Tools
// BY ROY BERENDSOHN //12
The Best
Mowers
for Taming
Unruly
Lawns
M
OWER TESTING HERE IS
nearly a year-round
affair. For this review, we
began on a cold and windy
March day, searching out
south-facing hillsides
devoid of snow; from that
skimpy start, we mowed on through
the first full growth in early spring,
the high and wet grass of early sum-
mer, and the dusty conditions a couple
of months later when there was hardly
anything to cut. We kept right on mow-
ing when the grass bounced back in late
summer and into the fall, bagging clip-
pings and leaves. We called it quits on a
cold and gray November afternoon that
was much like the day we started.
Our test areas were a mixed lot—a
golf course, an office building lawn,
and the turf at Delaware Valley Uni-
versity in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
The mowers were equally diverse. We
tested standard-width and wide-cut
models, some powered by gas engines
and others by battery-fed motors. We
also tried a big, electric, zero-turn rid-
ing mower. At each stage, we evaluated
cut cleanness, bagging capability, side
discharge, how each fared on unruly
non-turf grass, and whether tires eas-
ily shed or picked up moist clippings.
Out of the 17 we put through the paces,
here are the top performers. (See the
full report at popularmechanics.com.)Price: $560 Weight: 80 lb.
Volts: 60 Cutting width: 22 in.
Blades: 1 Drive: Rear-wheel
Cut area on one charge:
5,400 sq. ft.Toro mowers do well in our tests
for the simple reason that they’re
designed and built well. We were
relieved to find that the company
didn’t skimp with this machine, a
full-size, self-propelled, rear-drive
unit that gave us exactly 30 min-
utes of mulching, hill climbing, and
cutting, scything down the tallest
and lushest grass in the test. (And
it ran longer than 45 minutes undermotor’s rotations per minute up
and down to meet power demand
and extend run time. Users familiar
with the brand’s gas-engine Per-
sonal Pace mowers—the farther
you push the drive bar forward,
the faster the machine goes—
will like this rig. And it has a
steel deck, hefty rear axle, and
three-function capability: mulch,
side discharge, and bag. Now, does
it power through tall grass the
way the gas-engine Personal Pace
mower does? No. Still, its overall
performance is commendable. We
recommend it for gently sloped
and maintained suburban yards,
just purchase a second battery.76 March/April 2020