Good mower for mulching leaves

[zzyzzx]

I don't see what the big deal is here. Don't you just need a mulching blade and a way to not chute them out? I used a cover that replaced the chute on my mower to mulch. Way easier than raking and it helps keep the riding mower battery charged off season.

 

[SHOZ]

I have about 2 acers I mow with hundreds of trees. I put mulcher blades and discharge block plate on with a new mower. I usually mow about 4" for height. This leaves the deck lip pretty high so I had to put a spoiler on the latest mower. A piece of landscape edging clamped to the left front corner and down the left side. Works a lot better.

They say the gator blades don't have as much vacuum, the serrated top edges are to keep the stuff floating around for more chopping. Haven't gone to them yet with the new mower but it has the John Deere mulching kit on it now. The old front mower had the gator blades for 20+ years. Chased a lot of sycamore leaves with that.

 

[jeepman3071]

I was quite happy with how my Toro Super Recycler mulched the leaves with the stock Toro blade, I never tried a gator blade. I highly recommend that mower, mine had the Honda engine and Personal Pace system. Grass and leaves would disappear. I only sold the mower because now I have a much larger area to mow. I have an Exmark 48" zero turn that I mulch the leaves with and it works pretty good, but not as good as the Toro.

 

[350Rocket]

If that's your take, just hire a service.

Not a big deal without a cord dragging behind. My wife didn't want to deal with gas so she had a corded one when I moved in with her. We sold it because I said I was never going to mow the lawn with a corded mower.

 

[atikovi]

We sold it because I said I was never going to mow the lawn with a corded mower.

Because.......?

 

[350Rocket]

Because.......?

Because it sucks to do? And now we have a bigger 1 acre lawn nobody in their right mind would use a corded mower on.

 

[atikovi]

Because it sucks to do? And now we have a bigger 1 acre lawn nobody in their right mind would use a corded mower on.

Umm...nobody said anything about 1 acre. OP has 10,000sf, maybe one fifth of an acre. I've been using a corded mower since 12 years old and can manage a similar size lawn just fine. What sucks is storing, lifting, fueling and maintaining a heavy piece of gas powered machinery.

 

[jkasch]

I was quite happy with how my Toro Super Recycler mulched the leaves with the stock Toro blade, I never tried a gator blade. I highly recommend that mower, mine had the Honda engine and Personal Pace system. Grass and leaves would disappear. I only sold the mower because now I have a much larger area to mow. I have an Exmark 48" zero turn that I mulch the leaves with and it works pretty good, but not as good as the Toro.

Same experience. I can't imagine more thorough mulching than what my Super Recycler does. I also have a 42" Toro Z-turn with the mulch kit. It's okay, but not as good as the SR.

 

[350Rocket]

Umm...nobody said anything about 1 acre. OP has 10,000sf, maybe one fifth of an acre. I've been using a corded mower since 12 years old and can manage a similar size lawn just fine. What sucks is storing, lifting, fueling and maintaining a heavy piece of gas powered machinery.

I guess that's your opinion and you are entitled to it. Some people are going to be more bothered by tripping over a cord, back and forth over and over again...others by a 0.6L oil change and occasional spark plug.

 

[350Rocket]

Umm...nobody said anything about 1 acre. OP has 10,000sf, maybe one fifth of an acre. I've been using a corded mower since 12 years old and can manage a similar size lawn just fine. What sucks is storing, lifting, fueling and maintaining a heavy piece of gas powered machinery.

As I said we ended up moving to a bigger place, but we were still on a little tiny townhouse lot before that when we sold the electric lawnmower. Small lot but it was constant backing up and lots of ducking under branches, holding onto the cord at the same time would be extremely annoying to me and make a task I normally enjoy just 40 minutes of labor.

Same experience. I can't imagine more thorough mulching than what my Super Recycler does. I also have a 42" Toro Z-turn with the mulch kit. It's okay, but not as good as the SR.

Do you know how the original recycler compares to the super recycler? I have one and it seemed to not have a lot of lift, so I wanted to try sharpening the blades before doing any leaf mulching, but I never got around to it so I mowed the leaves with my backup mower a 1981 motomaster 20" 3.5hp Briggs classic engine. I'm considering a new blade for the recycler as it's getting pretty corroded.

 

[jeepman3071]

Do you know how the original recycler compares to the super recycler? I have one and it seemed to not have a lot of lift, so I wanted to try sharpening the blades before doing any leaf mulching, but I never got around to it so I mowed the leaves with my backup mower a 1981 motomaster 20" 3.5hp Briggs classic engine. I'm considering a new blade for the recycler as it's getting pretty corroded.

I also have used a regular recycler (customer's) and compared it to my super recycler. They were closer in performance than I thought in leaves, but the super recycler is superior for grass clippings. Important factors are making sure the deck height is correct, using a Toro atomic mulching blade, and confirming the engine speed is adequate (3000-3100 RPM).

 

[jkasch]

Do you know how the original recycler compares to the super recycler? I have one and it seemed to not have a lot of lift, so I wanted to try sharpening the blades before doing any leaf mulching, but I never got around to it so I mowed the leaves with my backup mower a 1981 motomaster 20" 3.5hp Briggs classic engine. I'm considering a new blade for the recycler as it's getting pretty corroded.

Mine is a 2007 model. I don't have any other experience to compare it to. Just that its done a great job and has been very reliable.

 

[WA1DH]

I narrowed it down to a Super Recycler or a Cub Cadet SC500K. I liked the Kohler engine that was suggested earlier in the thread, and the price was almost $200 less, so I went for the Cub Cadet. None of the local dealers had them in stock, so I ended up getting one via Home Depot ship to store. Low and behold I got it home, unboxed and found the self propel control (plastic) was broken off the handle. The deck wash connector was also cracked. Will be calling Cub Cadet Monday to see if I'm hauling it back to HD or getting parts to fix. I was hoping to try it out this weekend, but the old TB110 will get to take the leaf duty one last time.

 

[Donald]

A mulching blade is key. They theory is it throws grass and leaves up towards the deck and as they fall they have a second chance to be cut again by the blade.

 

[super20dan]

nothing out mulches a snapper hi vac with a gator blade. i do nothing but leaves for 4 months of the year in my lawn biz

 

[ragtoplvr]

10k feet of property dragging a real long extension cord let's be serious life is to short for that

If my experience counts for any
Thin the cord will be too short pretty quick.

 

[97prizm]

I'm looking to see what options I have to replace a Troy Bilt TB110 (140cc) push mower. The mower has done well for me over the past decade but the deck is starting to rust through. I have about 10000 square feet of grass to cut. I cut the grass on the highest setting and use the mulcher and bag depending on the time of year. I get a lot of leaves in fall and mulch/bag them to dump on the garden. I also use the mower to knock down any overgrown areas in the garden before tilling each year, which can give it a good work out. I'd like to keep at least the 21" cut width, if not go wider, and also get something with self propel.

I've looked into battery electric mowers as I have a 40V Ryobi string trimmer that works great. My main concerns about electric vs. gas is the cut time and power. I need good suction for leaf pickup and I need the power to knock the garden down, which can include some thick stems. The 140cc Briggs engine works just fine but does bog down sometimes. It's hard to compare gas vs. electric power, and the most powerful electric mowers seem to be in the 1200 watt area (1.6 HP). I know the torque output seems comparable where it is posted on the electric mowers, so I'm not sure how that works out.

Thanks.

Have you considered a high wheel trimmer? The look like a push mower meets a string trimmer. From my understanding they can cut significantly faster than a traditional push mower.

 

[97prizm]

nothing out mulches a snapper hi vac with a gator blade. i do nothing but leaves for 4 months of the year in my lawn biz

The gator blades are amazing. It pulverizes leaves and grass into tiny bits. No clumps under my mower deck.

 

[blufeb95]

Are you guys using the G3 Gator blades, I found the G5 blades kinda suck, too much lift, only really good for bagging.

 

[SHOZ]

Are you guys using the G3 Gator blades, I found the G5 blades kinda suck, too much lift, only really good for bagging.

I had a couple sets for my old mower I used for 20 years or so. They did well though a front mower will dump the clippings on hard turns.