push mower or walk-behind??

[question1]

I have a terminology question. I have always thought of 21-inch mowers as "push mowers," even if they were self-propelled. However, many people -- and even some manufacturers -- refer to 21-inch mowers as "walk-behinds." To me, a "walk-behind" is a mower with 2 or more blades, normally with decks of 32", 36", 48", etc. Is there any clear answer as to what is a "push mower" and what is a "walk-behind"?

[JimQ]

Here's how I look at it.

Push Mower - Any mower not self-propelled

Walk Behind Mower - A self-propelled single blade up to 26"

Wide Area Walkbehind - Anything self-propelled, larger than 26", single or multiple blades.

But that's just me. Call it what you will.

Q

[nparish]

Push mower, self propelled, and walk behind.

[question1]

nparish -- so you're saying that a self-propelled 21 is not a push mower and is not a walk behind?

[Richard Martin]

We sometimes call the 21 and 22 inch class of mowers "trim mowers". Also push mowers and self propelled push mowers. The larger 26" to 30" type mowers we don't have a special name for because we're not stupid enough to buy them and couldn't care less what you call them. Homeowners will often call 32" and up mowers "wide area cut mowers" where we would call them walk behinds. Then you have a riding mower, riding tractor, ZTR and a rider. The rider can be any of the 3 mowers where-as the riding mower and riding tractor are interchangable but the ZTR can only be called a rider or ZTR.

You got all that?

[Ridin' Green]

Originally Posted by JimQ

Here's how I look at it.

Push Mower - Any mower not self-propelled

Walk Behind Mower - A self-propelled single blade up to 26"

Wide Area Walkbehind - Anything self-propelled, larger than 26", single or multiple blades.

But that's just me. Call it what you will.

Q

I think this is a pretty good explanation.

I have been trying more lately to be very specific when talking about WB mowers by calling them WB and including the width of cut ie; 21",32", 40", etc.

I don't call a mower I have to push, a WB, and I don't think it makes sense to call one I simply walk behind a push mower when it is actually pulling itself along.

[peachtree landscapes]

I think the confusion is that there are actually still "push" mowers in the homeowner category. This would be a mower that does not have a self-propelled function. Most 21" mowers are either push or self-propelled and I believe the walk-behind terms comes into play at 26". However, I can imagine a walk-behind is any mower you "walk-behind" so could work for just about any non-riding mower.