Worth it to upgrade lawn mower from 21" to 30"?

[brucethebroker]

I have a whopping 857 sq ft of lawn. I know this from the monthly bill I get from Tru Green lawn service. This was a subtle hint to hire someone. And of course as usual I have a story. A wonderful guy I used to work with dropped dead while shoveling the snow he was about 47. I think pushing a mower in Texas during the summer over a 10 Thousand sq foot lot is not on my to do list.

According to my cardiologist, the combo of exertion and cold temps make for deadly snow shoveling, and many people are very out of shape when taking on shoveling. Don't know about lawn mowing in the heat, but it would seem that lawn mowing people are in better shape (doing it once/twice weekly) than the couch potato who only shovels once or twice a year.

 

[brucethebroker]

Once you get above the standard 21" mowers, they get really heavy. The 33" Troy Built (and Cub? Craftsman?) are beasts, but they move along. The problem is if you have spots that require pushing and pulling, weight is weight. I've heard that using the swivel-wheel mowers to mow across a hill is also a workout.

Toro makes a 30" twin blade self-propelled mower. It's the same format as a regular 21" mower, just a wider deck, more weight, and a bigger price (about $950).

Just on the wide open spaces, if we assume you, on average, have 2" of overlap on the "already mowed" side of each swath to assure you really cut all the grass, then a 21" mower really cuts 19". A 33" mower really cuts 31", so you should get finished 38% faster if you walk at the same pace.

I have too many nooks and crannies in my yard to use a rider or ZTR mower, so haven't considered those. I'm still pushing my 21" mower, but front an back yard takes me almost 2 hours, so I frequently consider getting something to speed things up. I should just go directly over the D**n flowerbeds and plantings DW has put in our yard and it would be a piece of cake.

We once owned a home on a one acre lot. We used a riding mower plus a 21 incher to get into the tight spots and trim. DW would ride, and I would push or vice versa.........took us about an hour for both to do the job.

 

[Dawg52]

I got a lawn service this year! BEST THING I'VE DONE IN A LONG TIME! Our lot is 1.08 acres. With a 3,000 sqft home add in garage and driveway, it took me 2 hr 45 min to finish the yard with a 42 inch riding mower. Moved up to a 52 inch, and cut about 45 min off the time. Still I ended up doing the front one day and the back the next.

Our lawn service does the yard in about one hour! They charge us $55 per mow. They mow, edge around beds, house, and cement areas. The blow off the cement areas and the back deck. From about April to June they mowed every two weeks. Jul through Sep. every week. I figure about 25 times a year, so less than $1,500 a year to stay out of the Texas heat!

Yea I know it's not LBYMs but I figure I will live longer, and my kids will get a little less.

I'm not too many years away from hiring out. I actually enjoy doing my small yard except when it is so hot. I made the mistake of cutting late morning the other day and just the 30-35 min I cut and trimmed, I was wipped out. Probably a tad dehydrated. Have to be careful in this heat and humidity. Next time i'll cut just before sunset.

 

[Senator]

Get one of these. It will save time.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JJ5I7G...t=&hvlocphy=9019554&hvtargid=pla-310346492569

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Once you get above the standard 21" mowers, they get really heavy. The 33" Troy Built (and Cub? Craftsman?) are beasts, but they move along. The problem is if you have spots that require pushing and pulling, weight is weight. I've heard that using the swivel-wheel mowers to mow across a hill is also a workout.

Toro makes a 30" twin blade self-propelled mower. It's the same format as a regular 21" mower, just a wider deck, more weight, and a bigger price (about $950).

Just on the wide open spaces, if we assume you, on average, have 2" of overlap on the "already mowed" side of each swath to assure you really cut all the grass, then a 21" mower really cuts 19". A 33" mower really cuts 31", so you should get finished 38% faster if you walk at the same pace.

I have too many nooks and crannies in my yard to use a rider or ZTR mower, so haven't considered those. I'm still pushing my 21" mower, but front an back yard takes me almost 2 hours, so I frequently consider getting something to speed things up. I should just go directly over the D**n flowerbeds and plantings DW has put in our yard and it would be a piece of cake.

Living out in the country on 40 acres, my yard is massive -- a couple acres at least. And, it's hilly. I've been pretty happy with the Troy-Bilt, but I'm a moose and can move it with relative ease. Over the years at a pretty sedentary j*b, the yard has been my substitute for a gym membership.

I think the wide-cut mowers have indeed gone out of fashion. Ariens/Gravely used to have a 34-incher but I think they've discontinued it. Today's Troy-Bilt and Cub Cadet models are basically the same mower built by the cut-rate manufacturer MTD. Toro has a wide one but no swivel wheels up front. No way would I want a mower that big without the ability to swivel it on a dime. Can you imagine lifting the front end of that beast every time you had to turn? Ugh.

 

[48Fire]

I don't have a huge lot, only 10k sq ft, but still takes longer than I'd like to cut the grass. Is it worth it to upgrade from my 21" mower to a 30"? Seems like it should cut time roughly in half, right?

So you are already ER right? I just made a mower decision similar to this when Lowes sales lady, said "Life's too short...." So I bought the higher end I was beating myself up on. This was a cordless electric vs. corded I was debating on.

 

[gerntz]

35 minutes with 21" is a nice start to my daily walk.

 

[Surewhitey]

Could you hire a lawn service for just the months when weather makes the chore more difficult? Or hire a neighbor kid (or someone from your church/community organization) for less than a service? Although, both of these suggestions result in on-going expenses, rather than the fixed cost of a new mower.

DW hired a neighborhood kid...she finally told me after my couple questions on "why did she not cut that big part of the front" and "did you know you busted a sprinkler head?"...

$100 later + lawn boy...I'll keep mowing my own and DW learned her lesson...I hope.

 

[samclem]

Living out in the country on 40 acres, my yard is massive -- a couple acres at least. And, it's hilly. I've been pretty happy with the Troy-Bilt, but I'm a moose and can move it with relative ease. Over the years at a pretty sedentary j*b, the yard has been my substitute for a gym membership.

I think the wide-cut mowers have indeed gone out of fashion. Ariens/Gravely used to have a 34-incher but I think they've discontinued it. Today's Troy-Bilt and Cub Cadet models are basically the same mower built by the cut-rate manufacturer MTD. Toro has a wide one but no swivel wheels up front. No way would I want a mower that big without the ability to swivel it on a dime. Can you imagine lifting the front end of that beast every time you had to turn? Ugh.

FWIW, The Toro 30" (pull start) weighs 144 lbs and has a 3 year warranty, sells for $950-$960. I >thought< they offered a front swivel wheel kit as an option, but I can't find them now, so maybe not. Yes, it would be a beast to wheelie, lift, turn.

The Cub 33" (electric start) weighs 290 lbs (!), sells for about $1400 and has a 3 year warranty, and includes the swivel wheels (which can be locked inline if desired, maybe useful along hillsides).

I see that Cub also sells a 28" mower: (electric start), sells for $949, weighs 140 lbs and has a three year warranty. It's a bit like a cross between the 33" Cub and the 30" Toro: It has the same thin rear wheels as the Toro and a similar deck configuration, but has the swivel wheels of its bigger brother. It weighs less than 50% of that 33"model. Probably a thinner deck,and the engine is 1/2 the displacement as the one on the 33" mower (but about the same size as the 30" Toro). Still, if it seems durable enough and gets good reviews, it might be a good choice for a lawn too big for a 21" push mower and with too many nooks/crannies for a heavy 33" mower or a Toro without the swivel wheels. And if you have any 30" gates, the 28" mower might be the ticket. But--is a mower 7" wider than a 21" mower worth paying 200% to 300% as much as for the "commodity" 21" pusher? Per previous math: 19" effective cutting width vs 26" effective cutting width: if you have a 50' wide section of yard, it takes 23 passes with a 28" wide mower and 32 passes with the 21" wide mower.

This site has a lot of good information on mowers. I have no connection with them.

 

[rayinpenn]

I mow my 1 acre (with house and a bit of woods) with a John Deere 300 in about 1/2 hour. It is a delight ...But i rarely do it on the hottest part of the day. Were I to push mower it would take about 2 hours. I have thanks to my old cursed Sears Tractor breaking down every other weekend. Never will another Briggs and Stratton be bought by this old guy.

 

[Big_Hitter]

I used to mow yards during the summer in Houston when I was in college. Worst job ever.

I stopped mowing my grass in Houston about 15 years ago, it was just too unpleasant and there are people literally begging to mow yards there for next to nothing. I'd just hire it out.

 

[Sunset]

Math question: assuming cut rate is directly proportional to deck width, the 30" would cut at a 42% faster rate meaning you could finish the yard in 30% less time, right? Not half the time?

And I think the assumption of direct proportionality is off because it'll take you longer to navigate and you'll end up with some narrow strips much less than 21" where the extra deck width won't matter (assuming your yard is like mine and you have lots of edges with sidewalks, mailbox, planter areas, trees, driveway, patio, etc). So I could see the time savings being less than 30%, possibly only 15%. Unless it was self propelled and motor-assist turning, where it would actually speed you up overall (and cut 42% more on each pass).

I don't have any useful advice, but I'm currently paying $20 every 2 weeks to a teenager to mow my 1/3 acre yard. We're gone for 9 weeks and no way it would be pretty when we got back otherwise

+1
I was thinking the same thing, simple math, with edge condition issues.

Does your teenager use your mower, or bring his own ?

And is it every 2 weeks because the grass grows slow, or do you pay him $10/cut so 2 weeks is $20 ?

 

[ERD50]

Math question: assuming cut rate is directly proportional to deck width, the 30" would cut at a 42% faster rate meaning you could finish the yard in 30% less time, right? Not half the time?

And I think the assumption of direct proportionality is off because it'll take you longer to navigate and you'll end up with some narrow strips much less than 21" ...

Also, I'm pretty sure the 21" and 30" refer to the blade. When I mow, I need to overlap some to avoid a streak - maybe OP is a perfect mower? So if you allow 3" to wander a bit, it's 18" effective versus 27" effective, so about 50% faster versus the 42% from straight numbers. But then all the other things you mention come into play to bring it down.

I have no idea where the OP's "roughly in half, right?" came from (that would 100% faster). So I would say "no, that's not right", unless that 30" mower travels much faster as well, but I doubt it, probably similar comfortable walking speed.

-ERD50