Poulan Proã‚â® 22 163cc Electric Start Gas Self-propelled Lawn Mower Review

Deciding on the best self-propelled lawn mower isn't as like shooting fish in a barrel every bit it used to exist. Practise you need commercial or residential quality? Exercise you lot want to apply gas or batteries for power? How much grass do you demand to cut? Are you lot a mulcher or a bagger?

Having tested dozens of the best walk-behind lawn mowers from entry-level residential to the top professional models, nosotros got our Pro squad together to choose our acme mowers in a range of scenarios.

Best Self-Propelled Lawn Mower Overall

Honda HRC216 Serial Commercial Lawn Mowers

Start with a Honda GXV160 engine, tell the design team to build the best backyard mower they can think of, and you end up with the Honda HRC216 series. The flagship model is the HRC216HXA. Highlights include a hydrostatic transmission, RotoStop organization that lets you take your hands off without turning off the engine, MicroCut twin blades, and more. It'south not just a bunch of hype, either. This mower is powerful and built to a level that stands upwards to legitimate commercial and perchance even battlefield utilize.

If y'all desire to save a niggling money and the Blade Cease feature doesn't experience like a requirement to yous, check out the HRC216HDA mower which drops the price to $ane,379.

Price: $1379 – $1489

Best Residential Cocky-Propelled Gas Backyard Mower

Equally our top overall choice, Honda's HRC216 serial also ranks highest as the best gas cocky-propelled lawn mower. While nosotros allow it bask in victory, check out our top pick for Prosumer mowers that bridge the gap between residential and Pro.

Honda HRX217 Series

If you don't demand a full commercial build, but you're however looking for a self-propelled lawn mower built better than entry-level models, nosotros recommend Honda'due south HRX217 series. While whatever of the five mowers in the line are a great selection, the HRX217HYA and HRX217HZA models are on the superlative of our list.

They use a strong Honda GCV200 engine and combine it with a hydrostatic self-propelled drive that offers prowl command to dial in the speed you want. Stacked twin blades give these mowers excellent cut results and RotoStop lets you have your hands off the mower without shutting down the engine.

Honda's VersaMow design lets yous shift betwixt bagging, mulching, side belch, and leaf shredding. The best part is yous don't demand to keep track of plugs or other accessories—it's all congenital into the mower!

Between the HYA and HZA models, the simply difference is the HZA has an electric start. Feel gratis to go for it, simply we notice Honda engines reliable enough that they showtime on the first or second pull years into their service life.

Cost: $969 – $1079 (Other HRX217 models start at $769)

If you similar the reliability of Honda engines, but you have a lower budget, check out Honda's HRN216 series.

All-time Cocky-Propelled Electric Backyard Mower

Just a few years ago, if y'all wanted to detect the best battery-powered lawn mower, you could only find residential models. Now, there's an emerging class of professional-grade options and we accept picks for both Pros and homeowners.

Professional Option: Milwaukee M18 Fuel 21-Inch Cocky-Propelled Backyard Mower

At that place aren't many true commercial self-propelled lawn mowers with lithium-ion power sources. Milwaukee launched their effort in 2022 with a monstrous x ft-lbs of torque that tops what you typically see from a 200cc gas engine. It'due south more than than only muscle, though. Its blade and deck combine to handle mulching and bagging better than most.

As you lot ringlet into autumn, the mower's high-lift mode keeps the blades at 3300 RPM to assistance pull those lightweight leaves and clean upward your lawn. Other features include 180° LED lighting, LED battery indicators facing y'all, variable speed thumb bar (in addition to the speed wheel), a durable build, and much more.

Price: $999.00 with two 12.0Ah batteries and dual-port rapid charger

As well Consider:

Makita 18V X2 Self-Propelled Lawn Mower XML08 (Buy at Acme Tools: $719 bare, $849 with iv batteries and dual-port rapid charger)

Heads upwards: Makita has a new ConnectX arrangement with a 1200Wh battery to run each of its tools, including a new commercial lawn mower. Keep your eyes open up for more information one time we're able to test it.

Greenworks Commercial 25-Inch Self-Propelled Lawn Mower (Buy at Greenworks Commercial: Starts at $649 bare)

Residential Pick: EGO 56V Select Cut XP 21-inch Cocky-Propelled Mower

The original EGO Select Cut mower made waves with its stacked-blade organization. Choosing between better mulching or amend runtime, yous can select what your priority is. And then EGO went and made it fifty-fifty amend by increasing the power with the Select Cutting XP. Instead of choosing between the outstanding cutting quality of the Select Cut and the college torque of the Acme Power model, you get the best of both worlds.

Toll: $549 bare, $799 with x.0Ah battery and charger

Also Consider:

Ryobi 40V HP Brushless CrossCut Self-Propelled Backyard Mower (Buy at The Domicile Depot: $639 with 2 6.0Ah batteries and charger)

Best Large Walk-Backside Backyard Mower

Toro TimeMaster xxx-inch Personal Pace Mower

With 10 ft-lbs of torque delivered from its Briggs & Stratton 223cc engine, the xxx-inch Toro TimeMaster is our pick as the best large walk-behind lawn mower. Not only does information technology deliver big power to turn its fourth dimension-saving 30-inch bract, just it also features Toro'due south Personal Pace cocky-propelled drive and Spin-Stop that lets you stop the blade without shutting off the mower.

It all adds up to big time savings on larger lawns. Grab model 21200 if you want an electric start or the 21199 if you don't listen a recoil start and want to salvage $100.

Price: $1399.99 (21199), $1499.99 (20200)

All-time Budget Cocky-Propelled Backyard Mower

Toro's 21-inch Recycler (21352) offers an fantabulous value for budget-minded homeowners. It's a Made in the USA rear-wheel drive system powered by a Briggs & Stratton 140cc engine. It comes ready to mulch, handbag, or side discharge and y'all don't have to worry virtually changing the oil. Just bank check the levels and add more when information technology's necessary.

Cost: $359

All-time Cocky-Propelled Backyard Mower Brand

No ane in the self-propelled backyard mower market dominates like Honda. Their engines enjoy a reputation for quality and durability every other manufacturer is shooting for, and their mowers are only outstanding.

They typically run at a premium, though. Both Honda mowers and Honda-powered mowers are more than expensive than similar designs from other brands.

That opens the door for Toro. There are a lot of Toro models we recommend for adept reason and hit a wide range from budget-friendly homeowner mowers to commercial zero turns. It'due south one of the best-selling brands of walk-backside mowers.

Getting hard sales figures is tough to come past, and information technology'due south e'er possible we missed the marker. However, we come across more than Honda and Toro walk-behind mowers on commercial trailers and residential lawns than any other brand.

All-time Cocky-Propelled Lawn Mower for Bagging

Yous don't have to ditch your electric current self-propelled lawn mower and buy a whole new one to ameliorate your bagging efficiency. In most cases, adding a high-lift blade to your electric current mower will make a significant difference. With the exception of electric mowers, you lot don't need to worry too much nigh matching the make making the bract, but you do need to match the arbor style and the length. The packet should tell you which brands it is compatible with.

If y'all're however in the marketplace for a new mower, higher RPMs brand for better airflow and bagging. Check mowers with a 160cc or higher engine and compare the top blade speeds. You tin always swap blades, simply you tin't change the speed.

Pro Tip: If you have a 2-signal or 4-point deck pinnacle aligning, set the front wheels of your mower one notch higher than the rear to ameliorate bagging.

Best Self-Propelled Mulching Lawn Mower

Similar to a loftier-lift blade for bagging, yous can improve your mulching efficiency with a mulching-specific blade. These usually take additional cutting edges that cutting the clippings more times before they drop dorsum into the grass. Keeping the blade abrupt ensures you get the all-time mulching results every time y'all mow.

If yous're in the marketplace for a new mower, wait for a 160cc or college engine to give you the torque you lot need to keep your blade speed high in thicker grass. Remember, you can ever add together a mulching blade, but you can't make up for an underpowered engine.

Pro Tip: You lot get the best mulching results if you're only taking an inch or two off the meridian of your grass, then make certain y'all stay on pinnacle of lawn maintenance during the peak cutting season.

Best Self-Propelled Lawn Mower | More Priorities

Best Commercial Walk-Backside Mower: YBravo Gen II 25-inch Commercial Mower

Honda yet gets our vote for the best commercial walk-backside mower. If y'all're interested in something other than Honda, we have some other smashing choice.

After running into issues with other commercial walk-behind mowers, we turned to YBravo 25-inch commercial mower to take care of a 3-acre soggy field that our ZTs only bogged downward in. Its Kawasaki 180cc engine kept the blade turning where others simply stalled.

When information technology's time to move out of the radio station swamp and you're going for a more professional look, its cut quality is fantabulous besides. Available in a 21-inch and the 25-inch model we tested, Ybravo is worth your serious consideration.

If you have a Bad Male child dealer closer to you, check out the aforementioned model sold nether the Bad Boy make name.

Price: $1299 (25-inch model). Notice a dealer online.

Best Rear-Wheel Bulldoze Self-Propelled Lawn Mower for Hills: Honda HRN216 Series 21-inch Cocky-Propelled Mower

We already mentioned the Honda HRN216 series and nosotros're bringing information technology upwards again. Representing our pick as the all-time rear-wheel-drive self-propelled lawnmower, the HRN216VYA takes care of business better than most with the rear-wheel advantages of improve traction and straighter lines.

It as well comes with Honda's RotoStop arrangement that lets you end the blade without stopping the engine. Now you tin can open gates, move debris, empty the handbag, or traverse non-grass areas without worrying about the blades turning or having to restart the engine.

Cost: $509

Best All-Bike Drive Self-Propelled Lawn Mower: Toro 22-inch Personal Pace All-Bicycle Drive Mower 21472

AWD mowers are what you turn to for work on slopes and uneven terrain where it's possible to accept a wheel or two lose traction. For the best all-wheel drive self-propelled lawn mower, nosotros similar the Toro 21472 Personal Footstep model.

Its 22-inch deck is on the larger size of standard mowers and the Personal Pace arrangement is easy to piece of work with once you get used to it. If you switch between mulching and bagging, the mower's lever system is super simple.

Packing plenty of ability with its 163cc Briggs & Stratton engine, it'due south non and then much that it destroys the competition. It's that its operation is fantabulous and the innovations are genuinely helpful while keeping its price in bank check.

Price: $479

Best Lawn Mower Buying Guide | What We Look For

Gas vs Bombardment

Gas power still wins the day when you're highest priorities are keeping your buy price downwardly and your power level loftier. With advancements in bombardment and motor engineering, the OPE world is shifting towards battery power, though. It's cleaner and quieter to run and requires less maintenance.

Withal, you have to look at premium models to get true gas power, and runtime can exist a limiting factor. It's as well less probable you have a service center nearby that tin go you lot support and running quickly if at that place's a problem.

If your lawn is a 1/4-acre or less, there are a lot of battery-powered options available. One time you get beyond that size, y'all need to consider how many batteries you'll demand and legitimate options actually start to thin out once you hit 1/2 an acre. With larger lawns, newer battery-powered zero turn mowers are a legitimate selection.

Take a deeper expect at the comparison between gas and bombardment ability in this article.

Commercial vs Residential

This might exist improve titled "professional vs homeowner" considering in that location are both commercial and residential professional person crews. Regardless, commercial mowers are built with better components and commercial engines, creating a auto that is built to last for years of loftier-hour daily apply.

If you're a homeowner mowing in one case a week or then, a good residential mower can still last for 5 or x years (or more) if you take care of it. It only uses components and engine designs better fit for occasional utilize.

Engine Size and Cut Ability

If you stay on top of your mowing and cut quality isn't a loftier priority, an engine every bit small-scale every bit 140cc is likely fine.

Move up to the 160cc–180cc class for better performance when the grass is thicker and taller, or when you lot want to brand certain you go first-class mulching, bagging, and/or clean cuts. The greater power improves elevator and is less likely to bog down in thick patches.

When you're looking at deck sizes beyond 22 inches, y'all should start looking for engines in the 180cc–200cc range (or college) to ensure it can keep the RPMs loftier while it'south cutting such a large swath.

Cutting Quality

We wait for three major components of cut quality: evenness, mulching size, and bagging efficiency.

Evenness is pretty straightforward. When we're testing, we look for grass blades that weren't cutting and indications that in that location wasn't enough lift to clip all of the blades at the same level.

When mulching, smaller clippings are better since they drib down closer to the base of the remaining grass. We also look to see if a mower is decumbent to leaving trails and clumps.

For bagging, it's all about how much grass is collected, if the chute tends to clog while we're cutting, and how much grass is deposited back to the ground.

Racket Level

One of the major benefits of battery-powered mowers is the lower racket levels compared to gas, but that doesn't mean gas mowers have to be obnoxious. Nosotros expect higher levels than bombardment-powered models and that is typically the instance.

When nosotros test noise levels, nosotros measure from our operator's ear to go an idea of what the person using the mower should await. Even though some mowers are quieter than others, we notwithstanding recommend hearing protection when you're using a gas model.

Fuel Efficiency

How efficient gas mowers use fuel has a very direct effect on your wallet, peculiarly when you lot're mowing every twenty-four hour period every bit a Pro.

Fuel efficiency testing is more than just a runtime adding. The cutting swath of a mower comes into play, especially on those 25 and 30-inch models. With larger lawns, information technology's possible to get more than cutting done per gallon of gas with an engine that uses more gas per hr.

Deck Size

21 or 22 inches is pretty standard for virtually mowers. Jumping upwardly to a 25-inch or 30-inch mower may seem tempting, but it's not for everyone.

If your lawn is a 1/4-acre or less, the time you gain with a larger deck might not hateful a whole lot of fourth dimension savings. Where you lot really proceeds some time is on lawns that are a ane/ii-acre or more.

Keep in heed, larger deck-size mowers are heavier. When yous take to mow wet or soggy areas, the weight can piece of work confronting you.

Steel vs Plastic (Poly) Deck

The vast majority of gas mowers accept steel decks while battery-powered models have a much college percent of plastic poly decks.

Those poly plastic decks are tougher than they look, merely they probably won't hold upwards also as steel in the long run. It's nevertheless highly unlikely that yous'll clothing through 1 before information technology's fourth dimension to replace the mower, though.

However, there's a whole lot more than design flexibility that comes with poly decks, and engineers tin can practise some amazing things to help with airflow that directly affects cut quality along with bagging and mulching efficiency.

Deck Height

Here in Florida, we have a lot of St. Augustine grass that we cutting at 3 i/2 inches, so we prefer a mower that has at least a 4-inch maximum deck superlative.

Depending on what species of grass y'all have, you might exist able to become away with a lower superlative, but 4 inches is a good accommodating benchmark.

On the low end, about of u.s.a. aren't cutting golf course greens (you'd apply a reel mower for that, anyway), so the minimum deck superlative commonly isn't an issue.

Notwithstanding, if you apply a blade that dethatches or scalps for maintenance or re-seeding, you lot might want to brand sure the deck height gets low plenty—typically one 1/two inches or less.

Pinnacle Adjustment

Unmarried-point height adjustments are the easiest since you lot tin raise or lower the deck with just ane lever. Information technology'southward mutual on battery-powered backyard mowers, but not so much on their heavier gas counterparts.

Role of that is because the single-betoken mechanisms tend to introduce additional flex into the system and the weight of a gas mower puts more strain on the mechanism. So while we more often than not prefer single-point, we empathise why gas mowers may opt away from them.

Pro Tip: Set the front wheels 1 notch college than the rear wheels to improve bagging efficiency on 4-bespeak or 2-betoken adjustable mowers.

Adjustment Levels

If you're really OCD, more height adjustments mean more than precise cutting. Realistically, most of united states are going to discover a good height on any mower as long as information technology hits the maximum and minimum heights we mow at.

Setting the Speed

The type of speed adjustment your self-propelled lawn mower has tin can make or pause your feel. There are pull levers, thumb push levers, full push confined (Toro's Personal Pace), and iterations on those.

Endeavor information technology at the dealer before you buy it. If you hate working the machinery for a couple of minutes, imagine what it's going to feel like after xxx minutes or an hour.

Front end-Wheel Drive, Rear-Cycle Drive, or All-Wheel Bulldoze?

Front-bike bulldoze lawn mowers are typically the least expensive and work well for even terrain. They also help you plough the easiest since you lift up the drive wheels as you make your turns.

Rear-cycle drive mowers add some cost but create better traction on hills and slopes. They're specially good at pushing the mower'southward weight uphill where forepart-cycle drives offset to lose traction equally they try to pull the weight.

All-wheel drive mowers are the near expensive and more often than not do the best job on hills, slopes, and uneven terrain. On particularly bumpy areas where it's likely 1 or more wheels volition lose traction, it's the best bet.

Cycle Size

Larger wheels tend to handle bumps and uneven terrain better than smaller wheels according to manufacturers. However, it's a claim that Consumer Reports says isn't actually the case.

Electric Start

If you've used a gas engine, there's a skilful take chances you've worn out your arm pulling the cord to beginning information technology. There's no doubt that having an electrical showtime on your mower can take away a lot of the frustration.

It won't make up for poor maintenance, though. A well-maintained mower starts easily on the get-go or second pull. That begs the question as to whether the electrical start is worth an extra hundred dollars.

It'south totally up to yous, but if it'due south in the budget, we want information technology.

Mulch, Bag, or Side/Rear Discharge?

About quality mowers are 3-in-1, meaning y'all can bag, mulch, or side/rear discharge. Less expensive models oftentimes but provide options for bagging and mulching. Which one you choose depends on what type of grass you lot accept, how fast it grows, and your personal preference.

In fundamental Florida where St. Augustine, Zoysia, and Bahia dominate our landscapes, the summer heat and rains make our grass abound incredibly fast. Most of us mulch out of necessity since we most need a dumpster for the volume of clippings we create.

Handle Positions

Most lawn mowers take iii handle positions yous tin set. For tall guys similar me or boilerplate-height guys like Clint, it helps you discover a more comfortable grip. Some mowers opt for 2, or sometimes just 1 handle position.

Value

Value is more than than just price. Nosotros take a broad look at the performance and features compared to the price to determine the value of each mower.

Always cheque out a "review" site and you can't tell if they actually tested the tools or if they're just "recommending" the Amazon acme sellers?

That's not us. We merely recommend what we'd really use, even if we don't earn a commission from it. It's all virtually giving you a legitimate recommendation and our honest opinion of each product.

Nosotros've been in business since 2008 covering tools, writing reviews, and reporting on industry news in the structure, automotive, and lawn intendance industries. Our Pro reviewers piece of work in the trades and have the skills and experience to know whether tools can perform well in the field.

Each yr, we bring in and review more than 250 individual products. Our team will put our easily on hundreds of additional tools at media events and trade shows throughout the year.

Nosotros consult with innovators in the engineering and design of tools to gain a broader grasp of where these products fit and how they work.

We work with more than two dozen professional contractors around the United States who review products for us on real job sites and consult with us on testing methods, categories, and weighting.

We'll provide more than 500 pieces of new content this year absolutely free for our readers—including objective evaluations of individual tools and products.

The end result is data you can trust because of the editorial, scientific, and real-earth professional experience we collectively use each and every time we pick up and test a tool.

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