Are Toro Mowers Good? (Explained For Beginners)
My new Lawn Mower won’t start! With the speculations surrounding lawn mowers, we took on several Toro lawn mowers to explore the efficiency of the brand.
So are Toro lawn mowers good?
Toro lawn mowers are trusted by many users because of their excellent quality professional and domestic cuttings that are hard to get in any other brand. Even before we get deep into our independent and objective findings, the fact that the brand name we often see on nearly every home or store mowers is Toro is enough to justify our claim.
Lawns are very sensitive components of our surroundings and therefore, require regular attention. For that reason, you need a high-quality mower that can effectively do the job without the hassle. Our article simply aims to serve as a general guide to help you decide if Toronto will be the right fit for your lawn.
Why Toro Lawn Mower The Mostly Used Brands
Historically, Toro started producing lawn mowers back in 1921, thanks to the chairman of a prestigious golf course who was looking for motorized equipment to maintain the greens. To solve his problem, the company took five rotary blades, mounted them into one frame, and attached that to a fine tractor/riding lawn.
On seeing that, several other golf course owners got interested and that is how the company became popular for golf course maintenance mowers.
They later entered into the domestic lawn care business in 1948 and dominated the industry as the main producer of the walk-behind push mowers to date.
This is just to show you how early the company started earning excellent reputations. Right now it is a well-established and trusted lawn mower brand among millions of homeowners and professionals alike.
Toro Lawn Mower Varieties
Currently, the company produces every type of mower you may have heard of. Their new models can be grouped into walk-behind push, walk-behind self-propelled, riding (zero-turn), and robot lawn mowers.
Besides, their models come in different blade designs including cylinders, hovers, and rotary blades. Even more, you got to choose depending on the power source you are most comfortable with. Toro lawn mowers are either electric-powered, rechargeable battery-powered, or gas-powered.
Generous price range
Despite producing the most trusted brands, the company boasts one of the most generous price ranges in the industry. A $100 – $9,400 price range is wide enough to accommodate any gardener who wants a reliable mower.
From our main category, the most budget-friendly type is Toro push lawns that cost between $279- $320. The self-propelled types also have a generous pricing range of between $300 to $450. On the company’s expensive end are the more robust zero-turn (riding) lawn mowers that will cost you somewhere between $2,200 to $9,400.
IMow Robotic Mower is the most common Toro robot brand we could come across. Expect to pay $300 to $400 on this brand, depending on the seller. Some of the sellers we could verify are Ronmowers and Amazon.
But if your search is based on the power source, corded electric powered Toro mowers are always on the cheaper end with some going for as low as $100. They have coverage limitations and that may justify their cheaper pricing.
Gas and battery-powered models have all the qualities of the electric plus their cordless advantages. For that reason, expect to pay a bit higher than the corded electric models.
If you may need our advice on the best model to go for between gas-powered and battery-powered, I would advise a gas-powered if you need a more powerful mower. But for someone who wants to save on energy in the long run, the cordless battery powered could help.
Toro Lawn Mower Efficiency
The company goes through pain to ensure its lawn mower models are effective. It is in the company’s best interest to keep you happy so that when the machine finally wears out, you will buy another one. As such, they have invested a lot in technology to improve their mowers’ efficiency in terms of speed, cutting height, power usage, maintenance, and much more.
Toro Mowers Cutting Speed
Toro lawn mowers are made with professional lawns in mind. For that reason, most of their models are equipped with a faster cutting speed to make them work in a large area within a short time.
The most robust models of Zero Turn were designed to perform in a range of 200 to 215 miles/hour. Smart speed technology allows you to have control over your mowing speed. With that, you can adjust your mower to a comfortable faster speed that doesn’t arm your blade tip speed and achieve an excellent cut result.
Walk-behind Toro mowers are also equipped with a personal pace speed control. The technology uses sensors to adjust speed depending on how fast you are going. This is a unique feature to the company itself and no other brand has discovered it.
One of the contributing factors to their speed is cutting width. The company was first known for professional lawn production, and therefore, they have a lot of experience creating sizable blades.
The domestic single blade decks boast a cut swath of 20-22 inches wide. The double blades for homeowners use leave behind 26-30 inches cut with each pass. While the commercial Zero turn has a cut swath ranging from 32 to 60 inches.
Height Adjustment
Whether you want to mow, trim, or tow, you will never go wrong with Toro lawn mower models. Most of them have more than 9 different cutting positions ranging between 1 inch to 4 inches, and you can set each position at ¼ inches increment.
The best part, adjusting heights on their models is hassle-free. You no longer have to adjust heights for individual wheels like you used to. All Toro push and self-propelled models are now equipped with a single or dual lever to control the height adjustments while the Zero turns feature user-friendly cutting height adjustment panels.
Mulch Clipping Capability
You can now have Toro mulch mowers (recycling mowers as they are popularly known) to take the worry of dumping grass clippings off you. The mowers are capable of finely chopping the grass into fine clippings and returning them back into the lawn as nutrient-rich mulch.
Though most of the recycling mowers are on the expensive end, they will be a great choice if you don’t have somewhere to dump the clippings.
Power usage
Toro mower brands are a bit heavy-duty, but this could be due to their potency. However, don’t expect anything beyond 190cc for their gas-powered models. Electric models vary in power consumption from 6aH to 8aH.
How Easy is the Toro Mowers to Operate?
Toro offers a variety of mowing models that can be operated differently. But in general, operating all their mowers is hassle-free as long as you follow the right procedure. Thankfully the company packs a very comprehensive user manual on how their product should be operated.
Most of their walk-behind models (including self-propelled) are started the same way and this involves a pull on the starter rope. If you follow the procedures properly, a well-working walk behind Toro will require only one kick to start running. Here is a brief demonstration:
Once you are ready, grab the comfortable and easy to steer handle and move with your pace. How much you squeeze the self-propelled handle will offer you a variable speed. To go faster, squeeze it all the way to the handlebar and vice versa.
The best part, most of their new models offer the mulching capability. You don’t have to worry about how to pluck off the bag and where to dump the litter anymore. The clipping will return to your lawn as nutrients. Switching from bagging to mulching is just by a push on a cleaver.
Operating a Zero turn is not only easy but very interesting. I can’t remember the number of times I have found myself enjoying the ride rather than mowing. A lot of technology has been invested to make operating this model the easiest.
You have total control of the speed courtesy of the smart speed, very comfortable premium seat, and sensitive safety bars.
How Easy is the Toro Lawn Mower to Maintain?
The most important step in maintenance is to have your lawnmower serviced regularly. If you can easily access manufacturers and maintenance centers, have your lawn serviced once every year. It will only cost you between $50 and $75.
However, we have to admit that Toro doesn’t have well-spread manufacturing and maintenance centers.
With the help of the user manual, you can easily handle basic maintenance requirements such as replacing the spark plug, air filter and changing oil. Besides, the internet is awash with toro lawn mower maintenance guides.
Here is a short video on how to safely clean a regular Toro lawn mower.
How Long Will a Toro Lawn Mower Last?
Toro lawn mowers were built on traditional quality with innovative features to make your mowing experience last for years. The parts, including major components like blades, engine, handlebar, and mower pan are made of strong and durable aluminum metals.
Based on our findings, we can boldly say that most Toro lawn mower models can effectively serve you up to 10 to 15 years if well maintained. If not properly maintained, expect your machine to wear out within 4-5 years.
Does Toro Lawn Mower Company Offer Warranty?
All toro mowers come with a very generous warranty: 2 years full warranty and a 3 years ‘guarantee-to-start’ warranty. Even though the exact condition on the warranty differs from product to product, all their mower products have the mentioned time frame to take advantage of.
The company, therefore, boasts a more predictable and reliable warranty on lawn mowers than most of its close competitors, including Honda.
What Do The Reviews Say About Toro Mowers?
Toro is widely used and therefore, you can’t lack online consumer reviews. There were about 1,400 consumer reviews on ConsumerAfairs at the time of our investigation.
Most of the reviews were positive with many users acknowledging the company for their reliable, easy to maintain, comfortable, powerful, and generously priced products. However, there are quite a number of negative reviews too.
Most users with negative reviews complained of the grass being blown everywhere instead of being channeled into the bag. Others had problems with the warranty, as they claimed the company never owned their warranty claims.
But given the superb positive reviews on Toro lawn mowers on ConsumerAfair and other sites, we can confirm that Toro lawn mowers are good.
Conclusion
Let’s sum up our findings by saying, Toro models are solid and appealing to different consumers. For gardeners who want easy-to-use mowers that withstand everyday use, Toro is simple and durable.
We also highly recommend the zero-turn model to someone who wants more involvement in tasks such as mowing a golf course lawn or a football pitch lawn.
If you already have a Toro lawn or are planning to purchase one, feel free to share with us your experience.