What Lawn Mower Should I Purchase
Summer is around the corner and it is time to tune up our lawn mowers to get them ready for the coming season. Most people wait until the day they need to cut the lawn, only to find out that the lawn mower will not start. A quick decision needs to be made. Do I borrow the neighbors lawn mower, do I take the lawn mower in for repairs or do I buy a new lawn mower and which one do I buy?
What Lawn Mower Should I Purchase
Most people make quick decisions without all of the information they need. There are several factors that go into the decision and we will discuss them in detail during this post. For the moment we will list them in no particular order of importance.
- Can you repair your lawn mower yourself?
- What will it cost to get someone to repair your lawn mower and how much?
- How much will a new lawn mower cost?
- What features do I need in a new lawn mower?
- Which one should I buy?
These are all important issues and depending on the results the cost to you can be quite different!
Can you repair your lawn mower yourself?
If your lawn mower worked fine last season, chances are that the fuel has gone bad and you will need to clean the spark plug and possibly the carburetor. First of all make sure you actually have gas in the tank. Next remove the spark plug and make sure it is not fouled. Clean it without changing the gap. Re-gap it if you know how to do this.
With the spark plug wire attached to the spark plug touch the spark plug to the housing and pull the starter cord to see if there is a spark. If so, your spark plug is fine. Make sure there is no open gas containers around or spilled fuel to avoid a fire.
Replace the spark plug, prime the engine one more time and try the engine. If there is gasoline in the tank, then you probably need the carburetor cleaned. If you are comfortable doing this, then proceed otherwise you may have to take the lawn mower to a repair shop for a tune-up.
What will it cost to get someone to repair your lawn mower and how much?
Repair shop costs vary all over the place. You could be looking at $50 to $100 for a tune-up. Talk to the mechanic first, explain what you need and ask for an estimate. This is where you need to trade off the cost of the repairs vs. purchasing a new lawnmower.
Depending on what model of lawn mower you might purchase, the cost of repairs could begin to approach the cost of a new one. Inexpensive push lawn mowers can be purchased quite inexpensively and as long as you are ok with this type of model then your decision is pretty much made for you. On the other hand, if your current model has lots of features, cost quite a bit, you may want to reconsider having the repairs completed vs. purchasing another full featured lawnmower.
How much will a new lawn mower cost?
New lawn mowers vary a great deal in price and it really depends on what type of lawnmower you want to purchase. The more features it has the more it will cost. Some inexpensive lawn mowers can be purchased for less than $200, while full featured lawn mowers can cost close to a $1000, with riding lawn mowers going much higher than that.
What features do I need in a new lawn mower?
There are a lot to choose from, however, some basic decisions will help to narrow done your choices. Push or self-propelled lawn mowers are probably the first choice and make a big difference in price. Push mowers are just that, you must push them to cut the grass. Self-propelled will propel themselves and all you need to do is steer them. They can be rear or front self-propelled.
Next, you need to decide if you want to mulch your grass, bag it or just spread the grass on the lawn. Many of the higher end lawn mowers will have a 3 in 1 set of options. Which allows you to decide to mulch, bag or discharge your grass clippings depending on the lawn you are cutting.
Wider, more powerful and riding lawn mowers are the next class of lawn mower which the majority of consumers do not need unless they have a lot of lawn to cut every week. Most lawn mowers are 21 or 22 inches wide and will more than meet most consumer needs. Riding lawn mowers can go from 41 inches up to 55 inches or more and of course the price increases as well.
The trade off of course is price vs features vs. what your needs are. Give some thought to what you need and then proceed from there.
Which one should I buy?
All of the lawn mowers that we are reviewing are mainstream. They will meet your needs for quality and workmanship. It comes down to price, features and also support for warranty and repairs. Make sure that you get the best price with the appropriate support for parts and repairs.
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July 30th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
this post helped to narrow down the kind of lawn mower that we purchased. there are just so many lawn mowers out there and it is tough to know which one or which model to buy. using some of these factors about lawn mowers helped us a lot.