I have the HRX 217HXA with the variable speed and blade brake for about 2.5 years. I don't know what the HXC stands for. It does a great job at mulching, bagging and leaf shredding. I like the fact you could control how much you want to bag. With less bag emptying, I cut my mowing time in half when the bag was used.

Only minor complaints are: 1) its weight. It's pretty darn heavy at about 100 pounds. 2) in the mulching mode it leaves some grass clippings in the bag. Not much, maybe 2 handfuls, you have to empty the bag after your finished mowing in the mulch mode. These are minor complaints.

I've had no problems with the deck. It doesn't dent or get rusty but it does scratch if you get too close to a concrete block.

I mow about a half an acre each week and am please with its performance so far. Again IÂve only had this mower for about 2.5 years.

groundhogva,

I'm in Canada so I wonder if it is a different model number. the one I am looking at has a green know that allows you to mulch or bag or some combination of the two. It has a hydrostatic drive (variable speed), as oopsed to a 3 speed and has manual start.

I'm interested in knowing how much it reduces leaves when on mulch. For example, if you have it set to "bag" and collect one bagfull, if you set it to mulch and covered a similar area, then switched to Bag, would you be able to cover 4 times the area (4:1 reduction)?
Thanks for your reply.

kayjh

kayjh,
I can't help you too much on the perfomance your asking. I just mow and Get-R-done.

The quad cut does reduce grass and leaves really fine. I never fully bagged grass and leaves so I can't help you there. I either fully mulch or 70/30 (mulch 70% and bag 30%). I adjust the bagging/mulching lever based on observations as I mow. The less stopping and emptying the bag, the better.

Leaf collecting I think my settings are 50/50 (mulch 50% and bag 50%)or 60/40. Even with this setting, the leaves get reduced pretty fine. Hope this helps.

The A is the American model, the C Canadian. I believe the American model has a cat to comply with CARB. We had trouble getting enough to supply the demand even at almost 1200 loonies a pop.They are a fine mower.

Thanks for the reply. One dealer in my area has 3 in stock for $1,179.00 each, plus the taxes. I have been thinking about buying one to mulch down leaves in the fall and then pass over them again in the "bag" mode to vacuum them up. If the mulching reduces the leaves significantly, then I could use this in lieu of a leaf vacuum.

I just received a DR Power Products Lawn Vac (made by BillyGoat) and gave it a test run yesterday. My initial impression is favorable, but it has a few drawbacks: It doesn't reduce the leaves as much as I would like and the self propelled speed is too slow for light work (it will probably be fine for the heavy vacuuming that will bw required shortly when the bulk of the leaves hit the gound). Finally the bag is so large that I have to come up with a way to quickly empty the bag into a bag large enough to take the leaves without dumping everythin all over the grass again!

kayjh