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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (18651)	3/8/1999 3:32:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 71178

Lawn mower. A few months ago (November?)I finally got fed up with our mower which we'd purchased used after determining that Northern CA lawns are made of sterner stuff than rotary push mowers. In the spring (Jan - Mar) the grass all grows at once, and this is a severe test of any lawn trimming device. So I found a recipient for the old mower and went to Sears (in a buddy's truck) to buy their basic gas mower. Our first brand-new mower. Well, it was twice as heavy as its predecessor, and it had a few niggling flaws. No throttle for one (it had this governor plate on the carb which would bob back and forth, making the mower go bwaah, bwaah, bwaah), a nasty top-end clatter and serious vibration thru the bar for another. I could live with this until last weekend, when the damned thing seized up on me twice. I figure it had something seriously wrong with its oiling system or something (and in retrospect that might account for the raucous top end). So I managed to get it to Sears, who took it back pretty much no questions asked, and they're gonna send me a refund check. So Craftsman mowers and Sears in general: quality F (a solid D if it hadn't seized), customer service A. (The F rating is restricted to items with a gas motor. Their electric stuff gets a B and their hand tools get an A from me.) This was Wednesday, and on a friend's suggestion we went to Costco to look for a mower. They had one on a box, about $300, Something powered by Honda. I tried to shift a box and almost broke something in my back doing so. We left without a mower, but with some real nice asparagus. Friday I took off early from work to shop a local garden-tool store for mowers. They had a nice Honda for $500, and 1/2 hour later it was folded into the back of my car, and 1 1/2 hours later my lawn was cut close as a buzzcut. I let the thick layer of shredded grass dry 'til Saturday afternoon, then raked it up. The lawn looked a little like sheepskin when I was raking. So now we have a new Honda mower. It is heavy, but it has a throttle, starts right up, runs pretty quiet and the guy at the store gassed it. Final judgment: expensive but worth it.