Honda HRN216PKU

Poor quality mower, with service to match from GYC and Honda AU – I purchased this mower from GYC, a Honda dealer. When I got it home, the mower would not stop blowing blue smoke, even after a long run-time. The mower was kept level in transport. The dealer had significantly overfilled it with oil. Following up with GYC via email, two months later I still have received no response. I addressed my concerns with… Read more

Honda head-office, who were disinterested and unhelpful. Eventually after draining excess oil and a long run-time, the mower was operating normally.

The mower is bulky, heavy and having to depress the handle to keep the mower running is cumbersome, if you need to move a stick or something out of the way, it must be started again.

This is my second Honda mower, quality and service is severely lacking. Avoid GYC and Honda equipment.

Worst Mower I Have Owned – This Mower is not suited to Slight Rise or slopes in your lawn, it seems the rotor blade plate drags on the ground and is so hard to push. if you set it to the level where its easy to push it cuts no grass and waste of time. Very poor design runs fine nice and quiet but useless. Show details

It's great for what I want – Purchased just after the drought breaking rain, this Honda is an adjunct to the 10 year old Honda HRU196. The old mower was very heavy but pretty near indestructible. On the basis of the old clunker's reliability I thought I'd have a shot at the HRN216PKU. The cutting deck is wider and the mower itself would have to be 20kgs lighter than the old… Read more ·  1

one. My property is beset with steep hills and sataria. I push mow about an acre and a half. It's thinking time and exercise.

The first two mows after the rains in Northern NSW were industrial and vicious, the various grasses (what a rural property laughingly calls 'lawn') at least knee-high.

The new Honda works a treat. I'm not sure if I like the auto-turn off where as soon as you let go the lever the engine stops. That's a small quibble for having a mower that's robust enough to get through pretty heavy duty grass while being light enough to tackle the steep bits.

The dual blades are an interesting innovation. The design brief is they cut grass and that's what they do. I'll explore this more as I get used to the mower. Wet grass doesn't seem to be a problem but I guess that's contingent on the height settings and the grass type.

The mower was (according to the dealer) designed in the US, explaining why there is a height adjuster on the rear and forward axles. That's a useless piece of engineering. Why would you want the cutting deck anything other than flat? Oh that's right, consumer choice!

I never bother with the catcher. Without it (and possibly with it) the Honda is nimble and easy to throw around.

It's good! It's done about 30 hours of mowing. I'll update the review as the mower gets a little more wear.

***Update June 08 2020*** Still good but it does have hiccups that weren't noticeable early on. Please remember this is a one acre house paddock that's tough mowing. It's not a flat suburban lawn. The old Honda commercial cuts way better because it has a bigger engine and smaller cutting deck. But it's heavier and takes longer.

The new mower's dual cutting blades really don't like sticks. That's one quibble but certainly not a major thing.

So it's a combination of both mowers that works well for me - the new one for the slopes and the old heavy clunker for the almost-level bits.

The Hondas seem to be pretty much indestructible.