Lawn-Boy 17732 21-Inch 6.5 Gross Torque Kohler XTX OHV, 3-in-1 Discharge Rear Wheel Drive Self Propelled Lawn Mower

A Lawn Boy mower made by Toro with a Kohler engine.... Three old and great names in landscaping, so has to be good. Unfortunately, I guess times have changed and everything now seems to be made as cheaply and cost effectively as possible. Unpacked the unit, added oil and gas, pulled the rope and it started up immediately!... Very nice. Took it out on the lawn and it wouldnt pull itself, required me to push it.. Not good. Read the owners manual and discovered there is an adjustment so did that and now it is self propelled as advertised.. So that indicates to me that the manufacturer has no quality control in place. The customer is the one who is now the Quality Control and you get to use your time to get it fixed.. Next thing-- I had been mowing for 15 or so minutes and shut it off to make a phone call. That took ten minutes and when I attempted to start the mower it just barely ran and blew lots of black smoke and finally died. Wouldnt start again, an indication that the automatic choke had restricted air flow. So after waiting for an hour tried starting it again and it started immediately.. Pretty inconvenient if one is in a hurry. It is consistent in this malfunction and I have finally found a way to bypass the automatic choke with a piece of wire to make it inoperative when the engine is hot. So that is poor design by Kohler. Another problem is that this is difficult to pull backwards with the drive disengaged. Dont know why, but its a real pain. So another poorly designed feature.. And last (at least so far) is the very common complaint that the front wheel height adjustment is crap. I mowed the lawn three or four times though before the plastic bumps that hold the adjustment lever in place wore out and let the front end of the mower drop to the ground. And as some people have said it is a fairly easy thing to fix if you dont need to keep adjusting the cutting height, by using either a bungee cord to hold things together or to take a screw and screw the plastic parts together. Not a good thing either way, but it will work. So another design flaw.I am not happy with this mower. The people who designed it should be ashamed of themselves, its not like the technology isnt out there, reliable mowers have been built for decades so IMHO there is no excuse for this . It seems to be designed to be made as cheaply as possible and make the most profit. I cannot buy another mower so I am stuck with it. However you can make a very safe bet that I will *never* purchase another Kohler, Lawn Boy, or Toro product. They just dont seem to care about quality anymore.

I purchased this lawn mower in early 2014 and have used it for nearly two mowing seasons. The first mower that I received arrived with a broken height adjustment lever. I returned it immediately and received a replacement. I now realize that I should not have requested a replacement, as the mower has given me a tremendous amount of trouble. I have decided to get rid of it.The problem isn't the Honda engine - it works great. The main problems are with the design of the front wheel attachment and the height adjustment levers. The front axle is held in place by plastic fins that are attached to the mower frame. These delicate fins are easily broken off, which allows the front axle to fall off the mower. To my knowledge there is no easy fix to this problem. The height adjustment levers are very brittle and break easily. I have battled with these problems continuously since I received the mower. I have finally given up and am discarding this mower after using it for slightly less than two mowing seasons. The design of these items is flawed and the material is cheap and breaks easily.Another design issue is the attachment of the grass catcher to the mower. The grass catcher butts to the mower without any kind of cover over the junction between the two. The problem comes when the bag begins to fill with grass and, due to the weight of the grass clippings, the bag pulls slightly away from the mower a fraction of an inch. This small separation allows grass clippings and dust to escape from the top of the gap, blowing the debris up in air and into the face of the person pushing the mower. I had to devise an improvised cover to block the gap so that I wasn't breathing in dust and debris while using the mower.In essence, there are some serious design flaws with the mower. I am very disappointed with the quality control of Lawn-Boy/Toro. I can hardly believe that these issues escaped their attention before this mower went on the market. The only thing that would concern me more is if they knew of these issues but sold the mower anyway. It's a shame, because the Honda engine is terrific. As a result of my experience with this mower, I would not recommend buying this mower or any Lawn-Boy/Toro product due to questionable quality control.

Ok, true story....when I received the first mower the front end was broken. I contacted Amazon and UPS and UPS came and picked up the mower and Amazon asked me if I wanted another mower or a refund. I requested another mower. I am SO SO glad I did. It was a total fluke. I really really like this mower! It really does start on the first pull (or second). I've had to add half a container of oil (other than the one that came with it) in the year that I have owned it and it's very economical on gas. It is a true mulching mower. My son is 13 and started mowing with this mower (supervised) when he was 12 and it has been so easy for him to do, and for me as well. I love the thing! My dad has HIS dad's old Lawn-Boy and that's what I was using before it died! He was shocked to find that Lawn-Boy was still making lawnmowers and was proud to find that I had done my research and bought a good lawnmower, whatever the brand.