I just want to say I went through hell trying to find a decent self propelled, mulching mower after my 11-year old Craftsman finally died. It was a very reliable mower, but didn't cut very even and was a mediocre mulcher. It seems the newer mowers are all about bells & whistle features when all I required was an even cut, and good mulching, and a reasonable self-propelled drive. My neighbor has an older John Deere that he loves, but the new ones suck because they sold off the line to some lower quality process, or so I've heard and read. So I started with the Toro Recycler 20334 from HD, and it seemed to mulch ok until I pulled it backwards over the grass to cut (which is a common move while mowing in a confined or irregular shaped area) and saw it clumping when the grass wasn't even very tall. My crap Craftsman out did that, so back to the store and traded it in and upgraded (+$100) for a Honda HRR216VXA. Well that one seemed more solid and the motor had a nice dependable sound to it, BUT 1) engaging the blade killed the motor at least once, and 2) the bagging chamber behind the mulch plug collected way too much grass due to a poorly designed mulch plug that doesn't fit snugly. I even called Honda to see if they knew anything, and of course they acted like it was supposed to be that way. Right. Also it left a small trail of grass behind the right rear wheel when mulching which I wonder if the gaping hole around the mulch plug could somehow be contributing to that, who knows. Either way I wasn't satisfied with that Honda either so I cleaned it up and returned it for a refund and went to Westlake Hardware and for an extra $30 bought a 20092 Toro Super Recycler because I read the Supers have a better mulching system than the regular Recyclers. Well I can finally say it does surpass both of the other mowers I had and I am very satsified with it. I imagine the high-end Honda is just as good but it's $200 more, which seems out of line for a walk-behind mower, also I heard Honda's parts are too high in cost. Also Toro is a U.S. company here in the Midwest which should help with price and availability in theory. Anyway that Super is a mulch monster, I really like it a lot. I don't know if the standard Recycler is some secondary line made just for HD, but it sucks compared to the Super, IMO.

Wow. This is just wrong. The so-called 'Super Bagger' is the exact, self-same mower as the LB 10795 and is a fine mulching mower. Because of the 'agendas' naturally found with a company trying to market two brand names, they are not 'pushing' the mulching on this model, but if you look closer at the list of features and click on 'Cast aluminum cutting deck' you will find reference to how easy it is to convert to mulching. I guess they're calling it the 'Super Bagger' because it bags so much better than the Super Recycler. It's the LB 'Insight' deck and discharge system, the same as on my LB 22271 commercial and LB 10684 (steel deck version). Bag manipulation is very easy and direct, and changing modes is the same - fast and easy. The mower will also come with a discharge chute to mount of the side port, in addition to the mulch plug for the rear port. I haven't tried discharging with either of mine but have no reason to doubt that it would work fine. I mulch 90% of the time with my two and don't see any particular problems with that feature. The 'Super Bagger' even comes with the Toro/Atomic mulching blade which is also fine for bagging - you can see the mulching cuts on the back of the blade in the under-deck picture.

'What's different about the Super Bagger over the Super Recycler other than the engine and speed?' Everything. It's a different mower that Toro first fielded under the Lawn-Boy marque as the 'Insight' series. The Super Bagger a few years ago was the LB 10791. Toro just changed the paint colors and made it the Super Bagger. Very good mowers, with the top of the line being the commercial version. The Toro is the 22156. The corresponding LB was the 22271. In the above quote, what did you mean by 'speed'?

I have a new Toro 20056 SR4 and it mopped up 100% of our (maple) leaves (and quite a few we pulled in from ditches and roadways) in about 4 passes. Eagleman is right. If you get the leaves when fully dry and without moisture, they shatter into small shards. You might get bigger pieces if you go over thick piles but just go over a second time. That was the least energy our home has ever expended on leave disposal....I paid $575 for the mower but with mulching have saved about 10 hours on lawn cutting (mulching cuts total time about 1/2 hour) and another 4-6 on leaf bagging this season, compared to rear-bagging and raking. It also has rear-drive which makes it slightly less work to use the push mower. We'll see how the lawn does but most articles on mulching indicate its a winner too. Should have done this years ago. So keep it up Rutgers!