Craftsman Platinum 22" Mower With 190cc Engine

by Earl Esposito
(Omaha, Nebraska)

I own a Craftsman Platinum 190cc 22” Mower. I live in Omaha, Nebraska. I am almost completely positive with my purchase and ownership of the Craftsman Platinum mower. It is rare that I feel this strongly about any product, but that is just the case with my mower.

First, I will detail everything that I enjoy about the mower and then state a few complaints that I do have. When I bought the mower last year at a local Sears store, I was a few weeks into mowing season and in desperate need of a mower. I looked at reviews online and all of them pointed to Craftsman being a good, sturdy brand that is cheap to fix if needs be.

I bought it and set it up at home and went to work mowing my grass that was several inches too long. It easily mowed through the thicket, never chugging or clogging the chute towards the bag.

The Craftsman Platinum mower started with one pull and the quickness of the automatic drive is almost faster than I care to walk. It really makes mowing my large yard easy. After a year and a half of ownership, the mower continues to start on one pull. That alone to me is worth the price I paid. It continues to mow easily over my yard as well.

One of the intangibles that I love about the Craftsman Platinum mower is how ergonomic everything is. The grips are comfortable to hold and never wear your hands out while pushing through a big lawn. The pull-starter always works and is easy to grip. The bag has a convenient grip on the bottom to make for easy dumping, and the deck height pulls are in a convenient spot.

Craftsman really nailed it on all fronts on this 22" mower. The fact that I don’t have to make an oil and gas concoction is great, as well. This mower is easy to keep it looking new, too. Built into the deck of the mower, you can attach a hose, turn on the water and start the mower up. This will shoot water all underneath the mower and completely clean it out. No more having to get the power washer out to clean compacted grass and dirt off of the blade and undercarriage.

This is a genius feature to me and works as well as advertised. There are a couple areas that I wouldn’t mind being improved, though.

For one, it is difficult to pull the Craftsman mower back after mowing straight. There is a trick to it, but it is slightly cumbersome. If one immediately tries to pull the mower back just after the automatic drive has been disengaged, the wheels will not roll back. They will drag and make your job much harder to do. Instead, after letting go of the automatic drive, you must push the mower in a straight line a bit further forward, then you can pull it back right after.

A minor complaint of the Craftsman Platinum 22" mower, I know, but one that is a bit of an annoyance, especially when trying to go up hills or around tight spaces. Another complaint that I have is that the deck height is hard to raise and lower once a lot of mowing has been done. Grass, dirt, and other things get caught in the hole and make it difficult sometimes to yank the clip upwards to disengage the lock to the preferred height.

This can be easily avoided if you keep your lawnmower clean, though, and since finding that out, I have made sure to keep the deck free from debris after mowing. Those complaints definitely would not stop me from recommending this mower enough. It is a terrific mower and I bought it at a terrific price.

When comparing mowers in the same price category, there really is no comparison. This mower is great for small yards and even big yards thanks to the speedy automatic drive system.