It has been quite a few years since I had to buy a lawn mower. After reading an article in Consumers Digest, I started thinking about my old Briggs and Straton 1.5 hp mower.

I can not remember when I had purchased it. It has been through 2 19″ blades and 3 spark plugs. I even replaced the gas tank, when it developed a leak. It has been faithful old machine. So it is time to start thinking about replacing it.

What I got from the Consumers Digest article was that the price of lawn mowers are going to be going up in the next couple years. The laws around increase emission standards for any gas powered engine will be getting tougher. This is mostly because of going away from the old carburetor to a fuel injection system. There is even talk of propane power lawn mowers.  

Now I was motivated to seriously look at replacing old faithful before there is the next jump in price of lawn mowers. I took some notes from Consumers Digest article and headed down to my local Lowe’s. I wanted to see what is currently available and how much I am really going to have to pay.

It was there where I was overwhelmed by the number of riding lawn mowers they were offering. Finally, half way toward the back of the store, taking up only half of one side of an row was push power gas lawn mowers. There were maybe 12 different models total.

The Consumer Digest left me with the impression the 22″ blade, 190cc engine was the most common lawn mower available. Starting about $300. At Lowe’s, there was a fair selection of 21″ blade 160cc engine mower’s in the $200 to $300 range. Then there were 22″ blades with 190cc engine all over $300.

Bottom-line: I don’t want to have to pay $300 for a new lawn mower. I think I paid around $100 for my last lawn mower, so I am going to look around.

If you have any suggestion or recommendation, feel free to leave  you comments or insights.

Tags: Consumers Digest, Cut Grass, Lawn Mower, Lowe's