I often get the question "What is the best Lawn Mower for Residential use or Commercial Use? The answer to this question depends upon the amount of use, the outcome of lawn cut you are after, the amount of money you want to spend, whether you want it to be portable, and many many other factors.
Money is generally the most important factor. The most expensive lawn mower that I have is a Walker Brand with the "GHS" or "Grass Handling System". The Walker is more of a commercial mower that goes for around $10,500. It collects the cut debris and shoots it under and back to a "hopper", which swivels up to dump the contents when full. The Walker Brand is a riding lawn mower. The controls on a Walker are more advanced than those of most mowers - you use your left fingers to go left and right and your right hand to control the forward control. A Walker Brand Mower will give you THE BEST cut of all commercial mowers in my opinion. The Walker also does a very good job of picking up other debris like leaves, pinestraw, or anything else that comes in its path.
A good pick for a riding lawn mower for the homeowner is the Snapper 28. This is the same mower that Forrest Gump was cutting the football field with. It's slow, but it makes a great, consistent cut. The Snapper line of riding mowers also does a satisfactory job of picking up light debris (like leaves). With a bagger "system", the Snapper Riding Lawn Mower goes for about $1750.
Another great commercial riding lawn mower is the "Zero Turn" mower. These monsters come in all sizes from Scag's 36" to ExMark's massive 72" width. As the name implies, these mowers turn on a zero radius - that means that they don't need much room at all to do a 180 degree turn to start the next line of mowing. I like my John Deere 54" "Z-Trac" 23 Horsepower. It does the big overgrown jobs that I come up on now and then. It will also do a fine job of regular mowing, but if given the choice, I use my Walker. Most Zero Turn mowers will mow through 15" tall grass with no problem! My John Deere goes for about $7500 new, but you can pick one up on ebay for ~$3000 or so depending upon how many "hours" it has on it.
The amount of hours on any mower you are considering depends, of course, on how long it has been in use. It is important to know, also, whether the mower has commercial hours on it or residential. If commercial, look for a mower with no more than 400 hours on it for maximum value. Hours in the range of 1000 or so are, in my opinion, too depreciated to enjoy maximum value.
Email me any time with questions about mowers or any other lawn care machinery - I'll be glad to help!
