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Clearing some Brush

In May, I decided to use a 10+ year old lawn mower to clear some brush in my back yard. This was after I’d manually removed all the brush that was larger than 0.25" in diameter. I did this knowing that it would probably destroy the mower and I’d need a new one. That old Sears $189 mower did clear everything and ran for a few more weeks before it died.

New Mower

So, I do a model little research and head back to Sears for a new mower expecting to get 8+ years of use out of it. It is a $212 purchase. It runs for 2 mowings beautifully before I attempt to cut some of the new brush growth at the edge of my lawn. By accident, it lands on a 1.5 inch stump and stops cold. That error caused the blade to deform badly, but since I’m not finished cutting the yard, I continue mowing the front yard without knowing how much the blade was actually deformed. The mower strikes a few tree roots strictly due to the deformed blade. The mower runs, but very rough. So I

1. replace the out of balance blade and it still runs rough
2. take it to a repair center for an estimate

Estimate for the Fix

A new minutes ago, the repair center called with a $315 estimate to fix my newly destroyed lawn mower.

Brand new, it cost $212 about 6 weeks ago. I guess they shouldn’t be surprised when I don’t come and pick it up the old junk?

The good news is that my yard will get mowed a week sooner, since buying, yet another lawn mower is required. I probably won’t buy that same model again. I’ll find one with a crankshaft disconnect bolt that fails before engine damage can happen. Mowers are supposed to have this safety bolt built into them to prevent engine damage.

Happy Mowing!

And watch out for roots and costly repairs!