I'm a long time subscriber to Consumer Reports and often reference their issues and Web site before making a purchase. The May '06 issue contained an article on lawn mowers, which I was in the market for. They rated the Honda HRX217HXA #1 among self-propelled mowers, which is the type I wanted, so I swallowed hard and anteed up the $700 it takes to get one.

This is Honda's top-of-the-line mower. I comes with a Xenoy deck, Xenoy being their name for the plastic from which it's made, which is probably polycarbonate. In addition to eliminating any concern about rust, it helps keep the weight down vs. a cast aluminum deck. In spite of that, the mower is relatively heavy; the operating weight (with oil and gas) is 96 lbs. It is also equipped with a blade brake clutch, which allows the engine to continue running if the operator walks away from it to pick up sticks or empty the bag.

· Like all Honda mowers, this one starts with a single pull and is powerful but quiet. 95% of my cutting activity is in mulching mode, and its "Quadra-Cut" duel-blade cutting system does a great job of mulching – no clumps whatsoever, even with relatively high grass. It does, however, have two "features" that, IMO, represent serious design flaws, one of which was so onerous that it caused me to return the mower. The minor flaw is the unusually long handle. I didn't actually measure it, but estimate that it's at least 8- 10" longer than most mowers. It makes maneuvering the mower around trees, etc. difficult due to the added distance the operator has to travel (when you turn a mower, the distance between the back wheels and the top of the handle is the radius of the arc you must walk to turn it; the longer the handle, the farther you have to walk to make a turn).

· The major flaw is the control bails that engage/disengage the blade and drive mechanism. Both bails are on the operator side of the handle (vs. one on the front side and one on the back side). You must hold the blade bail against the handle to keep the blade turning and hold the hydrostatic drive bail against that to make the mower move forward. The drive bail allows you to vary the speed between 0 and the maximum speed you set with another lever. But because the bails are both on the same side of the handle and the distance the speed control bail must move from low to high speed (about 8"), you cannot vary the speed using your thumbs while the rest of your hand holds the blade clutch against the handle. This isn't a problem when mowing a straight line, but when you have to go around a tree or reverse direction at the end of one row, you wind up having to use one hand to hold keep the blade engaged AND turn the mower and the other hand to control the speed bail. In other words, any turn becomes a two-handed operation and only one hand is actually doing the turning. Drives you nuts! I found the blade + speed control bail arrangement so uncomfortable that I returned the mower.


Recommended: No