On Sat, 27 Apr 2019 13:38:21 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03
wrote:

On Saturday, April 27, 2019 at 1:18:28 PM UTC-4, Leon wrote:
On 4/26/2019 11:53 AM, wrote:
On Friday, April 26, 2019 at 9:37:21 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:
On 4/25/2019 9:21 PM, wrote:
On Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at 12:53:59 PM UTC-5, Michael wrote:
Let's say hypothetically you had $400 or so in Home Depot gift cards. Would you buy a Dewalt track saw or a Delta spindle sander?

Thanks.

I have a Honda mower too. Paid about $600 two or three years ago. Has the bigger 190cc engine. Self propelled. Not the commercial series. Has the steel deck. Starts on the first or second pull every time. Excellent mower. Only big complaints are it needs a bigger motor. I can easily kill the mower when the grass is tall. And I wish it mowed a wider swath. It would need a bigger engine.


Mine is the HR194. Honda has not made this size in years. It also has
the aluminum deck, 4 HP motor and cuts a 19" swath.
I wish 19" was still available. The 4 HP is plenty even in tall St.
Augustine/Carpet Grass. I have an average sized yard but lots of
obstacles and narrow paths that I need to turn around in.
My son has the OHC lawn mower that he inherited from my dad, IIRC the
HRX217HYA, it is about 12~13 years old. I used it a lot when I mowed my
dad's yard and I was never really impressed by the OHC engine, compared
to the OHV engine on mine.

I think officially I have the Honda HRX217VKA mower. And it only has a 21" deck! Now comes with a 200cc motor, but mine is 190cc. Guess even Honda has learned a little in the last couple years and put a bigger motor in their underpowered mower. And it has a plastic, nylon, polyester deck. Not steel like I thought. Its been 6 months since I last used it.


I think the only difference between the VKA and the HYK is that yours
has a different style engagement for the self propel. The HYK pretty
much has the same layout of controls, on the handle bar, as my mower.

We learned on the OHC engines to not let gas sit in it over the winter
period, it was particularity touchy with stagnant gas so we learned to
only run premium gas, use a gas stabilizer, and drain the tank at the
end of the cutting season. I do this too with my personal mower now.

With my 160cc OHC Honda I've been using regular gas with stabilizer and
starting it a couple times over the winter for what's gotta be 15 years now.

I did replace the carb a couple of years ago but that was when it started
acting up mid-summer, not at the beginning of mowing season.

I do the same thing with my snowblower. Every couple of months, when I'm
already making noise with the lawn mower, I pull it out of the garage and
let it run for 15-20 minutes. I drive it a bit and run the auger just to
keep everything loose.

There may be better ways, but it works for me so I'm not trying anything different. ;-)
A bit hard to do when you need to trade storage spots seasonally -
and unless you FULLY warm up the engine every time you start it you
are accumulating moisture in the oil - which is not good.
How often do you change the oil? Most people don't even CHECK it more
than once a year - if that.

I just use premium fuel and keep the tank full for storage. I throw a
bit of seafoam in with the gas if I remember, and run the carb dry
after shutting off the gas on the blower and on any engine with a fuel
shutoff. Cold storage over the winter isn't as fuel critical as hot
storage (over the summer). Occaisionally it will take a chuff of
starting fluid to start the little mower in the spring for the first
time. (primer carb - no choke)