Ride On Lawn Mower: Lawn Boy 10645 20-Inch 6.75-Gross-Torque Briggs & Stratton Gas Powered Lawn Mower (CARB Compliant) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Pros: This is a good mower. It doesn't use a primer and started right up on the first pull. It is CARB compliant. The wheels have a bulbous shape which makes it easier to maneuver than other models. It has a wide range of height settings; our yard has a lot of tall roots and at the highest setting I had no fear of clipping them. The handle doesn't have any outward-facing protrusions, making it easier to mow next to a chain link fence.

Cons: The plastic handles used to adjust the height seem a little flimsy, and in fact one of them looks like it is going to split in half before long. Assembly was fairly easy, although the knobs to attach the handle took some elbow grease to get on all the way. Also, one of the front wheels arrived 180 degrees out of alignment with the height settings and had to be rotated back into position.

One disappointing thing about this mower is it did not come with a side discharge chute; instead, a little postcard saying that I would have to wait 4-5 weeks for delivery. According to the post card, most customers prefer to bag or mulch, and thus the side discharge chute is not included for environmental reasons. Well I have backyard grass that is taller than the mower, so bagging and mulching are out of the question, and I'm irked at having to wait 4-5 weeks before I can use my new mower in the backyard. In my opinion it is false advertising to call this a 3-in-1 mower when in reality it is a 2-in-1 mower on delivery that won't perform as advertised for 4-5 weeks.

Another complaint is the instruction manual says do not overfill when adding oil, so cautions the user to check the dipstick while filling. However, the oil bottle is 20 oz., which is the also the maximum fill for the mower, so it would be a whole lot less time-consuming if the manual simply said to the use the whole bottle instead of having to re-check the dipstick after pouring a little bit at a time.

Another issue is the registration form on the Lawn Boy website is poorly designed and not standards compliant. The drop down list for the "state" field did not populate, and after I hit "submit", it just said "please wait" indefinitely.

There are actually two serial numbers on the mower -- a nine digit number starting with 29 that identifies the mower, and a 13 digit number that identifies the engine. It would be nice if the instruction manual would indicate to use the nine digit number when registering.

Edit: 5/14/10 - I've had the mower now for over one year and it still runs great, no problems encountered thus far. It still starts reliably.

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