A month ago we decided that we needed to purchase a new lawn mower. My husband has taken on the lawn as his new project and is always out there doing something to make it look nice so we decided that it was time to invest in a new mower. We were leaning toward an electric mower after seeing a television special on electric vs gas powered mowers.

Off I went to the store to comparison shop and I got talked out of the electric mower by a person in the lawn and garden department. He stated that the people that had bought electric were unhappy with their purchase. Since we did not know enough about the electric we went ahead with the gas powered. We settled on the Yard King Centura Elite made by Murray, Inc.

This mower offers:
Electric starting
Mulching
20 inch cutting area
side discharge or rear bag discharge
self-propelled

It all looked great and my husband seemed very happy with his new mower. Now onto the disaster, after mowing our back lawn(which is very small so it only took about 5 minutes max) my husband went to empty the bag of grass. He leaned forward to pull it out and jerked back in pain. He had apparently touched the exhaust with his leg accidentally and received a rather severe burn.

We went in the house and tended to his burn then checked the manual to see if there was any warning about "hot spots" or anything like that. Not finding any I decided to call the company personally. There are two manuals with this mower, one for Murray, Inc and one for Tecumseh. The Murray manual said to call the 800 number on the mower for assistance but there was no phone number on my mower. So I started looking at the Tecumseh manual and found a phone number (not an 800 number) so I called them. I spoke with someone in customer service and she told me that they are aware that there is a safety hazard there but they only make the motor not the whole lawn mower so they only make it up to the specifications that the manufacturer asks for. She informed me that there is a muffler guard that they manufacture that I was able to buy. She told me that she would have a technician call me and she took my name and number. (As of now no one from this company has called me back)

Today I finally reached someone from Murray, Inc. I spoke to someone in technical services and she informed me that common sense would tell you not to touch the exhaust. I informed her that I was told by the engine manufacturer that there was a safety hazard and they were aware of it but Murray did not specify putting the muffler guard on the mower. She told me that I was welcome to buy the muffler guard if I wanted to but that their mower meets all safety standards required by law. I asked her why there was not a warning on the mower stating that this section gets extremely hot and may cause burns. She once again quoted that their mowers meet all safety standards.

Since I was still unsatisfied with the answers I had received I called the Consumer Products Safety Commission. I filed a complaint on this company and hopefully a warning will be added or the guard will be added to keep people safe from potential burns.

Note: I did not do this looking for money, I am looking for a warning to be added so that no one else will have to suffer an unnecessary burn. The mower was turned off when this happened so we had no reason to think there was a safety hazard there. Hopefully there will be a warning added to the mower or the guard will begin coming with the mower. I plan on returning this mower now and will not purchase another Yard King mower after this.




Recommended: No