Commercial mowers? Seriously? In my opinion, no homeowner should ever consider going commercial. There really is little to no point in doing so. I use an HRC-216 from Honda when I help my father-in-law with his landscape business, and while it is a great machine, it is way more than I would ever need for ~52 times a year. Also, when something does go wrong, they are very expensive to fix. My advice for the OP is to sharpen the blade on the reel he has now and get it working well. Maybe add a weedeater, probably electric, so you don't have to store gas. If the reel has a hard time with your type of grass then go with a cheap mulching mower, gas or electric. When you find yourself with a larger lawn, then consider a premium residential mower like a Super Recycler or Honda. What you want to look for at that point is a decent engine and non-rusting deck. Also, if you do not need self-propelled, don't get it. It adds to the cost and complexity of the mower and is one more thing that can break. Looking at your lawn, a large self-propelled commercial would almost be more of a hassle to use than something smaller and more nimble like the reel mower you have or a 19"ish electric. Also, the money you save could be put towards more landscaping. There are plenty of plants and such that are drought resistant. That would do far more to beautify your lawn than a mower.

I know this is an old thread, but I just wanted to chime in here. I don't think there is anything wrong with buying inexpensive power equipment as long as you aren't asking the equipment to perform above and beyond what it was designed for. For example, I own a weedeater leaf blower ($99) a Poulan "Wood Shark" chainsaw ($99), and a homelite string trimmer ($79). All of this equipment is over 10 years old and with the exception of the leaf blower, needed no repairs. I did have to rebuild the engine on the leaf blower a few years ago. IIRC it cost less than $35 for the piston, rings and jug. I guess they aren't "disposable" if the manufacturer stocks engine components after several years! My point is that I don't use these tools commercially, and I take care of them. The chainsaw starts every time I need it because I always empty the fuel tank and run it dry after every use. My other equipment gets drained and run dry at the end of the season. They always start right up in the spring. I routinely pick up relatively new blowers, trimmers and mowers out of the trash and most of them only need fresh gas, air filters and possible a carb cleaning to get them running. Some of them are Echo's, Tanaka's and Stihl's. It was the neglect of the homeowner that caused the tool to fail to operate. I wonder if any of their original owners end up buying them back when I have a garage sale. Too many folks just run them until they stop. Oil changes? What are those? Heck, they don't even check the oil! I just picked up a Poulan Pro snow blower with a blown 8 HP engine. Owner let it run low on oil and with all the snow we got this past winter, the engine let loose when trying to move 12+ inches of heavy, wet snow. I am going to re-power it with a Harbor Freight engine and sell it. It looks brand new - what a shame. Once again, even if it were an Ariens that was twice the price, the same result would have happened from the neglect. My "cheap" Craftsman snow blower is 16 years old, runs great, starts every time. It's all in the care and feeding.

When I worked as a mechanic at a Buick dealership, some of the old mechanics would pour water down the carburetor VERY SLOWLY. The water turns to steam and the shock knocks off the carbon. When the old ladies would bring in those beautiful Buick Electras and Riverias because they idled rough,the Service Manager would take the car out on the freeway and really get after it. I went with him once and you could actually hear the carbon particles tinkling out the exhaust pipes. He would ask if they were burning Ethel as recommended in those 11:1 high compression engines. The customers jaw would jut out and they would say they will only burn regular. Idiots. I think adding transmission fluid to your gas would only carbon up your engine even more, if it did anything. Sorry off topic. I use Stabil and fill the gas tank to the top to prevent condensation from forming when I park my GT for the winter. (I empty my weedwacker,leaf blower and chain saw whenever they won't be used for several weeks.) Six months later the GT starts right up. I don't have any experience with SEaFoam.

"gh", In case the point was lost, there is a vast difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable. Posts of the second type deserve to be ignored. Period. They add nothing to the knowledge we're in here to gain or share. With that said, let me add another point...in your favor. In a forum, or any written communication, there is always the pitfall of misinterpretation of intent. Lacking facial cues and body language to judge by, it's very easy to err on the actual meaning of ones statements. I've re-read this entire thread, and must admit I may have done just that. If that's truly the case here, "gh", you have my sincere apology for my couple of comments. As a last comment on this, I'd like you to know I've been a member here for a long time, too. I'm not, stress not, one of the "can't we all just get along" crowd. Disagreements help spread information...good information. My problem is with those whose egos get in the way of good judgement. Unfortunately, the numbers of those who choose the style of confrontation instead of civil discourse seem to be increasing on this Tractor forum. Not so on most of the other forums, but surely evident here just in the past couple of years. Sorry for the long post, but I chose to explain my position here (rather than send you a personal email) in the hopes that it may have some positive effects on the forum. Once again, my apologies if I misjudged your intent. I enjoy all mechanical things, but I love FEETBALL, too! Hal