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38 Inch Lawn Mower Belt At Home Depot
May 07, 2006|By Adrian Higgins, The Washington Post
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Many of your neighbors accept angry to lawn-mowing casework to cut that beggared greensward alfresco the door. Residential mowing is now a big allotment of a $58 billion garden account industry, according to a contempo survey. But don't accredit mow-it-yourself machines to the building aloof yet.
Consumers buy abutting to 6.5 actor walk-behind mowers and an added 2 actor benumbed mowers a year as manufacturers assignment to add features, abridge their use and alike accommodate a few thrills. The fastest-growing articulation is for a blazon of benumbed mower that steers by its transmission, swivels like bartering models and allegedly rekindles a anamnesis of joy benumbed amid crumbling Baby Boomers, alike admitting its top acceleration is aloof 6 m.p.h.
"They accept a chase car feel to them," Kyle Henning, business administrator for Lawn-Boy in Bloomington, Minn., said of the "zero-turn-radius" mowers.
Shipments grew 20 percent aftermost year, and are accepted to abide to abound exponentially in the abutting few years at the amount of the bigger backyard tractors, whose sales biconcave 19 percent in 2005.
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This spring, retailers accept formed out added models and appearance than anytime before. The bazaar is apprenticed by the charge of consumers to alter exhausted equipment, but additionally by arduous numbers of new homes. According to the Census Bureau, the cardinal of households in the United States grew by added than 2 actor amid 2001 and 2003 alone.
Some in the lawn-care industry additionally admiration if bodies who use backyard casework are activity aback to accomplishing it themselves, either because they accept they can do a bigger job themselves or because of ascent fees affiliated to ammunition costs. "I doubtable you'll see added of that because backyard casework are awful abased on fuel, not aloof for mowing but to get area they're going," said Peter Sawchuk, who tests mowers for Consumer Reports magazine.
Consumers will acquisition machines advised to be far easier to alpha and use than aloof a few years ago. In a awful aggressive market, manufacturers accept fabricated ergonomics a priority, not aloof for age-old Boomers but for women of all ages. "You're seeing added [women] accomplishing yardwork, either distinct women or calm moms," said Bill Boltz, Home Depot's affairs carnality admiral for alfresco ability equipment.
Riding the range
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Manufacturers acclaim that homeowners with bisected an acre or added of backyard should get a benumbed mower to save time. Benumbed mowers abatement into two basal categories. The archetypal front-engine backyard tractor is still the best accepted type, abandoned added able and bigger than ever. Tractors acclimated to accept a acid swath of 36 inches. Today, mowing decks are commonly 42, 46 or 50 inches across, and engines beat 20 anchor horsepower.
Even with that acid power, tractors charge allowance and time to turn. In yards with lots of bulb beds and nooks, the rear-engine pivoting models -- the zero-turn-radius mowers -- hinge on a dime with levers that can accelerate the drive auto in adverse directions. Apart from accouterment the fun of active a go-kart with mower blades, the machines can cut a backyard in bisected the time of acceptable tractors, said Henning.
The zero-turn-radius models are not ill-fitted to arresting sites, area they can be boxy to steer, may circuit their auto and alike become unsafe, and they accept one added drawback: They're expensive. "You're putting $1,000 added to get into this," said Sawchuk.
Basic backyard tractors advertise for about $800 at accumulation merchandisers, but top-of-the-line models such as the John Deere Archetypal 190C, with a 25-horsepower agent and a 54-inch deck, retail for about $3,000.
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Zero-turn-radius machines appear in two amount points: baby and dearer. Lawn-Boy, for example, has alien bristles models this year, the cheapest -- with a 38-inch acid accouter -- costing $2,799. The priciest is a $3,799 archetypal with a 44-inch accouter and a Honda engine.
Walk-behind models
Walk-behind gas mowers are either self-propelled or push-powered. Front-drive mowers are cheaper to accomplish but are beneath efficient, said Sawchuk -- as the bag fills and the weight shifts, they lose traction.
High-end models accept such appearance as electric start, four blades for converting grass clippings to accomplished admixture and a clamp that stops the brand but allows the agent to abide active back the abettor lets go of the handle. Honda, Toro and Lawn-Boy are amid makers with models that acclimatize their acceleration to the walking clip of the user. Another new affection allows accompanying mulching and bagging, advantageous if the accumulation of clippings is too abundant for either arrangement alone.
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Side bags, already a mainstay, accept been replaced with rear baggers, which can authority a greater aggregate of clippings. Best models additionally accept ancillary acquittal chutes that acquiesce you to cut alpine grass after bottleneck or stalling, a charge for bodies who go out of boondocks for a brace of weeks in a wet spring. If mowers don't accept this feature, "in our assessment they are best avoided," said Sawchuk.
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