Is thirty years too long to keep a lawn mower?

ultrarunner · May 27, 2025

neilpaku said:
We have a Yard Machines 21" mower I bought from Lowes in 2005. It's had about a dozen new wheels, couple of spark plugs, about five plastic carbs ($20 each...) and about a half pound of welding wire over the years. We have a 2/3 acre lot and we're one of only two houses on our 70 house street that push our own mower. That mower cost a couple of hundred to buy, and another couple in new parts. Also, we're not fat like all the tractors, zero turn owners are who also pay a few hundred or more a year for gym fees. Having that mower saves us money and improves our health so, while it's 20 years old, it still gets the job done. The 4.5hp Briggs also conveniently provides mosquito protection in summer..... : ) Sometimes, taking the easy way costs more.

Grandma well into her 80’s was still pushing her manual real mower and had a beautiful front and rear yard on her 20,000 square feet homestead.

Can’t say the age of the mower but it has cast and forged components…

Every year she had her mower guy tune it up… sharpening and adjusting…

WinterDeere · May 27, 2025

RB5 said:
JD also made those orange mowers for HD. They were junk. Then they started painting them green, and they were still junk. My mom had one of each, and I hated them.

I don't know anything about orange mowers, but Deere did indeed make different variants of their riding mowers for sale in big-box stores. Lots of troublesome cost-cutting items, to try to meet the prices dictated by buyers at HD and Lowes. They should have just walked away from those offers, or held out for a price that would've let them build them without cutting so many corners, rather than signing on to build that crap.

Apparently the dealers threw a fit over the whole arrangement, since they were getting undercut on sales, and then also expected to supply warranty service on that junk. Apparently the dealerships pushed back so hard on Deere about this, that this practice was ended many years ago. Unless things have switched back recently, the service manager at my local Deere dealer told me that the mowers sold at the big box stores today were identical to the same models sold at dealers.

That said, all of the homeowner stuff is still made for very limited use, even the full-spec dealer models. It ain't commercial equipment... and that's why it doesn't cost nearly as much.

RB5 said:
I went with a commercial ZT from a different brand when I bought. Not sure about the green ZT equivalent commercial models. I never looked at them after the problems with the non ZT's my mom had.

Corvettes and Chevettes both wear bowties... but don't assume they have much in common.

A commercial 7-series or 9-series mower from Deere has about as much in common with their homeowner-grade lawn tractors as a Hellcat does with a Dodge Colt.

stevem5215 · May 27, 2025

I've got a 1990 Toro 2 stroke 21" I still use. Still works great, original engine not rebuilt, a couple new blades along the way. I bought a used broken 4 cycle one for parts like the wheels/tire asm's and the best part was a new bagger asm which are hard to find now. Still using the bagger and mower starts 1st or 2nd pull with the primer system they have. Amazing how long it's lasted. $399 brand new.

CalG · May 27, 2025

RB5 said:
Saving money and getting a good workout is great. I get a good workout from manually doing some things in the garden. Any time you sit down and rest for too long you might not get back up. We were designed to work. I still disk the garden, but I weed and plant by hand. I get a kick out of the youngsters asking if I need help at the local hardware store when I load pavers or bags of feed. I refuse to be one of those old people that can't move, and i am 61 now.

It's getting harder at my age.....;-)