Snapper 21 Inch Manual Push Mower

by Rodney Burton
(Rock Hill, SC)

I have owned the Snapper 21" mower for 5 years and have generally been happy with the mower and its performance. I bought the mower at a small power equipment shop in a small town near my work place. I have owned many different mowers and brands, and was interested in Snapper for several reasons.

One reason is that they are sturdy, and have steel rods and axles. Previous mowers had flimsy wheel assemblies that tended to bend, causing uneven mowing. Another reason for the Snapper is that they maintain a good parts inventory and list, and the parts are fairly easy to find.

Mowers sold at Home Depot, Lowe's and other places are hard to find repair parts after they are a few seasons old. My Snapper 21" is a manual push mower with side discharge and mulch capabilities. It seemed that many other brands and models seem to concentrate on rear bagging and self propelled. I use mowing as a form of exercise and think that the self propelled models are too heavy, too slow and too expensive.

Rear baggers require a lot of stopping and getting rid of the grass clippings. The mower has a Briggs and Stratton 6 HP engine that has been a strong performer. It starts on first or second pull and is easy to maintain. Mowing my yard takes about an hour, and I tend to push it fairly fast. The mower is easy to maneuver around trees, goes forward and backward easily, and gets close to edges for a nice cut. The engine powers through high grass without stalling.

I also use the mower to mulch a large natural area and have good mulching results. I had to replace the wheels, but it was expected with the heavy use. The only negative that I really have with the mower is that the grass discharge tends to "clump" up instead of evenly scattering the clippings in the grass. The result is that I have to rake areas of the lawn when the grass is high, thick or wet.