X330 mulch control not working well

[Stevedore]

I asked this on another forum, but had no response, so I thought I'd try here.

We recently moved to a place with much more lawn to mow than at our previous home. I recently bought an X330 with the 42" "Accel Deep" deck. I added the mulch control kit, including the mulching blades, but I'm not happy with the job it does.

It contains the clippings better than the side discharge configuration, but it still makes quite a mess. It blows clippings out from under the left side of the deck, & leaves clumps of grass clippings all over the place. If I stop to reverse, it drops a huge load of clippings where I stopped.

Has anyone had this same experience, or am I expecting too much, doing something wrong, or what? At our previous place, I used a Honda walk-behind in mulching mode, & never saw anything like I described above. No clippings blowing out, no clumps, etc. I wish I could go back to it, but it would take me about a week to mow the lawn here..

Thanks for any comments, thoughts, suggestions, etc.!

 

[beenthere]

Mowing often, and when grass is dry, is likely the only way a mulching setup will function well.
That mulched grass just has to go somewhere and if it is the least bit wet.. clumping happens. No perfect world..

:welcome: to TBN

 

[Spanner]

You installed the Mulch Kit or the dealership?

First confirm the kit was installed completely. All 3 plates bolted in and the blades were changed to the Mulch blades. (I say this because I have seen instances where the Non-Mulch blades were left installed and the Mulch blades were kept aside "for when the originals wore out" as they look similar to an untrained eye. Just sayin'...

Second, the Mulch Deck requires a subtle change to your Mowing parameters. Mulch-mowing depends on air-flow. There must be air circulating under the deck to create conditions for clippings to be cut multiple times and driven down into the turf sward.

Mow at a higher height to allow air to enter the under-deck area.
Make sure the engine is at Max revs when mowing at all times.
Mow at a slower forward speed. Give the blades time to process the grass you have just cut. (A side/rear discharging mower cuts the grass once and disposes of it asap. The mulcher deck has a need for time to make multiple cuts to the grass without having to deal with even more grass.)

I write this in 'simplistic' terms but hope you get the picture... Go slower and mow higher.

Then when you have the grass under control you can go faster but mow more often.

Mow later in the day when the grass is drier. WET grass is heavy and doesn't mulch-cut well.

These principles apply to all brands not just JD.

Edit: beenthere has covered similar points to me.

 

[Stevedore]

Thanks for the replies! I did install the mulch control kit myself, including the new blades, and have gone over the instructions to make sure I didn't make any mistakes.

I've been careful to mow only when the grass is completely dry, but it's possible that I haven't mowed often enough. Ours is not a very nice lawn, and some areas grow a lot faster than others. I've been doing it once/week; maybe this week I'll do an in-between mowing & see if it's any better.

Also, I think the suggestion to increase the cutting height may apply here, as I've had it set quite low. I'll raise it next time & what happens.

Thanks again!

 

[Richard001]

Remember the rule for cutting grass. Cut only 1/3 of the grass height. Typically grass should not be cut shorter than 3 inch's.

Richard

 

[1981804]

Remember the rule for cutting grass. Cut only 1/3 of the grass height. Typically grass should not be cut shorter than 3 inch's.

Richard

I bought Gator Type blades from John Deere and it made a world of difference. Chopped the grass up a lot better

 

[s219]

I used a mulching deck at our last house on my older Deere mower (LT150) which is now retired. It worked well if the grass wasn't excessively long or wet and lower speed was used. But if I had to mow long/wet grass, I would tow a sweeper behind me to pick up the clippings. Really, mulching only works well under certain conditions.

I bought a new Deere X380 last spring for use at our new place, and haven't bothered with adding the mulching kit. Just based on experience, and knowing the grass conditions here (it's more of a field compared to a manicured lawn I used to have) I am pretty sure I'd again be dragging around the sweeper.

What I've found with my 48" Accel Deep deck is that the airflow is so great, that side discharge effectively sprays the clippings out so well, and disperses them so well, that it has about the same effect as an ideal mulching setup. As long the mowing pattern sprays the clippings over the area previously mowed, it really does a good job dispersing them. If you mow in the opposite direction and mow over the top of previous clippings, eventually they will build up. The deck can still spray them out, but the amount of clippings becomes noticeable at that point.

 

[Stevedore]

OK, I raised the cut height a bit for the last few mowings, & it helped noticeably. The dial on the mower is set to 2-3/4 now; I'll probably raise it to 3".

And I've thought about Gator blades, but I've read conflicting reports about their performance. I'll probably give them a try.

s219: You make a good point about dispersing the cippings over the cut area. Before I installed the mulch control kit, I noticed that it really threw the clippings out pretty far. If I try the side discharge again, I'd still have to make several passes discharging onto the yet-to-be-mowed area, or the clippings would blow all over our planting beds, driveway, etc.

 

[Spanner]

Two passes the 'wrong' way (Clockwise) with the black flap raised for maximum dispersal onto the uncut grass then going the 'right' way (Anti-clockwise) with the flap down for minimal 'throw' should solve the driveway issue. Clippings on the planting beds are organic fertiliser.

The Gator blades are good for even better mulching. I'm pleased you find the raised height to be working. I bet your lawn 'looks' better also?

 

[s219]

With my side discharge, I also make 1-2 passes clockwise the keep clippings off our driveway and my daughters play area, then go counterclockwise for the rest of the cut. I don't see any clippings afterwards, and the dog doesn't track them in the house on wet mornings, so I'd say they are getting well dispersed and falling down into the grass. A mulching deck should do the same, but with even finer thatch, but there's really a narrow window of grass height, cut height, and speed where it all works right.