For those of you familiar with this mower (or any HRX mower for that matter), none of what I am about to say will be news to you.
Hopefully this post reaches at least one person on the fence about whether or not to buy this mower (like I was for about a month) and helps them with their decision.
I've owned a variety of mowers in my life, most of them had Briggs & Stratton engines, and was mostly pleased. I dont have a very large yard (about 1/6 acres) so I always stuck around the $200 price point for a mower. My most recent one was a $200 special from Sears. It had the larger 190cc B&S motor in it, but I always thought the engine was noisy and in thick or slightly wet grass the mower always struggled.
Half my property has a sandy/clay mixture and the other half has really great soil and the grass grows thick and long very quickly. In the spring, even waiting a week in between mows, the "good" side would cause the mower to really struggle. My options were to keep raising and lowering the wheels half way through every mow, or just keep the mower at my desired height and "pop a wheelie" in the thick area. This got old and I finally had enough.
I had always been aware Honda made great mowers, but the price always kept me away. After doing a lot of research, I realized that the time was now to get a quality mower. I mulled between all the HRX and HRR Hondas and even the Toro Personal Pace mowers. Was it going to be worth the extra money, would I notice a difference?
Im happy to say that after only one mow, I already can say I notice a difference!
This is not only my first Honda mower, but my first self-propelled mower, so I had a lot to get used to. This past weekend was my first mow of the season. As always, the "good" side of my lawn was getting pretty long already. I rarely ever bag my lawn, so I would always mulch and my old mower would have really struggled, and while I'm not going to make up ridiculous stories about how the Honda was flawless, because it struggled too, but the difference in what I would have had to do with the old B&S mower and this one was huge. With the Honda, I did not have push down on the handle bars to elevate the front wheels at all. I had to go slow, and there was some clumping, but not a lot. The old mower would leave a steady stripe of unmulched grass following the mower. Was this because I went with the 190cc Honda motor as opposed to the 160cc, or was it a difference between a Honda engine and a B&S engine, I honestly don't know. But regardless the reason, I felt as though this engine is a lot stronger than the one in my old mower.
I kept the Smart Drive off throughout the thick grass and slowly pushed it and the mower did its thing like a champ. Where I really noticed a difference was in the less thick areas of my lawn. Even in shallow to medium length grass, the old mower would leave clumps of grass behind and with the Honda, there was none. This mower definitely does a better job at mulching. Since I did not use a bag, I did not get to try out the Versamow feature.
As this was my primary reason for buying the mower, I am already very happy. Using the Smart Drive was a joy. At max speed, I definitely have to hustle to keep up with the mower, so I would say I keep it around 3/4 throttle most of the time. When the mower is driving itself, I literally just follow it with a light amount of tension on the handlebars to keep it pointed straight. Since this is my first experience with a self-propelled mower, I had to remember to lay off the throttle when I wanted to turn, or back up the mower in a corner!
The Smart Drive paddles were comfortable for me to use. I like that they're adjustable to accommodate different people. After a complete mow of my front and rear lawns, my hands were not fatigued at all, and I also noticed that I had no lower back pain like I would often get from the old mower from having to constantly press down on the handle bars to keep the front wheels elevated.
A couple other observations about the mower that are well documented on this and many other sites, but are still worth mentioning. This is a large mower. It is a couple inches longer than my old B&S mower, and also heavier. The Smart Drive system negates the extra weight, but when you are in a corner and have to push and pull the mower backwards, you feel the extra heft. This isn't a problem for me, but I could see it being a little bit difficult for a weaker person (like my wife or an elderly person).
The handlebars are extremely comfortable. I am glad to see that ergonomics are considered in modern lawnmowers. My old mower still had a horizontal bar, which in a short mow isn't that big of a deal, but for people with large yards or with carpal tunnel problems, it could get uncomfortable. I like that the VKA's handlebars are padded. I find it curious that the models with the Blade Stop feature are not padded.
The handlebars are adjustable in 3 positions and I kept it in the highest of the three, but by no means is the highest, high. In my opinion, the highest setting is just normal for someone of my height (I am 5' 9"). If I were to lower the handlebar, it would be too low. This would be good for a short person, but I gotta think that people over 6 feet might find the highest handlebar setting to be too low.
I love the ball bearing wheels. This mower just feels solid. When it rolls, you really feel the smoothness across the ground. My old mower was 5 years old so the cheap wheels had become to loosen over time, but even when the mower was new, I never remember the old one feeling as stable as this one.
Engine noise was about what I would expect from a gasoline powered lawnmower. I've never really heard a quiet mower, but my old B&S mower was noisy, and this one just doesn't seem quite as loud. But I have no scientific evidence to prove the fact, but I believe this to be slightly quieter than my old one.
Starting the mower was easy. The very first time I fired it up, it started on the first pull. It was nice to not have to mess with a Prime button or a manual choke. Honda's auto-choke feature worked as advertised. One thing I will say though, is that if you do happen to stall the mower in thick grass, it took 2-3 attempts to get it running again. My old mower was the same way, but the single-pull convenience of this mower doesn't work when the deck is filled with thick grass. Most of you would probably say "duuuh" to this, but its worth mentioning that this mower doesn't perform miracles! :)
One last thing about the mower is that although I could not find it on sale anywhere, I bought it from Home Depot, but I used a site called
https://www.raise.com/ to save a little bit of money on the mower by buying gift cards for Home Depot at a discount. There are a variety of sites like this where you can buy a gift card at a discount and then use the gift card to buy stuff. Home Depot lets you use up to 10 different gift cards during check out. I bought the mower on Home Depot's site and chose to pick it up at a local store. Doing this saved me $51 on the price of the mower. Not a huge amount, but hey, every bit counts! :)
So there you have it. Like I said, nothing in this review should be new to anyone, and those of you who already have experience with Honda mowers (specifically this model) already know this is a great mower. I just thought I would share my experience for anyone who might have been on the fence about whether to buy it, here is one more positive review for you! :)
