HELP out a rookie...best brand for warranty??

[magnum12]

I just purchased my first home on 3 acres and will be purchasing ALL new lawn equipment including a mower, leaf blower, ect...

I would highly appreciate what brand/manufacturers you would recommend. The most important thing for me is dependability and which brands offer the best & least hassle WARRANTIES. I personally drive 2 Honda's and love them but I see that Honda makes very little to no equipment. Thank you so much for any input!!!

Mark - Virginia

[Smittie]

I just purchased my first home on 3 acres and will be purchasing ALL new lawn equipment including a mower, leaf blower, ect...

I would highly appreciate what brand/manufacturers you would recommend. The most important thing for me is dependability and which brands offer the best & least hassle WARRANTIES. I personally drive 2 Honda's and love them but I see that Honda makes very little to no equipment. Thank you so much for any input!!!

Mark - Virginia

Hey Mark, as far as mowers go I'm not sure of warranties. Some good names are Snapper Pro, Ferris, Scag, Exmark, Bob-Cat. Handhelds such as saws string trimmers, blowers, etc. I use Stihl and haven't had a problem yet with any issue. Echo also offers a 5 Year residential warranty. Hope this helps congrats on the house!! Josh

[MOturkey]

I think you'll find that all the major brands have a rather liberal warranty on their higher end consumer equipment. Most all commercial warranties that I'm aware of are 1 year on handhelds, and 2 year on things like zero turn mowers. The reason is simple, commercial operations put more wear and tear on their equipment in a week than the average homeowner will in a year.

Stick with a major brand, with a good local dealer, and you will be OK. My advice is to purchase from a commercial dealer, rather than a big-box store like Home Depot, simply because of having someone to provide service if something does go wrong.

Also, if cost isn't a real problem, buy heavier duty equipment, for example a smaller commercial trimmer, rather than a homeowner's model, because it will last you basically forever, where the homeowner models won't hold up. It is a case of "Pay now, or pay later".

Congratuilations on the home. Now is a really good time to become a homeowner. If I weren't 58, I'd be looking for a new home today. Ours is paid for, so I suppose we'll stick with it.

[SfTD_service_CENTER]

kubota is really good for a mower so is johndeere, echo has the best waranty on small equipment and they are in house with their cylinders and parts so i would choose them as far as small equipment goes. if your looking at a lawn tractor get a johndeere gt235 or bigger you will be very satisfied with it

[IHusky]

I think you'll find that all the major brands have a rather liberal warranty on their higher end consumer equipment. Most all commercial warranties that I'm aware of are 1 year on handhelds, and 2 year on things like zero turn mowers. The reason is simple, commercial operations put more wear and tear on their equipment in a week than the average homeowner will in a year.

Stick with a major brand, with a good local dealer, and you will be OK. My advice is to purchase from a commercial dealer, rather than a big-box store like Home Depot, simply because of having someone to provide service if something does go wrong.

Also, if cost isn't a real problem, buy heavier duty equipment, for example a smaller commercial trimmer, rather than a homeowner's model, because it will last you basically forever, where the homeowner models won't hold up. It is a case of "Pay now, or pay later".

Good advice.

[Pennington Lawncare]

Bob-Cat offers a dual choice warranty on some of their models. 1 choice is the 5 year or 500 hour warranty which ever comes first and the second choice is the 2 year or 2,000 hour warranty. 5 year warranty is pretty hard to beat for a homeowner.

[Triple L]

The best brand is the brand that you never have to use warranty for...........

Hustler makes some real nice homeowner z turn units.....

Myns treated me vary well, but then again, its as commercial as they come.....

[joegeistyardworks]

The best brand is the brand that you never have to use warranty for...........

Hustler makes some real nice homeowner z turn units.....

Myns treated me vary well, but then again, its as commercial as they come.....

I agree, I looked at alot of mowers this past year, and Hustler seemed to offer the best warranty but that was on commercial. Stihl and echo and redmax are all good sticks. Sorry I did not catch what area you lived in before I came to post. I would also invest the time to demo different mowers as some tend to cut different grasses different based on the cut height of the grass. For example some mowers tend to struggle in my opinion down here with the St. Augastine and it's tall mow height, but they can chop it low and make it look nice, but which will damage it.
Demo and see which one think gives the best cut, the one you like for handling and comfort.
It does not matter about the warranty as much if it gives you a poor quality cut as you will not enjoy it.

But Hustler and Scag and the other mowers listed so far are all good brands. John Deere is hit and miss, but generally make a good home mower, Kubota too. But they are expensive for what they are, look around, you should be able to get some good commercial brand zero turns in off season for the price of Deere or Kubota if you take your time.
Good luck

[kaferhaus]

Bobcat has the best warranty and the best prices. We own 9 of them and have never had a warranty claim. The decks are great and they cut as well as anything out there save maybe a Walker which are both too slow and too expensive for the amount of work we do.

[blake2727]

As far as mowers check out exmark, scag, and grasshopper. Personally I love my grasshopper but scag is hard to beat as far as how tough they are. Trimmers I prefer shindaiwa but you couldn't go wrong with sthil or red max either.

[ALC-GregH]

Congrat's on the new home.
Does the property have any hills or other obstacles that might otherwise make it difficult to mow the lawn?