I realized a lighter pushmower is the way to go also. My pushmower only sees limited use so anything I get usually holds up for awhile. I dumped my Honda at the end of last summer. It cut good, but was way to heavy and slow. Picked up a much lighter and quicker Snapper pushmower. After using that Honda for a couple years I started to hate pushmowing anything. Now I don't mind pushmowing a hill or a tight spot here and there.

 

light sure is a plus, seems like I end up lifting the push mowers more than any other piece of equipment.
some of the pro mowers i saw at the lawn dealer were amazing but all were tanks.

 

when i was first starting out i bought 2 murray mowers at walmart for $99 and they too had the 3.5hp briggs on them i never once changed the oil on them but just filled them up when needed (which wasnt very often) to this day i loved those mowers more than any other piece of equipment i have ever had they would mow anything and take a beating but ran like a champ i think that 3.5 briggs might be the best engine ever overall

 

I got the 6 HP big wheels in back Chraftsman plain-jane mower and it is great. Super light and agile. I too leave the Honda in the shed now. I had to do two things to it though. I traced out under the plastic shoot and cut the excess metal out because long grass would clog it up. This weakened the mower so I had to reinforce the side along the bottom with a small piece of rebar. Now this thing throws grass like crazy and never clogs. It will never bag again, but I couldn't care less about bagging.