Honda vs Snapper quality of cut

15 years ago

I had a Snapper hi-vac commercial, Robyn engine, which I used for 8 seasons before selling it. I'm getting older and the machine was getting really heavy. Bought a Honda HRR216 w/ hydrostatic drive and blade brake. Great machine, except I cannot seem to acheive the quality of cut that I had with the Snapper. I changed out the quadracut blade set for the Honda "bagging blade" which helped a little, but it's still not as good as the Hi Vac. I've also noticed the Honda does not bag leaves and such nearly as well as the Hi Vac did. Any ideas on how to improve the cut of the Honda or do I need to go plunk down the $$ and get back into a Hi Vac?

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Comments (13)

roadbike
15 years ago
What are the specific problems you are having.
greg9933
Original Author
15 years ago
The lawn does not have the smooth, finished look with the Honda that it did with the Snapper. Blade on the Honda is razor sharp.
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Honda may have good engines, but the plastic decks on their more expensive consumer line would be a deal breaker for me. I would much rather buy an aluminum deck Toro or Lawnboy or a steel deck Snapper. I use to work for Honda as an internal auditor and audited Honda Power Equipments plant in Swepsonville, North Carolina. The plant management told me Honda made the switch from aluminum to plastic to cut costs. I got a Honda Harmony mower for my brother at a company discount. Even though he only uses this mower sparingly as a trim mower and is careful with his equipment, the deck cracked. To top it off Honda delivered this mower without an air filter element and my brother did not catch their mistake until he was doing preventative maintenance, approximately one year after taking delivery. A neighbor bought a plastic deck Honda Harmony a few years ago and did not like its maneuverability and lack of mulching power and gave it to his mother. He bought a much cheaper Troy Built and likes it much better. The Lawnboy Insight Platinum, the Toro Super Recycler, or the Snapper HI-VAC would be better choices than the plastic deck Honda mowers and the Toro and Lawnboy are significantly less expensive. I would choose the Toro if you primarily mulch and the Lawnboy or Snapper if you primarily bag.
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Andy, i have ised Snapper self propelled mowers, both professionally and on my own lawn, for over 30 years. I would not use anything else. I have used Toro before, however there seem to be too many working parts to mess up on the Toro mowers. A Honda engine is really good also. Snapper is currently owned by bridge and Stratton. unfortunately, snapper has also licensed MTD to manufacture mowers, using the snapper name, to be sold by big box stores such as Home Depot and Walmart. Both places sell snapper walk behind self-propelled mowers for anywhere from $300-$800. although manufactured by MTD, these big box Machines are built by the same plan as any snapper. Unfortunately however, many times the MTD mowers do not hold up or cut as efficiently as the snapper that you buy from a dealer.; and the prices from a big box store or a dealer are virtually the same, the only difference being that your dealer will not usually sell a more in the $300 range as well a big box store. So, that may be where your problem starts. snapper is known for its quality of cut, and they have never let me down. I am currently doing professional lawn work with a residential grade self-propelled walk behind mower, and it does a great job and has held up really well for two seasons. that said, there is one thing you might try. Snapper makes a set of small lift blades, about an inch and a half long, that bolt on to their regular mower blades. They actually look like little fins on the end of your mower blade. Generally, they run about $20-$30 a set. I have been using the same set for two years. That little thin on the blade creates extra lift on the grass. When you're cutting grass with really thin blades, these lifts work wonders. They literally suck the grass up so that the blade can cut. You can only purchase these little blades from a snapper dealer. That would be my next step. Past that, if you purchased your mower at either Walmart or Home Depot, you can take it back. If you paid $700 for that machine, you can get your money back and visit a dealer where you can, for the same price, purchase a mower that is actually manufactured by snapper. They do a much better job. 30 years ago, when I first started mowing lawns professionally, you never saw a bad review of snapper machine. Since the licensing agreement with MTD however, bad reviews have become quite common. Generally when you see a bad review of a snapper mower, including the rear engine rider, the more being complained about was actually manufactured by MTD and not by snapper. If you consult a dealer, they will tell you that very thing. That said, even the best companies can manufacture Elimon every once in a while. If you purchased your lawn more from a dealer they will make good on that purchase. They are required to do so by snapper, or find their dealership in jeopardy It might be worth consulting a dealer to have him check out what maybe going on with the mower. Often whatever the problem is they have seen it 1 million times and will recognize it the minute you tell them about it. Good luck. I hope this experience has not colored your view of Snapper machines too badly.
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In response to viking427, I have the commercial Honda. It came with their "Micro-cut" blade system, which is 2 stacked blades. The top is basically flat, and the bottom has a fairly wide paddle shape with what I would say is pretty good lift. I've found a gator type blade by Oregon,and tried that too. It has to be used alone,with a spacer as the creases/bends in Honda's upper blade won't allow the 2 to fit flat together. The standing grass blade issue has existed since it was new, and grass free. Honda denies any issues, other than the pasty clumps you mentioned. They sent me a spacer to use in place of the upper blade, which also gave the same results. I've figured out how to increase the full throttle rpm a little, but I still see blades left uncut. Just can't figure out the cause. This has the BBC, so it is rather difficult to find non Honda blades whose holes are spaced the correct distance for this mower. Any other suggestions for non OEM hi-lift blades, or fixes? Thanks to all for your input.
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roadbike
15 years ago
Not sure what that means, but you might try one of those high lift blades, maybe a gator.
greg9933
Original Author
15 years ago
Well, it's a moot issue now. I bought a Snapper Hi Vac today with the OHV Briggs engine. The Honda is for sale on Craigslist already.
amazer98
14 years ago
Greg,

Talk about ironic-- I bought a Snapper Hi-Vac a few weeks ago to replace a Honda Harmony with a seized transmission. The Honda used to cut grass perfectly-- the lawn looked great after every mowing.

But my Snapper mows raggedly, the lawn looks uneven afterwards. I've tried both the Ninja mulching blade and the regular HiVac blade using the bag. The Ninja has the worst results, but the HiVac blade is also a mediocre performer.

If the problem is not with the blade design, since you experienced happy results with your Snapper, I'm wondering what else it could be. My blades seem to mount securely and evenly in the mower deck and I adjust my wheels properly.

Did you ever figure out how to get your Honda to mow well?

Just wondering here in southern NH,
Andy
whirlwind1974
14 years ago
greg9933
"HRR216 w/hydrostatic drive and blade brake"
"The Honda is for sale on Craigslist already"

Can't recall that a HRR216 was ever made with a hydro tranny. You might want to check this out and correct your Craigslist posting if necessary. The buyer might be a little upset if thinks he's buying an "HX" and doesn't get what he paid for.
metal
14 years ago
Amazer-Unless you live in Oregon and have the same type of grass as he does it is hard to tell what the problem is. Different mowers work better in different situations (grass type, mowing height, mowing frequency, blades, mulch/bag/side discharge, etc.).
amazer98
14 years ago
Well, my lawn grass isn't that weird. It's medium-width blades (not quite as you'd see on a nice golf course) that when mowed with the Honda looked really even and smooth. The Snapper leaves the lawn looking a bit ragged, despite the fact that the blades are new and appear level within the mower deck.

I've tried the Ninja mulching blades without a bag and the regular HiVac blades with the bag-- neither give anywhere near as nice a cut as the Honda's twin mulching blades did.

But the fact that my Honda's transmission seized up after 6 years of normal use (takes about an hour to mow our lawn) ticked me off enough that I wasn't about to go buy another Honda. Fixing it would have cost almost $300 because of its hard-to-reach tranny, unlike the Snapper whose tranny is outside the mower deck and easy to access.

Anyway, this is a real mystery-- guess I'll just have to live with it.

As an afterthought: some people have complained online about the Snapper's B&S engine as having too slow a speed, but I'm not sure what they mean. I wonder if they think that the blade doesn't spin fast enough on a Snapper-- could that be it?
milo2000
14 years ago
I have 2 snappers one with a briggs quantum engine (hi-vac)and I have to mow slower with this one. The engine does not have the power to go fast and give a decent cut. my other one is an older commercial (rear bagger) with a robin engine. It mows much faster and never bogs. I can run with it and still get a great cut. It climbs hills much better as well due to different type of self propelled. The snapper hi-vac disc drive does not climb too well. It spins much easier and loses traction too often. i have a problem with the commercial model taking off on it's own wehen trying to pull backwards. makes it tough to mow in tight areas. Put it on the stretch though and it is fast with good cut. The Hi-vac is a way better bagger though.
rmtx
14 years ago
milo2000,

For many years Snappers have featured the same disc drive system. I thought even the old Snappers had the disc drive system for propulsion?
yellowfever
14 years ago
Bottom lineÂ..for a finish cut, nothing cuts as well as a Honda. This is especially true with the Honda twin blade mowers. I have tried them all and Honda has the most even clean cut available.

Nothing cuts as nice as the HRX.
heintooga
14 years ago
"Bottom lineÂ..for a finish cut, nothing cuts as well as a Honda. This is especially true with the Honda twin blade mowers. I have tried them all and Honda has the most even clean cut available. Nothing cuts as nice as the HRX."

I have a new Honda HRC217 and two Snappers and I prefer the Snappers. It really doen't matter what kind of mower one has, as long as the blade is sharp, the deck is clean and one doesn't expect the mower to do more than it is designed do!
milo2000
14 years ago
My commercial Snapper is a rear bagging model that does not use the disc drive. It has an aluminum deck and does not bag as well as the hi-vac but mulches better. It is a 3 speed and the top 2 speeds are very fast. Much faster than my hi-vac and the robin engine does not bog at all like my other B&S Quantum engine. It is much heavier over 100lbs but is solid with ball bearing wheels that have grease zerts on them. The drive unit is a belt with a pulley and the transmission always has some resistance when pushing or pulling. It is not for a grandma it takes a strong person to operate it. My hi-vac is much easier to use but wont't go as fast without bogging down. I will see if I can post a picture.

Honda vs Snapper quality of cut

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