Top 10 Things To Consider When Buying a Commercial Grade Mower

Top 10 Things To Consider When Buying a Commercial Grade Mower

Depending on both your experience and knowledge, sifting through the commercial grade lawn mower market can be either an easy task or a thankless one at best. There’s an awful lot to find out, and if you’re a little unsure – also see, ‘clueless’ – then you can get pretty stuck, pretty quickly. Because we at Garden Tractor Reviews want to remove the difficulty from commercial push mowers, we’ve compiled a list of things you need to consider when entering the market. Sit back, take it all in and let us relieve you of the pressure.

What Is The Size of Your Property?

You may have figured out that you either do or don’t want a commercial lawn mower but it’s still worth rethinking whichever decision you’ve made. Is the property you’re going to use it on big enough? A standard sized garden may not be totally worth its while for a younger person, but as you get older and the struggle to move heavy machinery becomes more evident, buying a seated mower becomes more of an appealing prospect. The size of the property you’re going to use the mower on massively dictates how much value you’re due to get out of the machine.

What’s Your Budget?

These last two questions are the boring ones, but needs must. Your budget will dictate exactly what you can buy. And if your budget isn’t big enough, you can kiss commercial lawn equipment goodbye. There’s absolutely no sense in spending what you can’t afford, and even commercial walk-behind mowers start off at a hefty price. Just a quick look across the internet shows you that the price range runs from the thousands to tens of thousands, so be ready for a shock if you’re cracking out the piggy bank.

Ride On, Walk Behind or Zero Turn?

The first big question on your product choice is what exactly do you want? There are two main types of commercial mowers to choose from, ride on or walk behind. They’re of course different types for different things, but both offer super power. The pricing , too, is a major sticking point, with both coming in at expensive, but walk-behind pieces arguably being a higher price. The quality cut of a walk behind mower is often much higher, with a closer cut taking a little longer than a ride on mower. The reason you would buy a walk behind is if you had a huge patch of land to cut or a short amount of time to work with. There’s also a lack of effort required for a ride on which isn’t exactly present when using a walk behind mower.

How Much Do You Hate Clumping?

Arguably the most frustrating thing about residential mowers is that they clump really easily. So one bonus about commercially viable options in the market are that they rarely have this happen, because the blade speed on the machine is always so much faster so it doesn’t allow for damp turf to ruin your session.

For Business or For Pleasure?

So, I understand that we’re talking commercial vehicles here but that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily for commercial use. Big homes come with big gardens and that’s exactly what some people use them for. But if this is indeed a business purchase, you need to have a think about exactly how much time it’s going to take to cut down the average-sized patch you will use it for. You’re going to be looking to turn profit, so some motors may not be suitable. At the same time, you don’t want to overspend either, so make sure you check out the market before you just jump right in. It’s probably best to also get the opinion of the person who is going to be using the equipment primarily. Is it you, or is it another co-worker? Are they trained and ready to use an item such as a ride-on mower?

What Are The Conditions Like?

Regardless of the type of mower you’re looking to get, you need to think about the conditions you’re going to be using it in. The worse conditions you plan to use it in, the larger engine and more power you’re going to need to have at your disposal. This also goes hand-in-hand with reliability, whereby the larger the engine, the more reliable the mower is going to be for your job, and reliability is one of the most important things, especially if you’re purchasing it for business.

Brands Glorious Brands

There are a huge array of brands out there who offer great deals, both from a performance and a price perspective. Commercial mowers are heavy duty, and for that you need a proven provider. There’s some really well-known brands doing great things for the market – we’re talking John Deere, Honda and Hustler to name a few – and they all offer slightly different things, be that warranty, parts price or peace of mind. Taking a surf across the awesome quality brands is a good idea to gauge what you want and how much bang for your buck you want.

What Have You Had Before?

Experience is everything and if you’ve had a mower before on a commercial scale, it’s best to use your experience of what you’ve used previously and liked previously to shape what you need to get in the future. There’s no reason why you can take a look at other people’s experiences, too. What have other gardeners been doing? There’s plenty of lawn equipment for sale so you need to navigate exactly what is best for you, and experience and reviews are the best way, which is another reason we’re here to help.

Second Hand or Brand New?

A great way to negotiate on pricing but still get a superb deal is to buy second hand. There are plenty of commercial push mowers available in both local advertising spaces and online, and while these may be worn down and a little older than you would like, the price will reflect this, and the quality of make you buy will dictate how much longer you have it after your purchase. However, buying brand new has it’s obvious advantage too. Warranty and ownership problems can be traced back to the retailer, which is obviously ideal if anything goes wrong. Again, though, the price will reflect this. It’s all about budget.

Popularity Is Worth Considering

It’s always worth considering a product’s popularity in relation to whether you buy it. Of course, there’s no reason to dive right in because something is well know, but popularity often reflects a good quality product, especially in niches such as this one. Companies can’t afford to release poor quality products, and this is one reason why commercial zero-turn mowers are one of the most bought products on the market. Niches such as these are very reflective of reputation and you will easily find someone willing to talk ill of a bad product, so if you find a highly rated piece of equipment, that’s a sure fire way of finding something that will last.

Conclusion

These are 10 of the most important pointers to take into consideration. As you can see, commercial walk-behind mowers are common, but they’re also fairly standard products, similar to your normal residential mower – save for a little heavier duty. At the same time, zero-turn can be more expensive, but they’re heavily backed by the people who use them. If you can consider the points above whilst reviewing the market, you’ll be in a fairly good place to choose something worthwhile, lasting and which does the job perfectly.

The major feature here for me is the budget and what you can afford coupled with what you’re using the product for. If it’s business, there’s a reputational advantage to buying big, buying quality and spending more, yet if it’s for personal use you may be able to get away with using a second-hand mower instead. Whichever way you look at it, the reputation of the brand you choose will no doubt figure heavily in the success you have with the mower you buy. Good luck!

Originally posted 2017-03-18 11:30:58.