahead but of course I hope
you'll watch the entire video and get
something out of it quick caveat here
I'm not gonna talk about robotic mowers
in this video because that's kind of not
a DIY thing and I'm a DIY err and I'm
also not gonna talk about real mowers
because I just believe that's more of an
advanced strategy and something that I
would need to dedicate an entire
separate video to so look for that
coming soon the last thing is I'm not
going to necessarily talk about battery
powered mowers however most of those are
20 21 22 inch and so when I go through
the different parameters and give the
advice that I plan to give today if you
decide that you want to go battery
you'll still be able to use a lot of
what I talked about here now the first
consideration of course is the size of
your lawn if you'll remember in last
week's video I talked about measuring
your lawn as the first key to unlock
everything else when it comes to lawn
care and in that video we talked about
fertilizing your lawn and knowing how
much fertilizer to buy but when it comes
to purchasing a mower the lawn size is
important in knowing how much time
you're gonna need to put in each week to
get your Aten stun now from my
experience most folks mow their lawn a
minimum of one time per week sometimes
twice but mowing also includes edging
weed whacking and cleanup and if this
process takes more than about 75 minutes
from start to finish it becomes more of
a chore rather than a time of enjoying
being outside so I use that 75 minutes
is my standard here now of course this
isn't true for everyone some of us enjoy
mowing hours and hours and hours but for
the most part there are times when you
just need to get out and get it done in
a workman like fashion and 75 minutes
just seems to be about the tolerance
level that most people have and so I'm
gonna start with the twenty one or two
two inch standard walk-behind mower 21
or 22 inch walk behind mowers are what
you're gonna find at most big-box stores
I recommend this size mower if your lawn
is 8,000 square feet or smaller
additionally if your lawn is bigger than
2,500 square feet
you should definitely invest in a mower
that is self-propelled this basically
means it has Drive wheels this makes it
a true walk-behind mower and not a push
mower and the reason I recommend a
self-propelled mower as this goes back
to enjoying the mow if it becomes too
much like work you're not going to want
to do it whereas if you enjoy it you'll
want to do it more and the more you mow
the healthier your lawn will grow now
when you do get a self-propelled mower
I recommend rear-wheel drive this is
because the front wheels of your walk
behind mower have to come off the ground
every time you turn or they'll often
come off the ground when you hit a bump
if your mower is front-wheel drive it's
those front wheels that are gonna come
off the ground and you're gonna lose the
drive and you're gonna have to push
through the turn however if your mower
is rear-wheel drive the drive wheels
will stay engaged around turns and even
over bumps typically rear-wheel drive
self-propelled mowers are more expensive
but I promise you it's worth the extra
investment now in most cases 21 22 inch
rear wheel drive self-propelled mowers
or going to have the option to bag mulch
and side discharge and I highly
recommend you get a mower that offers
all three of these because there's gonna
be times when you're gonna need to use
them I recommend you mulch your
clippings through 90% of your modes
return those clippings back into the
lawn and let those nutrients be recycled
side discharge may be needed however if
your lawn gets overgrown maybe when
you're on vacation or your miss MO or
you get a lot of rain for weeks on end
and you have to get out and cut the
blonde overgrown that's when site
discharge will be a lot better for you
and then bagging is needed if your lawn
has a disease we're gonna want you to
catch your clippings or if you have
leaves that you need to clean up in the
fall that's also a good opportunity to
have a bagger on your mower lastly is
the engine size back 10 15 years ago
when I first started doing this I would
tell folks looking at these walk behind
mowers you want a minimum of a 5
horsepower engine this would be enough
to keep the mower sufficiently powered
through thicker grass or if you had to
go up a slight slope however some time
ago they stopped rating these smaller
engines and horsepower and they went
strictly to CCS which stands for cubic
centimetres of displacement now people
and argue in the comments below if they
like and I think that'd be a lot of fun
but there is no real way to transpose
horsepower to C C's it just doesn't work
so what I typically have said to folks
these days is you want to look for a
mower again with all the options that
I've recommended here you want that
mower to be somewhere around 160 CCS a
couple - tree less couple two or three
more you'll be good to go I can tell you
if you're taking my advice here and
you're getting one of these rear wheel
drive self-propelled mowers it's gonna
be real close to that hundred and sixty
CC standards some manufacturers will add
a couple ticks extra just so they can
talk about that in their marketing but
they're all gonna come in right around
that power point now what will it cost
for this mower probably somewhere north
of $400 to get the mower with all of
these options that I'm recommending of
course there are other options that you
might want to get such as electric start
or blade stop and in that case you could
pay upwards of eight hundred and fifty
or even nine hundred dollars for a 21 or
22 inch mower the good news here is this
is an extra investment I understand that
but this mower should last you 8 to 10
years and if you look at it over the
total cost of ownership it's well worth
it to be able to enjoy the mow
especially if you're somebody that's
committing to getting a nice lawn and
committing to mowing as often as I
recommend ok now let me just offer a
little bit of clarity here ok the
standards that I'm using here in this
video for lawn sizes and size of the
lawn mower that you should get these are
not hard and fast rules these are just
my opinions and suggestions because
listen you'll see me running my 42 inch
zero-turn here on my 10,000 square foot
lawn which is actually 8500 I'm just too
scared to admit that I have a lawn that
small but that's ok because with the ZT
on this lawn I can get the whole thing
done with a double cut in like 30
minutes and right now and coming up into
our rainy season when the st. Aubrey
elite takes off I'll be mowing my lawn
every three days so having something
like this at my disposal especially if I
get to it with some weeknight lawn work
is very important the key is I'm just
trying to give you some baselines for
you to make your decision whether you
want to move up or down depending on how
much you want to enjoy the mow and how
you want to enjoy it next let's look at
the 30 inch walk behind now there's not
too many choices in this relatively new
category but it's one that's important I
of course have the Toro time
which is the one I've been using for
several years now and I would recommend
30 inch mowers of this type for lawns
8,000 to 15,000 square feet
again keeping with our 75 minutes of
total mow time likely with a larger lawn
you're gonna have more weed whacking and
edging to do so anything more than
15,000 square feet and you'll probably
be over that 75 minute time frame just
FYI because if you do like to walk you
could easily use a 30 inch mower up to
25,000 square feet and have a great time
with it now because these have two
blades in a wider deck you do get a
cleaner cut now the other thing here is
as these mowers will always be
self-propelled and rear-wheel drive
that's because they're just so heavy
there really isn't a way that you could
push this mower but one thing to
consider is even though this mower is
heavier it's still not too heavy to
transport by yourself or move around
easily or get underneath it to sharpen
the blades you can expect to pay right
around $1,000 for a mower of this size
for homeowners up for one of the
commercial versions in the price can go
up but I rarely recommend getting the
commercial versions for homeowners
because you're just not going to be
using the lawn mower day in and day out
doing 10 or 15 lawns with it
lastly let's talk about riding mowers
primarily zero turns and tractors I'm
not going to do a great deal of
comparison between these two different
platforms today but I will say this the
tractor is much more of a leisurely mode
and the zero turn is much more of an
active mode you guys have heard me use
those terms before when I talked about
self propulsion and walked behind mowers
and I'll link up here in the I to the
comparison I did between the Honda hrx
and the Toro super recycler so you can
get a refresher there but in short the
zero turn is much quicker and much more
highly maneuverable whereas the tractor
is I'm gonna say more chill it's not
necessarily more comfortable but it's
definitely more chill it also offers
more flexibility to tow things around
and pull implements even though you
could do that with the zero turn a
tractor is much more practical for that
type of work now one thing to note if
you're looking to upgrade to a zero turn
or a tractor almost all of these come
standard with side discharge only so if
you want to bag our mulch you're
definitely going to have to invest over
and above the cost of the mower to get
that option another thing to consider
and that is for those of you that are
mowing a lawn over 15,000 square feet
but
like sixteen or seventeen thousand and
you're looking at that 30 inch time
master versus upgrading to one of these
riding options is that the riding mowers
they're not easy to get underneath and
they're not easy to move and in fact if
you're gonna move it or take it
somewhere you're gonna have to have a
trailer to do that the other thing with
tractors and zero turns is to sharpen
the mower blades you can either take the
deck off which I have found not to be
too handy or you have to invest in a
mower jack which is something that I
have done so again another investment
just to be able to sharpen the blades
the next thing is there's a lot more
maintenance that comes with a zero turn
or a tractor for example just tire
pressure alone can change the cut you
have to monitor the tire pressure on
these or your cut could be uneven
without you even realizing it whereas
with the plastic solid wheels that are
on the walk behinds that's really never
a concern a zero turn with a 42 inch
deck can chew through 15,000 square feet
in under 40 minutes even with obstacles
and the average lawn tractor with the
same size deck probably would only take
50 minutes or so still though with
trimming and edging you are for sure
well under that 75 minute standard from
here upgrading the deck size as a matter
of your personal preference I run a 42
inch John Deere on my 25,000 square foot
project lawn and enjoy a good 70 to 75
minutes of just constant mowing but I've
also run my 54 inch lawn tractor out at
the freedom factory which is a hundred
thousand square feet and enjoyed four
straight hours of mowing when you get to
this level the options are infinite you
can get done really fast by getting a
larger mower or you can get done a
little bit slower by getting a smaller
one just remember the more obstacles you
have in your lawn the more difficult it
is to get around them with a wider depth
and I'm gonna reiterate here if you like
to mow fast and furious and be up on it
and be moving all the time you're gonna
want to go with a zero-turn but if you
like to chill a bit while also being
able to pull around carts and fun stuff
like that and feel like a farmer then
you're gonna want to go with a lawn
tractor and that's where I'll leave you
with this when it comes to tractors and
zero turns the more comfortable to mow
the more often you'll show because
remember I've been talking about mowing
once a week but really when we get into
the heavy growing season which most of
us are coming into now it's really best
to mow every three or four days and
that's another consideration that you
want to make maybe you won't have to
edge trim and blow every single time but
you're definitely going to have to mow
so if you can get it done quicker
especially on a Wednesday night when
daylight is a little bit shorter because
you work late
that day that's when these
considerations can really come into play
so with that I'm Ellen Haney lawn care
nut I hope this video has been helpful
to you leave your questions and comments
below I'll see you
[Music]
okay now let me just show I have to show
this every once in a while because
people think that you can't stripe st.
Augustine grass you can see beautiful
st. Augustine grass
I actually striped it with this mower
right here no stripe kit just the mower
itself some of you're going look where
the stripes al I don't see them now I
got some cleanup to do here so don't
judge but I want to make sure I do this
before the the Sun gets out of position
so you can see now when you come over
here whoa look at that beauteous Maximus
and this is something I always have to
remind you guys of in order to see lawn
stripes there's two things that you have
to do the first thing the first thing
you have to do is you have to have some
way to press the grass down each your
each pass you make you press the grass
down this way and then you make another
pass and you press it this way that way
the light source in this case the Sun
can reflect off of the grass differently
so what you're seeing right here is the
Sun is behind me it's back up there and
now the just just the fact that I have a
heavy mower with big tires and it's in
mulch mode it's pressed the grass
different ways and now you can see that
the Sun is reflecting off of that so the
light is reflecting like this one the
mowers over there it's actually I just
parked it there because it looks good
this is not sponsored either I do this
for love actually it that pass right
there is one where I went that way
that's why it's lighter and then this
pass here is one where I came this way
that's why it's darker and the Sun is
reflecting off of the grass and
different ways to show the stripes and
this is flora tam st. Augustine grass
right here you can do it with pretty
much any Saint Augustine but I just
wanted to show if your if your grass is
properly irrigated and it's properly fed
it's got enough nitrogen in it it's
pliable and malleable enough you can get
st. Augustine grass to strike so I just
figured I'd show you that I don't know
where I'm gonna fit this in in a video
but I feel like I had to do this every
once in a while because people ask me
why I don't strive anymore now it
doesn't last like as long as Kentucky
bluegrass would our turf type tall
fescue but
still pretty impressive being as nobody
stripes their lawn around here
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