Convert lawnmower to mulcher?

Subject line says it all.

I've got an MTD/Honda self-propelled walk behind rotary lawn mower. I'm tired of bagging/dumping the clippings and want to replace stock blade with a mulching blade.

Can do-- yes, no?

Reply to
Charlie Darwin
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I think you can just put a good mulching blade on and close up the hole for the bag. It should work fine.

I just got one of those new Craftsman Advanced mulching blades that are split at the ends. I am actually very surprised at how well it works. All the leaves and grass are cut into 1/4" pieces.

Dante

Reply to
Dante M. Catoni

Yes. Put on a mulching blade and block the exit chute. You get a better lawn too. Don't cut it too short either.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

My experience doing that didn't work all that well. I put a mulching blade on a ordinary mower and while it did mulch, it never gave as nice a cut as either my Honda mulcher or the Sears one I have now. By far, the Honda gave the nicest cut. It used 2 blades, one over the top of the other. The Sears has a single blade. A lot may depend on the mulching blade and I would suggest doing some investigating before buying one. I would think there could be a lot of variation in performance and design among them. Also, I wonder if the deck itself is shaped slightly differently on mowers intended to be mulchers?

Also, none of the mulchers do that well in sparse grass. They work best in normal to thick turf. If you have sparse areas, they tend to just whack over the grass, and leave it ragged. Again, the converted mulcher was worse at this than the designed mulchers.

At any rate, it doesn't cost much to try.

Reply to
trader4

Id be suprised if the blade it came with was not intended for mulching. Read the manual or sales info. I would just try it and see, mulching is preffered and a standard way mowers are equipped I thought.

Reply to
ransley

Me too. I have a tiny end of group townhouse lawn and I borrowed a bagging mower last week, and the rain made the grass long, and I had to empty the bag twice in the first five minutes. I can empty it in the woods next to my house but it took almost twice as much time as the mowing did. It was going to change a 30 minute job to a 90 minute job. (or 15 to 45, I forget)

Does this have a side opening, or is the only opening the one for the bag?

I never even thought about the kind of blade. At the end of the year when I want to mulch my leaves, I tape a heavy large letter-size manila envelope over the opening, though any piece of cardboard or heavy paper will do, and presto, I have a mulching mower. So I never rake my leaves.

So just try it without changing the blade and see how you like it. Then, later, if do change the blade, you'll know how much difference it makes. Come back and tell us.

Now wrt grass, it does leave small hills of grass, like an inch wide and 3 to 6 inches long. Would a mulching blade scatter all the little pieces so I can't find them?????

And the county here sends out notices that muching is better. The cut grass fertilizes the new grass. After all, they're made out of the same stuff. Plus I have woods to dump things in but for most people it ends up in land fill, after the cost of trucking it.

Reply to
mm

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