Lawnmower Woes

I am going to relate this story as a disinterest third-party observer, since I don't (won't!) mow the lawn. I don't actually get a vote.

The Adorable husband was mowing the grass on Tuesday and the self-propelled drive on the lawnmower broke. The mower itself mows just fine...it just requires pushing now and offers no power-assist anything. So, he puts the mower up on blocks, pulls out the tools and confidently embarks on an effort to fix the drive. Since he is Mr. Fix-it, this should be resolved in about ten minutes.

Well, it didn't go that smoothly.There was much banging and crashing and bad language, I tell you. He came inside and rather sheepishly announced that no only could he NOT fix the mower, he wasn't even sure how it actually worked! I am shocked! Shocked! He can fix anything, and am a bit worried that he's losing his Magic.

Well, Consumer Reports suggests that a mower over 5 years old is probably not worth fixing -- the cost of parts and time outweights the cost of the (admittedly fairly cheap) lawnmower. So, Consumer Reports issue for lawnmowers in hand, we traipse off to the home store.

The magazine recommended a Toro model, which (after pushing them around in the aisle for awhile to make sure the handle adjusted high enough) we brought home. It is exceptionally rated for mulching, which we do all the time, and for ease-of-use. We had narrowed it down to the Toro and a nice Honda machine (for about $200 more). I remember clearly suggesting that the Honda was rated higher and that we should buy it, but the Adorable Husband assures me that I was rather noncommittal about the whole thing, so he picked the one that CS recommended.

Forward to this morning -- off to mow the lawn on this lovely sunny day...and it doesn't mulch well at all. Definitely not as well as the lawnmower it replaced. Hm. Consumer reports has led us astray. A brief discussion, a few minutes washing it off with the hose, and back to Home Depot we go to return it. It performed that badly.

And thus returned triumphantly with a new new Lawnmower, this time the Honda, and he's happily mowing the backyard and mulching the grass into a find powder, as far as I can tell. Success! It mulches better, and it's so quiet I can barely hear it from inside the house. Rather startlingly quiet, actually, which is worth the premium price right there.

I'm still a bit concerned that he couldn't fix the old one, mind you!