Thanks for your respone, Michael.

The reason why I don't want self-propelled is because I don't like
using a self-propelled mower. I don't mind pushing the mower and I
find the extra weight of the self-propelled motor to be a nuisance.
It also takes away from the overall cutting power when it's on...

Anyway, the reason why I wasn't considering a Honda Harmony was
because Consumer Reports rated their mulching capabilities below the
Toro Super Recycler and the John Deere Steel Deck mower (Though a
Harmony II with side-discharge rated well for bagging). The other
thing that troubles me about the Honda is that it only has a 5.5HP
motor, whereas the Toro and John Deere both have 6.5HP. Since I'm
going to be only mulching, I want the best blade speed i can get to
help suck the grass straight and to cut it cleanly. I do however,
like Hondas in general and if it weren't for these two factors I'd
probably just get a Honda.

The Toro comes with a 5-year warranty, which is pretty nice, really.
The Toro will run me about $369 and the JD will run right around that,
too. The Honda would probably be right in that price range, too.

I wish I could take all three mowers home and test them to see which
one actually does cut best. Ultimately that's all I care about. Even
if the mower weighed an extra 25-50lbs, I wouldn't mind pushing it
around just to get a nice, clean lawn when mulching.

Mike

Anonymous wrote in message news:qH87c.50847$_w.834059@attbi_s53...
Personally, I think Honda had the best mulching mower on the market.
I've owned serval brands and now I've got a Honda Harmony purchased from
Home Depot. It will also bag and does a good job at that as well.
Mine's a self propelled (one could choose not to engage the self-propel
bar and push it I suppose). Price a couple of years ago was somewhere
between $300 and $400 and mine is not the base model. Perhaps they make
a version that does not have the self-propel feature though I don't know
why you would want to leave it off unless you are going for the lowest
possible price. The best thing about the Honda mowers is that they are
quiter than most and absolutely the easiest to start bar none. One pull
and it cranks 99.9% of the time. In fact I just had my first cutting of
the season and after sitting idle since the end of November it cranked
on the *second* pull. The pull force required to crank it is also very
low. The Honda motor just runs rings around any Briggs&Stratton and
Tecumseh motor I've ever seen.

Back to the mulching part. The Honda Harmony series has two stacked
blades that does an excellent job of mulching. Really cuts the
clippings fine and doesn't leave clumps of clippings on the lawn unless
you let the lawn get really unreasonably tall.

Good luck with your purchase no matter what you choose to buy.

Michael


Mike wrote:
I need a new push mower, not self-propelled. The major requirement is
that I want it to cut the grass cleanly and also want it to mulch
really well. Based on Consumer Reports and other research, I've
basically narrowed it down to two mowers, though I'd be open to
suggestions for others.
The two a
Toro Super Recycler #20033 (Approx. $369)
http://www.toro.com/home/mowers/supe...ler/index.html

John Deere JS60H (Approx. $399)
http://www.deere.com/en_US/ProductCa...20Mowers&tM=HO
(That link might not work appropriately...)

Both are supposed to be good at cleanly cutting the grass and also
both are supposed to do a good job with mulching.

I plan to mulch 90%+ of the time, so the fact that the JD doesn't have
a bag option doesn't really bother me.

The Toro has a 5-yr warranty and the JD has a 2-yr warranty. That
extra 3 years for the warranty is pretty nice, to be honest.

As it is, I'm probably leaning towards the Toro b/c of the warranty.
HOWEVER, I've heard bad things about Aluminum decks and the warping
that can occur, etc. So, maybe the JD is the right choice? Anyone
know what I should expect to pay for the JD?

I'd love to spend less, but, I'm tired of having crappy equipment that
doesn't last a long time and doesn't work well. I currently have a
Craftsman One-Pull or whatever and it sucks. For whatever reason, it
has never cut the grass evenly. I don't know if it doesn't have
enough suction power to pull the grass up or what, but it is awful.
I've even sharpened and replaced the blades, etc. When I bag it does
a decent job, but not when I mulch. I borrowed a friends JD last year
(about 5yrs old) to mow a couple of times and the difference was
STUNNING.

Thanks for the thoughts.
Mike