New Lawn Mower and a New Found Love for Consumer Reports

With spring and summer time comes my favorite time of the year: The season of yard work and lawn cutting. I say this with absolutely no sarcasm, I LOVE to mow a lawn. I am not sure exactly if it’s the smell of freshly cut grass, or the sense of accomplishment when you finish, or just how a yard can look 120% better after a fresh cut but I do know that if this radio thing doesn’t work out, I would be more then happy in the landscaping business.

Now, with my first house comes the purchase of my first lawn mower. Seeing how I take lawn mowing very seriously and I don’t make any major purchase on whim, I knew I would need some help to decide which mower was the right for my yard. I found that help with Consumer Reports and their ultra helpful website comnsumerreports.org. I CAN NOT STRESS how much I love me some Consumer Reports. Imagine a company where all they do is just test things out. And they report on EVERYTHING from Cars, to digital cameras, to kitchen knives, to coffee. The next time you want to over analyze your purchase of a meat thermometer, this would be the place to do to it.

But let's get back to the mower. I started my journey by watching the Buying Guide that taught me all the stuff to look out for in a good mower like cutting performance, discharge, start up, and other special features. Take a look for yourself:


Click Here if you can't see the video

The most helpful tool from consumer reports was the ranking of the best gas push mowers that they tested. In the top 5 were:

1. Lawn-Boy 10640
2. Cub Cadet 11A-18MC
3. Bolens 11A-414A
4. Poulan Pro 96130008
5. Craftsman 38905

I printed out and took this ranking with me to the Home Depot. When I got there, I almost couldn’t believe that they had the Consumer Reports highest recommend buy in stock waiting for me.

It was the Lawn Boy 10640, a 20-inch mower with no-prime starting and can side-discharge, mulch, and bag all while being backed by a 2-year. AND 40 bucks lower then the suggest retail price. Sure enough, that was all I needed to make that purchase.
So starts a summer full of lawn cutting with my new Lawn Boy. The first cut was nice and smooth, a very nice, even cut with great mulching. We’ll check in through out the summer with how the Lawn Boy is running and, I am sure, plenty of more valuable information from Consumer Reports.