Brute 22-Inch Self Propelled Lawn Mower

by Graham Kelly
(Cookeville, TN)

This is going to be a back and forth review as the mower I purchased was bought to tear up. Last May we purchased the Brute 22" self propelled mower from Walmart in Cookeville, TN. The landscape at out house was very hilly and rocky with downed limps everywhere. We knew upon purchasing any mower that it was going to get beat up regardless of how careful we were.

The actual mower was used about a year before wee sold it and moved into the city. The good points greatly out weighed the bad, but this will be fair. Due to the hills that we had on our property I definitely wanted self propelled when we were looking. The other criteria were easy to start and light enough for my wife to use it.

The mower never used a drop of oil and started with ease and always on the first pull. This may sound odd but it also got good gas mileage. This was important to me as we had a ton of land and it was a long way back to get fuel. I always used the side attachment due to the fact that when the mulching wedge was installed it had a bad habit of kicking rocks backwards causing a lot of pain to the operator. This never happened with the side attachment on.

The self propulsion really saved some back pain when it worked. The negatives were the shaft in the front for the self propelled motor. This would get tangled extremely easily with little use. Once it got really bad and it was a long tedious process to get it clean again. Weeds would roll up in it much like strings in a vacuum cleaner roller. The part I really hated about it was there was no speed control on the self propulsion, and the mower had to be shut off completely to turn it off at all. This was extremely annoying as it is hard to pull start a mower going up a hill if you had to stop to move something.

The mower did not have the best durability in regards to the "look good" little mags for the wheels and some of the decorations on it. This was of little importance to me until the time to resell the mower and it's appearance was worse than what it was. In my opinion the best use of this mower would be for small to medium size FLAT yards where stopping and starting would not be an issue.

All in all I would not buy this mower again if it was going to be used for the terrain I had. It did do a good job and the negatives were not that big of a deal, but was something I wished I knew before I bought it. One thing I did just notice was the cost has gone up over $60 dollars since last spring. This was on the Walmart website.

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Brute 22-Inch Self Propelled Lawn Mower

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Rating

Cheap Design, Gas Hungry - You Only Get What You Pay For
by: Joseph Cooper

This year I purchased a Brute 22" self-propelled lawn mower from Wal-Mart. I had been using an old school mower for years and it was time to upgrade. I got the one with the Briggs and Stratton engine, large rear wheels and the 3 in one kit so I can mulch, shoot out the side, or bag.

Since I got it, my life has been much easier. Some things I like about it are that it does a lot of the work for me. The engine is strong enough that it can go through thick grass without killing the engine even in mulch mode.

I really like the 3 in 1 because it allows me to pick up leaves with the bag and put them on the curb and just mulch the rest of the year. It has really made mowing a much easier task for this guy.

It also looks very nice with the black on yellow and has the self-cleaning feature if you hook the hose to it which I have done and it seems to stay rather clean.

Some bad parts of this mower are that it only really has 1 forward speed. Sometimes it is too fast, others it is too slow, I wish it adapted to my speed like many do. Another thing that isn?t great is all the plastic finish parts.

Though pretty, they tend to break off against obstacles in my yard. The front wheel drive also makes turning sort of a pain, though the big rear wheels really help this. Another annoyance is the amount of gas this thing uses, twice what my 20 year old pusher used, well with more power comes goes more gas I guess.

Finally, I don?t like that the choke and all that is automatic. My main concern is when it is a few years old and its cold out, right now it works great. Overall, I am happy with the purchase of my mower and am happy with it.

There were a few features that didn?t quite add up, however, that?s how it goes, I knew that going in and only spent 200 bucks on this. If I wanted the best I could have spent another 200. I would say this Brute 22" mower is great for any yard up to half an acre. Mowing really doesn't wear me out, even in the hottest weather and it starts in any temperature it seems. I am from Monroe, Wisconsin.

Rating

Would Purchase Again - No Issues With Starting
by: Ron

I have used this Brute mower for several years with no problem. Starts with one pull everytime, even the first start in spring. I never add oil between changes. If you regularly maintain your mower and use it as per the guidelines in the manual, you should have no problems. As other people state I wish you could stop the drive without killing the motor.

Rating

Worst Lawn Mower Ever
by: M Griffin

Bought this lawn mower due to the low price of $270.00 for the Brute Self propelled. It was awful. For me it was hard to start it. It did not start on the first try. I would eventally get it started and then add more gas to do the rest of the lawn and never be able to start it again.

I would have to have a neighbor help. He did not like product either. Thought it was very cheaply made. I had a Toro lawn mower for over 16 years and loved it, but it is more pricey. I guess it is worth the price to purchase a Toro.

Please do not purchase Brute products they do not live up to their name and have many bad reviews. I should of checked this before purchasing the Brute lawn mower.

Rating

I'm Disappointed With This Mower
by: David Clarke

I own and use a Briggs & Stratton Brute 22" Self-Propelled Mower. It was purchased by my father from WalMart for just over $200 dollars. I have now owned it for a little over a year and have only mowed with it over the course of last summer and twice so far this spring.

I wish I had more positive things to say about this mower but overall I am very unsatisfied with my purchase. The first problem I had with this unit was that the height adjustment brackets didn?t hold their place. Even after I selected the height I wanted it continually slid back. I solved this by using a bungee cord, but don?t feel like that should be necessary on a new tool.

Shortly after this, the next issue arose. The bolts holding the wheels on are constantly being shaken loose by the vibrations of the engine. While I have not actually had a wheel fall off, I have noticed them getting much loser and have tightened them multiple times already. Upon researching this mower online I also read that many people had in fact had the wheels fall off while in use. I can see this happening to mine soon as well.

Also, I am not sure if air filters in other mowers have to be changed frequently, but I have already had to put to two new ones in. It was easy to assemble the mower when I first purchased it but it just had an overall cheap feel to it and there are already a couple cracks in the plastic shell. While they don?t hinder its use, I just don?t think that should have happened after using it only one season. As far as actually cutting the grass goes, it doesn?t do too badly of a job.

I only use it on my personal lawn and never let the grass or weeds get unruly. It doesn?t get as close to edges as I would have hoped but this isn?t a huge setback. I always use a weed eater on the edges of my lawn anyways since I have quite a bit of landscaping including a bridge and small decorative pond. However, if one just wanted to use the mower they might be upset with this. It does a good job of mulching though and I find that quite to be one of the few positives. I feel like it may have an oil leak because I find myself filling it up with oil much more frequently than my previous mower but have not gotten it checked out yet.

I suppose it is possible that it just uses more oil but with its flaws continuing to emerge all the time I am betting it is a leak. It starts right away some times, and other times it takes a few tries but I have gotten it to start each time I?ve needed it to so far. I just don?t feel like this mower was worth the money and even though I am going to continue using it I?m not sure how long it will hold up. Obviously I wouldn?t recommend it to a friend or family member, and when I do have to purchase new mower, which will most likely come all too soon, I plan on choosing a different brand. Disappointed is the only way to describe how I feel about this purchase.

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